Bloody tourists

Yesterday Bick and I went to Leshan, a city about two hours' drive south of Chengdu and home of the world's largest stone-carved Buddah. Begun in the ninth century AD, it took Buddhist monks eighty years to create; one and a half hours, however, was too long for us to wait in a heaving maelstrom of humanity to take the stairs from its head to its very big feet.

It was probably a question of expectations. In our minds' eyes it had been meant to be a day of peace and reflection, a chance to stand back and wonder at the devotion that had gone into creating one of the world's amazing man-made artifacts. But from the moment we got out of the taxi it was clear that Bick's much looked-forward-to meditation session was not going to be on the agenda.

One hundred and five quai is a lot of money to your average Chinese person; and now that we've been here a month we, too, are more in tune with the Yuan than the Pound or Dollar. We're being paid a good wage for China (the equivalent of about $300 a month) and a hundred quai is about a full day's wages. Steep.

Still , having come this far, there was no turning back so through the gate we went.

We wandered for about an hour and, to be honest, were mighty impressed. Nestled in lush green foliage, weird statues and carvings entertained our way toward the main prize: the mightly Buddah. Some pieces may have been more modern than ancient, but other parts were quite staggering. Climbing, climbing, climbing, we came upon a typical Chinese archway through which was a courtyard beyond which were a thousand steps at the top of which was a Buddah statue in the shadow of its own pagoda-like roof. On each side of the stairway, thousands of red-ribboned padlocks had been fastened to the rope handrails, each one with a prayer for good things to happen. A mist of incense followed you as you made your way up the steps to the top before you could look back without giddiness to survey the jungle below.

Sadly my photos don't do the carvings from the caves there justice but I do love the shot of the twigs in the crevice of a rockface; we saw these all round the trail but I'm afraid I don't know the significance. Answers on an email please.

The place was gorgeous; Bick and I picked our own ways through and hardly met a soul as we wondered just how far away the main prize was.

Turnstiles - the ones they have on the Tube - seemed a little out of place. But through them we went in order to get to Buddah's Paradise. I kid you not. Buddah's Paradise is a ramshackle collection of concession stands selling tea and tat beneath big Pepsi umbrellas. From nowhere - or from everywhere more likely - there were thousands of people milling around sucking lollies. Gradually they were drifting up yet more steps to yet more tea stalls until we finally caught a glimpse of a big head, a big Buddah's head. We'd arrived. We joined the throng and pushed and jostled in true Chinese style to press ourselves against the barrier and look down on this wonder of the world.

Look, of course it's impressive, magnificent, stunning and "how the hell did they do it....?". But the spirituality meter was reading Zero. There are steps leading down each side of the carving to its feet (which up to twelve people can clamber onto at once, by the way) but you'd have had to spend an hour and a half in the scrum to reach there: the statue's sole, I suppose.

So we took our snaps and fled.

(Note to self (or anyone else thinking of taking the trip): try taking one of the boat excursions. At least you'll have a pleasant little jaunt on the river and you will get to see the full height of the statue without any of the pushing and shoving.)

On the way out we were fleeced again, this time in a restaurant. The view from its balcony was spectacular and it even had a shabby elegance clinging to a cliffside but the prices on the English menu were some 200-300% more than we're used to paying in Cheers. It left a bad taste.

And my point? I suppose I just wish I'd got here sooner - as a traveller rather than as another bloody tourist.