With no wifi now for three days and still raining, we departed Pingliang heading for Xian, capitol of Shaanxi Province, and home to the famous Army of Terracotta Warriors! We'll be here for three days. A full city tour, nightlife, the Terracotta site, extensive historic sights, getting visa extensions, and mailing home packages of souvenirs and winter gear are on the agenda. We'll also be saying goodbye to Viton, our Vietnamese Aussie, who flys home tomorrow. The four hour drive on the toll road was uneventful and arriving in this massive city was a sight to behold. Skyscrapers and construction went on for miles. The amount of people (6 million) and traffic was mind-boggling. We're below 1,000 ft and the rain had stopped. We settled into our comfy 4* city center hotel to rest, catch up, and regroup. Sent from Leopard's iPhone. Read my blog at www.leopard2013.blogspot.com
From the Mediterranean Sea to the Pacific Ocean, this is my first "round-the-world" tour and the first time I am traveling alone. It's also the first time I am NOT the leader of the group. This will be a huge adventure for me, one that tests my patience (smile), stamina and my ability to adapt. I can't wait!
Friday, June 21, 2013
To Xian
Red World
After drying off and warming up we realized it was Zero Beer Thirty (oh, Bobbie, shoulda come)! Now finding a cold one in a warm beer town is not easy! Eventually we discovered a small store hiding an chest refrigerator under a canvas-you have to really work at this stuff sometimes. Magically appearing were eight cold ones. The four of us consumed with glee chatting with the folks coming home from work. Amazing how much you can accomplish with a smile and a hello, a few photos on the iPhone and a bunch of curious kids! Gathering forces we decided to attack an upstairs restaurant that had windows overlooking to park below. "Red World" hesitantly welcomed us-they don't get many faces like ours in this small town. The place was of course completely done up in red-thus the name. The menu was all in Chinese and no one spoke English so we wandered around the other tables looking at everyone's food, pointing and commenting!
Eventually a banquet appeared, individual boiling hot pots, sliced meats, fish, prawns, a dozen or so different veggies, wine, beer, and a bottle of Chinese hooch hidden under the table! We were making quite a stir with photo requests from other guests, the guys in the private room next door yelling and laughing at our hair and beards, and the kitchen staff (all 20+) constantly coming out to check in our status. A few extra plates of food appeared, more beer and more laughs! We ended the evening with several versus of Old Lang Syne, both in English and Chinese-they claim the song is original to them-thanks goodness Robbie Burns isn't in our group! A few hugs, more photos, and even a kiss on the cheek for me from the head chief was followed by the bill! Yikes! For the six of us, all that food and drink, all that fun, came to a staggering $52 USD!Sent from Leopard's iPhone. Read my blog at www.leopard2013.blogspot.com
Kongtong Mountain
Home of Taoism, this magnificent collection of temples perched high above the city of Pingliang is amazing...even in the pouring rain. We left the hotel at 10:30 (it was REALLY raining earlier). Remember all those Chinese paintings of craggy mountains shrouded in fog with temples perched on top? Well this is the place and it's for real. We toured the mountain, both middle and high, climbed over 1,800 stone steps to the HIGH temple, and were amazed at all the carved gods and altars. Drenched to the skin we retuned down the 8,900 ft perch and back to a warm hotel room for the night. It was quite a day, both historically and physically challenging. It was Tao's first visit to to mountain. He took a lot of notes. Remember his promise a few days earlier! Sent from Leopard's iPhone. Read my blog at www.leopard2013.blogspot.com
Night Market
We slept a couple of hours and then hit the Lanzhou Night Market. I hadn't slept well the night before so I decided to take a sleeping pill. Funny, it usually takes a couple of hours to kick in so...
Squid on a stick
Chicken wings and things
Noodle bar
Sausage bar
Fried veggies on a stick
Potatoes
Scheun noodle bar
Fried pork and jalapeño sandwiches
Shrimp, crawfish, mussels, clams, snails
Tripe
Land snails in chili sauce - these were the best
BBQ whole fish. This was bass.
Fresh ham sandwiches
Boiled sheep heads. It is cut in half and you pick out the brain with chopsticks. Hmmmm!
Ate it all and went to bed! Pill kicked in...ah!
Sent from Leopard's iPhone. Read my blog at www.leopard2013.blogspot.com
The Long March
In the middle of my narcotic induced stupor we departed Lanzhou early traveling due east along the route of the Red Army's historic "Long March" of 1934 when Mao Zedong defeated the KMT forces of Chang Chai Shiek. Our destination today was Pingliang and the mystically mountain of Kongtong Shan, birthplace of Taoism. We will spend two nights here exploring the mountain and the many Taoist temples. To commemorate the Long March I bought Dan Stewart a new hat to wear while reading about Alaska politics!
Lower Altitude
While we were touring around Xiahe yesterday the lads worked on Sura. They found a shorted wire, changed out a tie-bar, and cleared the fuel line. We woke with no electricity or running water. The town had shut down during the night due to a power failure. With everything else purring and in order, we departed this little part of Tibet late morning for our moderate drive to Lanzhou. From 12,000 ft with overcast skies and rain, we made great time as we coasted downhill. It seems we had enjoyed the one sunny day in weeks while we were there! Good karma continues to precede our journey. At 1pm we stopped for gas and discovered we had a hitchhiker. Our mangy little feline friend must have climbed aboard Sura and rode the last 250km on top of the gas tank. When finally coaxed to give up his free ride he found himself in a new town a LONG way from home :-(. After our gas stop the GPS was pointing ominously at that scary mountain road we had done a few days earlier. No other option was showing. Tao insisted that there was a turnpike that would take us around the mountains and straight to our destination...AND...he was amazingly right! We drove the superhighway all the way to Lanzhou. Through the fog we passed some exceptional Chinese architecturally inspired mosques with minarets that looked like pagodas. We are now more than halfway across China and the Muslim influence is alive and well. Not what any if us expected to see. Upon arrival in Lanzhou, the most air-polluted city in China and one of the 30 most in the world (worse than Beijing), we checked in to a nice hotel. The staff spoke English and in conversation claimed that the only time they see blue skies or the moon is after a heavy rain, and then only for a few hours. At dinner Tao promised that from this point on he was more than familiar with our route and itinerary. We all thanked him for the change and had a few laughs recalling the many wild goose chases over the past several weeks! Heard it before. We'll see how this plays out. Tomorrow we travel to a huge historical site and mountain climbing...really! Sorry, no photos today. The weather was lousy, foggy, and wet. I was grumpy, foggy, and wet. Sent from Leopard's iPhone. Read my blog at www.leopard2013.blogspot.com
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