Sep 2008

We were having problems trying to find accommodation in Hohhot. Barbara contacted a previous teacher from the school as she had been to Hohhot and stayed in a Guesthouse. Jamie recommended the Anda Guesthouse to us. I went online and check out the reviews and everything appeared to be OK.

The Anda guesthouse is a Mongolian family guesthouse. It was opened on the 06/06/07. They recently moved but have not updated any information about the move. So everything you read and see on the internet is incorrect.

They have a guest pick up from the airport for a fee of Y80 per car or free from the train station. However the cost for a taxi is less than Y20 from the airport.

When we arrived we drove down this alley that was full of mud and puddles. They let us out and then we had to walk down a concrete lane where in front of us we could see the sign - Anda Guesthouse. We entered the door and we were going to be living in traditional Chinese fashion for the next 6 nights. I have stayed in Guesthouses, Back packers etc, but I have never stayed in any thing as bad as this. I knew Barbara would want to get out as soon as possible.

We had booked 2 rooms. One room was Y160/night and the other room was Y180/night. There were two nights when Barbara and I would have to share a room as there was no availability in private rooms. We were cool with this. However when we got there the room Barbara was to stay in the floor was soaking wet. It had been raining and we don't know how the floor got so wet. So Barbara decided she would bunk in with me until the floor dried.

You could read the disappointment all over Barbara's face. She was looking forward to going to Hohhot as Jamie and Kat had raved about their time there and Barbara was hoping for the same. Me, I couldn't care less whether I went there or not, but it was a compromise Barbara and I made as she hates the heat and I hate the cold. She came to Shanghai and I went to Hohhot.

They offer tours however the information you read from previous guests is not the same. We did the desert trip in which the owner took us out in his car. On the way back he drove through water and stalled. The vehicle started again only to stall a little further down the road. We had water in some part of the engine. We had to push the car! We also did the Grasslands tour and we believed we were going to a tourist camp however we ended up at a Home stay.

The accommodation is not at all comfortable. There is no sunshine or balconies. The bathroom is not clean. We had to replace the toilet paper.

We had planned to stay 6 nights and stayed 4 which included the overnight stay in the Grasslands.

Barbara and I shared the room for the entire stay.

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Hohhot is not pronounced as it looks the actual pronunciation is Huhehaote.??? The population of Hohhot is 1.4M. It was founded by Altan Khan in the 16th Century. Hohhot is the capital of Inner Mongolia. It is a prosperous and a cosmopolitan city. Visitors would normally go to Hohhot to start a tour of the grasslands. In summer they also have the Naadam Festival.

We were hoping to see the Naadam Festival whilst we were in Hohhot, however we couldn't find anything about it on the internet. We asked at the hostel and were told that the government had banned it this year because it coincided with the Olympics and they didn't want that many Mongolians in one area.

The Naadam festival is a week long summer festival that features traditional Mongolian sports such as archery, wrestling and horse racing. It is held at the horse racing track.

This is the first time in history that the festival has not been on. I think it is very sad that they Government are scared that by having all the Mongolians in one area they might upset their Olympics!

In Hohhot what we hoped to do was sleep in a yurt, explore the Mongolian culture on the grasslands, hang out with some Russians, sample some Russian food, ride a Mongolian horse across the grasslands, watch the Naadam festivities and ride a camel in the desert. Wow this was a lot to do. We thought 6 night should be enough but if it wasn't we could extend our stay.

We were deeply disappointed in Hohhot.

Leaving Harbin was also another time stressed ordeal. We had to leave the hotel by 2 pm and catch a taxi to the CACC office to catch the shuttle bus to the airport at 2.30 pm.

We did this successfully however we couldn't find the CACC office. The Chinese put things in strange places. The CACC office was a little booth window out of the corner of a hotel! Eventually we found it and were on the shuttle bus to the airport.

We arrived at the airport at 3.15 pm. We had plenty of time as our flight to Hohhot departed at 4.40 pm. The flight cost Y1300 and took 2 hours and 10 minutes. We were staying at a Guesthouse and had arranged for the Guesthouse to pick us up from the airport at a cost of Y80. We were to find out later that we had been ripped of by the guesthouse.

Normally when we travel we don't have a need to use the internet or to find an internet however this holiday was different as we needed to get plane tickets.

We found an internet bar (wangba) off Zhongyang Dajie. The next challenge was no one spoke English. Eventually we were able to get a computer to try and buy tickets. We encountered more dramas. For some unknown reason my card was not accepted for the purchase. Barbara tried hers and it was unsuccessful too.

We went back the next day even though we still didn't understand each other we worked out that what was needed was our passports. Obviously the night before they had given up with trying to ask us and just allowed us to use the wangba.

Today the same thing happened with my card but this time Barbara's card worked. So she bought my tickets on her card and I gave her the cash. We now had tickets to Hohhot.

Getting to Harbin was a bit of an ordeal to start with as we had to catch 6 different means of transportation to get to our hotel. I had written a schedule that had a bit of slack and would get us there on time as long as no one was too late. The day didn't start too good.

Firstly we needed to leave the apartment by 6.30 am to get to the bus station in time to buy our tickets to get the 7am bus to Jinan. Barbara was running late. We got on the 7am bus but the bus didn't leave until 7.15am. Instead of arriving at Jinan at 8.30am we didn't arrive until 9.15 am as the bus stopped for 30 minutes in Tai'an.

In my plan we were to catch a taxi to Yuquan Simpson Hotel to catch the 9am airport shuttle. Well we had already missed the airport shuttle so we had to catch a Taxi directly to the airport. The taxi was Y95! But it did get us to the airport at 10 am which gave us just enough time to check in and get on the plane with a departure of 10.30 am. phew!

The flight from Jinan to Harbin was Y990 and took 1hour and 55 minutes.

After we retrieved our luggage (which was first out), we caught the airport shuttle bus to the Harbin railway station. When we got on the bus there weren't enough seats and they can't have foreigners stand. So I got to sit in the high chair.

The high chair is a pull out seat that sits on top of the stairs. It was quite horrifying seeing the traffic out of a huge coach windscreen with your feet dangling in the air. I had nothing to brace!

Anyway we made it safely to the train station where we got into a taxi and headed to the hotel. The taxi driver had no idea where he was going and neither did I, but I did have a small map and I was able to direct him to the hotel. Who said "Women can't read road maps!"