The Train to Chengdu: THIS BETTER BE WORTH ITby Randi / August 22, 2017
I was so psyched for our four days in Chengdu. My excitement was 80% because of the pandas, 70% because Sichuan food is the best food in China (and beyond!), 50% because a big city promised to have lots of bubble tea, and 99% because we were staying in our fanciest hotel yet (how good am I at percentage totals) and after months of travel I am jonesing for some luxury (clean sheets, btw, is what I consider luxury now). Guess what suckers, it ALL delivered! And how! The bubble tea was everywhere, the food was amazing, the pandas were ADORBS, and the hotel was so best ever that I actually cried when we had to leave. I’m a mess of a dork. The only negative was that people/crowds/pushers/shovers are getting on our last nerve and it’s getting old and exhausting for us to deal with. But other than that Chengdu was a great time. Maybe because we spent most of the time in the hotel. Worth it.
When we arrived after the previous sleeper from hell, we took a subway from the station to the area of our hotel, the Fraser Suites. It was rough, with our bags, trying to fight for space on the crowded mess of a subway. Oh p.s., all the subways in China are identical. They were all built standard issue by the government or something because seriously, same same. It’s helpful for figuring out how to use them. Anyway, so we were sweaty and smelly and tired but we finally got to the Fraser Suites at 3pm. We were so excited to finally have customer service in China that was at least as good as it is in England (because England’s is bad, but China’s is worse). Nooope. Why would we ever think that would happen here! The staff said our room wasn’t ready, even though check-in was over an hour before we arrived. So, unacceptable. She said to wait 20 minutes or so and I said UNACCEPTABLE. No I just pointed out that we were past check-in and there’s no reason the room shouldn’t be ready and it’s a giant place and they must have another room ready and do you see how dirty I am I need to shower! Someone else overheard and was like jfc give these people a different room we have so many! So yay, we went up to an identical room, so they say, and it was gloooooorious. I almost don’t care that they acted like they didn’t know who I was (DON’T YOU KNOW WHO I AM) because this hotel room was the shizz. Actually, it’s more of an apartment. And I would be happy to live there. There was a big kitchen with all the appliances you’d need – oven, stove, full-sized fridge and freezer, and a freaking blender and food processor.
But they weren’t even the best part! Guys looooook:
I WUV YOU WOBOT
A LAUNDRY MACHINE! I could wash my things every day! I could wash twice a day! Who’s gonna stop me! We did indeed do laundry every day, after we washed literally everything in our packs. It was beautiful. It was an England-style combo washer-dryer in the same machine, which my fellow UK-dwellers will know don’t dry AT ALL. But guess what suckers, of course the Fraser Suites one actually dried and like a dreeeeam! I was so happy.
There were also so many closets that I unpacked literally everything and stored my empty bag in its own closet by the front door, along with our shoes lined up on a hidden rack below it. I mean. It’s like fancy Ikea with all the compartments.
giant hall closet bigger than any in any apartment i’ve had.
From the open plan kitchen you could view the big living room, with a big comfy couch that had the section on the end that you can lay down on (what’s that called), a big TV THAT GOT HBO, and a nice desk for baby laptop.
The bedroom was gorgeous and the pillows were maybe the best ever. Big fluffy pillows are my favorite and I fancy myself a connoisseur and I think these were the best. I am gonna cry again thinking about them. There was also a button by the bed that closed the thin curtains, and another button that closed the heavy blackout drapes across the giant window wall. I know. I thought that was just something they made up for Cameron Diaz’s house in The Holiday. There was also a big TV on the wall. HBO in bed.
On the way to the big clean bathroom was a big closet area with full closets on both sides of the walkway (where I unpacked all my shit), a safe, and two big robes hanging. Erma. And slippers! The bathroom had a big tub and a separate shower, a good sink area with a hairdryer and a light-up makeup mirror, soooo many drawers and cabinets (I also unpacked all my toiletries), good little hotel toiletries including, finally, body lotion (I’m out!), and…………a television in the tub. I didn’t take a picture of it because I didn’t want to spook it and have it disappear. Guys. I was never leaving. I mean I did leave and we did stuff but come one. It was heaven.
There was also one of the best hotel gyms ever. It wasn’t quite up to the Kempinski gym in Ulaan Baatar, because there they had water bottles fully stocked in a fridge and here they just had a big cooler of not cold water with plastic cups, but otherwise, it was wonderful. Oh man. Oh and guess what, there are gym bros in China too just like everywhere else that I have to yell at for being all gym bro-ey (like bringing bose speakers to play their music for the entire gym WHO DOES THAT.)
hi gym!
Attached to the gym was a separate ‘yoga room’. I know, this is getting ridiculous. There wasn’t a lot of floor space in the main gym (so many machines!) so I brought what I needed into the yoga room often and had it to myself. It was amazing.
Down the hall on this floor were separate men’s and women’s locker rooms. Inside the locker rooms were the usual lockers, toilets, sinks, showers (with shampoo and hairdryers omg), but then around the bend was, I shit you not, a hot dip pool, a cool dip pool, a dry sauna AND a steam room. I mean I guess the only drawback was that Z and I couldn’t do the sauna-steam-hot tub-cold tub-repeat-repeat-repeat together but we barely cared. This was ridiculous. You operated the sauna and steam yourselves and each time I used it I was the only one in there. So I made it really hot and they quickly regretted it. Do it on the normal temperature.
