Inner Mongolia – Day 2, Grassland

To read the start of the trip, read the first post. Otherwise, I’ll continue the story the next day where I go to the grassland.

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We have an early-ish day today. We’re leaving for Huitengxile Grassland at 8. And, after a lovely buffet breakfast at the hotel, we’re off for today’s adventures.

Getting to Huitengxile Grassland

Its name translates as ‘Cold Ridge’ or ‘Cold Plain’. We are going to a section called ‘Yellow Flower Valley’ or as the banner in the main building of the hotel calls it ‘Yellow Flowers Ditch’.

For most of the car ride, my guide is giving me little factoids about the area and the people. The most interesting one was about the clothes. Apparently, traditional Mongolian clothes are only 5 colors – blue, white, red, green, yellow. Blue for the sky. White for milk and clouds. Red for blood. Green for grass. Yellow for, well, I don’t know, she didn’t say and I forgot to ask. If anyone has a good guess, I’d love to know.

After some nice highway, we climbed up an older road up the mountain. Then back to a nice new highway through the grasslands. It’s amazing what China can and will build if people want to go somewhere.

Once we were in the grasslands and trying to find the place I’m going horseback riding because, apparently, that’s what you do here. We saw a horse crossing the road stopped to stare at one of the cars, daring it to come closer and find out how much damage an annoyed horse can do to a car. That horse did not care.

Another fact my guide shared was that Mongolian horses are known to be patient and this horse was displaying its patience at the car. It was prepared to wait a very long time in its stare-off with the car. Unfortunately, I don’t know who won as my driver went deftly around it.

Horseback Riding

After a bumpy trip over a dirt road, we made it to a place with horses. There were people waiting on the side of the road with horses, I’m assuming waiting for tourists to go on rides.

My guide said that I should go on this one ride and it would be just under an hour. I wasn’t really sure where I was going just that I was told no galloping. Which, when I got on my horse was totally fine by me. I’d have probably fallen off.

My guide also decided that I should go with another group of English speakers from Singapore. They were very nice.

If you ever make it to Inner Mongolia, don’t ride a horse with what looks close to a Western saddle. Get on one that looks more like blankets. I got the Western saddle and my knees were basically in my chest. The straps for the stirrups were way too short! And there was no way to make them longer.

Mongolia has a thing with the left. You get on and off the horse from the left, do a blessing thing with your left hand. It’s hard being a righty here.

But, back to the horses. Once we were all on and everyone was set, our guide started walking, holding the leads for all 5 horses. We were all really close together and legs in the middle were often smushed between horses and other people.

Once, we got to the galloping part, we all said no. Our guides told us to not do it before we left. As I was in the kiddie saddle, I’d have fallen off if I tried.

Next, we were supposed to go through a local farm, but it was closed, so we just turned around and went back. The whole ride was maybe 25 minutes, which, given my saddle, was a blessing. But not at all what I paid for.

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I told my guide, who went straight to the guy in charge and complained loudly. Eventually, she was joined by the Singaporeans’ guide. They didn’t want to go on a different ride and just wanted their money back.

I don’t know if they got it, but I do know in all the yelling, the guy leading the horses was on the ground getting yelled at, possibly knocked down. He was also attacked by a flying kick from the boss. It was quite the spectacle.

I got a second ride on a different horse, with a different group of foreigners, French this time, with a good saddle. This time we even got to steer a little bit, but really, the horses know where they’re going and they just go.

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The second ride was a lot more fun and longer. It also helped that I didn’t just go the same way as the first time and got to see a small dried-up lake. And having a decent saddle helped a lot.

But my butt really hurt from so much riding. I think I have bruises!

Mongolian Welcome

Or not. Due to the holiday, the Mongolian welcoming ceremony was canceled. But, if you ever find yourself with Mongols being handed a bowl of wine and expected to do something with it, with your third finger and thumb of your left hand make a circle, dip it in the wine, and flick it up to the sky and down to the ground. And, from what I saw other people do, you dip, flick up once, dip, flick down once, and repeat two more times.

