THE CRAZY FAMILY...
This trip was another end result of my continuos needling to go to Inner Mongolia...I mean who would not want to go to the endless grasslands, where horses ran free and no civilization for miles around, right? Ro was finally convinced and we booked our tickets from Beijing to Hohhot(pronounced Hu-he-ho-te), the capital of Inner Mongolia. From there, it was a long 2 hour drive to the grasslands.
En route, Ro decided that the taxi guy was fucking around and we had a fight, which resulted in him dumping us, baby and all, miles from any yurts. Yurts are the small tents that are put up on the grasslands and the only places you can stay in.
We had to walk for a good hour to get to the huts that you can see in the distance. That is the thing with these grasslands...you can see it and you think 'ohh..its so close,' but distances and time loose value. Its just open fields and it looks quiet but actually the noise in this place was deafening...crickets, the size of small mice, all singing away and the sheer numbers were staggering. I wager there was one cricket per inch of ground. We squished quite a few as we walked through this cricket land.
We decided to stay in small yurt settlement where the price for one night was a mere 100yuan..peanuts. The accomodation was not fancy either... but comfy. The whole yurt was basically a bed - with a hard cement rectangle to serve as the bed,on top of which countless pillows and mattresses were thrown, to make it really cosy. The top of the yurt had a small opening, through which the yurt received its ventilation. Apparently, this was very scientific and imperative to keep the yurt cool during the hot day and warm and cosy during the cold nights.
The couple who managed the 5 yurts were very sweet and had an old tattered picture of Genghis Khan in the common eating room. Wow...All my history lessons just come flooding back to me as I realize that these people are perhaps direct descendants. They had 3 horses and whenever they wanted to get some supplies, they would clamber on and ride to the nearest village - Damao.
This place is so much better explained with pictures...have fun!
SW..perfect beauty. I wish I was this lucky when I was young...
Posing away...
Birds on a wire.
Show off...
We went to the nearby village - Damao, for a look. It was such a cute place,with a really old monastery and some even older looking monks. The wind here is so strong and dusty that even the younger lot look 10 years older. We wandered around for a while and then started looking for ways to get back. It was going to be dark soon and we had no transport back. An old guy kindly offered us a lift at the back of his tempo...We were so pleased but when he opened the back, I almost threw up. You see, the tempo was used to transport goat meat around, and there were kidneys, entrails and large amounts of blood. If he wanted us to get in there, he must be joking.
We finally found another tempo, no cleaner, but at least there were no body parts around.
The night at the grassland was a full moon night...the beauty has to be experienced - i can try to convey in words but it will be futile. I will leave it to your imagination.
Next morning: clean up and shit time before getting back to ol' Beijing. The only problem - there are no toilets in the grasslands - the whole place can be used...'go anywhere'...we were told. Now there is one small hut that people apparently went to, to relieve themselves. I decided to check it out, and was greeted to the replay of the potty scene from Slumdog Millionaire. Before this, I had just thought that these kind of places were made up, not real. But Hell, I can tell you, whatever urges you have, automatically stop.I decided to hold it in till we reached the airport. Not ideal, but way better than that.
All in all, I have to say that Inner Mongolia was a trip high on my list of best places visited. The experience was so surreal and other-worldly that there cannot be any comparisons or words to describe it. You have to go there to see it.
Footnote: When we were leaving, the old Mongolian couple in all seriousness, took me aside and told me whether I can leave my baby with them - for ever. They wanted to keep her and take care of her. They could not have children and they wanted my beautiful baby...' nu er piao liao'... was their reason...'girl very beautiful'(btw, in China and in most places, people go nuts when they see her...I have had crowds gather around me and follow me around, all the time, ogling at her.The attention is frustrating and irritating...esp...Ro with his temper, can be quite rude and a situation always develops). Needless to say, it was pretty freaky.
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