Xiangtian Lake

(lots of pictures ahead. you were warned)

I've gotten pretty used to faith traveling by now.  That's when you know the destination you want to end up at, but don't know exactly how you're going to get there.  So far, in my journeys, it has proven 100% successful.  Someone always pulls through, sometimes even at the last minute, to help out (and sometimes without even asking...just the expression of sheer confusion is enough to trigger a response I guess...Remember the old lady who took me by the hand to the train platform I needed to be on and waited with me!? yup).

Faith traveling happened again when I went to the Xiangtian Lake.  I found it online and saw that it wasn't that far, so decided to just kind of head that way and hopefully someone would know how to get us there. (I always have my trusty iPad with snapshots from the internet that I can show ppl/taxi drivers).

This time I used the local bus for the first time.  It was an hour long drive but it was a beautiful drive through valleys and mountains and canyons.  Seriously, I'll be doing that again.

(and pictures rarely grasp the vastness of scenic views)

(I was taking a photo of the outside, but ironically the guy in the red shirt comes into the story)

I'm not exactly sure what the following monuments are, but there were milllllions of them along the side of a hill and it was such a cool sight.

I'm guessing they are some sort of prayer monuments (!?) or something to represent the dead.  But 

I. Have. No. Clue.

So the bus ends up at a small town called Nanzhuang, and from there was anticipating just finding a taxi to go see the lake.  But no taxis were really seen.  This is where the guy in the red shirt above comes in.  He was standing nearby and I showed him the pictures of the lake and asked if he knew where it was.  Crazy enough, he spoke probably 85% English and was moving to San Francisco to study abroad in a week (of course, being that this is Asia, to get his 2nd PhD or something...not kidding).  So he told us it's probably a 20 minute taxi ride, and he walked into a store for us and asked the cashier lady to call a taxi for us.  He waited the 15 minutes and told the taxi driver where to take us.

See.  You just gotta ask the right people.

So that was cool.  And the taxi ride was incredible.  I had nooo idea where we were going, and couldn't talk to the driver at all, but he took us through more valleys and bridges and eventually up high into the mountains.

The taxi ended up at a small little village that is literally on the edge of the small lake.  It turned out being an Aboriginal village.  Bonus!

Local kids dancing.

The lake is just beyond that building in the background.

"Loop Trial"

There was a "trial" that went on a complete loop around the lake.  Along the way there was some cool stuff.  They had some shops set up and food stations and such...

...and a cool looking bathroom that you could clearly see into.

Eventually the woods on the right side of the "trial" opened up and the lake came into view.

 Cool picture.

Doesn't look real, right?

Another cool picture.

Girl skipping rocks.

I guess I should probably be in some of these photos.

Lily pads. 

(I had to google whether that was one word or two).

Diner.

Never going home.

HUH!?!?!

Local mailboxes.

Real life bananas on a tree.  I don't think I've ever seen that before.

After a good hour of walking around the "trial" the sun started to set so it was time to figure out how to get home.  So I asked some drunk locals sitting at a table, and they couldn't have understood me any less if they were paid to, or I them.

Me asking them, and saying "No chinese...no chinese."

But even after saying, "No chinese," a hundred times, they still don't give up!  People here are very persistent about helping out foreigners.  So slowly, families, friends, grandchildren, cousins, the family dog, all gather so they can do all in their power to figure it out for you.  That's when you resort to playing charades...and hopefully something sticks.

Fortunately, they finally understood "bus" and the "driving" motion, mixed with "big", and pointed at their wrists, as if to a watch, and gestured "6 o'clock"...and pointed to where you wait for the bus.  Phew!  Hard work.  But successful.

Thanks guys!

So, you see, all it takes is a little bit of faith.

And I guess, sometimes, you do have to work for it too.