After the sauna area of both locker rooms, there are doors to the big swimming pool. It was a very nice pool, but the lifeguard makes everyone wear swim caps which is gross because ew sharing hair things and ALSO I have more hair and a giant head compared to Chinese people and it was so uncomfortable. Did I care that much? No, have you heard about this hotel?! It’s AMAZING. The ceiling of it was set up like a starry night – not Starry Night, but a night sky full of stars that ACTUALLY TWINKLED.
Photo taken from the Fraser Suites official website
One day we were exploring a different communal floor and found a billiards room, a ping pong table, and the funniest thing ever, a giant room just filled with massage chairs. They were pretty old models but still we spent at least an hour trying all the settings. It was so f-ing hilarious. Who just has a random room full of massage chairs.
I know I am talking so g-d much about this hotel and I know it is ridiculous. But compare this to most of where we’ve been sleeping all summer! I’ve never stayed quite in a place like this (and it was under $100 a night! That’s amazing for what it is). To make everything even more amazing, one afternoon my favorite movie ever, “You’ve Got Mail”, was on HBO. I did not go outside that day. Oh no I did – there was a mall across the street with a Carrefour grocery store and several bubble tea shops. So I of course had bubble tea every day. And I found some good Carrefour treats, including the first sighting of pretzels since Russia. I almost cried. Oh what am I trying to hide, obviously I cried.
I also made good use of the kitchen and made a smoothie with watermelon and cucumber I bought. The watermelon in China is wonderful; the raw leafy greens in the produce section, not so much, so I stuck to something I could peel the gross off of.
Even better, I froze a bunch of bananas in order to make banana whip in the food processor. I used the only vegan soy milk I’ve found so far in all of China (so f-ing weird, stop adding milk powder to your soy milk!) and a lot of peanut butter, and it was perfection! I haven’t been able to find vegan ice cream in months so this was the biggest treat.
doesn’t it look amazing
Okay that’s enough about the hotel. Oh no I must share I took a bubble bath for the first time in like a decade at least and watched HBO in the tub during it. Okay now I’m done. I know what you’re here for, and it’s not to watch me cry as I reminisce about this amazing hotel that aside from some weird pipe smells was the best ever.
You’re here for pandas.
You’re here for pandas.
PANDA BUTTS
The #1 thing to do in Chengdu is to visit the panda sanctuary, the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. It’s only about a half hour ride outside the city, and there are public buses that go there but a taxi (using the meter) cost us only 48 RMB or something like that, which is like $7. The place opens at 8:30am, I think, and you are supposed to go early so you see them playing instead of sleeping, which they do when it’s too hot in the afternoon. We left the hotel before 7:30, and it was pretty hopping at 8am. Definitely don’t wait any longer to arrive, because hour by hour you could actually feel the crowds increasing. By the time we left, it still wasn’t even noon but the pathways were crammed.
The insane crowds – full of pushing and shoving and knocking your camera away so they could put theirs in front of your face for the better view that you actually waited for – were the worst part, and we were super frustrated and upset about them. But I’m sharing that negative bit first because aside from that (that’s all of China, really), this was amazing! I SAW PANDAS! They were PLAYING with each other and fake-fighting like doggies do and it was the cutest! We saw giant panda adults, giant panda cubs, newborns, red pandas of all sizes. All were amazing.
panda here panda there panda panda everywhere
The grounds are enormous, and once you enter after buying tickets (which were less than we thought considering it’s the #1 thing (but I don’t remember exactly sorry)) you’ll see a very long line for a little golf-cartish bus that will shuttle people up towards the panda habitats. This is great for people who are less mobile, but if you have no problem walking all morning, it’s much better to walk everywhere and choose your own adventure. There are signs everywhere saying ‘this way to the giant adult pandas #1a, this way to 1b, this way to 2nd, this way to the red panda A, this way to red panda Z4’ – the labeling of the various areas is very confusing and without explanation (I guess this is where privately hired guides can help navigate), but I think we just followed our hearts and saw all of them in a random order depending on what felt right. And we had SUCH good luck! We saw these three adults playing in one B section. Well two are playing, the third is just chilling nearby and making a total ‘guys, let me be, alright?’ face.
wheeee
One giant panda was HILARIOUS, laying down while he ate all his sticks of bamboo with the biggest smile on his face. I mean, of course he was smiling, he was eating his favorite food while laying down. It doesn’t get better.
We also walked to the red panda habitats and were OBSESSED. They were so flipping cute. We so lucked out and arrived at the same time as a staff member there to feed them (about 9:30, I think). She opened the gate and went into the woods area with a bucket of squash and apples (they eat like me!). One skittish reddy ran into the woods, scared of her I guess (poor little thing!), but the others were PUMPED for food and ran over. So pumped, in fact, that this amazing little guy stood up to say to her hurry up and gimme my food!
How cute is he?
And all the others!
