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30 August: Hohhot

Up just after 08h00, our best sleep in ages! We had a lot of work to do today, both of us were far behind with our writings and it would take the better part of the day just to catch up on most of it. We sat on our beds listening to music, discussing the events of the past few days and confirming it to our daily summaries before starting with the mammoth task.

We decided to break just after 12h00 to walk through the city and find some lunch, it was surprising to see just how busy it still was on a Sunday afternoon, the traffic was a lot more than we had expected, almost the same as week days in comparison. We went from restaurant to restaurant looking for something nice, but more than that just wanting to walk to clear our heads and feel fresh again when we returned.

We found a restaurant some distance away from our hotel, it was filled with people and we stood at the entrance trying to decided what we wanted or rather decipher the Chinese inscriptions to make sure we understood the pictures. We ended up deciding on three dishes, one of noodles, another sweet and sour pork and the last a tofu dish and rice to top it off. It cost us a bit more than we usually paid, 46Y in total, but then again for two people this was a feast and we wanted something other than dumplings or the plain noodles we had grown so accustomed to. The food was divine, there was no way of finishing everything so we left with a doggy bag for later the evening.

Returning back to the hotel we bought some grapes and peaches along the way to sustain us for a detoxing dinner. We had wanted to try a piece of the huge cakes that they sold along the road, we asked him how much it was and again there was a misunderstanding. We had tried to explain we wanted 10Y worth and he had shown us a piece that needed to be cut, far larger than necessary in retrospect. He cut the piece and then started to weigh it, that was the first sign we were in for more than we bargained. Then he demanded we pay him 30Y for the piece! I said no and asked him to cut a small piece, he grabbed my hand, violently pushing it out the way and moved inches away from my face. Shouting at me and demanding money, I tried to calm him down, trying desperately to remain calm myself and not overreact. I showed him I wanted a small piece, but again he slapped away my hand shouting at me, now standing almost nose to nose. A large crowd had gathered at this stage and I didn't want to make a scene. We were getting nowhere and it was obvious that if we continued it would turn into a violent confrontation, Leanne by this stage was actively trying to get me to leave. When he started shouting profanities at us, I waved him off and we left to find another cake seller.

The next one was no better, we showed him 6Y to try and let him understand that's the amount we wanted to buy, unbelievably it didn't work. We also showed him on the cake itself to only cut a sliver, at least 10 times smaller than at the first one, he weighed it and then demanded we pay him 18Y for the small piece! I showed him the 6Y which he grabbed out my hand and still demanded 18Y. By this stage we were pissed, I tried to rip the money from his hand by he refused to return it. Next came Leanne's turn to cut in, she raised her voice considerably at him telling him we wouldn't pay more. (She remembered Antone telling us that sometimes when you just shout back at the chinese, they start to back off). After that he gave us the packet with the small piece and kept the 6 yuan - I still think it's too much. This was not a good start to our day and we returned to our room, adrenalin pumping after the unnecessary turn of events. Just to top it all off, our roomcard did not want to open the door...I went down to reception and they reactivated it - for a moment we had thought that they also wanted us to leave. Becoming a bit paranoid in this city with all the unwelcoming people...

The evening we walked to one of the distant shops where we had bought water far cheaper than at other vendors, returning we ate our dinner of fruits and our take away. The rest of the evening was a quiet one, we enjoyed a movie and a cup of coffee before settling in for another peaceful sleep. We would have to be up again early tomorrow to head to the Mongolian embassy to get a visa.