I thought you would be bigger

We went to see "The Big Buddha" with friends visiting from Australia.

The adventure started with catching a bus from the main bus station next to the train station. As soon as we arrived at the appropriate bus bay people came from all sides with brochures and offers to drive us to MaShan to tour the buddha - with them as tour guides. Of course, westerners like us can be charged a much higher price than local people. But we had decided we would take the bus and so we repeatedly insisted that we did not want their offer.

We knew that the bus trip was about 45minutes long, and there were only a few seats, so it would be necessary to get right in there and push our way onto the bus - polite people have to stand up all the way. The bus arrived - an old boneshaker vehicle - and we duly elbowed and pushed our way on. Our friends, with Peter's arm giving them a firm shove from behind, got in ahead of us and snagged seats up the front of the bus. We sat in the very back on hard wooden seats. I knew that sitting in the back of a bus in China is not always a good idea - on bumpy rides you can become totally airborne - but they were already the only seats left. The wishful tour operators clamboured onto the bus as well, for one last attempt to gain customers. Then more people arrived, the bus was packed. The bus conductor climbed aboard - this is different from a city bus where you put your money in a container by the driver - and pushed his way among the crowd, collecting money, and giving everyone tiny flimsy tickets.

The bus set off through the city, stopping at a few places, unbelievably picking up more passengers. The young people near us were sitting on each other's laps and using each other's backs as leaning posts to keep themselves steady. The bus stopped right near our apartment, but we realised if we had waited there to get on we would have been squeezing on like these last people.

The trip seemed longer than an hour, and was indeed very bumpy - the roads out this way were under repair and so we had to drive along temporary tracks part of the way. A few times we were in fact airborne, along with those around us, and the wooden seats were not properly fastened to the back of the bus making it very painful to actually lean against the back of the seat. The people standing just in front of us on the crowded bus were leaning against our legs because there was so little room, we could not see through them to our friends at the front of the bus, we could only catch a glimpse of where we were out the side of the back window.

At one stage Peter received a phone call from the husband of our friend who was at the front of the bus, asking him to give her the phone, or get her to answer hers. The noise on the bus was deafening, between the cranky engine and the young people talking and laughing. Peter carefully stood at his seat - he could just see the top of her head at the front of the bus. "Lee-Anne!" he called in his best teacher voice. Instantly everyone in the bus fell silent - though she didn't actually hear him. In the moment of quiet he called again: "Lee-Anne! Answer your phone!" Probably no one on the bus understood what he said exactly, but they found it very amusing.

Finally we arrived and we once again assailed by tour guides and taxi drivers - we thought maybe we would refer to them on the way back.

So we paid our 88RMB each, and made our way up through the park to the 88metre tall buddha on the hillside. Along the way we passed the fountain area - there is a special display there at certain times, and we wanted to get up to see the buddha and back in time for the fountain show. Along the way there are a number of other smaller statues and buddhas. The fat one (most westerners think of buddhas as fat) had lots of tiny, naughty buddha babies climbing all over it, and was fun to see.

And then there was a big bronze buddha hand sticking out of the ground. Unlike tourist attractions in Australia where everything has railings and "look but don't touch", Chinese people like to touch and rub everything - for good luck - and there are always shiny worn patches at the favourite spots.

And finally we reached the stairs up to the big buddha itself. And, yes, it's big. But it didn't feel so big close up. Maybe because of the hill right behind it.

When you look at this photo you have to notice the people standing around his feet to get an idea how big he is.

We got back in time for the fountain show. And there was music and it was a good show. But I can't tell you, in case you ever get to see it, and I don't want to spoil it for you.

We left the park and went to talk to the taxi drivers - some of them had vans big enough to carry the five of us. They wanted 100 RMB - the bus trip was only 4RMB each. So we used our few words of Chinese to express our disgust and walked away. He came back with an offer of 80 RMB, and we walked again. Finally we agreed to 60, and had a much nicer ride home than on the way out.