Up early this morning to ride up to the summit of Mount Emei to see the temples and the Golden Buddha.

Trekking up to the lowest temple on Mount Emei. The water in the stream is bright blue even though the sun's not out, so I guess it's due to some mineral. No one cantell me

It’s raining hard-ish and the summit is wrapped in cloud but I’m not bothered. The road is spectacular again, following a mountain stream up the valley to the first stop off  point at temples mid way up the mountain. And it’s a bit of a trek in soaking wet riding kit, but well worth the sweat.

On the way back down I lost Mad Frankie Fan (as he has become known this week) for a about 10 minutes only to be acosted by some very young Chinese girls all wanting a picture with me … I’m old enough to be their grandad, never mind father. How come this never happened when I was a teenager?

Then further up the mountain towards the Golden Buddha and Golden Temple. A ride, short trek and a cable car ride to get there. The place is mobbed mainly with Chinese tourists but also dozens of old ladies on a pilgrimage who all out me to shame buy tackling the thousands of stone steps with ease while my knees and thighs are screaming “enough!”.

Scuse me chief, have you seen a golden buddha round 'ere anywhere? Bout 50ft tall and gold

There wasn’t a great deal to see at the summit as the rain cloud had completely engulfed the Buddha and temples but there’s something very special about this place.

While I was there I had a word with the big fella to see if he coould fix us up with 3 lovely young ladies to join us for dinner. We’ll see what happens.