This week we took a short trip to a temple nearby. The temple is called Wu Long Gong, Five Dragons Temple, and it is still inaccessible by road. The government is building a road to it but so far you still have to hike in. Wednesday we got up early and took a bus to the end of the road and from there we walked in. We had a nice group lunch that the people who live there prepared for us and then hiked up to the top of the mountain. It was thankfully overcast and though still hot, not as punishing as it has been of late. Then we had dinner and relaxed for a few hours before bed. I slept terribly on 2 beds pushed together for 3 people, no pillow, no mosquito net, no door and in my sweaty clothes. Then we got up, ate breakfast and hiked for about 5 hours or so to another temple. This temple is on the main tourist route and we took a bus back from there.

Though it was a challenging hike, we all made pretty good time and enjoyed ourselves. The worst part was definitely the lack of a view. In Canada a day of mountain climbing has lovely scenery, cool mountain air, and a feeling of accomplishment upon reaching the summit. This was more like hours of hiking through a humid, buggy jungle. The plant life is so thick, you can't see anything that's not right in front of you. Some parts of it were so thick, you could hardly see the trail under your feet.

Though it was tough, we all managed to get through it together and Shifu gave us a day off today to recover. I'm actually not sore at all! It's strange, I was expecting at least my knees to be sore but I feel completely fine, just tired. It's a pretty cool sign of how much stronger we've all gotten and how much more stamina we have.

I'd still take a nice hike in rockies over this though. Sometimes I really miss Canada.