<3
how cute
After we walked for hours to all the various habitats, we happened upon an extremely long line. Oh wow it was so long. Z got in it while I searched for a toilet – it was kind of far, and that long was just as long as the other one, of course, because no one designs a women’s bathroom adequately anywhere in the world. When we finally made it through the attraction line, we saw that it was for the ‘mother and panda’ nursey or something. We were shuffled through single file (that was quite the experience; Chinese people do not do single file willingly and I had to yell at SO MANY PEOPLE) past nursery windows, one of which had the tiniest baby panda in an incubator.
So, it was at this point in our experience that I suddenly thought, is this place actually a zoo? Or at least, zoo-like? Considering that thousands of people per day were staring at this baby, and getting kind of close to all these animals, it seemed very zooey and not the good Deschanel kind. Sure the pandas had tons of room and seemingly endless woods, no cages or confines that we could see, but still, all these people staring…it feels weird. I realized I did not do enough research into this. The institute mostly bills itself as for preservation and conservation of the endangered pandas, and a place to get them to breed more, but still I don’t really know for sure. I tried looking into it and found positive information about how it’s really the top institute for saving the pandas from extinction and trying to increase their numbers in the face of that. But, it’s hard to tell whether that is truth or whether it is government controlled propaganda. I think, overall, the pandas are well taken care of, and they are in trouble and this place helps to protect and preserve them, so I really hope it’s true. If anyone knows more please let me know.
Accepting that I went, though, it was the best ever. I loved seeing the pandas acting like total adorable goofballs as they played with their friends. Like I said, they seem well taken care of and not in enclosed spaces, but I think it would be beneficial (to all) if they had timed entry to thin out the crowds. It can’t feel normal to have that many people staring at you. But yes, I was one of them. I smiled at them though! I didn’t shout like others! Okay that’s no excuse. But look how cute.
wheeee i’m in a tree
The best thing about the pandas is, well it’s seeing them and it’s amazing oh my god. The next best nonrelated thing is that if you go when you’re supposed to, you miss the insane afternoon crowds and you are done with the #1 activity in Chengdu before noon that day! So we had a whole afternoon of swimming and sauna and HBO and laying on pillows. It was the best day.
We walked through one of the air conditioned enclosures and this little guy was chilling in there! There’s glass separating us of course
What else did we do in Chengdu besides see the pandas and be complete lazybones with the cleanest clothes? We Sichuan fooded so damn hard! HappyCow was full of great-sounding places, so many in fact that we didn’t even make a dent in the list. First, we tried the Yusuge Garden Vegan Vegetarian Restaurant that was only a 20 minute walk from our hotel (and through a very popular area that had bubble tea shops and smoothie places and crazy looking street food stalls on every single block). It was another all-vegan buffet that was stupid cheap (36 rmb, or just over $5). It’s located on the fourth floor of a building across from the big Kowloon Plaza. The food wasn’t as fantastic as some other buffets, but it was better than some others, so definitely of decent quality. The selection was more limited with maybe 15 dishes, but that’s still a lot of food when you can eat everything! (Except the bitter melon rounds. Bitter melon is GROSS!) It wasn’t mind-blowing but it was still RG!
London needs more cheap af vegan buffets
listen buffet plates are NEVER GOING TO BE PRETTY
Above is part of the dessert-y section. On the left side is an interesting sticky rice thing with lots of steamed pumpkin on it. The pumpkin should have been flavored or sweetened at least, but still interesting. But the big winner here is that they had little CUPCAKES! Do you see on the far right?! The cake was fine but the icing was AMAZING. Oh man. (I put one in my bag for later shhh.)
This was our view from our dinner table at Yusuge. The ad across the street reads, “I’m proud of my stubborn/I sing loudly in the wind” YASSS
One day we ventured down south for a long walk through the city and saw Sichuan University, the very generic name of which made us make constant jokes about Bovine University. We ate at a vegetarian place nearby.
when I grow up I”m going to Sichuan University!
I wanna go back to school
Lotus Vegetarian was not worth the trek, but if you are in the area, it’s good. We had a mixed bag – two lackluster dishes but two great ones. There were dumplings that were just okay, ‘assorted broccoli’ that was mostly cauliflower and came in a weird goo sauce that wasn’t good (and these were my necessary veggies! sigh), but then a fun random fake meat dish over super spicy cold cucumber (surprise veggies! thanks!), and fantastic dandan noodles, which we had been searching for forever at every vegetarian restaurant. Gotta have dandan when in Sichuan! So, two good dishes, two meh, and we finally got dandan, so overall it was a win. It’s the only thing in that area, I think, so it’s good if you’re there, but there’s better food to be had elsewhere in Chengdu.
Like my favorite restaurant in the entire city, Jujubeetree Vegetarian Lifestyle. We were shocked at how good this place was. It was sit-down and fancy looking yet not expensive like all the non-buffet vegetarian restaurants are.
We got enough food that I had leftovers (yayyy for a fridge and the ability to reheat!) and I went back another day for a shitload of takeout (yay again for the same things!). We had the bean curd and vegetable salad, which was beautiful. The taste was mild but with a bit of the Sichuan numbing pepper, plus peanuts. It was refreshing, with raw carrots and sprouts and various shredded green things. So good.
