i need a hat

beijing continued for a week, and got a little madder every day. i said farewell to pablo the wild card, my travelling companion through valleys of japanese powder, eye of the tiger and the great wall of salesmanship, and set off on my own. by the end of the week, i had meet some lovely french girls, a wonderful brazillian dude, and a pom into urine therapy. i had avoided eating the large dog paws grilling on the coals outside my hotel, and found satifying and satisfyingly cheap scrambled eggs just down the road. just as the polution effect reached a creciendo, and life was starting to feel like a dream, i left beijing behind for the small town charm of chengdu.

dragon town youth hostel. how could i resist? there was really no other place i was willing to stay, so i rocked up and sure enough, a room was just for me. unfortunately my sinus's had bared most of the full on assult in beijing and i found myself with the flu, so down time it was. chilling in dragon town, a gorgeous 4 story qing dynasty building with courtyard, beautiful sichuan street food in a bustling alley out the front and a charming frenchman to play guitar with. we table hopped most of the night, entertaining goups of chinese people with our repetoire, and they bought us beer and spat on the floor in approval while we played.

i woke the next morning with but one thought to dominate my mind. i need a hat. its hard to describe the feeling, as it was unusually strong for a urge to buy a hat. but again, how could i resist, there is afterall, always method to my madness, especially when it comes to hats.

not only did i need a hat - today. but a grey, feintly chequered blues brothers hat. so hat i found, in a crazy alley of markets and once i had it on, it made sense. i was ready for the next phase. mountains.

i jumped a bus to emei shan, a 3100m peak covered in buddhist temples around 120km south of chengdu. apparently the whole mountain is basically a steep staircase, so its quite a challenging hike. the steps are also slate, so in the winter, like now...ish, it can get very slippery. a good idea is to buy a walking stick, they say, from one of the many walking stick vendors in town or, indeed, up the mountain.

so, now i find myself about to hike up a sacred buddhist mountain in a bowler hat with a walking stick. perfect.