China HK 2007: Lijiang - When The Beginning and the End Almost Met...

Nov. 9th, 2007 -- With our tour nearly coming to an end, we had one more stop to make: The Snow Mountains in Lijiang. Of course, looking back on it now, one would have found the inherent bad weather ominous; a warning of what was to come. Yet, the only thing on my mind that morning was my birthday.

It's funny, but when you're born in China and spend most of your birthdays in the states, you always have a sense that you're not actually celebrating the time right -- sure, you can adjust for the time change, but it stills feels a little weird. But this year it felt right, and I received the most unexpected surprise -- my cousin phoned me - not knowing I was in China - and wished my a happy birthday. It felt really great to hear his voice.

Little did I know, he might have been the last person back home that would have heard me alive.

We took off for the mountains at 8 AM, our trusty tour bus winding through the foothills of the mountainside, taking us to another coach that would finally take us to the mountains.

Again, the weather only got worse -- low fog rolled in, making us look at the world through tissue-papered eyes, with a smattering of rain to make the road surface just slick enough to make the wheels screech on the turns.

Now, let me tell you about the bus drivers - these are the kinds of guys that are doing the mountain runs at about 4o mph through wind, rain or snow, with the average time of arrival coming just shy of 15 minutes. And they make the same run about 6 times a day, back and forth. So when our bus driver navigated the inclines like we were in the Long Beach Grand Prix, none of us batted an eye.

Oh yeah, did I mention that drivers don't turn on their lights? So, picture this -- bad weather, fast driving, and no lights. Perfect, right?

Well, things were going great, right up until...

BAM!!!!!

A bus coming down came right towards us at full speed. Our bus driver had 3 choices: 1) Collide head on with the oncoming vehicle, which would have resulted in injuries if not fatalities, 2) swerve to the right, though, we'd probably be killed once our bus flipped around off the side of the mountain (because there's no guard rail), or 3) Swerve just enough to let the oncoming bus get past us, but swing back in time to stay on the road.

Our bus driver chose Option 3, in a matter of seconds.

The first thing I saw were the passengers in the front flying out of their seats, their friends trying to catch them as all of use leaned to the right of the bus. And I found this to be interesting, since this was the first time in 8 days that I didn't sit on the left side of the bus.

The look on the oncoming driver's face was of sheer terror and panic, in contrast to our driver, who looked as cool as a cucumber after the accident. After checking to make sure we were all right, I proceeded to get off the bus. Morbid curiosity took over, and I shot these:

We were a sore thumb sticking out on the middle of the
only path towards Snow Mountain. The bus basically
"clipped" us on the side, as shown in the previous
picture.


And I wasn't joking about the no guard rail. It was only
2 feet from us and the end of the road - literally.


That's our bus driver on the left, in the teal jumpsuit.
He was shooting the breeze as if this were nothing in the
world.


Here's the damage up close. It's mostly cosmetic, but when
I think about what might have been, it's a small price to
pay for coming out of it in one piece.


Of course, some folks just couldn't wait for us to get back
up and running, so they took it upon themselves to drive
around the gorge and around us to continue on their
way. Nerves of steel, I tell ya.


Here's a Land Rover that even made it, with only a half
inch to spare from nicking the side of the bus. I guess if
you can operate a car like a pack mule, you can do just
about anything, anywhere.


See the little blue dot in the distance? That's another
driver coming to get another bus to pick us up. Not only
did the bus come around to get us, but it also made a 6
point turn in order to face in the right direction.


Amid all the action and the adrenaline rush, I took this
mystical shot of the forest below. I guess coming face to
face with death and nature can do that to ya.

So why did I finally decide to post this part of the trip now? I guess I was just coming to terms with how close I came to biting the dust, 'cause sometimes you just get these reminders in life that say "hey kid, you better look around -- 'cause it could all go like THAT!" And never did I ever conjure the notion that I could be born and die on the same day -- it would have made for an interesting epilogue to my life.

Alas, my life didn't flash before my eyes, and no, I can still waste away a day like the best of them.

I guess death will always be there, waiting for us, someday coming around to collect our number when it's up. But heck, if I could go in the cliche' manner of old age and in my sleep, that'd be pretty darn good.

So I welcome 2008 with eyes and arms open. Happy New Year's Everybody, and I say to 2008:

Bring it.

I've got more China blogs, Videos and Living to do... ;)