I also got – you already guessed, didn’t you? Because if it’s on the menu when I’m traveling in places where it’s not common, I get it even if I don’t want it. But I always want it! Anyway I’m obviously talking about a green salad, this time with carrots, tomatoes, radish, quinoa (vegetarian restaurant salads are the only places we’ve seen quinoa in the whole country), and really good strips of cooked pumpkin, in a delicious dressing. It was ENORMOUS too, so I was so happy.
Because the salad was so big, I got to take most of the other dishes home for the next day (yebop!!!). My main dish was astounding. Reviews online told me to get the pepper steak, or the sweet and sour rib dish, but neither was calling to me. Instead, I pointed to a menu entry that said ‘bean curd pudding and meatballs’. I mean. I don’t know WHY ON EARTH I would order something that sounded so revolting, but some force took hold of my finger when the waiter arrived and moved it Ouija board style over that item and made me say ‘and this.’ Well, whatever Chinese magic that was, I need more of it in my life, because this dish was one of the best I had in China.
It was a GIGANTIC pot of chili oil-soupy goodness over an open flame with incredible-textured meatballs, lots of various mushrooms, green peppers, red peppers, and pillows of soft homemade tofu, like dumplings of tofu that had been cooked in the simmering broth. It was EPIC. We were both shocked by how great it was. I mean, that name! No way! Everything was super spicy, just like we wanted, and this was the spiciest of all. Erma. So incredible.
We also needed a dumpling style dish because they were on the menu and I was there, and we eagerly decided on a variation on our theme – because this menu had WONTONS. I don’t really know what the difference is between wontons and dumplings except that wontons seem to have a little more skin folded around it (gentiles?) but who cares, these were incredible. They were filled with mushroom and cabbage and came in a bowl of chili oil (as usual!) and we were fighting over the last one. So good!!
Lastly we ordered the char siu pastry, which I’ve never had because it is usually filled with a pulled pork kind of thing, but yay for a vegetarian version! The pork filling was good, kind of sweet and it was clearly meant as a dessert version because it came out after everything else. I would have preferred a more savory version because I don’t really like flaky, buttery crust pastries (I know I know) but I could still tell that this was a quality dish and luckily Z is not crazy and enjoys delicious things.
We obviously went back, one afternoon when we were in the area, and I got even more food to take home (home, sigh, it was like a home). I did get that recommended pepper steak, which was good, but cost twice as much as the other mains, which I don’t understand, and the only veggies inside were red and green peppers, which I don’t love, and big chunks of them, so there was no way of hiding the taste with other stuff in the same bite. The actual steak was great though, with a really impressive pull-apart layered texture.
y’all ready for some tupperware pictureeeees
I got an order of sword beans, which I love, like slightly fatter green beans in a strong sauce, but not spicy – like the only non-spicy thing we ate all week, so it was like a delicious palate cleanser. They had bits of fried all over that was so good. I don’t know fried what, just fried.
I also got a huge order of this amazing sauteed cauliflower that we’ve seen and eaten all over China (this is how you do cauliflower!) that came with ‘streaky pork’, which I thought was a typo on ‘steaky’ because I don’t know meat things but Z said they mean it to be like bacon-ish. It was a delicious dish.
But the last one was my favorite, and I think it was my favorite noodle dish in all of China, which is a huuuuge thing to say. It was ‘double color spinach juice noodles’, so the noodles were green I guess from spinach juice! Immediately I’m onboard. They were covered in a spicy meaty sauce kind of like a Sichuan bolognese and then a milder but even more delicious lighter creamier sauce. It was incredible. These may have been the restaurant’s take on dandan, I can’t really tell, but it was amazing. Oh man I wish I could have more of these.
Aside from all this vegetarian Sichuan food, we had an obligatory ah-I’m-so-sick-of-Chinese-food moment one afternoon and chanced upon an incredible hole-in-the-wall Mexican place that was actually better than any Mexican food there is in London. I KNOW! It was called Good Good Mexican Grill and it was good good and there were non-Chinese people running it, which makes sense. Z had a quesadilla that he said was awesome and we shared these nachos and guacamole. GUAC GUYS.
Good Good was on the same block as 88 Vegetative Lifestyle Store, a veggie restaurant on HappyCow that has changed its menu since people last reviewed it and the new menu is NOT GOOD so (like random Western dishes like lasagna, and no good looking Chinese dishes) so we left
One day in search of our bank, we took a nice stroll along the river. It was great to have almost no one around us for a change.
As usual, we saw some great signage, like this dental clinic.
YOU ONLY GET 18 NO MORE
One of my favorite things is that we keep seeing shops that apparently want to be New Balance shops, but…aren’t.
Also this sounds like the worst art gallery EVER:
the only thing worse than elementary school art is elementary school plays
One night on the subway I saw a girl in a t-shirt that read “If I was a bird, I’d know who to shit on.” I MEAN. AMAZING.