But I did check into my yurt. However, before I made it in, my French friends asked to trade rooms so they could all be next to each other. I agreed.

Then back inside for lunch, where my Singaporean friends were finishing their lunch. I wound up sharing a table with the French group as it was a very full restaurant.

My guide got me the free staff meal for lunch. She is obsessed with me saving money on food. I don’t really understand it. If I try to spend over 30 yuan for a meal, she gets very concerned over how much my food is. It’s getting annoying, especially because I regularly spend that on lunches at work and way more when I go out with friends for dinner.

The portions for the regular dishes are huge! They’re really meant to be shared. And I wasn’t about to say no to free food.

Train and Hike

Then it was on to hike around the grassland. I would say the view was amazing or some other adjective, but, really, I couldn’t see anything except my hair. It was too windy. I did manage to take a few pictures but it was mostly point-and-pray, instead of point-and-shoot.

We walked to a train stop. There are a couple cars that are closed in and a couple are open to the air. Everyone else was inside a nice not windy car but I chose an open-air seat because no one else was there and I had a bad experience on the sightseeing train in Zhangjiajie – I didn’t get to see anything.

We had to get off at the next stop and continue walking in the windy weather. At least there were some horses to keep us company. We wound up following the path down into the valley. The views were gorgeous, at least those that I could see.

There was a forest of white birch trees in the valley. The path through the forest continued to slope downward. It was a nice walk through some fall foliage.

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Once we made it to the bottom, I realized that we were going the opposite way of everyone else. We had been passed by a lot of people going the other way, but I just assumed that there were roughly equal numbers going both directions, until I saw people waiting in a line for something.

That line turned out to be for some sort of tourist minibus. But there was no line for the buses going the other way, the way I was going. We were the only ones on the bus going in our direction.

After the bus, we climbed up a hill near some giant rocks. A horde of people was coming at us. The rocks led to a little river which led to a waterfall. I was reminded that I hate going uphill, but somehow I managed with only a couple rest breaks.

I was panting and tired by the time we made it to the ski lift to take us the rest of the way up. Yes, it really was a ski lift. It even had the bar that goes down from overhead.

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There was a bit more walking, mostly uphill and we were done. Now to find the white car in a sea of white cars.

Mongolian Time Travel Dinner

For dinner, you had the option to pay nearly 400 yuan to join a Mongolian banquet dinner. And, part of going to the dinner was to dress up as a Mongolian. As it was cold and most of China hasn’t heard of insulation, I was wearing a light hoodie and my jacket under the Mongolian dress so I didn’t freeze to deal during dinner.

The food was very authentic, which is not really what I prefer. I did eat some of it, but I’m still wondering what they did to that poor ear of corn that made it sticky, not that it was covered in a sauce, but they somehow cooked it in a way that the kernels themselves were mushy and sticky. It was a corn massacre!

While the two waiters were bringing lots of small bowls with something to eat around, the other people there were doing the entertainment. There was singing and dancing. They were fairly good, for being in the middle of nowhere. Definitely better than a lot of the entertainment I’ve seen on cruise ships.

Once the official show was over, you had the option to pay 100 yuan to request a song or dance. I was surprised that only one family requested a song. I thought a few people would request something.

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After I got de-Mongol-ed, my guide said there would be fireworks. It was a mistranslation. It was a bonfire lighting. They lit a massive fire inside next door to the banquet, danced and circled around it for a while, then started the rave.

Bedtime

Finally, it was time for bed. But first, I had to make the bed. There were three piles of bedding, I’m assuming for three people to use, but i used most of it to make my bed.

What they don’t tell you about sleeping in a yurt is that they aren’t insulated. At all! And it was drafty. I also couldn’t figure out how to get the heater to blow got air, not less cold air at me.

The pads for the bottom were very thin and the carpet was not at all soft. I used two pads and one of the comforters for the bottom and put the other two on top.

It was probably ridiculous but I wasn’t cold and that’s really all that mattered.

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Activities : 778