Monday 30th April

We were up bright and early this morning and left our hotel at 7.45am. We had learned from our mistake yesterday and stopped at mcdonalds for breakfast on our way to Anda’s hostel. The tour to the grasslands left at 9am and there were 18 of us on a mini bus. It took 2.5 hours to get to the grasslands and as we left the city the scenery turned to mountains and then flat plains for miles. We were staying with a Mongolian family on their farm in yurts, which are round little huts, sort of like a wigwam, made of wood and covered in a thick material. There were 6 of us per yurt and they were surprisingly big inside with lot’s of blankets. We each had a thin mat to sleep on, a pillow, a blanket and a sleeping bag. We had been told that we needed lot’s of layers for the grasslands as it gets really cold and can be quite windy. It was 23 degrees in the city but was quite windy in the grasslands.

We had lunch after we had settled into our yurts in the farmhouse, which was a small room big enough for a dining table, with a small kitchen and small bedroom off it. Lunch consisted of a bowl of boiled rice, potato soup (a watery broth with boiled potatoes and strips of lamb in it which was very tasty) and lamb dumplings. This was probably the best meal that we had had since arriving in Inner Mongolia which was a big surprise.  After lunch we had free time for 2.5 hours where we could explore the landscape. We were sort of on a hill and could see for miles which had amazing views. In the distance we could see tourist camps which is what the Chinese use instead of an intimate setting on a farm like we had. We soon found out why, the farm had no toilet! We were told that we were to go and “find a corner somewhere” which was laughable, we were in the grasslands which were pretty flat and went on for miles, there were no trees or bushes to hide behind! We ended up having to go up the hill and into a dip which couldn’t be seen by the farm, but if anyone came from any other direction you would be caught with your trousers down! Once again I was singing the praises of whoever invented hand sanitiser gel as there wasn’t even a sink to wash your hands in.

After wandering to the top of the hill and taking photos I was a bit bored of the grasslands. Yes, the views are beautiful and yes, it is very peaceful but oh my god is it boring after a while. Someone said how amazing it was to be able to experience this nomadic lifestyle and it took all of my will power not to laugh. I think it’s far from amazing. Times have changed, technology has moved on. They could have running water, heating and a proper toilet if they wanted to, it would make life far easier for them and much nicer for tourists. Yes, I know, could I sound any more narrow minded? I just feel that it’s pure laziness on their part not to drag themselves into the present, but that’s just my opinion.

 We sat taking in the view and reading our books for a bit and then it was time to go horse riding! Now this I had been really looking forward to and the picture on the tour poster was of a gorgeous pure white pony that I had envisioned myself galloping off into the sunset on. The reality was a little different. We took the mini bus to a stable where there were ponies lined up along a wall. I was given the first pony which I had to clamber up onto in a far from graceful manner.  My horse riding lesson was also extremely brief, I was told “pull left to go left, pull right to go right, pull up to stop” err ok, is that it? I was thinking, but he had already moved onto the next person. My pony WAS white, but a little bit grubbier than the one in the poster. It was extremely sot though and I think I patted it the whole way round. Matt was given a slightly bigger black pony which seemed to have a mind of it’s own and didn’t seem to follow Matts steering. We started off walking up the hill and across the road for about 30 minutes. By this point my knees were aching a bit and my bum was sore, I was glad when the tour guide announced that we were heading back to the stable. This didn’t last long though as our ponies started off at a trot which seen as I can’t even remember the horse riding lessons I had as a child, I was not prepared for. My allergic reaction had kicked in by then aswell so I had a rash all over my hands, I was wheezing, my eyes were stinging and streaming and I was sneezing like mad! We got back to the stables and there were 3 dogs there which scared the horse at the front which started bucking and threw off his rider and ran off. It was a bit scary to watch as none of us wanted our horses to react like that, but the guides soon had us off our horses. My knees were aching so much it was difficult to walk as I got off my horse, horse riding really was quite painful. I was covered in horse hair so I tried to brush myself off, washed my hands with hand sanitiser, used my inhaler and eye drops and had another antihistamine, but it was worth it!