So, yes, we mainly used our time in Chengdu to eat and laze around our amazing digs. And we saw pandas. It was the best week.
oh man I wish it was quiet anywhere
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Ulan-Ude, Russia: The Way Russian People Say “Alan Alda” (I’m Guessing) and More
We left Irkutsk after our time on Olkhon Island at about 9pm and got on a baby-sized sleeper train (we are such pros now!) – we literally got on about 9pm ish on Thursday, went to sleep (I mean pretended to), and disembarked at 6:30am. I didn’t even have time to write a diary entry! Just waited to take my contacts out (using bottled water of course; I like having the gift of sight too much to use train juice) before getting maybe an hour of sleep. Our roommates were two Chinese women (female roommates are so much better…and rarer) who didn’t speak any other language, so Z showed off with the two phrases he learned in Mandarin to prepare for this trip – “Do you speak English?” and “I speak a little Chinese.” It was so funny and they loved it. I didn’t love that the window in this cabin didn’t even open. Remember when I complained about old Russian lady closing the window? THIS ONE DIDN’T EVEN PHYSICALLY OPEN. ughhhh it was so gross and stuffy. Thank god it was short. At 6am, the attendants shouted for everyone to wake up – we were almost at Ulan-Ude, which is our last stop in Russia! Well, until we return from the southwest on our eastward Silk Road journey in September, but that’s years away and not part of our Trans-Siberian adventure! Trans-Mongolian, whatevs. So really, Ulan-Ude marked the end of this first part of our journey! Already! It’s going so fast. To mark this auspicious occasion, we surely would do something very special once we dropped our bags at the hotel.
And that was laundry. The most special thing we could possibly do! We found THE BEST, and I mean THE BEST, laundry babushka with the most perfect little laundromat WITH DRYERS. It was a few dollars and we gave her literally every piece of clothing we owned. It was all dirty. OH my god. And she handled it herself! We didn’t have to wait! She said when to come back (less than two hours!) and she was the best and it was so clean and so dry and smelled so good and I want to cry because we will never find a laundry babushka again. (In Mongolia now, had to do laundry last night. It’s still air-drying eye rolllll.)
kind of hard to find – it’s like hidden in a housing project – but worth itttt
Seriously, if you are ever in Ulan-Ude, this is the door you must find. Aside from seeing the giant Lenin head – which you can’t miss, it’s in the main square – this is my biggest recommendation. Finding the Laundry Babushka and just giving her a hug. And all your dirty clothes. The best thing we did maybe in all of Russia.
see you literally cannot miss the giant Lenin head no matter where you are in the city
Okay maybe you’re one of those weirdos who cares about other things to do in a Russian city in Siberia. Ulan-Ude, which I’ve seen both hyphenated and not and when given the choice to hyphenate something I’m gonna take it, is the capital city of the Republic of Buryatia in Russia. So Buryatia is a federal subject of Russia, like its own republic? but not? And in Siberia which is its own like region. It’s so confusing. Do I get to count Buryatia for the Century Club? Prob not. Buryatia has its own little president but the position is not called a president, it’s called a ‘head’ so I like to imagine that whenever he meets with Putin, Putin’s like “HEEEAD! MOOOOVE! NOWWW!” Putin to me sounds like Mike Myers’s Scottish accent. Buryatia’s main distinguishing feature is that the food is closer to Mongolian food, with lots of khuushuur (fried empanada looking things) (god they love their vowels in Mongolia) and buuzy (dumpings), both with meat. I already felt the increased difficulty of eating in Mongolia by being here. But of course we found plenty, don’t worry. Buryats were traditionally into shamanism, which is the deification of nature and spirits and magic and stuff and not, as I would have guessed, the deification of the composer of “Hairspray” and “Smash” songs.
random big gate says “Oscar” <3
After we landed at 6:30am, we walked to our hotel, the Buryatia Hotel, which was a little Soviet-era feeling but was very comfortable. They had water coolers on every floor AND a gym. (Granted the gym was pretty much just a treadmill I had to plug in and boot up myself, a squat rack with no barbell, AND A MASSAGE CHAIR, like full-on Sharper Image style, which is so ridiculous but ya know I think I can get behind that. Regardless, yay a gym!) Thank the Buryat shaman water sprite that our room was ready despite it being like 6 hours before check in. We showered (yesss post-train shower is the best) and then took the best nap ever, waking up at a normal human time to start our day. We found a quick bite, and then we tried navigating the completely ridiculous minibus situation so we could go to Ivolginsky Datsan, a Tibetan Buddhist monastery outside the city (about an hour’s journey).
The Datsan was built in 1945 with permission from Stalin to thank the Buryat people for help during WWII. It’s still active with lamas (not llamas) joining each year. It’s a beautiful space, and it actually made me feel quite calm being here. To visit, you walk around the complex clockwise, and you walk around each object or statue or temple clockwise, and you spin the wheels of veneration and stuff that’s all over the place as you walk clockwise. We started by entering the gate and turning right and we got yelled at. Counterclockwise bad for Buddha!
