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The day we made it to the temple.

Off the train, onto the busses and off to dinner. We had a dish with snake meat, which is the most exotic thing we've eaten so far. It was not bad -- just kind of hard to eat the meat off those little spines. A lot like eating those miniature corncob things. The meat itself didn't really taste like much. No big deal.

After dinner we drove 2+ hours to travel the 70km to the our hotel. Do the math. So on the way we had to amuse ourselves, so what did we come up with?

Karaoke.

This particular tour bus was stolen from Japan or something. It's a japanese bus -- right hand drive, japanese writing on the dash, and a TV with microphones inside. We had no film to watch so the guides started singing. The guide who's been with us the whole trip started off with... ``Country Road.'' What is it with this song? From there it degenerated to show tunes and campfire songs. Well, it could have been worse -- the other bus got to listen to a Frank Sinatra tape over and over.

We stayed at the palatial ``Shaolin International Hotel'' last night. It was almost up to Motel 6 standards, except for the sink which leaked all over the bathroom floor. There was this carved wooden relief sculpture over the registration desk of various Shaolin monks in supposedly martial arts poses. Bleg.

After breakfast we headed up into the hills towards the temple. We stopped at the new Demonstration Hall, which wasn't here four years ago according to the folks who were here on the last trip. It's right across from this big training area and stadium-looking thing, which is also new. We went inside and did our demonstration, which went a lot faster this time since we had more room and could have 2 or 4 people doing forms at once. The Shaolin athletes did a number of routines as well, then there was a photo-op and that was it. There were two or three Westerners that were there, training as well. They did some forms -- more wushu stuff. They didn't seem particularly impressed by our group. Oh well -- we weren't impressed with them either. Again, different priorities.

It was a bit disappointing -- there were 20 or so students of Shaolin that did the demonstration, but it really wasn't that impressive. Again, standard wushu forms. Most of them were quite young. There was no evidence of the actual monks that had come back to the temple after it was rebuilt, some of whom had performed four years ago. They were supposed to be VERY impressive. No sign of them this time. In fact, it looked like the students we saw were not particularly senior students. Apparently we didn't rate the first-string team. Another letdown.

[Followup note -- the first-string team is probably off doing demonstrations somewhere. I saw the ``Shaolin Kung Fu Monks'' on David Letterman that are apparently touring with Lallapalooza, so maybe that was them. Then again, they weren't particularly impressive either. Where's the beef?]

The Demonstration Hall. The Practice Stadium.
The Shaolin Athletes. Demonstrating Kicks.

Afterwards... dum dum DUM... The Shaolin Temple. I almost walked right by it! The whole area has been turned into a total tourist trap! Soda booths, film stands, weapons booths, loudspeakers blaring, a parking lot right next to the temple, crowds of people, loud music playing somewhere. It was a total fucking disappointment. The people who were on the trip four years ago say the place is totally different. What used to be small dirt roads, huts by the river, etc., are all crappy tourist junk shops now. They had a bunch of weapons shops but they were all wushu weapons -- flimsy, chrome, aluminum-foil stuff. Crap. There was one store, right at the demonstration hall, that had actual weapons so we did a bunch of business there. Some of the stalls did have some okay knives and some swords. I found one nice-looking knife/shortsword in one booth that was pretty cool, but by then I was so disgusted at all the touristy shit that I didn't want to give them my business. I'll find something in Guangzhou or HK.

Tourist Shops. First View of the Temple.

We did go in the temple and look around, and it was nice enough. Still too crowded. We saw the famous frescoes of the monks fighting and the depressions in the 10,000 Buddha Hall where the monks practiced, their kicks pounding down the stones in the floor. I'm glad I saw the temple, but it was also disappointing in a way. I sat down to rest at one point next to a small grove of bamboo; every shoot of bamboo was covered in graffiti where people had used their pocket knives to cut their names into the bamboo. Ug.

Pagoda Forest. More Pagoda Forest.
Entering the Temple. The Inner Gate.
A Guardian Statue. Ginko Tree, older than the Temple itself.

We climbed up to Damo's cave afterward, which was much nicer. A bit of a hike but nothing compared to Wudang Mountain. Mercifully free of all the tourist crap, since most tourists don't care to exert themselves. So we visited the cave where Damo meditated for 9 years, then hiked the rest of the way up the hill where there's a new gazebo-thing and a large statue of Damo. The statue was okay, but the view was incredible. We could see over the next range of hills into a valley, criscrossed in terraced fields. Definitely worth the hike.

About halfway up. Damo Cave.
Jason Carr meditates with Damo.