Trip to Ningxia Pt 2 - Yinchuan & the Tenegger Desert

Photos

Arriving in Yinchuan, I ate nearly an entire kilo of hot roast chestnuts (which are available on every corner, and very hard to resist). I inevitably felt horribly ill and while trying to walk it off we found a beautiful mosque in the middle of the city which we wandered around and waited to see if we could hear their call to prayer. Ningxia is actually called the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region because it is dominantly "Hui" people are Muslim Chinese. From Ningxia westward there are many Hui people as it is on the Silk Road and the "-Stan" countries of Central Asia. So there is huge Muslim influence and many mosques which gave Ningxia a really fascinating mix of cultures.

We had a massage (my first in China) which was excellent until we went to pay they showed us the small print on the price list which says "Double for foreigners". He told us Y30 each when we asked, and when we reminded him of that he said, still smiling, "Yes. Y30. Double." We weren't too pleased about that.

After dinner we went to a bar for a quiet drink and got more than we bargained for in a few ways! We got ice cream rather than a drink and thinking we were all ordering something different, it turned out to only be slight variations on the same alarming pink ice cream. More unfortunately, in the middle of my sundae the man from the rowdy table near us wobbled over with a small glass of beer which he offered me with the cry of "Gan bei!" ("Cheers!"). It is customary to skull the whole glass which I wasn't that keen on doing but it would have been very awkward and rude to refuse so I smiled gingerly, replied "Gan bei" with slightly less fervour and downed the beer. Not a good combo with pink ice cream but at least it wasn't the deadly chinese liquor you normally "Gan bei" with. Thankfully that seemed to satisfy him and he left. But it only got worse, with his friend the Chicken Man then coming over and plopping himself at our table. He was so drunk that he was incoherent and could only manage a variety of squawks though we did our best to answer the questions we could make out. I can honestly say my Chinese was better than his at that moment. He'd essentially trapped us there but when another man picked him up and carried him away we made a very quick exit! We really needed a drink after that so we found another bar that had no Avian Flu victims and enjoyed our night there.

The next day was a bus to Tong Xin where we ate in a little Xin Jiang place and discovered the joy that is 8 Treasure Tea. It is a kind of tea particular to the West and is utterly delicious, with tea, various flowers, dried fruits and a lot of sugar. A ridiculous amount of sugar actually, and we all made pains to get the excess sugar out, which is easy when the sugar was in rock form but mostly is was sugar granules. So, we had about 60 seconds between when they put the cups on the table and when they brought the hot water, which we spent madly ferreting out the sugar. I can't imagine what the waitresses thought, they put down four cups of their finest tea and return a minute later to find a mound of sugar in the ashtray: crazy lao wai!

We visited a stunningly beautiful Chinese-style Mosque on the outskirts of the town which was over 680 years old. Donning out head scarves again, we were received warmly and a little too readily to drop our bags and have a look around. As it turned out, they thought we were Muslim students coming to study and when they found out we weren't, they charged us for entry and leaving our bags. I think they may have started to have their doubts when one of us came in wearing a t-shirt on her head and another looking like a pirate...

A bus to Zhong Ning through more maize fields, and we all had mad corn cravings looking at it all. There were actually lots of great looking fruit and vegetable in the fields and being sold by the road. We then saw some terribly stormy weather ahead, which was really disappointing because the weather had actually been improving. As we drew we close we realised what we had seen was actually pollution smog pillowing from smoke stacks onto the people and land below from a particularly nasty looking factory. Probably either chemical fertiliser or petrochemical products. I didn't get a photo but I'll never get the vision of this place out of my head, it was like something out of an apocalyptic movie. Suddenly, none of us were hungry.

Finally, we were in Zhong Wei, gateway to our camel trek! There was more eating and walking but the camel trek was the highlight of the trip. They were Bactrians (two humps) and we were somewhat worried about the biting and spitting stereotype but they were actually very gentle and really well-behaved. The camel guy told us that "people" camels don't spit or bite at all, so I still don't think I want to meet a work camel. We of course name our camels so Charlotte asked the man if they had names. He looked at us oddly and told us "They are called camel." Charlotte explaining that we wanted to know what to call the different camels, but he looked at us blankly again "Their name is 'camel'." So "Camel" it was.

So I decided my camel was called 'Bevan' as he had a well groomed, blonde mullet which Charlotte told me was very like Bevan from Young Talent Time. Liz's camel was the BFG, Pip's was Warwick due to his uncanny resemblance to Warwick Cappa, Charlotte's camel was Eboni Rae as she was a lovely dark colour, and the lead camel was, of course, Camel. Words can't describe it, the photos speak for themselves I think. I felt like I was an extra from Lawrence of Arabia and walking the dunes was one of the few times I've been alone in China. There were factories on the fringe of the desert, and even a new one being marked out in the desert proper, which was really depressing. So we may well be one of the last people to see that section of the desert relatively untouched.

We saw looming sand dunes, wild flowers, plains, and even wild donkeys and camels. Our last night was at a salt flat that, due to the rain, became a lake and attracted lots of birds and other animals. It was just stunning and we were all quiet with awe when we came out of our tents on the last day to see the lake, birds and even sunshine.

Finally, the journey home was of equal note, though for the opposite reason. The girls were sensible and flew home on Sunday evening, but being a tight arse I decided I would take the train home. Problem was, I banked on getting a train ticket but couldn’t get one for love nor money. I had no ticket and no way home when the girls left me on Sunday afternoon but I managed to get a bus ticket for the next day so I stayed the night in a hotel, consoling myself with lots of food and reading my book tucked up in bed. The next day I had a great time actually, walking around Yinchuan and stumbling across a beautiful pagoda and courtyard museum about Ningxia, the Rock Carvings and the Hui People before heading to the bus station.

The bus was a sleeper bus, a strange Chinese invention, with three rows of small bunk beds that aren’t even high enough to sit up in, the logic being you’ll be asleep the whole time anyway as they are always overnight trips. We left at 5pm Monday and were supposed to arrive in Beijing at about 7am Tuesday but when I awoke at 6:30am we were still in the middle of nowhere. Not a good sign. In the end, we were 7 hours late: I was on that stinking fecking bus for 21 hours straight. For some reason, we kept going round and around and around Hebei (the province Beijing is situated in the middle of). We came to the expressway to Beijing several times but kept turning back and I had no idea why. When we did eventually get on it, there was major traffic issues, so I can only guess there was an accident or roadworks and the driver tried to get to get around it by going to another part of the expressway. But we went the looooong way round, and I mean like over mountains, through little tiny villages that looked like they were still working out how to make fire, and around lakes.

21 HOURS: No stops, no sitting up, no walking, no fresh air. I didn’t bring much water as I didn’t want to have to go to the grotty bathroom much, I’d only brought a few snacks which I’d finished that morning, and I was virtually flat on my back the whole time. The air was foul as the driver didn’t turn on the vents, people around me were smoking, and one guy was hocking up some serious logies for a good hour which I could only hope weren't going to slime past me down the aisle at some point. To boot, the grotty toilet had a gammy door so every time the bus turned we were all fanned with the fragrance of public toilet which by the 15th hour was stomach turning and by the 20th hour absolutely nauseating. We finally arrived in Beijing at 2pm and having spent all that time lying down, I had zero blood pressure. When I got up, put on my huge backpack and started to walk I nearly fell over! But I've never been so glad to see my tiny crappy flat.

But, the trip was fantastic, I would highly recommend Ningxia and camel trekking to anyone. In fact, come to Beijing guys, I've got a spare bed and we can travel. I promise it'll be a trip you'll never forget! Because you never quite know what's going to happen in China...