We jumped back onto the mini bus and returned to the farm for our next activity, shooting the bow and arrow! The bows were quite new and still stiff so it took a lot of strength to pull it back, this obviously wasn’t our sport as neither of us hit the target, in fact, only two of the group did which made me feel a bit better. We had more free time until 6pm when our tour guide came round telling us that it was time to pick up poo. She knocked on our yurt door (it had gotten very windy and cold so the bow and arrows were abandoned and we had sat in the yurts to read our books) in a sing song voice she said “it’s poo time!” I asked if we would be given gloves and she said that we would use our hands, I honestly thought that she was joking and laughed. She wasn’t. She was deadly serious and walking round the field picking up cow dung with her bare hands and putting it into a sack. Now I’m sorry, but with no running water on site, there was not enough hand sanitiser in the world to make me do that! A few people agreed with me and we stood to the side, but I was really surprised at how many people got stuck in and seemed to be enjoying picking up poo! If that wasn’t bad enough a few of the younger guys started throwing cow dung at each other. If any of that had hit me there would have been hell to pay so I was relieved when our guide announced that we had enough cow dung and could return to camp. When we got there a bowl of warm water was produced for the 13 people who had been picking up cow dung to rinse their hands in. Needless to say after the third person the water was black. I was so glad that none of them were cooking the food for dinner.

At 7pm dinner was ready so we traipsed back to the farm house and I forced hand sanitiser on everyone sat at the same table as me. We had steamed bread, the leftovers from the potato broth from lunchtime, a big bowl of cabbage and what was supposed to be the famous Mongolian boiled mutton, which was pretty much a plate of bones with barely any meat on it, I think we got 5 small chunks of meat off it which was extremely disappointing. Dinner was ok, nothing like lunch and I ended up eating my emergency packet of crisps that I had brought just in case. At 7.30pm we went to watch the sunset, which was a lovely pink colour but it was very cloudy so we couldn’t see all of the colours properly. We went back to our yurt, torches in hand to shelter from the wind as it was really cold now and to make up our beds. At 8.30pm we were told the bonfire of cow dung was ready so we could all go outside. We stayed for maybe 10 minutes but the smell was really bad and the smoke was stinging our eyes so we went back to our yurt to read and were ready for bed by 9.30pm.

See more pics here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/78649657@N03/sets/72157629752637610/

Sunday 29th April

For the last few weeks I have been waking up 15 minutes before my alarm, which I did this morning. Now I am not a morning person and I always feel cheated out of those 15 minutes as there’s not really any point going back to sleep. This morning I was actually excited about our day so I got up and showered straight away. We left the hotel at 7.30am which would give us plenty of time to get a taxi to the hostel that we had found that did English tours. We arrived at the hostel a bit before 8am and had breakfast (bread and jam) now this is the hostel that we were going to stay at because they did tours but they didn’t have double rooms, only dorms and shared bathrooms, which is why we chose the hotel instead. Now when we got to the hostel I am so glad that we did because it was a dive! There was a family of four sleeping in the reception room and there were only two showers in the whole hostel! We paid for our one day tour to the Gobi desert and at 9am we were on the mini bus ready to leave.

We didn’t actually leave until 9.30am which put us behind schedule for the 3.5 hour drive to the desert which was a bit annoying. Anyone that knows me will know that being late (either me or anyone else) is the one thing that really annoys me, add to the fact that I hate travelling for long periods of time and I was already in a bad mood. Luckily I could just put my headphones on and listen to music and I was back to being excited about our day out.

We stopped for lunch at 1pm which was part of the tour fee, I have been on these before and never really liked the food and today was no exception. I couldn’t identify most of the meats and ended up just eating rice and a steamed bread roll. Matt tried the fish and said it tasted like it had lived in dirt and didn’t really enjoy the meal and he is not a fussy eater like me so that’s saying something. 

I thought it was hot at 27 degrees in the city but it was much hotter when we actually got to the desert at about 1.30pm. We stopped at the edge of the desert and went under a cement shelter where we could buy drinks, sand boots (brilliant invention, it was just a material boot to put over your shoes that came up to about your knees to stop the sand getting in your shoes) and also buy hats and face masks (which quite frankly made us look like terrorists).

We then got on an open top sort of truck to take us into the desert which was a lot like being back inside a tank. We drove for about 5 minutes into the desert and there was a shelter and a fenced off area with camels. We were each given a camel to ride and this was the bit that I was most excited about! My camel was very well behaved but the camel behind me kept nuzzling his face against my arm and nearly knocking me off my camel! It was quite sweet until it sneezed all over my arm, at which point I decided we were not friends and whipped out my supply of wet wipes and hand sanitizer (whilst holding onto my camel). Every time we went down a steep sand dune I was hugging my camels hump for dear life as the camel behind me would barge into my camel, almost knocking me off each time, which everyone else from our tour thought was hilarious. I don’t know how long we were on the camels for but I really enjoyed it and was patting my camel the whole way round (in between holding on for dear life). I had heard a lot of stories about how bad tempered camels are and that they spit a lot but I didn’t see any of that, they were extremely good natured, maybe even too much with regards to the camel next to me that kept nuzzling me. They are, however, very gassy animals.

