Monogolian BBQ

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I wish I could say the BBQ was a good experience.

The first night we arrived in Hohhot at 10 pm. Having just missed the shuttle bus to town we tried our luck with the taxi cabs. Up to this point we avoided taxis because the LP book warns you that they they are the biggest rip-off artists out there. Knowing that, we cautiously appoached the taxi. As soon as we got near the taxi there were 10 other drivers & locals right there to watch the con artist do his work. He presuured us to get in the car but we insisted on a price of course. As the taxi driver stalled writing the price down the crowd looked over his shoulder in anticipation. As the crowd read the price they cringed and waited for our response. Our response was "what!?" that's 5 times the cost of a shuttle and twice what we were told the price should be and the crowd shook their heads and started to discuss the outlandish price. So we justed headed over to the shuttle bus waiting area and ignored their desparate pleas for our business.

Once we got to town we wandered around trying to find out where the heck we were and more importantly were would we sleep. After walking several blocks down a dark street we stumbled across a store that was lit with a red light with several scantily clad women hanging out and then a hotel with a hour rate. So we decided to we best go in a different direction. We checked one that was really fancy and the rate was too high, so we went to a cheap looking one around the corner and after first being told the same price as the ultra fancy hotel, we laughed and asked for the real price. They figured out we were onto their scheme so the price dropped amazingly down to what we thought it should be (about a third of the original asking price). After looking at a few different rooms we picked the one with the lesser of the awful smells. Then when we went to pay, they asked for a deposit that was about several times the price of the room to which I protested yet again and they gave in quite easily and accepted a deposit equal to the room price.

In the morning we eagerly headed toward the bus station area to figure out how to get a ride or tour up to the grasslands of Inner Mongolia. The book makes this sound very easy but it's not very obvious and very few people speak english and we saw absolutely no other tourists. After much confusion and turning down a 300 rmb bus ride, a nice young man actually helped us out! Really, with no expectation of payment or any schemes involved, he just helped us, it was great. He spoke a little english and guided us to where we could get a ticket to a town up in the grasslands near where we wanted to go, then he walked us to where we were to wait for boarding (this sounds easy but it was nice to have someone who knew for sure what to do and where to go). Then he was waiting there for the boarding to start, which we finally told him he really didn't need to do, that we could handle it from here. He hesitantly left us, and we figured out why he was waiting...turns out when they let you into the boarding area there are many buses and you have to know which to get on (again sounds easier than it was) so he would have helped us with that. But fortunately another lady who was going to the same place showed us where to go.

The ride up to the town (can't remember the name of it) was actually a nice ride and our driver for once was not on a suicide mission like all the other bus drivers in china. Of course it might have helped that this section of road was particularly treacherous and totally socked in with fog so it really would have been a suicide mission not to drive slowly and carefully. Plus they had lots of pictures of horrible crashes posted up on billboards at the gas stations and the remnants of the various cars and busses involved in the accidents up on display. We went through a really mountainous area to get to the grasslands, which are rolling hills and plains of just grass, or actually this time of year, dirt and dead grass, and the occasional village here and there. It was a good change from the busy, dirty city. The only really interesting thing that happened "on" the bus was that as we were leaving town to head into the hills, one of the passengers came to the back of the bus where we were sitting and used one of the few opening windows to scatter a whole bag of little slips of paper (each with a picture of some sort printed on them) out the window in little bunches. She had a technique down pat where she could get them to fly in many directions by shaking them as they flew out of her hand. This went on for quite a while as she had a fairly large bag full of these papers. It was rather amusing and we never did figure out why she did it, but others seemed curious about it too so maybe nobody knew what was going on.

When we got off the bus, we were on the edge of a tiny town with no clue about where to go or who to talk to as the place looked rather deserted. The lady who originally helped us get on the bus also got off here and through very broken english, invited us to get a ride with her (there was a car there waiting to pick her up). We told her where we were trying to go and she nodded and motioned that she was going there so we hopped in. Okay we squished in as there wasn't much room for us and our bags. Turns out we went to her and her family's little homestead type place just outside of the little town we were aiming for (again, can't remember the name as I don't have my book with me and we never actually went to the town, but it's the one in LP that they say lots of people go to stay in a yurt and experience life with the people of mongolia).

After a bumpy ride down a little dirt road we came to her little ranch/home where we were treated to a meal of delicious roast lamb - the rest of the food was a little strange and we used our picture translator to try to figure out exactly what we were eating, some of which we weren't fully sure about, but it was edible. The mongolian food is generally bland but with lots of oil or lard and milk products. After dinner we tried to sort out if we were staying the night. They of course invited us to stay and showed us the yurt where we would sleep. We eventually got to the question of how much all of this service was going to cost and we settled on a price of 300 Yuan. Shortly after that, they saddled up the horses and to our surprise invited us to go riding. Not having been on a horse in a very long time, it was a very uncomfortable experience...the saddles were asian size (i.e. not for big western butts or legs), as were the horses themselves so we felt a bit awkward. But it was fun and scary to run over the plains and get views of miles and miles of open country and rolling hills. The trip was a bit chilly and Trevor only had two long sleeve shirts as his warmest clothes since we hadn't had much time to prepare or find a jacket for him in advance. Luckily I had picked up a jacket earlier in the trip, but the wind was still biting and a hat and gloves would have been nice!

Our experience here was definitely not the "touristy" experience the book said we'd find...our entertainment for much of our time was a little boy who lives here, maybe 3 years old, who was a budding kung fu master and musician, or so he aspired to be anyway. (see video). He was really cute and got Trevor to spend about an hour drawing little picture flashcards for him with English titles. The parents actually used them as well, and by the end of the trip the whole family knew how to say all the farm animals in english.
The other little surprise, early on in our stay, was when I asked where the toilet was. Our host told me to follow her and took me out behind the house - then, with a little smirk, she motioned to the horse field (with horses present of course), smiled and walked back to the house. Ah, just like camping at home, but without the trees.

Dinner and breakfast the next day were again bland and greasy, mainly consisting of milk (in various forms) and dough, also in various forms like soup or steamed rolls. I guess the little taste of delicious meat upon our arrival was meant to lure us in. The house that the family stayed in was made out of rock, mud, and straw construction, which was pretty neat. They burned coal for heat and from what we understood, cow patties as well. There was a stockpile of cow crap the size of a motorhome behind the house! Surprisingly we didn't get sick during our stay, as their hygene practices were pretty minimal. The well appeared to be a hand dug well of about 15 feet deep.

The next day we packed up and thought we were getting a ride from our hosts to the next town, which we had thought we agreed upon with them the day before. But before we left, we had the issue of payment. When we went to pay the price suddenly increased by $100 Yuan, apparently the horse riding wasn't included in our initial price. Rather than make a stink we paid up and set out on our way. But our driver stopped at the closest town and said here's the bus, pay this guy over here. It sounded a little fishy especially since the bus wasn't actually going to Bautoa, where we wanted to go, and would involve a transfer to maybe a truck with some other guy. Long story short, he wanted $400 MORE to drive us to Bautoa which we thought was already included in what we paid so after much arguing and confusion, we got on the bus going back to Hohhot, planning to just catch a connecting bus to Bautoa.

So yeah, we got burned in the mongolian BBQ, but overall it was a pretty cool place to visit and vastly different from the other parts of China that we've seen.

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