There are a good number of temples and statues and spinny wheels and stuff to see, but the main point of the visit is the Temple of Hambo Lama Itigilov. Okay so remember when we saw Lenin’s embalmed body in Moscow? More of that shiiiittttt! So in 1927, right before he died, Itigilov (who was the 12th Khambo Lama like I know what that means) was like, “hey, I’m gonna die soon – I know this because I’m a Buddhist – and I want to be buried in the position I die in, but just for 30 years, and then I want you to dig me back up…and then it’s your call what to do with me, I guess, because that’s as far as my decree goes.” So he died in lotus position (I mean, no he didn’t) and was buried, and then 30 years later monks dug him up and MIRACLE, his body was preserved! (Sure it was guys.) I guess they reburied him because they were like okay cool he still looks good for his age, but like I don’t want him in my house, but then in 2002 he was exhumed again, and MIRACLE! he was still looking fresh! (Sure!) So his corpse is a sacred object of Buddhism. Oh what does all this have to do with my visit to the Datsan? HIS CORPSE IS IN THE TEMPLE. JUST PLAIN SITTING IN THE MIDDLE. Obviously the body was embalmed with like all of Siberia’s embalming fluid, and not only that, but his head is made of papier-mache. I am curious about where the real head went?? Anyway, so we entered this temple behind a long line of fervent Buddhists bowing and scraping all over the place, and had no idea what we were about to see. No pics, of course.
The rest of the place was pretty nice. Getting there and back was a bit ridiculous, though. We caught a minibus from outside the cathedral square here, and it dropped us about 40 minutes outside the city. The driver just pointed to a corner to stand on and catch the next one that goes directly to the Datsan. It doesn’t have a number or anything; you just have to trust. Luckily it did go there, and everyone out in this land is going to the Datsan too, so it’s not that bad. But, as always, they are overstuffed and even in little vans it was standing room only. It’s definitely worth a trip out there though. It’s the best thing to see in Ulan-Ude.
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fun |
So there’s this one area of the temple complex that was amazing. There was a line of people waiting their turn (first time I’ve seen queuing in weeks!) to walk a set distance from a mark to a big stone – with their eyes closed. Their friends are allowed to shout out directions, I guess, Price is Right style, but you’re supposed to try to walk to the stone with your eyes closed – letting the spirits guide you, I guess – and then you get to make a wish. Then you walk around the stone three times and then touch it again. I don’t know. Obviously we tried to! It’s scary walking on rocky paths with your eyes closed!
making wishes
The next day, we were planning to go on another trip outside the city limits to see the Open-Air Ethnographic Museum. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the time – the company that booked our train tickets had our departure train time wrong in our itinerary. We though we had till 8:45pm but we were leaving at 3:45pm! Definitely not enough time for an excursion! (Fortunately, we realized their mistake before too late, no thanks to Real Russia.) Instead, we stayed in the city and visited the Buryat History Museum. It was a pretty decent collection of Tibetan Buddhist items and shamanist objects. The history of Buryatia is also covered. I get bored easily in museums but this was ok. Bathrooms were awful though.
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lil Budd |
wut
The last touristy thing we did was, of course, seeing the giant Lenin head in the main square. It’s the biggest Lenin head in the world. No kidding!
We had a few nice meals in Ulan-Ude. My favorite was a place called Marco Polo that wasn’t even on HappyCow but was super vegetarian friendly! They had vegetarian borscht (yay!) and a delicious carrot-beet-pine-nut salad. We also got a plate of stir-fried vegetables. I need to eat veggies when I can! I really loved this food. Simple but delicious.
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We also had a nice meal at the very famous Modern Nomads, which seems to run most of this part of the world! (There’s a whole street in Ulaan Baatar with like, 7 of their restaurants). I had a great veggie dumpling plate and a big green salad. Perfect!
We also found a good supermarket called Sputnik that had some amazing vegan finds! I got this oat-based yogurt drink, a superfood oatmeal cup that will be perfect on the next train, and a bunch of crackers. And of course fruit!
grocery hauls keep happening but room in our bags keeps being nonexistent
So that’s what we did in our last stop in Russia! It was an okay city, nothing special. A good rest, a few good meals, some nice sights, and a great load of laundry. On to Mongolia!
Zhangye Danxia, China: The “One Beautiful Place in West of China”
When we were planning our almost-month-and-a-half in China, I chose a few places I wanted to go and added them to our ever-growing list of possibilities: Huangshan which we did and which failed us miserably; the rice terraces outside Yangshuo; and Danxia, the incredible colorful geopark at Zhangye. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to fit the latter two into our schedule given the train times and buses and how far they were from other things we were doing. That’s okay, there was so much to see in this country and I wasn’t tooo disappointed at not being able to fit in a visit to the natural beauty of the mountainous rock formations that somehow made insane colors of rock that will blow your mind. Okay, I was a little disappointed.
