Trip to Inner Mongolia
The first week in October - the so called golden week - is a week off for everybody in China. Due we knew that Shanghai will be quite busy at this time we decided to go travelling....but where? In the golden week nearly whole China is travelling. We had to find a place somewhere in China where probably not many people would go....except some "waiguoren" (=foreigner) :). So, finally we saw an advertisement in That’s Shanghai –a magazine- for a three day adventure trip to Inner Mongolia...the decision was made very fast and on the 2nd of October 2006 Melek my flat mate and I flew to Hohhot the main capital of Inner Mongolia ...full of anticipation :).
We arrived late in the evening in Hohhot, where we got picked up from our tour guide Linda. From Hohhot it took us another hour with the bus to the hotel where we stayed the first night. In between we good introduced to the other people participating on the trip…a Chinese couple, two Chinese girls, a French couple with sun, a Mexican couple with two daughters and a two Americans. It turned out to be a very funny group. All little bit tired we finally arrived at the hotel, where we first had to wake up the receptionist who was lying behind the counter on a mattress sleeping :).
The hotel we stayed the first night...luxury :)
In front of the hotel...typical image for InnerMongolia....sheeps are everywhere
My footprint....I was here :)
The next day we had to get up really early..too early, that we could leave at 8:00 am for the countryside....somewhere in Inner Mongolia. As we wanted to get on our travel bus we had to find out that our travel agency obviously had an additional Business besides organizing adventure tours :). The transportation options in Inner Mongolia are not really the best, so our whole bus was full of people of Inner Mongolia who wanted to travel back home to their villages. So we, the group of “waigouren” traveled with the group of curious looking Mongolian 1 hour to our next destination somewhere on the countryside.
Arrived there, I found out...to my surprise that the “Yurt Hotel” was not a hotel as you would expect it when you hear the word “Hotel” ...it was rather a collection of hutted (=yurt) - which are the traditional houses of the Inner Mongolian people. Means, no heating at night...in Inner Mongolia it is getting pretty cold at night ...so I was already very much looking forward to this :)....real adventure:).
The yurt hotel entrance...
Our cute little yurt ...
Some more yurts...
I found a new friend...didn't talk very much this guy
After we made our cute little yurt a little bit cozier it was planed to go horse riding the rest of the morning. Due Inner Mongolia still belongs to China, planned activities are proceeding very often, really unplanned :). In this case we didn’t have any horses...which makes going horse riding a little bit more challenging :). Anyway...after 40 minutes we had three horses...which also makes going horse riding a little bit difficult with 17 people :). After some discussions and about 20 minutes later we decided to go hiking first...We actually didn’t get very far as some Inner Mongolian horse riders obtained us with exact 17 horses. As we were a very flexible group of travelers...we changed the plan again and finally went horse riding the whole morning, which was an absolutely great experience due to the beautiful landscape and the amazing weather. The first time in a while I could breath fresh air again...I could imagine it would be a good running business to import this nice and clean air to Shanghai :)
A quite heavy group picture...
You have to throw a stone on it and then you have to walk around it three times in each direction...and your wishes will be fullfilled...I have to say I'm still waiting for the last part...Maybe this was a trick from our tour guide to keep us busy while we were waiting for the horses to come :)
Tourists everywhere...
Melek and me on the horse...finally :)
All are enjoying the horse riding.
My horse decided I had enough horse riding...it had to eat first..good horse.
Beautiful landscape...
Juliane, Melek and me.
Trees and me..
After I managed to stay on the horse...we had a good tasting lunch with Mongolian food. Later the afternoon we all went hiking for a few hours. The hiking path was leading through a little Mongolian village where we had the chance to visit the house of a typical Mongolian Family. Of course, everybody of us had to drink a Baijiu (the Chinese schnaps) with the family head...quite strong taste I have to say...but I survived it :). It was also very interesting to see how the family lived there. This easily could have been 100 year ago. But see yourself:
View on the valley during hiking
The house of the mongolian family we visited
The high-tech kitchen...a dream :)
The Mongolian family...very nice and friendly people...
