After leaving the manufactured desert, the tour group headed back to Hohhot on the bus. However, we asked them to drop the three of us off in Baotou, the little city at the end of the train line from Shenyang. Since we had already toured Hohhot, we really didn’t need to go back there, especially since we could just take the train from Baotou when we were ready to head home. Somehow the willingness of the group to drop us off at the train station in Baotou turned into them dropping us off – in the rain – at a random gas station on the far outskirts of the city. We were reassured that we could definitely find a taxi there, but standing there as the bus left was a bit disconcerting. There were no taxis, and we were on a random stretch of road that didn’t look like it had much traffic besides buses and long-distance travelers. But eventually we were successful at hailing a taxi, and in to Baotou we went.
Turns out, Baotou is not a city you need to bother adding to your list of places to visit in China. In fact, I don’t really recommend going. Unless, of course, you are interested in the Steam Locomotive Museum, the sole highlight of Baotou. Yeah. G and I had great fun laughing about the Steam Locomotive Museum, which did not find its way onto our itinerary. Guess we have to go back sometime. Hehe.
Finding a hotel in Baotou, a city not accustomed to foreign visitors (apparently we aren’t the only foreigners who didn’t find the Steam Locomotive Museum terribly appealing), was quite an experience. At the first one, we were completely turned down. “We don’t take foreigners.” Well, then. Thankfully, we found a reasonably-priced one eventually, and it was a nice hotel. We spent that evening trying to find the excitement of Baotou, but it turns out there is none. Except a really tasty hot pot restaurant, which seemed like heaven after the mediocre meals with the tour group. And a bakery, which had delicious chocolate muffins. I think they sold more chocolate muffins in the 24 hours we spent near Baotou than the entire month before or after. So after discovering those two places, we went back to the hotel and had fun playing Dutch Blitz (a card game) in our room. While eating chocolate muffins.
As a side comment, it’s really entertaining to teach Dutch Blitz to Dutch people. Apparently its only the American Dutch who know the game. Who knew?! Also, trying to learn Dutch in a ger in the grasslands of Inner Mongolia is another entertaining experience. I’m pretty sure our three Chinese roommates were quite confused by the repeated awkward sounds coming out of my mouth. Especially since they didn’t know that G and WT actually speak Dutch, not English, as their native language.
Since we realized quickly that Baotou was not going to be a place we needed to spend too much time, we bought our train tickets back to Shenyang for the train leaving Sunday afternoon (after arriving in Baotou on Saturday). And since the draw of the Steam Locomotive Museum was not so strong on the three of us, we decided to spend our last morning of vacation going to another desert. The Gobi Desert supposedly starts just 60 km or so outside Baotou, so we hired a taxi for the day and headed there. (Whether it was really the Gobi Desert or not is questionable, but I’m going to say it is. Because it’s cooler to say I’ve been to the Gobi Desert than to say I’ve been to a Chinese man-made desert.) As expected, we had a blast! We spent four hours climbing the desert hills, playing in the sand, taking pictures, and enjoying the quietness and solitude of the desert. (Note: the desert we went to the second day was significantly larger than the first one, and although commercialized, the number of visitors was minimal that day. The holiday ended Sunday, so most people were already heading back to their homes to start work on Monday.)
Running around in the desert right before getting on a train for 23 hours might not have been the most brilliant thing I’ve ever decided to do, because I ended up being sandy for far longer than I would have liked. But actually it was probably a really good thing to do, to use up some energy before sitting for so long. The train ride home included a lot of reading, primarily to avoid talking to curious Chinese people around us. Particularly the drunk farmer sitting across from us. Let me tell you, Chinese is a hard language. It’s hard to have a conversation in Chinese. Especially with a farmer, whose education is not as advanced as most people I usually talk with. But it’s exceptionally difficult to understand a drunk Chinese farmer, whose words are slurred beyond all recognition. Thankfully he seemed content to do all the talking and just have us nod and throw in a “dui” or “shi ma?” every once in a while. But reading was more pleasant, so we tried to stick to that. The sleep was difficult again (did I mention we were on the hard seats again?), but I think I got one reasonable hour of sleep. And the 23 hours actually went by fairly quickly.
So that’s it. That was my trip to Inner Mongolia. Sure, there’s plenty I haven’t mentioned. For example, the donkey pulling a cart on the highway in Baotou. Or the way horses trotting together strangely resemble Chinese driving. Or why my new nickname from G is “stinky failure.” (Actually, where did that come from?) Or G and I each getting ripped off buying bananas in Baotou since we were white, but WT (who is ethnically Chinese) getting a completely normal and fair price when she went. Or being offered a teaching job in some random little city (town?) I’ve never heard of, from a lady in the tour group who liked me far too well. Or having the security guards push all the Chinese back to let the two white people through the wickets at the train station to get on the train coming home (leaving WT to fend for herself getting through). Or intentionally keeping our trash on the train neatly put together until the sweeper came through, instead of throwing the trash out the window like our Chinese seatmates were doing, just to discover that the sweeper sweeps all the trash straight out the window anyway. Or running into our couple friend from the train ride to Hohhot on the train back to Shenyang. But I have to stop somewhere, and this is already far longer than it should be. So I hope you’ve enjoyed my stories and my adventures. All in all, I recommend a trip to Inner Mongolia if you get a chance, but perhaps don’t bother adding Baotou to the itinerary (unless, of course, you’re into steam locomotives).
No comments:
Post a Comment