Which is why I was SO SUPER PUMPED when the company that booked all of our China train tickets made a last minute suggestion to our itinerary that would make me sublimely happy. We planned all the routes we wanted and our whole schedule (okay Z did) but we (very wisely) hired a Chinese company called China DIY Travel to book the actual tickets. (Have you looked at the ticket booking websites?? THEY ARE IN CHINESE. Have you spoken to an agent at a train station ticket office? They do not speak English and they do NOT try to work with you to communicate. Hire this company if you are going.) Helen, the representative at China DIY who assisted us the whole time, was amazing and I love her. I mostly love her because the week before we were to leave Xi’an for Dunhuang, she sent us an email that said she had been looking at our itinerary and saw that we were just doing a 24-hour sleeper train from Xi’an to Dunhuang, which sounds dire. She said “I have a crazy idea” that we should take a newly launched bullet train (so fast, nicer, kind of like Amtrak?) from Xi’an to a little town called Zhangye that would take less than 7 hours, in order to stop at Zhangye and hire a taxi to drive us an hour and a half to DANXIAAAAAA THE ROCK FORMATION GEOPARK AHHHH YESSS HELEN YOU’RE AMAZING. Then we could have from about 3pm to midnight to get to the park and see the park (plenty of time!) and then return to Zhangye station for a midnight sleeper train that would get us to Dunhuang at 7am. So that would make it 14 hours on two broken up trains instead of 24 on one long one, AND in between we get to see the big f-ing thing I wanted to see so badly! It was a no-brainer. We responded to Helen and said YASSS QUEEN and her response had us crying hysterically we were laughing so hard. Get this: She responded all excited and ended her email of our new instructions with the sentence “I really hope you can have one beautiful place to visit in West of China.” AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. Meaning all the many things we are seeing in the rest of western China are not so much to look at (but it has a great personality?) which I pretty much agree with her about. Z insists that she didn’t intend her words to come out that way and just meant ‘a’ beautiful place in western China, not ‘the only’, but that’s the way I want to take it and you can’t take that away from me. Anyway all this to say, WE WENT TO DANXIA AND IT WAS JUST AS BEAUTIFUL AS THE PICTURES WHEN YOU GOOGLE!
Okay…maybe not AS beautiful or as shockingly colorful as those — because most of the pictures online are photoshopped to increase the color saturation to really make it look even crazier than it is. But the real stuff doesn’t need photoshop! I was prepared to see a much duller (not boring dull, but in terms of color talk) landscape than I saw online and I was fine with that. But it was still so spectacular! I was so impressed and wowed by the color streaks and brightness of this natural phenomenon. So, we did not do any photoshopping (do I ever edit my pictures? lol no way takes too long), but we took every single picture three times – once in normal mode, once in ‘sunset’ mode, and once in ‘expressive color’ mode. Here is the same shot in each of those modes, in that order of normal/sunset/color (/sugar/butter/flour). Erma P I’m gonna do my first slideshow! Dance emoji dance emoji!
So you can see how much variation can exist in photos. You probably are thinking, well that color mode one, that looks a bit like you’re being just as bad as the photoshopping fakers abounding on the internet. But actually, that mode best represents what it really looked like in person! THIS IS TRUTH. The normal mode is sooo lackluster and drab and it’s really not accurate. CAMERA LIES. So I’m going to switch around which versions of the pictures I share depending on what best represents how it really looked in person. Twas amaze.
Before we share all the pictures (we took hundos, each), let’s backtrack and share every detail of my day like I do.
We landed in Zhangye and immediately tried to find food. Outside the train station – Zhangye West, the newer one – is a ring of small restaurants with no menus and no English and just a few tables and like a guy you try to talk to. We went in one that had pictures on the walls and people were smoking so we left. We went in another and they had a No Smoking sign. WE WERE STAYING FOREVER.
We landed in Zhangye and immediately tried to find food. Outside the train station – Zhangye West, the newer one – is a ring of small restaurants with no menus and no English and just a few tables and like a guy you try to talk to. We went in one that had pictures on the walls and people were smoking so we left. We went in another and they had a No Smoking sign. WE WERE STAYING FOREVER.
The man working there was incredibly helpful despite not knowing any English. We used our phones to communicate that I wanted him to give me all the tofu and all the vegetables they had and I tried to get it to say “You probably think I just mean I want a lot of tofu and vegetables, but what I said was, give me ALL the tofu and all the vegetables you have” but that didn’t work. The guy asked if spicy was okay and if we wanted noodles and we were like yes and sure? and he made me one of the best meals I had in all of China I’m not even kidding. It was a giant bowl of super spicy chili oiled broth with tofu and broccoli and leafy greens and deliciousness and then, like he read my mind, a SEPARATE bowl of noodles so I could just take the amount I wanted. It was SO GOOD. And so spicy. BUT SO GOOD.
Here is the outside so if you find yourself in Zhangye you go to the nicest man’s shop and not the gross other ones.
Super full, we then we like, okay now onto Danxia. But…it was THE WORST WEATHER. Remember the aforementioned horrible weather we encountered in Huangshan, my OTHER important beloved choice, that ended up failing us? It was like that – cold, rainy, foggy, very low visibility. In short, a terrible day to visit a site that requires good visibility. We were so upset about that but I was more upset that apparently Universe wanted to ruin all the things I particularly wanted to do! Does the universe not want me to make decisions because that’s a TERRIBLE lesson. Z was tentative about going all the way to Danxia and paying all the money for a taxi to take us there and then wait for hours and then take us back (that’s what you’re supposed to do because there aren’t taxis at the site) if we might not even see anything. But I was like are you kidding, we are definitely going and trying and seeing what we came to see because we came all this way to and ALEXANDER I CAME ALL THIS WAY SHE CAME ALL THIS WAY ALL THIS WAY. And thank goodness we went because, while I’m sure it’s even more stunning on sunny days, it was REMARKABLE. It was definitely one of my favorite places.
So we found a cab very quickly (we were still in the station’s parking lot pretty much) and showed her a message in Chinese that Helen had written for us, saying essentially “please take me to Danxia, and wait, and then drive me back to the main train station” (our night train left from the other station in town – yes even tiny towns you never heard of in China are big enough to warrant two train stations). Helen said it cost her 180 yuan 3 years ago when she did it, and we were just hoping for under 300 given the expected upcharge for not being Chinese/able to haggle, and the lady driving said 240 so we were okay with that! (That’s about $36 which for China is a lot-ish but we were like that is almost the flag-drop in London taxis, so, score.) Also it was a lady cab driver which we liked.
