Life

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Due to unforceen circumstances, i was unable to go online in inner mongolia. So this is an update of the inner mongolian holiday that came right after the Beijing holiday.
14/6:
we had a 11 hr train journey from Beijing to Inner Mongolia/ Hohhot. we landed there and had a private van for all 8 of us. so the tour was conducted just for us. *selling point*. it took us two hours to reach the grasslands and to the mongolian tent where we would put up for a night. we had a mongolian welcome where they will al be dressed in the attire which i had posted up too an then sing some songs and give us all rice wine which totally sucked so i pretended to sip. we rested and got ready for lunch which was like 8 dishes which we came to realise, was the typical mongolian feast..thereafter we watched a horse race and a wrestling match.. fun fun! so they asked for like the tourists to come fight and the last match was between ladies and i was sabotaged but i won! hands down.. oh come on, rough me, what do u expect.. after that, we drove off to two places by van within the grasslands. the first one was local house and we tried local delights made from like goat's milk, etc.. then thereafter we went to the san bau, the place of worship for them. it seems u shld take a stone and throw at it and walk three rounds for your wish to come thru. i didnt need to do it cos i know i have a God who knows all my wishes. when we got back, i went on a horse ride, i got a white one! yippee! i listened to sophia's advise and changed into shorts but my butt hurt so much cos i couldnt follow the rythm of the horse so i was jumping when it was jumping too.but it was for an hr and it was great thouygh my horse ept bending down to eat grass, i managed to control it. when we got back, i played outdoor pool and archery with philip. really cool.. we had dinner thereafter. the sun only sets at 830pm and rises at 4am so it was still pretty bright but we had a mongolian celebration with songs, dances, etc.. ard the campfire cos its sooooo cold. it was like 5 degrees. the stars were so clear too.. awesome sight. wish i could live there forever.. being wrapped up like a mummy though.. we slept early so as to catch the sunrise at 4am. we made new freinds from california.. three youths.. who were so delighted to ehar english from us! we played bridge together.. my fav game.. so we tried getting uo the next day and while waiting for thr sun to rise, we kepy plopping back to our beds now and then.. caught here and there.. we got up, took breakfast and left the ximularen grassland and chao yang for the kabuqi dessert.oh did i mention, there are no bathing facilities. haha. so we went towards the city batou where the dessert was and it took 5 hours including lunch at a good restaurant. it was really hot then and i actually changed in the van! we reached the dessert and we all applied huge chunk of sunblock which didnt work ultimately. we had to get long red cloth boots to walk on the sand.. so we had to walk up this long ladder on sand to get up to where the camels were.. and we rode camels to the other part where there was a zoo filled with exotic animals like deer, turkey,crane, eagle, owl,sheep,goats and a skeleton room. the camel ride was fun and not dangerous cos we were all stringed up.. we went up to this high point and all of us did funny pictures and then got back down to the start and did a sand slide! so fun! well the end of being burnt and we got back into the van and it was another 3-4 hrs back to the city, to keli hotel where we put up for a night..so we had free time from then on.. so we walked ard and in a desperate attemot to find an internet.. failed. so stepped into a salon and found the highlightin at half price off! so i did highlights which were too daring at first and did some amendments.. so then we got back at night ,slept and got up for breakfast where i decided to go back to the salon to strighten the front.. haha. and so i did.. and then joined them back at the hotel for 3 other tourist spots like the dinosaur museum, a factory and a street of lamma temples. at one of it, i went ot the van and slept while waiting for the rest to come.. so boring! my fun was over. the dessert was great, horse and camel was fun enough. so we went ot the railway station abt 5pm and out trainnwas only at 11 so we slacked in the lounge then took a walk out and my shopping spree continued.. but it started to rain! gosh how lucky. it rained on the last day in beijing and rained on the last day at IM. God is good. so le jn bought dinner for us, western dinner finally! and it was a surprise, was his treat. phil and i took a walk, got into a hotel to take a crap and found internet for only 2 rmb an hr! so cool. at least i could clear emails. we got into out train and reached the next morning. so here it goes. The upset of my life.phoebe and i landED AT 1030 but had another train straight back to hk at 1230. yet we had to rush back to the hostel to get some stuff. and i needed to take a short bath so we got a cab and a ripped off price and we got to the station half an hr earlier. but we got lost inside the station and by the time we found the actual customs for us together with another french girl who was helpless cos she had a flight back to france the next day.. it was too late. we knocked on the doors and glass and begged but to no avail. we were at a loss, downcast. we tried refunsing our tickets there but bec its not bought in beijing, we couldnt. we had to buy another ticket. we explored some agencies, called up and figured whether to take a plane back but didnt cos it would save us mroe money. so we took the train to guangzhou for 22 hrs. we met julia , a chinese who teaches english in beijing and going back to guangzhou to meet her husband.. she was allocated the bunk below ours. so nice that she could speak english so we played cards together etc.. and then during the trian journey, others joined our compartment and i taught them bridge while i learnt landlord and they were so fast! my goodness. difficult to even keep track of the cards! so any way the journey was so smooth and julia's husband helped us to find the bus back.. but we found it ourselves anyway.. nice journey back.. so used to travelling already la.. straight back to sheung wan and we took a cab back.. we got back safely.