Horsing around on the grasslands of Inner Mongolia

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Day 486: Wednesday 28th October - I thought travelling was stress free?

Unusually I am writing this as it is fresh in the memory, the same evening sipping a beer and enjoying the sense of achievement. Let me explain.

Winding the clock back half a day ago and I am woken by the guard on the train from Beijing half an hour before we arrive in Hohhot (pronounced Huhehaote), the capital of Inner Mongolia. I look out to the more barren landscape that confronts me now, a landscape closer to winter than that of Beijing and surrounds and psyche myself up for the day ahead. Tibet was meant to be sorted before I came to Hohhot but that plan, well didn’t go to plan as simple as that!

At least the start of the day is easy as Zorigo the owner of Anda Guesthouse who I phoned yesterday ahead of my arrival meets me from the train and takes me to his homely guesthouse. The guesthouse is more a home than a hostel but I like it and the welcome is amazing. Free breakfast, and then we have a chat about the grasslands and I explain that I need to spend the day sorting out Tibet. He offers his help where he can assist which is reassuring.

I start by connecting to the free wi-fi which was the reason came here in the first place knowing that as Tibet was dragging on and that I would need access and to be contactable. Angie has progressed things with Sim’s (our agency) since I left Beijing. I knew she would get further quicker than I would as she is back in Chengdu and can deal with them face to face. The priority from her e-mail seems to be to get train tickets. She also seems to be advocating changing with the company we take the end tour with in Tibet and also a date change at the eleventh hour. But she has the inside story now she is as Sims and what she is saying makes sense. I can’t contact her to clarify a few things nor can I get hold of the other two by any method.

Great so on the day after everything should have been sorted to process the permit in time I now am confronted with a situation where today I and we need to 1) Sign a non-existent contract 2) Do a bank transfer in a Chinese bank for a so far unspecified amount 3) Buy some train tickets without 100% confidence that they will be for the right day or indeed that I can get them......and buy them in my least favourite Chinese institution - the train ticket office. This excludes mention of the reason why I came to Inner Mongolia in the first place which was to visit the grasslands and maybe the desert and ride a horse on the grasslands which right now after speaking to Zorigo looks very doubtful as it isn’t the right season. Brilliant, what a start to the day!

Tackling a situation like this is about prioritising and simplifying things down to what you can influence. Tibet is the priority and right now in the morning the only thing I can really do is get the train tickets and arm myself with the cash to do this and pay for Tibet. On the way to the bank I call Romy (Bruno’s friend) to try and get hold of Bruno and ask him if he wants me to buy the train ticket. I’ve managed email contact with Patricia and she’s happy for me to get her ticket. It makes sense if I get all three as then we can be assured of being together. However, Bruno isn’t with Romy anymore and Romy believes when he arrives in Xian he will buy the ticket himself. So I buy two, no problem. Well it is as I don’t have enough cash and my Nationwide card is declined at two ATM’s. Thankfully I know today is going to be one of those days when you need to be prepared for every eventuality and I have my Halifax card with me. With enough cash in hand (at least to get the train tickets) I walk through Hohhot to the train station which takes half an hour - valuable thinking time.

Haschuluu at the hostel helped me earlier by writing out the tickets I need to buy on a piece of paper in Chinese. I have no issues getting two tickets together for a hard sleeper to Lhasa on 1 November. I decide not to book my ticket back to Beijing with so many things up in the air and somehow I have a feeling I’ll be back to get Bruno’s train ticket. Even hardened travellers avoid Chinese train ticket offices but I must be the exception to the rule. I dislike them as much as the next person but I’m becoming rather adept at getting what I want. Whilst I’m in the city I check out the only place in Hohhot that can do Western Union money transfers. I leave disheartened after several minutes of communication difficulties, they don’t understand me, I don’t understand them.

So at noon where am I or where are we? No contract still, no Angie, no Bruno, no chance at a bank transfer without someone accompanying me who speaks Chinese and a half job on the train tickets. But I’m a big believer that if you keep persevering and in the end you’ll reach your objective. I’m not giving up but I’m very stressed. I’m probably less able to cope with this stress than I was when this was part of the daily working life.

I decide a call to Sim’s is next on the agenda. We absolutely need this contract ASAP otherwise we can’t sign today, they can’t start processing the permit and we don’t know the final amount to pay. Angie eventually makes contact and I’m reassured of what’s happening after our conversation. Bruno calls me too and bit by bit the pieces are coming together. Except the key piece is missing. The early hours of the afternoon are ticking by and still no contract. Angie calls again and we agree to change end company without the others buy-in. We need to make these executive decisions now and plus I know the minds of the others after speaking to them enough over the past few days. It is more money but the safer bet. The final amount will be 3123 Yuan (approx £300) for a 9 day tour. Bruno calls again to say he can’t get a train ticket and can I help him? Of course and it doesn’t come as a surprise. Patricia and Bruno will pay part of my tour to compensate for the train tickets.