After the camel ride we climbed up a sand dune to do sand sliding which was on a sledge. The sand dune was really steep and I expected to be going really fast but it was actually quite slow which was a bit disappointing. We then had to climb back up the really steep sand dune which was such hard work and as it was so hot and I had barely eaten anything at lunch I felt really light headed and wobbly. When we got to the top we sat in the shade and I drank some water and lemonade and felt a bit better. I then tried quad biking, which I had been looking forward to but it was so hot it was a real effort to have the motivation to do anything by this point. At 4.30pm we got back on the open air truck to take us back to the cement shelter. We stopped at the toilets before we got back on the mini bus and it was literally a room with lots of holes in the floor. No cubicles, you just squat down in front of everyone and the smell was horrendous. I never thought I would say it, but they really spoil you in Beijing with squat cubicles!

We got back on the mini bus and headed back for Hohhot, which with traffic took us 4 hours. By this point it was 8.30pm and we were both really hungry, we got a taxi back to our hotel and ate at the restaurant a few doors down. We ordered duck, lamb, a “Mongolian kebab”, fried rice and vegetables. The duck was half cold, as if they had tried to heat  it up but failed so we left that. The lamb was mutton but was really nice once you had cut off all of the fat, and the Mongolian kebab was nice but we didn’t dare ask what meat it was! After dinner we came back to the hotel for a much needed shower as we were both still covered in sand, then an early night as we have another adventure tomorrow!

See more pics here:http://www.flickr.com/photos/78649657@N03/sets/72157629752539104/

Saturday 28th April

I woke up at 7am this morning and tried to go back to sleep, I think I dozed for about an hour before the noise of building work and a very loud drill started up, right outside the window (although we are on the 5^th floor, it’s still really loud) The smell of cigarettes hit me when I woke up, it really is disgusting!

After we were showered and dressed we went downstairs to try and sort out arranging a tour guide for the desert and grasslands. This was a lot harder than it sounds because no one spoke English and I only know a very small amount of Chinese, thank god for google translate! It took us an hour to try and find out where we could find an English speaking tour guide and an English map (the staff gave us a map that was all in Chinese). We decided to go out and explore by ourselves and try to get our bearings of Hohhot. We had a few places that we wanted to go to in the city but it took us an hour of wandering in what we thought was the general direction before we could get a taxi! My first impressions of Hohhot were not great, it was extremely busy, far busier than Beijing and every taxi we saw had people in it. We finally got a taxi and went to the Da zhao and xilitu zhao temple which was still in use by monks and we even saw them chanting.  I’m not sure if we were allowed to take photos but we did anyway, there were lot’s of gold statues with people kneeling in front of them with incense sticks. It was so hot though, it was meant to be 22 degrees but it felt a lot hotter,  we both got sunburn and were worn out by the end of the day.

Friday 27th April

Today is sports day! I was up and ready to leave the apartment at 6.30am this morning and shared a taxi to where our sports day was being held, which turned out to be the Para-Olympic stadium!

All of the teachers were there early to set up for sports day and the kids and parents arrived at 8am. We started with an opening ceremony where each team (red, yellow, blue, green and orange) did a cheer and dance for their team.

The games started at 9am and I was with red team grades 3,4 and 5 and it was the weirdest sports day I have ever been to! The sports day was set out with five different stations and each team had 15 minutes at each one. But they went to each station as a team and did the station together instead of it being one person from red, yellow, blue, green and orange. The person with the best time was the one who was put on the score card and the other teams had to beat that time. It was weird because usually on sports day you are cheering for your team, but everyone at the station was on my team! It certainly was a bizarre day.

Sports day ended at 12pm and all of the teachers stayed to pack everything up which didn’t take long. I had told Matt to be back by 1.30pm so I headed back to the apartment and was waiting for him at 12.50pm. Now Matt had the keys so I was sat on a bench outside my apartment waiting. It’s a good job it was a nice day because Matt had misjudged the timings and didn’t turn up until after 2pm!

We packed our bags for our trip to Inner Mongolia and then got a taxi to Pinnacle Plaza for lunch. We went to the Avocado tree for a burrito, I love the food there then got a taxi back to the apartment to get our stuff together and leave for the airport at 5.45pm.

