Extra day in Xining
What I feared did happen: no bus ticket to Maduo today. I was at the bus station at 7:30 this morning, all packed up and ready to roll. After waiting in line for just a few minutes, with monks eager to go home after their pilgrimage to Ta'er Si, I was told by the lady at the counter that the bus to Maduo leaves at 8:00, and that there were no more tickets. So, I got one for tomorrow instead :-)
I returned to the hotel and told the clerk I was staying for another night. My room was still untouched, of course. I unloaded and after a short rest, I decided it would actually be an opportunity to spend a full day in town. The first day I arrived in the late afternoon, and the second day I spent mostly out of town, at the Ta'er Si monastery. So, I headed out to explore as yet undiscoverd parts of Xining. There were many! I first went for breakfast at a small Muslim restaurant right opposite the hotel. I had seen a women frying some kind of flat dough thingies from my window. I was going to find out what that was. It appeared to be not that interesting, but on a big picture menu on the wall I saw an image of dumplings and pointed it out. They were really good, stuffed with greens (at first I though spinach, but I think it was a mild variety of green onion) and a little bit of meat. A cup of tea made my breakfast complete. While I was sitting there, an English woman walked in and asked me if I knew an internet cafe nearby. I had actually just noticed one just across the street from my hotel coming home the night before, but never went there (until now). She asked me if I was also staying at the Post Hotel, and if it was ok to join for dinner that night. I agreed.
I walked into a small street in the Muslim quarter behind the bus station, in front of some shops men were squatting down and poking in a heap of what resembled small sticks of wood, but I realized that it must have been something else, because in all of these shops there was a stuffed deer or an image of a deer, and some deer antlers lying around. I think the sticks were the parts of deer antlers that come off, and rolled up or dried or something. I recognized the stuff as being one of the ingredients of my cup of Tibetan tea, if I'm not mistaken. There was also a man walking a camel in the same street.
One other thing on my list was to get my Chinese mobile number recharged. I was out of credit since before going to Mongolia. It was really hard to find a shop that was selling the right type of scratcard. After asking around everywhere, I was directed to the main branch of China Mobile, where they credited my number after paying Y100 in cash. The previous post proves that I'm online again with my phone. After this I decided I could use the extra time to get a haircut. I walked into a salon which looked a little bit trendy, and to my surprise the guys actually spooke English. So it was easy to get done what I wanted. Looking at least 5 years younger again, good to go for the next two months. Only 30 Yuan (3 euros).
It started geting really sunny all of a sudden. A welcome change after two days of boring grey weather. Spending some time in the city square, chatting with local girls who are always the first to try to practice their English on you. But now it's getting a bit annoying that I can't really speak with the people here. The level of English is usually minimal, and the conversation doesn't get much beyond "Hello, where are you from?". I really have to learn to speak Chinese if I want to have some more meaningful contact with people. I'm still contemplating if and where I would start taking lessons. More and more I have the feeling I should seriously start with this. I will investigate the options of a visa extension when I get to Chengdu again, within the next two weeks.
I like Xining. It's so alive and full of contrast. It was nice to spend an extra day here. Bad luck turned into good luck.
I returned to the hotel and told the clerk I was staying for another night. My room was still untouched, of course. I unloaded and after a short rest, I decided it would actually be an opportunity to spend a full day in town. The first day I arrived in the late afternoon, and the second day I spent mostly out of town, at the Ta'er Si monastery. So, I headed out to explore as yet undiscoverd parts of Xining. There were many! I first went for breakfast at a small Muslim restaurant right opposite the hotel. I had seen a women frying some kind of flat dough thingies from my window. I was going to find out what that was. It appeared to be not that interesting, but on a big picture menu on the wall I saw an image of dumplings and pointed it out. They were really good, stuffed with greens (at first I though spinach, but I think it was a mild variety of green onion) and a little bit of meat. A cup of tea made my breakfast complete. While I was sitting there, an English woman walked in and asked me if I knew an internet cafe nearby. I had actually just noticed one just across the street from my hotel coming home the night before, but never went there (until now). She asked me if I was also staying at the Post Hotel, and if it was ok to join for dinner that night. I agreed.
I walked into a small street in the Muslim quarter behind the bus station, in front of some shops men were squatting down and poking in a heap of what resembled small sticks of wood, but I realized that it must have been something else, because in all of these shops there was a stuffed deer or an image of a deer, and some deer antlers lying around. I think the sticks were the parts of deer antlers that come off, and rolled up or dried or something. I recognized the stuff as being one of the ingredients of my cup of Tibetan tea, if I'm not mistaken. There was also a man walking a camel in the same street.
One other thing on my list was to get my Chinese mobile number recharged. I was out of credit since before going to Mongolia. It was really hard to find a shop that was selling the right type of scratcard. After asking around everywhere, I was directed to the main branch of China Mobile, where they credited my number after paying Y100 in cash. The previous post proves that I'm online again with my phone. After this I decided I could use the extra time to get a haircut. I walked into a salon which looked a little bit trendy, and to my surprise the guys actually spooke English. So it was easy to get done what I wanted. Looking at least 5 years younger again, good to go for the next two months. Only 30 Yuan (3 euros).
It started geting really sunny all of a sudden. A welcome change after two days of boring grey weather. Spending some time in the city square, chatting with local girls who are always the first to try to practice their English on you. But now it's getting a bit annoying that I can't really speak with the people here. The level of English is usually minimal, and the conversation doesn't get much beyond "Hello, where are you from?". I really have to learn to speak Chinese if I want to have some more meaningful contact with people. I'm still contemplating if and where I would start taking lessons. More and more I have the feeling I should seriously start with this. I will investigate the options of a visa extension when I get to Chengdu again, within the next two weeks.
I like Xining. It's so alive and full of contrast. It was nice to spend an extra day here. Bad luck turned into good luck.
posted by marc at 21:41
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home