Inner Mongolia. The Contrasts continue. Day 4.

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Geo: 49.5846, 117.434

Erguns Hulun Lake - Manzhouli.Sino Russian Mongolia culture, Fairytale castle town, Doll Square.The day wasn't off to a great start when the scooter with a trailer in front of us would start at the tole booth. So the boys got out of the bus and gave him a push start. The driver was happy and then when he turned around to see western men pushing him he started laughing and then kept turning around and waving and laughing. It was really very funny. We thought he was going to end up in the ditch on the side of the road he was laughing so much.Slit toe farther down the road there was a border stop control place but there was no border. There where officials checking all of the cars. We waited along with everyone else. The official came onto the bus and checked all of our passports. He was very stern and the bus was very quiet. It was all very serious. One of the boys asked if we could get a photo with him?Sure he replied. So we all got off the bus and out came the selfie stick and we have a great selfie photo of all of us with the official smiling very happily right in the middle. All very odd but it's a great story.On we continued.In the distance we could see a lookout with lots of cars and people up there."I want to go there?" I asked."No," the guide replied. "It's not good."<br style="color: rgb(33, 33, 33); font-family: wf_segoe-ui_normal, 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe WP', Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px; line-height: normal;">I looked at my husband and I whispered to him, "You tell him we have to go there."Which he did and then he said, "Ok. If we must."This guide didn't really like being told what to do by women we found out very early on in the tour.This place was wonderful. It was a marsh area that is the border to Russia. On the other side was Russia. We could see a Russian city. It really was cool.This guide needed to retire or maybe he was just wanted to visit another friend?The sky was blue with little white clouds. The grass was a golden yellow and the sun reflected off the maze of rivers in the marsh. It's not good??? What??Really what sort of a tour guide are you??? Anyway. It was well worth it.Ok. Back to the scheduled tour....Onto the largest lake in Inner Mongolia also known as Dalai Lake, which means "sea lake."Woohoooooo. In the car park we almost ran over a cow. This place really wasn't that crash hot. The sand was all dirty and the only cool thing was the camels that you could take photos of and go for a ride. The lake was huge. We couldn't see the other side of it and in the middle there was a mad made island with an umbrella on it. This really could be something really cool and special but it's just blah.Doll square. This area is really cool. There are a collection of Russian nesting dolls. They are all different sizes and all painted with a different theme. There was Garfield, Zorro, Mother Teresa, Ian Thorpe, Neil Armstrong and Kurt Cobain. A real interesting mix.Then off to the border.We where hoping to be able to cross over into the no mans land area between China and Russia. All of the Chinese could pay a small fee and enter this area. But us being westerners we where not allowed.We creeped as close as we could to the border as the Chinese officials kept a close eye on us. What? Do they think that we want to defect to Russia!That was pretty cool being so close but just a few feet more we would have been in Russia. We poked out fingers through the wire fence and with that we decided we had crossed the border and we had been to Russia.The whole of Manzhouli is so strange. This is where a lot of the ghost cities are.Going to the lake this afternoon we saw lots of slums in either side of the road and they went on for miles and miles and a few miles deep. We could see people and it was obvious that people where living there. There where clothes drying outside smoke from the chimneys. Not too far in the distance we could see these new high rise buildings and it was very obvious no one was living there. No curtains in the Windows or clothes drying outside.We asked out brilliant guide who lived in these slum areas. He said, "No one. No one lives in this area. They all live in the new houses over there." He pointed. We all looked at each other and laughed. Ok, sure. So from then on we knew there really wasn't much use asking any questions at all.The fairytale city.Every so often there was a building which looked like it had just come out of a fairytale book. It was just plonked there. We asked many times, "What is that building? A shop, factory, restaurant?" We did not get a reply from our guide. That night we walked the streets of Manzhouli and it was like the Wild West. It all felt a little lawless. We witnessed a man and woman arguing and having a fist fight in a shop. He was obviously drunk. She was thrown to the ground. Lots of people gathered around but no one did anything. We moved on. A westerner getting involved probably isn't the smartest thing to do. We stayed together and found a Russian restaurant for dinner.Again most of the shop signs where in Russian.

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Photos

Border check
This wasn't even a border.