We got to the airport and were in the queue to check in for 45 minutes in what felt like the hottest airport I’ve ever been in! It’s a National holiday so it was the busiest I’ve ever seen it. We finally got to our turn and were told that our 7.50pm flight had been delayed by two hours. We went off to get a drink and because it was so windy we could see a few flights had been cancelled. I was starting to worry a bit about what we would do if our flight was cancelled as I didn’t know what to do and it was hard enough to communicate when things were going well. Luckily we checked in with no problems and went through to the gate where we had to wait around for another hour. Our flight finally left at 10.30pm, 2.5 hours late! But the flight was only 45 minutes and we landed in Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia at 11.15pm. We got a taxi to our hotel and were both so tired we just wanted to go to sleep. We checked in but our room stank of cigarettes, I went back down to reception with my phrasebook (neither of the receptionists spoke English) and tried to get a different room but was told that there weren’t any.  The room is nice but I’m having trouble putting up with the smell.

Thursday 26th April

Today I had to go back to work which I really did not want to do. Although I did have a bag of goodies for people who had asked for things from England this was nice to give out. It was quite a busy day because the PE teacher was absent so I had to take his lesson for grade 4. I was wearing flip flops, which isn’t allowed but it was so warm I decided to wear them anyway. Big mistake! We were playing football and I went to kick the ball and my flip flop flew off! Another time I went to get the ball and got tackled by a student and I kicked him instead! The student was fine but I really hurt my toe and was trying not to cry in front of the kids, which would have been embarrassing! I spent the rest of the day limping a bit because it hurt to put any weight on my toe! 

After school I went home to meet Matt and find out about his day, he had been to Jingshan Park which is the hill across from the Forbidden City where you can get some really good views and he had wandered around that area. I booked a taxi for 5.30pm to take us to a restaurant called the Orchard, which is about 30 minutes away. The Orchard is an organic restaurant set next to it’s own lake with an orchard surrounding it and they grow their own vegetables and herbs. The food was really good but it is also quite expensive for China. We wandered the grounds which were really pretty and then got a taxi back to my apartment. It was an early night today because i have an extremely early start tomorrow!

Wednesday 25th April

My alarm went off at 5am this morning for me to go and pick Matt up from the airport, I was so excited! Matt’s flight was early so he was waiting for me at Starbucks when I got there, it was so good to see him!

We got back to my apartment at 7am and Matt unpacked and had a shower. At 8.30am when the police station was open we went to register him (and me as I had a new visa). Last time I went to register, the little police station was closed and I had to go to the big police station, so we walked there. It was a gorgeous day, not a cloud in the sky and lovely and warm so it was a nice walk. We got to the police station and were told that we had to go to the little police station! We had to walk all the way back and then to the little police station to register. After that we walked to the supermarket to get phone credit for Matt’s phone and other bits, and then went back to my apartment.

I had taken the day off work so at 9.45am we got a taxi to take us for breakfast and then we went to Happy Valley Amusement park! When we got there the woman at the ticket office said that all of the big rides were closed, but we looked at the map and only two of the rollercoaster’s and a few little rides were closed so we decided to go in anyway. We had a really great day, although it was a lot busier than when we came in November. We had had enough by 4pm and Matt was fighting to stay awake so we got a taxi home. The taxi ride took a lot longer than usual because it was rush hour but also because across the road from Euro Plaza is the exhibition centre which had a car show on all week and is the biggest car show in the world.

We got home at 6pm and decided to order a takeaway and watch a film, which Matt fell asleep 10 minutes into. It was a really lovely day and I am so pleased that Matt is here with me!

Sunday 22nd April

Today I went to the Pearl Market with Raena to buy a few bits, which turned into me buying a pair of ugg boots, 6 scarves, 8 handbags and some jewellery! I would have bought more but I was having trouble carrying it all and I was given a bin bag for it all and I was dragging it round behind me! Raena was in a similar situation with a bin bag and another carrier bag! We had hired a driver for the day (which was only £20) and luckily he carried our bags to the car as we were prime examples of shop til you drop!

We got dropped off at home and then an hour later Raena came to pick me up on her scooter and we went to one of the other teachers for tea with two other teachers. We had homemade pizza and an elderberry cobbler (I’ve never had elderberry before, it tasted very sweet) and we watched a film. It was actually a really nice evening as other than Raena, I never see the other three teachers outside of school so it made a nice change.