At 3:30pm I can’t leave it any longer to do the bank transfer even though we don’t have the final amount confirmed in a contract. Angie’s last call provided the figure but more than that it provided clarification on the money transfer. I can do it at a branch of Bank of China as well. There is one at the end of the street and I’m sure Haschuluu would come along if I run into problems as it is only a 5-10 minute walk. My first visit to the bank ends rather predictably without success. They speak some English but I have to fill a form in which is all in Chinese. We struggle through for a few minutes but this isn’t going to work so I take the form and tell them I’ll come back. I have 25 minutes before banking for the day closes. I sprint back to the guesthouse where I get Haschuluu to help me fill in the form and then sprint back and make it just before the 4:20pm cut-off.

I thought they would be in a hurry to process the form but some jobsworth insists I fill in the form again on a different form. Why? Waste of time, a pointless exercise. The girl who fills the form out again with me makes a mistake so we have to fill out a third form. China, how stupid can you get?? It must be 4:30pm by the time I get to the counter, still out of breath from my run and flabbergasted at the dumbness of the staff. Nevertheless, they process my transfer which must take another 15 minutes as the bank teller fills out another 3 forms and then uses his calculator to work out how much change he should give me. 1500 - 1487.....I could do that in my head when I was 6!!! And he’s working in a bank......unbelievable!!! It may drive my patience but in the end my bank transfer is successful. One box ticked, the first of the day, but no time to pat myself on the back.

I leave the bank and jump in the first taxi for the train station. This will be my last visit to a ticket office in China. Thank God! All goes smoothly, the queue is tiny and the woman on the desk is very pleasant. I come away with a ticket for Bruno next to me and Patricia on the train to Lhasa and a ticket to Beijing for Friday night. I still don’t know if this is the right time to return to Beijing as I have got no further on organising a tour as it isn’t the priority at the moment but I feel it will be right. It will have to be as I’m not going anywhere near a Chinese train station ticket office again. In the words of Sir Steve Redgrave after his fourth gold medal in Atlanta ‘you can shoot me if I do’.......and you will probably need to for my sanity!!

I catch a taxi back to the hostel with two of the four objectives for today achieved. When I get back the contract is sitting in my mailbox. Bruno’s successfully done his bank transfer, I can assume Angie has had no problems and probably paid in cash but Patricia has had problems. She called me when I was in the bank but I can organise things with agencies, help organise the group, buy train tickets but two things I can’t do is pay the money and sign the contract. I urge her to contact Sims. I download the contact on to a flash drive and go across the street to an internet cafe where I print it out, sign it and re-scan the signed document in to the PC and copy it on to my flash drive. 10 minutes later and it’s on its way back on the information highways to Sims.

Tibet is sorted for me, it’s been one tough and stressful day and that is the culmination of 10 days of work and much to-ing and fro-ing in trying to get this booked. Getting to Tibet isn’t easy (the Chinese government sees to that), but I’m sure it will be worth all the effort. Because it isn’t easy perhaps it maintains its mystique. When a friend asked me before my travels where I was most excited about visiting I named two places: Machu Picchu and Tibet. Machu Picchu lived up to expectations and I think Tibet will do also. It has been a dream of mine to get there for a long time now and in a week I will be there, I’m starting to get excited. But to make every dream a reality you need to believe in what you’re doing and a bit of help along the way. We don’t exist in a bubble and without the other three pushing it wouldn’t have worked out and I can’t thank Haschuluu enough for his help today. Without it I wouldn’t be about to realise my dream.

Angie said that the hardest thing about Tibet was getting a group together. I disagree, finding the people and getting the group was relatively easy. Bumping into Patricia in Xian was a bonus and the note I put up in Sims in Chengdu paid dividends to find the other two. People came and went and the group changed in its form but all along the people I had faith in are still in the group. I could have found another half dozen people if I’d have been a bit more flexible but in the end this group and this tour does everything I want it to do: Lhasa to Nepal overland and ticks most of the highlights of Tibet. No, the hardest part of organising Tibet was trying to co-ordinate four people in different locations, an agency in another, ignoring outside noise from other agencies and from other travellers seeing if they could join the group. Then to nail it all today with a task list that would be hard enough to achieve in England never mind in China when you don’t speak the language. But when you want something bad enough you make it happen.