Family lunch...in the middle of the living-, sleeping-, and dining-room...multifunctional :)
On our way back
Also on our way back
We just climbed the hill....exhausting
Group picture on the hill
With a very nice sunset we arrived back at our Yurt camp...quite exhausted from the long day. After dinner and some rounds around the heater in the dinning room (must have been about 0 degree) ...we all decided to go sleeping. There anyway was not much else to do...
Back in our very cozy and very, very cold yurt we put on every fleece pullover we could find to survive the night. But as we had some heating mattresses Melek and I were full of good hope that we would sleep in a warm bed that night. But as it sometimes happens in China...our heating mattresses were not really heating....great :)...just as advertised...adventure holidays :). As we are were really flexible and freezing a lot, we put on more layers of cloth and borrowed for 20 Yuan a Chinese military jacked, that we used as second blanket. Sometime in the middle of the night our heating mattresses started heating....finally warm :).
Melek in her Yurt bed...brrr
Me in my yurt bed ...freeeeeezing
The next morning we went cycling with the mountain bikes as planned :)....on road..and of course off road on the grassland. The off road cycling was quite shaky I have to say ...even so shaky that one of the Chinese girls had to puke on the way back to the camp.
Ready to go...on the bycicles..
In the afternoon we had lunch at a little Mongolian village. There we got to know the very loud Mongolian techno music charts...in line with nature and animal :). Later the afternoon we went horse riding and cycling again.
I found a new friend in the Mongolian village...:)
Our lunch...:)
Group picture in the Mongolian village
On our way back to the city...these americans...:)
In case you have a bycicle to repair..
My shoemaker...very talented...
Chinese people just gamble everywhere..
The evening we took the bus back to Hohhot, where we stayed in a very nice and most important, clean hotel. The next day Melek, Juliane a friend from Beijing and me explored Hohhot before we had to fly back to Shanghai the evening.
We visited a temple in Hohhot
Inside the temple
In the museum of Hohhot...scary...
He looks friendly...
A very rare exemplar...
...brrr...didn't want to meet this guy in the dark...
A saddle...
Tradditional clothes...
In the park in Hohhot...
This looks very trusful with the waste water....on the other side of the lake they were fishing...
And not to forget...this hang on our door at the hotel in Hohhot...we did our best :)
We arrived late in the evening in Hohhot, where we got picked up from our tour guide Linda. From Hohhot it took us another hour with the bus to the hotel where we stayed the first night. In between we good introduced to the other people participating on the trip…a Chinese couple, two Chinese girls, a French couple with sun, a Mexican couple with two daughters and a two Americans. It turned out to be a very funny group. All little bit tired we finally arrived at the hotel, where we first had to wake up the receptionist who was lying behind the counter on a mattress sleeping :).
The hotel we stayed the first night...luxury :)
In front of the hotel...typical image for InnerMongolia....sheeps are everywhere
My footprint....I was here :)
The next day we had to get up really early..too early, that we could leave at 8:00 am for the countryside....somewhere in Inner Mongolia. As we wanted to get on our travel bus we had to find out that our travel agency obviously had an additional Business besides organizing adventure tours :). The transportation options in Inner Mongolia are not really the best, so our whole bus was full of people of Inner Mongolia who wanted to travel back home to their villages. So we, the group of “waigouren” traveled with the group of curious looking Mongolian 1 hour to our next destination somewhere on the countryside.
Arrived there, I found out...to my surprise that the “Yurt Hotel” was not a hotel as you would expect it when you hear the word “Hotel” ...it was rather a collection of hutted (=yurt) - which are the traditional houses of the Inner Mongolian people. Means, no heating at night...in Inner Mongolia it is getting pretty cold at night ...so I was already very much looking forward to this :)....real adventure:).
The yurt hotel entrance...
Our cute little yurt ...
Some more yurts...