Of course, this being China and us being in a taxi, something ridiculous had to happen. After about ten minutes of driving, the lady pulled over on the side of the road next to a man in a nice jacket that I assumed at first glance was from Jack Wolfskin but it actually said “Jake Wolfking” and despite how delighted this made us, we were still very concerned about wtf was going on. Lady got out and man got in and we were like HEY LADY, what’s happening? She didn’t speak English, she just pointed to the man and nodded. We had no idea what was going on! Luckily, we worked out with the man that he was her husband and was just taking over our long job. JFC it is a mess not being able to communicate. So all was okay just a slight scare.
the men’s bathroom sign was LITERALLY a picture of a man smoking like come the f on China
We got to Danxia at about 4:45 and they had a GIANT building with a GIANT sign that said ‘toilets’ and they were pretty clean. And then the little road to the ticket office was full of camel-shaped (somehow, I know) wooden stalls selling melons and nannerpusses. It was already my favorite place in China.
And it got even better. We bought tickets – under 100 yuan each, which is not bad (like $15), and it includes the (pretty required) shuttle bus around the ENORMOUS, ENDLESS grounds – and got on the shuttle bus to the first amazing area, about 10 minutes down the mountain road, and I was SO HAPPY. It was BIG and BEEYOOOTIFUL! Every area has stairs up to the top of that peak (omg so much climbing) and platforms to walk along to see all views, plus signs and stuff for the highlights. Our first highlight was Sleeping Beauty, the sign for which reads, and this is verbatim, “The earth beauty that was formed during the Cretaceous Period and the nature gives birth to and makeunders after long-term weathering, has relieved and soft lines, fruity and lithe and graceful figure, and colorful dress. We don’t know it is a fairy or dragon out of the sea, but we want to stay here indeed, because it stands here for one hundred million year.” I MEAN. WAS I IN HEAVEN, YES.
So here’s the picture of Sleeping Beauty…not sure if the sign was accurate. Also did they mean makeunder like what they did to Charlize in Monster.
OH this is a good time to tell you an important bit of info: We entered at the north gate, but there are east and west gates too. And, the shuttle you catch at each gate is different, they take you on different routes around the grounds, so you see different things. Now, there is a transfer station at the middle, so you can hop on all the various shuttles and see all the things (just remember to get on your gate’s right bus at the end so you find your taxi), but it took us a full three hours to see everything just up to that transfer station! (That’s also the last station before the north gate.) This place is ENORMOUS! Three hours of driving and climbing and more driving (for long stretches, too), and we saw maaaybe half, probably less. And it was all incredible! I think we saw the highlights. What do you think?
lolol
And, OF COURSE, there were amazing signs. Crucial (not) commentary in the captions.
never seen that used like that before
i mean dude i’d listen to you but I don’t know what you mean
that’s LITERALLY the opposite of what Mother Superior said
Even though it was freezing and I was a shibber, I felt JOY for the first time in weeks. I’m just kidding I know I complain a lot (a lot a lot) but I liked most of China and most of what we did this is just my platform for venting. But I really loved this place. It’s up there with the Great Wall on my list of Mosts.
I didn’t even share the best part yet – at every shuttle dropoff point was a TOILET! And not a disgusting outhouse but a real building with walls and floors and stuff. (Okay it’s not the best part but it’s up there.)
The only negative about this experience (besides the weather) is that a lot of people were staring and very conspicuously taking photos of me, because I am white. FFS, even the ONLY other white person we saw here (actually the only one all day and for days after) took a picture of (well with) us because he bet his Chinese wife that they wouldn’t see any other foreigners so he had to make proof of it? But that wasn’t as upsetting as all the Chinese men and teenage girls (seriously, just those two demos) taking my photo and laughing. It almost ruined my whole day. A few times I said to the person ‘that’s really not okay please don’t’ and they understood I think from my face and tone that shiz was not cool but they just shrugged. Arghhhhh.
While it dampened my spirits (so they could match my clothes!) it did not tarnish the beauty of this amazing place.
We got back to Mr. Wolfking at almost 8pm, bought two tubs of camel-stall melon (I felt like a having pounds of watermelon and cantaloupe for dinner, it’s so good here), drove to the station and had about three hours to kill before our midnight train to Dunhuang (leaving on a midnight traaaaain) so we just putzed around the station and stuff. And to top off an amazing day, this train, which was yet another K train, was the nicest of all the K’s! It had soap in the sink area! It was clean! We bought out the other two beds again (#ghostchildren) and could use all the extra pillows and blankets and NOT BE ITCHY FROM THEM! The attendants were nice! It was smoky but just ever so slightly less so! It was only 7 hours so it was a shame that we didn’t have this one for a longer journey. When I mentioned that, Z asked if that meant I wanted to stay on longer and I immediately turned into Randolph & Mortimer (should start automatically at 0:40 but if it doesn’t, well, go to 0:40):
Onto the next!
Onto the next!