This has been a blow by blow account of the day’s events and some of it may seem mundane. Yes maybe in England but not in China without the ability to express yourself in their language. I said China was the ultimate challenge for a traveller. After almost two months here in two separate visits I’m not sure about that one but today was the ultimate challenge in China for sure and maybe the ultimate challenge of my travels. If anyone asks me in a job interview in the forthcoming months about how I will cope with the stress of working life after such a long time out I will recount today. After today I’m ready for anything!

There is still the matter of the reason I came to Inner Mongolia in the first place to arrange. I talk to Zorigo and agree to do a two day tour of the grasslands. It involves staying in a Yurt (a tent on the grasslands) and seeing how they lead their life up close. He can’t promise me that I will get to do any horse riding as the horses are allowed to run wild at this time of year. He has contacted his friend and he will try and catch one before I arrive. I’m hopeful but a bit concerned that I may be riding a semi-wild horse!!! Haschuluu will accompany me as my guide which is cool.

And you lot think travelling is stress free? Don’t be stupid, it is a microcosm of life played out at a faster pace and with more intensity. Same emotions, same ups and downs and today I’ve been through a rollercoaster ride and experienced many of them. But the final emotion as I cast my mind forward a week is excitement, I’ll settle for that....

Day 487: Thursday 29th October - Horsing around on the Mongolian grasslands

After yesterday was spent solely on organising Tibet, today it is all about experiencing the Mongolian culture. I start the day with a Mongolian breakfast at the guesthouse which includes two delicious Mongolian pies. Pie for breakfast! Mongolian breakfast’s are a winner for me and much better than those in China and Japan. I’m really tired as I was unable to sleep last night until the early hours as I was so excited by finally sorting Tibet out. Patricia was unable to sign the contract or make the payment but has promised by 9:10am it will all be done and Angie has confirmed that Sim’s received the monies and signed contracts from the rest of us. I can depart for the grasslands safe in the knowledge that I have done everything I could do.

After breakfast I get in the car with Haschuluu and the driver and we depart for Xilamuren grasslands, two hours from Hohhot. With my attention on soaking up Inner Mongolia and not on Tibet I notice that the signs in the city are in Mongolian as well as Mandarin Chinese. However, the Han Chinese are still the dominant group making up 80% of Inner Mongolia’s population with the Mongolian’s being the majority of the rest. As we leave the city behind, the mountains come into view as well as the vast emptiness of the province. Inner Mongolia is the third biggest province in China behind Xinjiang and Tibet in the west of China and a measure of its size is that it is 5 times the size of the UK. Also, on the way to Xilamuren there is much evidence of the vast natural resources in the area as we pass quarries, mines etc.

At 11am we arrive at the family’s house we will be staying at overnight. The family are friends of Zorigo’s and they have two Yurt’s or Gur’s outside their home which they use to host tourists. A yurt is a traditional Mongolian tent, but these are a bit more luxurious built out of steel rather than wood lined with felt. After my initial curiosity with the Yurt I look out across mile upon mile of empty grasslands save the odd settlement. It is a beautiful crisp autumn’s day, the grass is a yellowy brown, there is no wind and with a clear blue sky and a strong sun shining it is surprisingly warm. Myself and Haschuluu take off on a walk around the grasslands where he explains that it looks like it will be possible to ride after all. They managed to catch 3 horses which had been running wild and after lunch we can ride. Brilliant news, and the thing that I was most looking forward to about my trip to Inner Mongolia. I also get to know Haschuluu better and he explains that he has just finished studying and now wants to continue his studies in Europe or in North America. I really hope he gets the opportunity as he is such a personable guy and his English is definitely good enough for his goal to be realistic. On our walk we pass a stream which has frozen over which is a reminder that winter is just around the corner. What is winter again? I haven’t seen one since 2007.

After lunch it is time to ride the horses. This morning I’ve already seen many wild horses rampaging over the grasslands in search of water and now I’m getting ready to ride one of these beasts. But, I have two Mongolians to look after me; the horseman from the family I’m staying with and Haschuluu, and Mongolians are renowned as being some of the best horsemen in the world. It should be okay! We start off on the horses at a walk before building up to a trot, canter and then a gallop. I’ve only galloped a few paces on a horse before and I never learnt the correct position on the horse at riding school but I manage okay and feel relatively safe or as safe as you can at 30 miles an hour on horseback across uneven ground. This is proper riding and I’m loving it! We gallop a good proportion of the way to a Buddhist shrine on top of a hill where we dismount and stop for a rest. On the grasslands there are no obstacles so there is no reason to slow.

