There Goes Dinner...

We had another early-ish start to our day today.  We checked out of our cute hotel and went to jump onto the bus heading to Zhang Ye and Goren going to Dunhuang. 

 

After saying good-bye to Goren, we were on the road again.  This time, instead of the previous large coach buses, we were placed in cars that basically resembled large mini vans.  We left on scheduled time, but instead of heading straight for Zhang Ye, the bus staff spent about an hour trying to solicit more passengers onto the bus.  It was a very tedious process and the two Brits and myself were all very much annoyed at the time we wasted. 

 

Upon arriving in Zhang Ye, I hung out with Chris while our intrepid ambassador, Adam, went to sort out our tickets back to Xining and also to Mati Si.  It turned out that there were both good and bad news.  The good news is that we were able to get tickets for both places.  The bad news is that there was only one bus leaving for Mati Si everyday in the afternoon.  Because of the situation, instead of spending an afternoon in Zhang Ye as planned, Adam made an executive decision and purchased tickets for us leaving for Mati Si in 5 minutes.

 

We ran to the bus to find that once again, our van turned out to be an over sized mini van.  As well, even though we had consecutive sitting seats on the bus, there was obviously none around.  So after a bit of tet-a-tet, Chris and Adam sat together in two consecutive seats in the front of the bus while I sat shotgun.  However, withing 5 minutes of the bus leaving, I was rudely forced to give up by seat by an ugly, overweight bear of a man.  At this point, there was pretty much no more seats left.  My only resort was Chris's legs if I wished to sit at all.

 

Despite all that was not going right with the bus situation, the scenery, once again, is worth noting.  This stretch of the drive was probably the second most stunning on our week long driving escapade.  On one side of the road we faced the barren, flat Gobi Desert.  On the other side, the young Qilin Mountain Range soaring into the blue sky where desert ended.  It was a strikingly beautiful scene.

 

Two hours later, we finally made it to Mati Si.  Mati Si is truly beyond words.  Of everywhere I've been in China so far, the only two places that are more beautiful than Mati Si is Tibet and Jiuzhaigo.  Because we arrived at Mati Si at the end of Golden Week, the tourist area resembled more of a ghost town than anything else.  We easily bargained a good deal for a room in the local hotel and then left for a hike.

 

After walking by the cluster of Mongolian yurt style restaurants, we met a shy looking minority girl who proceeded to follow us for a good 20 minutes (turned out in the end she wanted to solicit us to eat at the restaurant she's working at for dinner).  During our hike, we convinced Adam not to climb up the tallest peak around but instead, went up the side of a nearby mountain.  Past streams swollen with fresh water from the snow mountains above, past fields whose plants are basting in the last warm rays of autumn we went, and past the mountain face Tibetan grotto we went.  We eventually ended up at the top of the mountain to get a spectacular view of of the setting sun and the last of its light cascading over the mountain valley.  It was such a special view that of course, we had to mark the moment.  How did we do it?  By sampling some 12 year old whisky, of course (Cheers, Chris!)!

 

As almost anyone can attest, it's always easier climbing up a mountain than coming down.  This truth again proved itself true by the three of us tumbling down the mountain.  The dry mud path was so slippery that at one point, the three of us had to form a human train and choo-chooed down the mountain.  In the madness, I managed to slip and hurt my knee.  I became an official invalid.  Great.

 

Ok, so it wasn't that dramatic, but still, I was very happy that we made it down the mountain with the last of the failing light.  As promised, we headed to the restaurant of the timid faced girl.  

 

Upon seeing us, the waitress ushered us into a yurt look alike tent.  We ordered our set meal (that was the only option they offered) and was almost immediately serenaded by two young women draping us each with a bright yellow katak and a cup brimming with white spirit (think bai jiu, only tasting a bit better).

 

Our meal was "traditional" traditional Mongolian fare.  Our set meal came with tsampa, yak butter tea, some cold bread type thing that looked a bit like you-tiao, boiled mutton (on the bone, of course), soup, noodles, yogurt with sugar, and even more white spirit.  A performance by the two young women also accompanied dinner.  It felt a bit awkward having these two girls performing for just the three of us, but at the same time, it was very fun to watch.  Highlights included when they persuaded Adam and Chris, two of the least rhythmically gifted guys, to dance with them.  Bloody idiots.  ;-)

 

After dinner, we braved the freezing night for our walk back to our hotel - in the pitch dark.  Our only guide was the small torch Chris brought...and our cup of white spirits (we bought an extra jing of spirit.  Damn alcoholics, I swear).  Alas, we did make it back to our room with our little torch and most of the spirit (spillage was unavoidable).  

 

At that point, Chris insisted on playing drinking games.  The boys were none too pleased when I beat them twice in a role with higher or lower (the one where you have to guess 5 in a roll and start over if you get any wrong - the same game played in Qingdao).  O well, someone had to be a winner.  :)  But I do have to admit, the alcohol did get to me.  One of my last memories was a mad dash to the toilet where I donated back most of good Mongolian meal I just had.

 

Too bad.  The yogurt was excellent!