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Making our way to Datong - 28 Junio- Dia 8
Today we decided to walk through the grasslands and make a slow advance towards the direction of Datong. Walking a total of 25km.
We walked through a field with many beautiful tied up horses. In one occasion, as we walked closer to a female with her baby horse, they both freaked out and started galloping away from us....not noticing they where still tied up. I saddly thought they where going to be yanked backwards. But they broke the rope so smoothly and where running free through the fields ?.
We kept on walked through this huge solar panel field which extended as far as the eye could see. We flew the drone on top of it and managed to take some sick aerial photographs. Hopefully I can post them later.
We kept on walking until our legs and feet could give no more. The sun was too strong so we hitched a ride to these pastoral fields next to a dried up lake and river. Apart from the lake and river being dried up, the fields where extremely green and there where a lot of sheep, cows and donkeys enjoying the
abundance of grass. Around the fields where sitted many small villages with houses made out of clay. Most of this houses looked as if nobody lived in them.
We where dropped off on one of this villages, which we where told there average annual income per person was 1500 yuan which is around 309 canadian dollars!
Being told that there was a restaurant with traditional Mongolian food nearby we went in search of it. As we crossed through the pastoral fields a huge rush of tranquility fell on us. The whole ambience... villagers hunched over carrying for their crops and old chinese man moving their many sheep (25-100) through the grassy planes, was incredible. Everything ended abruptly when we realized we had to pay a fee of 50 yuan (12 canadian dollars) just to enter the Mongolian restaurant property. We hungrily rejected the offer and went in search for food in a nearby village. Hopefully a family could take us in and give us some food and water.
We quickly arrived at the village which looked completely desolate. We started walking through it and immediately the sounds of dogs grabbed our attenton. Fearfully we started looking for sticks but found nothing worthy. Bean started knocking randomly at someone's door. As soon as he stopped an old lady appeared and looked at us with with a confused face. Leo and I made the gestures of someone "eating" meanwhile Bean told her if she could provide any food for money. The lady just worryingly told us to be wary of the dog and to leave. Left outside we immediately started looking for a stick. In the mean time an old man appeared from nowhere . We tried to talk to him but he just shook his head and told us to leave. Sad about the outcome but realizing that it was mostly to do with the town being scared of the new faces we left and moved on.
With empty stomachs we headed back through the grasslands to set up the tent and sleep through the rest of the night.
A farmer carrying for his sheep, which we had talked before, asked us if we had been able to find food. After responding to him with a "No" he invited us to his place for dinner.
He introduced us to his wife, daughter and granddaughter. And what an amazing dinner did he prepare for us! Meanwhile he was cooking our meal he was also cooking/stirring a big pot of Natural Chinese Medicine to give to his wife for her joints. We received fresh steamed buns, thinly cut cold pork cheek, sprouts and a hot pork dish marinated with spices. It was delicious!! The house was small and the dinning room was also the dormitory. So we ate crossed legged on the bunk of a stone bed. As a gift for his kindness I gave the farmer one of my headlamps. He accepted it excitedly and put it on immediately. As we where saying goodbye he still had the headlamp on his forehead which made me smile. What a great day and night. A memory I will cherish forever.
Almost in Datong! - 29 June - Dia 9
We woke up and headed our way to continue hitchhiking to Datong. To keep the hitchhiking entertaining Leo and I did some push ups on the side of the street meanwhile we waited for a car to pick us up. We had our own little game which went something like this: for every car that passed us without stopping to give us a ride...we had to do 20 pushups. Our muscles where burning by the time a car finally stopped.
The first car took us far west to a city called Shangdu in the province of Inner Mongola. In this small city we had our breakfast which consisted of the traditional Mongolian noodle soup. We walked around the city and where invaded by people trying to take our picture. There was one moment where we walked into a small store to buy fruit and from one second to another we had a huge crowd of people outside the store blocking the exit. We had to push through the crowd of people, taking pictures, and once we where outside we where again encircled by more people. Such a weird feeling jajaja.
After leaving the crowds behind we successfully managed to hitch another ride with our first truck driver!! Truck drivers usually don't stop and pick hitchhikers up..so it was a pretty big success. The drive went smoothly and he dropped us of around 60km north of Datong. He showed us to his favorite restaurant, owned by a small family with only one kid, which they prepared an incredibly delicious noodle soop for us. The second of the day, it does not seem like we will ever get bored of the noodle soups. They made it all from scratch, from making and cutting the dough. Sabrosisimo!
Leaving the restaurant behind we went in look for a campingspot to sleep in. We managed to find an incredible spot away from the small city. It was near a barren grassy hill close to a couple of Mongolian tombs overlooking villages and big rolling hills. Slept like a baby
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