We cover the ground even quicker on the way back. Walking is apparently deemed unnecessary, the trot in these saddles is so damn uncomfortable because the horses are so small it is more difficult to do the rising trot, the canter would be ideal but these horses are semi-wild and seem to prefer to gallop. In the first gallop on the way back I’m not positioned right and have visions of me falling off but I manage to hold on. I may not be the most gifted or technically accomplished on a horse but I’ve never fallen off and that must surely be one of the main goals?! The second gallop is better but by now I am starting to ache from the pounding my horse has given me. But I’m not complaining the two hours of riding have been brilliant fun in an amazing setting. I didn’t expect to gallop and Haschuluu explains that they don’t normally let tourists go faster than a trot. Maybe I’m better on a horse than I give myself credit for?

I climb off my horse in some discomfort but it was all worth it. I can add galloping on the Mongolian grasslands to an already impressive CV of places I’ve ridden which includes the American Wild West like scenery of Bolivia, the luxury of staying on an Argentinian Estancia and riding in the foothills of the Andes, riding along the beach featured in the movie ‘The Piano’ in New Zealand and riding through the jungle and along the beach in Australia. It sure beats riding in the cold and wet of Parbold back in the UK a few winters ago and learning how to ride in a riding school. I could never go back to that now but it was a means to an end and what an end!

For the remainder of the afternoon I rest in my Yurt. I wake from my daze to see the sun-setting. I catch it just in time as the sun disappears behind the hill next to the house. Without the sun the grasslands begin to get cold quickly. There is no wind to make it bitterly cold and Haschuluu says the weather is surprisingly warm but after it gets dark it is still pretty cold, similar to a winter’s night back in England. We have some soup to warm ourselves up and then Haschuluu gets a barbeque started. The food is good and there is so much but it is my bed more than anything that is calling me.

When I return to my Yurt one of the cats is sleeping under the table. I leave it be and with Haschuluu’s help prepare my bed for the night. I’ve brought my 4 season sleeping bag with me which is just as well and by the time I’m in that with two duvets over me I’m halfway to being snug. It is still cold even though the yurt has underfloor heating and I fall asleep with my hat on.

Day 488: Friday 30th October - ‘The cat shat on the mat’

When I fell asleep last night the cat had crawled under the duvet with me and when I wake up I find that it has made its way into my sleeping bag! But cats always find the warmest place to sleep don’t they? I’m so snug and toasty warm that I can’t be bothered to get up and see the wonder of the grasslands in the early morning sun. The cat isn’t bothered to shift either which is hardly a surprise but eventually I have the heart to disturb it and get up myself.

I’ve been sleeping on a rug which was really comfortable but as I get up and start to get dressed I find that the cat has shat on the mat so to speak! Not once but twice, and not just the beautiful and probably expensive rug but also some of my clothes!! I was impressed by the cat’s bladder control having been in there for probably 15 hours or so but I shouldn’t have been so easy to impress!! The little terror, and then to have the cheek to crawl into my sleeping bag alongside me. Cheeky bugger!! Cleaning up a cat’s mess wasn’t what I had in mind as my first task of the day!

There is time for breakfast and then for me to dress up in traditional Mongolian dress and pose for a few pictures including one under Mongolia’s most famous son, Genghis Khan. I wonder what Genghis would think of this horseman? The Mongol’s could once lay claim to the biggest empire the world has ever seen after Genghis and his grandson Kublai Khan conquered much of Eurasia and ruled over an empire which stretched from Vietnam to Hungary. Much of these gains were won on horseback and it has been an absolute pleasure to be able to ride on the Mongolian grasslands. I’ve only been here for 24 hours but it is enough time to say I would love to come back one day and explore Mongolian culture more fully both in Inner Mongolia and Outer Mongolia to the north. I’ve had a taster and I have really enjoyed what I saw but I think the real Mongolian culture lies further to the north. I will get Haschuluu to point out some places on the map to visit in the future. It was a great tonic to relieve the stress of the day I spent in Hohhot organising Tibet horsing about on the grasslands of Inner Mongolia and although my trip here was short I’m glad I came. One day I’ll be back.

We drive back to Hohhot, arriving at midday. I have the rest of the day free ahead of my night train back to Beijing. I could and probably should go shopping for some shoes and winter clothes as much of my backpack is now redundant in these cooler times. Although the days are warm it gets cold at night and Tibet and Nepal being at such a high elevation promise to be colder still. It can wait until I get back to Beijing though as right now I’m too sore and stiff to spend the day walking around the city. Galloping is fun but it certainly takes its toll on your body, my backside is so sore I can barely sit down comfortably!

There is good news when I get back to Hohhot. I log on and find not only has Patricia successfully managed to pay her money and sign the contract and unexpectedly the permit for Tibet has been processed already. I have a copy sitting in my mailbox. Yesterday was great fun on the grasslands, another side to China and now I’m going to Tibet on Sunday. Life is indeed very sweet at the moment.

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