I found a new friend...didn't talk very much this guy
After we made our cute little yurt a little bit cozier it was planed to go horse riding the rest of the morning. Due Inner Mongolia still belongs to China, planned activities are proceeding very often, really unplanned :). In this case we didn’t have any horses...which makes going horse riding a little bit more challenging :). Anyway...after 40 minutes we had three horses...which also makes going horse riding a little bit difficult with 17 people :). After some discussions and about 20 minutes later we decided to go hiking first...We actually didn’t get very far as some Inner Mongolian horse riders obtained us with exact 17 horses. As we were a very flexible group of travelers...we changed the plan again and finally went horse riding the whole morning, which was an absolutely great experience due to the beautiful landscape and the amazing weather. The first time in a while I could breath fresh air again...I could imagine it would be a good running business to import this nice and clean air to Shanghai :)
A quite heavy group picture...
You have to throw a stone on it and then you have to walk around it three times in each direction...and your wishes will be fullfilled...I have to say I'm still waiting for the last part...Maybe this was a trick from our tour guide to keep us busy while we were waiting for the horses to come :)
Tourists everywhere...
Melek and me on the horse...finally :)
All are enjoying the horse riding.
My horse decided I had enough horse riding...it had to eat first..good horse.
Beautiful landscape...
Juliane, Melek and me.
Trees and me..
After I managed to stay on the horse...we had a good tasting lunch with Mongolian food. Later the afternoon we all went hiking for a few hours. The hiking path was leading through a little Mongolian village where we had the chance to visit the house of a typical Mongolian Family. Of course, everybody of us had to drink a Baijiu (the Chinese schnaps) with the family head...quite strong taste I have to say...but I survived it :). It was also very interesting to see how the family lived there. This easily could have been 100 year ago. But see yourself:
View on the valley during hiking
The house of the mongolian family we visited
The high-tech kitchen...a dream :)
The Mongolian family...very nice and friendly people...
Family lunch...in the middle of the living-, sleeping-, and dining-room...multifunctional :)
On our way back
Also on our way back
We just climbed the hill....exhausting
Group picture on the hill
With a very nice sunset we arrived back at our Yurt camp...quite exhausted from the long day. After dinner and some rounds around the heater in the dinning room (must have been about 0 degree) ...we all decided to go sleeping. There anyway was not much else to do...
Back in our very cozy and very, very cold yurt we put on every fleece pullover we could find to survive the night. But as we had some heating mattresses Melek and I were full of good hope that we would sleep in a warm bed that night. But as it sometimes happens in China...our heating mattresses were not really heating....great :)...just as advertised...adventure holidays :). As we are were really flexible and freezing a lot, we put on more layers of cloth and borrowed for 20 Yuan a Chinese military jacked, that we used as second blanket. Sometime in the middle of the night our heating mattresses started heating....finally warm :).
Melek in her Yurt bed...brrr
Me in my yurt bed ...freeeeeezing
The next morning we went cycling with the mountain bikes as planned :)....on road..and of course off road on the grassland. The off road cycling was quite shaky I have to say ...even so shaky that one of the Chinese girls had to puke on the way back to the camp.
Ready to go...on the bycicles..
In the afternoon we had lunch at a little Mongolian village. There we got to know the very loud Mongolian techno music charts...in line with nature and animal :). Later the afternoon we went horse riding and cycling again.
I found a new friend in the Mongolian village...:)
Our lunch...:)
Group picture in the Mongolian village
On our way back to the city...these americans...:)
In case you have a bycicle to repair..
My shoemaker...very talented...
Chinese people just gamble everywhere..
The evening we took the bus back to Hohhot, where we stayed in a very nice and most important, clean hotel. The next day Melek, Juliane a friend from Beijing and me explored Hohhot before we had to fly back to Shanghai the evening.
We visited a temple in Hohhot
Inside the temple
In the museum of Hohhot...scary...
He looks friendly...
A very rare exemplar...
...brrr...didn't want to meet this guy in the dark...
A saddle...
Tradditional clothes...
In the park in Hohhot...
This looks very trusful with the waste water....on the other side of the lake they were fishing...
And not to forget...this hang on our door at the hotel in Hohhot...we did our best :)
kreim - 10. Oct, 10:36
