In the Grasslands Briefly

While we were feasting upon an endless line-up of dishes at dinner, VG, our tour manager, disappeared and did not join us. Some of us wondered if the poor fellow had lost his way, until Uncle R told us he had gone scrambling to find alternative accomodation for us for the night. Eh... what alternative accomodation?? According to the itinerary, after dinner, we were to hop into our bus for an hour's journey to the remote grasslands, where we would check into our traditional yurt hotel for two nights. However, Uncle gave us the bad news, that the yurt hotel suddenly had no electricity and no water and could not take in guests. We were in a very small town, unlike Baotou or Hohhot where good-classed hotels could be easily found. Where... oh where did VG go?? One of the enterprising American pastors suggested... well, we could sleep in the bus. Couldn't we?

When VG appeared later and while gobbling down the left-overs, he told us the good news, that he had found "alternative accomodation" at the last minute for all of us, and it was right here in town. DL nearly jumped for joy when she heard that! She had been quite prepared to say bye-bye to her family to follow us to the grasslands hotel an hour away, but now, since we were all staying put, she was able to spend a night at home!

It was still bright and early when we left the restaurant, and at the invitation of our Mongol brethren, they got into our spacious bus with us and took us to DL's grandma's house on the grasslands, just a few minutes outside town.
It was brrrrrrr.... pretty cold on the grasslands; I was glad of my jacket and Ranie was glad of her sweater. We parked our bus outside the gates...
...and marched in to greet DL's maternal grandmother. That's the grandma on the far left. She was most delighted to meet so many foreigners.
One of the first things we saw was this stuff they kept to be used as fuel, all packed and arranged nicely in rows.

The stuff came from the cows.

Vivien's not very fond of cows or the stuff that came from 'em, but never mind, I made her stand as close to them as possible anyway.
And then we saw the sheep and the lambs returning from pasture, lots of 'em! This would be a familiar sight for our next few days in inner Mongolia, as we covered mile after mile in our bus. Lots of sheep and lamb and goats and cows, and shepherds on motor-bikes. Yeah, I know Genghis Khan didn't have a motor-bike back in his day.
While wandering around, we noticed Uncle R quietly going off on his own, out of the front gates and across the grasslands, and some of us wondered where he was going?
A few seconds later, we stopped wondering. Ahem...yup, when you gotta go, you gotta go! Hey, give the man some privacy, okaaaay?
Our bus took us back to the little town after our brief introduction to the grasslands, and a moment later, we were at a small local hotel. There were no lifts, and we had to heave our luggage up a couple of flights of stairs to our rooms. The room keys were not given to us, for the custom was that the hotel staff sat outside on each floor with a bunch of keys, and the guests coming in and going out would let them know which rooms to lock or unlock. Our room was quite small, and big fellows like Mark and Joe may get a few blue-blacks from bumping into corners, but it looked comfortable enough. There was no air-conditioning but we didn't need it; all we had to do was to open the window a tiny crack to get the natural air-con. Thank God we didn't have to spend the night in the bus!
It was still very bright at 7.30pm, and after putting down our luggage, we decided not to be prisoners in our small room but to go out for a walk around town. Ranie briefly did become a prisoner because somehow she locked herself in (she had no room mate this time; DL abandoned her to stay home) and it took the hotel staff some time to get her out. We met Mark outside, finishing an ice cream and immediately asked, Where did you get that! Ice creams were too cheap for us not to enjoy 'em; the chocolaty ones I liked were 1 RMB (S$0.20 cents) each.

We found the supermarket when it was near closing time at 8pm, and bought a few supplies. It grew dark, but when Ranie saw a shop selling shoes which was still opened, she wanted to get a pair of walking shoes. We went in, she found what she wanted and the price was 50 RMB (S$10) a pair. The 3 of us had a little debate amongst ourselves in English whether we should bargain, while the salesman looked at us, puzzled. Where on earth were we from, he was probably thinking! This small town was definitely not on the tourist map! Finally, Vivien ventured...40 RMB, can? Can! Wah, maybe we should have said 30 RMB. :( Our first real shopping spree, in a small town in the middle of the grasslands! Heyy, wait a min... perhaps Ranie was the first ever Filipino in that small town. I can't imagine any others showing up there! (For what purpose, I ask you?) Which meant she should have gotten those shoes for free, huh? No need to present a certificate for being the First Filipino In ___ Town or the keys to the town, just free walking shoes will do.

There was no hot water when we were ready for our baths that night. Brrrrrrrr, we learnt later that the hotel turned on the hot water for a specified number of hours each day only. Anyway, we slept very well that night.