Day 1: Monday, October 1
Meeting time was 5:30 am at XiJiao Hotel in WuDaoKou (wudaokou is a college-y area in the northwest part of town, ie. the opposite part of Beijing from where I live). It was raining furiously that morning and we spent a full 40 minutes running around trying to find our bus, since there were 4 other tours leaving at the same time and place and no one knew what the hell was happening.
The bus ride was supposed to take about 6 hours to go from Beijing to Hohhot. It ended up taking 14 hours, since we left an hour late, and there was traffic like mad. It was stopped traffic for hours. People parked like crazy in the middle of the highway, people were wandering around the highway, peeing off guardrails. Pure madness.
We finally got to our tourist yurt camp at 9pm that night. We were force-fed baijiu right off the bus and greeted with Mongolian singing. We stayed in fakey yurts, which were pretty much individual hotel rooms in buildings shaped like yurts. But there was nothing else yurt-like about it at all. There was a t.v. and bathroom with running water inside. That night we watched some dancing and singing around a bonfire at the camp.Day 2: Tuesday, October 2
We woke up at 5am the next day to watch the sunrise. The gates were closed so we had to jump the fence to wander onto the road to watch the sun in the cold. There was too much haze to actually see the sun break through over the horizon.
Took a nap after waking up for the sunrise. Then had icky breakfast and rode horses through the grasslands. It was my first time riding a horse ever!
Look at how awesome I look! I am rocking that horse! Later on in the ride I switched to a different horse and it was so speedy. It actually galloped and everything. My ass was sore the next day. We rode for about 3 hours. There was drama with the horse guides about how long we could ride and how much it would cost and stuff. But yeah, we only saw 3 sites since we couldn't handle the drama.
We stopped at a little house and drank milk tea and had these cheese butter candy snacks. I don't like Mongolian milk tea and I don't like these snacks.
After having lunch at the camp, we saw the guides ride around in a circle in a horse race. The start of the race was so funny since about a third of the riders didn't know the race had started.
Then we saw some Mongolian wrestling. They wear these little jackets, and you grab your opponents jacket straps. Then you kick your opponents feet and try to knock the other person onto their back.
Then we got on a bus for many hours to drive to the desert. We got to the hotel area and watched this performance after dinner. We were all around this bonfire and there were fire eaters and dancers in bikini tops and grass skirts. I was a little confused by this. Then there were acrobats doing balancing acts and stuff. Then the whole thing ended in a giant trance dance party.
Then we rode these giant vehicles (called amphibicars) through the sand dunes to get to our hotel. It was soo soo soo much fun. I had a smile on my face the whole time and I could not stop repeating, "This is so much fun. This is so much fun." It felt like we were on an amusement park ride, but it was so much cooler since it was dark and we were going up and around sand dunes.Day 3: Wednesday, October 3
We thought we were going to stay in these outdoor rooms, equipped with twin size beds, a tv and electricity but no heat. But at the last minute, after lots of drama with the tour guide, we got bumped into the hotel, where it was a lot warmer and there was hot running water.
This was a giant cart filled with trash. There is a lot of waste in China (and the U.S.).
After breakfast, we rode cable cars over the gorge to get to the sand activities. It was my first time riding in a cable car/ski-lift thing.
We got these colorful sand booties to protect our shoes and pants from the sand. I went on the trip with Julie, who's another teacher, and her friend Matt.
Here's a gorgeous view of the desert during our amphibicar ride. And we drove by some awesome sand sculptures.
Here's me with a camel trashcan. I love taking pictures with trashcans.
Here are all the camels in a pen, waiting for a ride. The camels all looked so sad. It was really scary mounting the camel, since when they extend their legs, they have like 3 joints.
Me on the camel ride.
Line of camels walking through the desert sand dunes.
Me sliding down a sand dune. The slope was really steep. And it looked really scary. But the slide wasn't that fast and it was soo much fun! What was not fun, was climbing back up the mountain after sliding down.
I rode an ATV through the sand dunes!
Then I went parasailing through the desert. That's me getting strapped into the parachute.
The parachute was tied to the back of a car, and when the car speeds through the dunes, I got pulled into the air and cruised in my parachute in the air. I've got a really freaked out look on my face here, since the guy was giving me directions in Chinese but I couldn't understand him.
Once I got in the air it was relaxing smooth cruising. I also held up the entire bus since I had to wait 30 minutes for my turn and we were ridiculously late. More drama on the bus since we we finally got back to the meeting spot, the bus was speeding away and people were having a screaming match with the guide inside.
Then we drove to the Genghis Khan mausoleum. The guide overcompensated for giving us too little time at the sand gorge by giving us way too much time at this place.
Me and Julie jumping in front of the Genghis Khan statue.
This is a picture of a little Chinese girl wearing a headband that had blonde hair attached to it. Absolutely ridiculous.
That night we stayed at the Baotou Aluminum Smelter Hotel. Freaking ridiculous name. AND hot water in the showers. Woohoo.Day 4: Thursday, October 4
Got a chance to sleep in till 9am this day. Then we drove to the WuDang Temple, a Tibetan Buddhist temple. Very cool place. It made me feel like I was in Tibet again.
I love all the different color clothes tied to the trees.
We weren't supposed to take pictures inside the temple, but I snuck pictures anyways.
This was inside the museum there. I think it's ridiculous that the mannequins here are white.After visiting the temple, we went to a handicraft factory (ie. a commissioned tour group shopping spot). What can I say, it's super effective. I bought a comb and some Mongolian chocolate.
We stayed in a hotel in Hohhot that night, and we hung out at the hotel bar for a bit, singing karaoke with some Chinese men. I got creeped out after this one older man grabbed me and pulled me away trying to chat me up.
Day 5: Friday, October 5
Woke up early. Didn't get a chance to explore the city. Again, the ride home to Beijing was supposed to take 6 hours. But about 3 hours from home, our bus broke down. It was leaking water, so the bus driver told us to pass up all of our bottled water so he could pour it into the bus. He pulled over on the side of the highway, and about 100 flies flew into the bus while we were parked trying to repair the bus. The driver cut off the handle of a screwdriver, shoved it into the leak pipe and held it together with plastic bag and chewing gum. Seriously. And yep, the ride took 9 hours.
That night we had dinner in my favorite Muslim restaurant on campus. Then we ventured off in search of a cafe called Candy Floss, hidden away in a nook down a sketchy hutong alley. (I forgot to take a picture, otherwise you bet I would have that posted up here). We hung out with some of the Europeans we met on the tour. Then we went to this club called The World of Suzie Wong's. It's apparently the most famous club in Beijing, which probably explains why it was so sketchy. The name of the club comes from a novel/film about an English man who lives in a brothel in Hong Kong and falls in love with a Chinese prostitute. Irony of ironies. The club was filled with sketchy white businessmen checking out everything that moved. Shit was so bizarre I felt like I was in a movie. And to top it off, they were playing the cheesiest techno music all night.
