我征服了黄山！／Huangshan - Veni, Vidi, Vici

又当了一天的导游了，这一次是“带团”攻陷黄山。原本以为得自己一个人征服黄山，但就这么巧地，住在同一个青年旅舍房间的其他五个女生也正好计划在同一天上黄山。加上其中一人的男性朋友，还有同旅舍一个不会讲英文的日本人（发现我能够用简单的日语与他沟通，开心地“黏”住了我们），“小黑（就是本人我啦！）团”就这样浩浩荡荡地出发了。
Became a tour guide again. This time round, it is to “lead” a group up the Yellow Mountains. At first, I had thought that I will be tackling the mountains myself. Coincidentally, all the girls in the same dorm decided to hit the mountains on the same day. Thus, together with a guy friend of one the girls, plus a non-English speaking Japanese (who decided to stick to us after realising I was the only one who could communicate with him), off goes “Little Blackie’s (yours truly) tour group” to tackle the mountains. 爬山原来是很贵的一件事。单单入门票就要200人民币（约40新元），坐车到黄山脚下，还得再换车才能够进入景区，这些都要钱。而山上的东西一点也不便宜，因为上山卖的东西都是挑夫一样一样挑上去的。爬得越高，东西越贵，一瓶矿泉水平时只要2元（人民币），到了山上就变成15元。加上下山时坐了一趟缆车（80元），才爬一天的山就要了将近400元（约80新元），真是要命。正因为如此，虽然一般都是用最少两天来游黄山，如果要在一天之内游完整个山，几乎是不可能任务，除非上下山都坐缆车，但我们还是决定只用一天的时间来征服黄山，省下山上住宿的费用（一个床位就要180元，在屯溪的青年旅舍一个床位只要30元）。
I now realised how expensive it is to climb a mountain. Just the entrance fees alone cost 200 RMB (about SGD 40). After taking a bus to the foot of the mountains, we had to switch buses in order to get to the starting point of the climb. All these just add to the costs. And of course, things are not cheap up the mountains, since everything has to be carried up. The higher you go, the more expensive things are. A bottle of mineral water will normally cost 2 RMB. Up here, it costs 15 RMB. Throw in 80 RMB for the cable car ride down the mountains (one way), a day at the mountains cost me nearly 400 RMB (about SGD 80). *sweat*. As such, even though it will normally take at least two days to do the mountains, we decide to save on the accommodation fees (a bed up in the mountains cost 180 RMB, while it costs only 30 RMB for a bed at the youth hostel in Tunxi), we decided to be ambitious and try conquering the mountains in a day.我们从后山开始。真庆幸是和一大群人一起爬，而非自己一个人爬，因为单是这第一段路就要了我的命。这是最艰苦的阶段，没有任何风景可以看，就只能低头往上爬，共爬了两个小时。因为事事都是我带头，大家都叫我导游，当然就要扮演“导游”的角色，一边爬，一边鼓励大家继续加油。听起来好像很累，但其实不是，因为在鼓励大家的当儿，其实也是在为自己加油。再加上，用中文、广东话、英语和日语，甚至是韩语来说鼓励的话，大家觉得很好玩，说说笑笑地，也就暂时忘记自己有多累了。
We started from the back mountains. I was so glad that I was not doing it alone, but with a bunch of fun-loving people, because just the first part of the climb was enough to “kill” me. This was the hardest part as it is just two hours non-stop of uphill climbing. No beautiful scenery. Seemingly, no end in sight. As I seemed to be taking the lead for things, they started calling me “tour guide” and of course I had to play the part, shouting words of encouragement as we climb. This sounds tiring, but in actual fact is not, as I was spurring myself to keep going at the same time I was encouraging others. Furthermore, shouting words of encouragement in Chinese, Cantonese, Japanese, English and even Korean brought a smile to everybody, and you will forget how tired are after a while.

好不容易到了第一站，白鹅岭。看到那美丽的风景，就觉得之前辛苦的那两个小时是值得的。围墙上的铁链上挂着整堆的锁头，似乎是征服黄山的恋人锁上去的，希望他们的恋情能够长长久久。真佩服他们，爬山那么累了，还要带给大锁头，噢！
We finally made it to the first stop, albeit all half-dead. But the beautiful scene awaiting us made us alive again. The two hours climb was definitely worth the effort! We saw lots of locks on the chains of the fencing wall, apparently placed there by couples who hoped their love will be long-lasting. Gosh! It is already so tiring to climb the mountains, and these people still bring a heavy lock with them?! 之前听说到了白鹅岭之后，就没有那么辛苦了，因为之后的路比较平。唉，被骗了！根本不是那样！黄山不只有一个山顶，是有很多山顶，所以要看其他风景，就得一上一下，真的是翻山越岭。不过好在风景够美，每到一处看到的都不一样，所以爬的时候虽然抱怨连连，但一到山顶，都会觉得再累也是值得的。
喔，黄山的其中一个顶峰就叫光明顶，就是那个被称为邪教的明教大本营。结果我们在爬累的时候，就一直开玩笑说，还不知道明教的人上下山是那么辛苦的，怪不得需要什么蝙蝠王和ＸＸ做什么左右护法。
I was told that the first two hours is the most difficult part of the climb. After that, there are lesser slopes, so the going will not get tougher. Heck! It was all lies! Yellow Mountains in actual fact has many peaks, so in order to get from one point to another, you practically have to go down and up again and again. At least the view at the top is always breathtaking, making me feel that the efforts are not wasted each time. 因为必须赶在缆车停止运作前抵达缆车站，否则就来不及下山，得在山上过夜，最后一段路程我们几乎没有休息，不停地赶路。对其他人来说，因为是下山的路，所以没有那么辛苦。可是对我这个膝盖不好的人来说，这就跟上山一样辛苦。最糟糕的是要先爬什么“百步云梯”（不用说明，也应该知道是什么样的一段路），才可以到达缆车站，而有上必有下，那一段路我差点就疯掉。到了缆车站时，已经几乎感觉不到两腿了。
As we had to be at the cable car station before it closes, or else we would be left sleeping in the cold on the mountains, we practically hiked the last part of the mountains without any rest. The last stretch was mostly going downhill, which was of no problem at all to the others, but a killer for someone with bad knees like me. So you can imagine my horror when I realised that we had to go up the stretch of “Hundred Steps” and then go down before we can reach the cable car station. How I wished someone can chop off my legs when I finally got to the cable car station. 到了山脚下，还没来得及感谢上苍我终于征服了黄山，就遇到令人抓狂的事。原本为了早点回到屯溪而没有乘坐公家车，坐了私立车子。怎么知道，车子才走了10分钟就被交警停下，而那可恶的司机居然说没有带驾照，结果必须下车走回车站。可是偏偏最后一趟公家车已经客满，到头来原本想省钱的我们，必须多掏几块钱，乘坐另一辆私家车回到屯溪。不过这也让我们在回到屯溪吃晚餐的时候，更觉得那顿饭特别美味。　　～伟
We have not even had time to congratulate ourselves that we’d finally conquered Yellow Mountains when we met with an unlucky incident. As the public bus was waiting for people to fill up before leaving, and we wanted to get back to Tunxi as soon as possible, we decided to hop on one of the private minivan. What a mistake that was. We were not even out of the town when the van got stopped by the police. As the stupid driver did not bring his driving license, we could not go any further and had to alight and walk back to the bus terminal. Worst was to discover that the public bus that we didn’t get on was the last one for the day. In the end, instead of saving money and getting back earlier, we had to pay more for another private minivan and got back later than expected. But maybe it is because of this, the dinner we had back in Tunxi tasted heavenly.　　～wei