Trip to Inner Mongolia - Day 4

Inner Mongolia is a very agricultural area, and, consequently, there are often herds of cattle, goats and sheep near to the highway we traveled along. However, on the morning of our fourth day, the herd of sheep was actually crossing the road. We just had to stop for this photo opportunity, so John and I ran out of the van just in time to snap a few pictures of the herd that was now crossing at a quick sprint. There was one fat, lazy sheep that was a straggler. He crossed after the rush at a leisurely saunter. They were very cute! Later that morning, we were frustrated by all the back and forth of closed highways when a can of beer that had been purchased the night before and was packed in the van, happened to roll up the aisle of the van right to Karli and I. We decided that this was a sign, figured it was noon somewhere in the world and split the beer, drinking it on the van (this is not a problem in China).

It turns out that our frustration was about to grow. While driving, we came upon a huge pile of dirt blocking the entire span of the road we were attempting to drive on. Our driver spoke with some men that were evidently working on the road and it looked like they were going to move the dirt with a front end loader. While we were waiting for this to happen, we noticed that there was a truck that had gotten stuck trying to cross a shallow stream to avoid the dirt pile in the road. We were all highly entertained by watching the different methods they tried to use to get the truck unstuck. They tried pulling the truck, pushing it, putting branches along the bank for traction, but nothing worked. Every once in a while some man would come and suggest a new idea or suggest they try something again. But still no success. After about an hour and a half, we realized that the men were not, in fact, going to move the dirt pile. So we got back on the van and headed in a different direction. We ran into another stuck truck that was blocking that road. Fortunately this one eventually moved enough that other vehicles could pass. The good thing that came out of the experience is that while waiting, some drivers got in a spat about another of the same type of truck wanted to pass ahead of the other vehicles. The others told him to wait. One little man got very angry and kept saying a word that we figured must be a swear. It turns out we were right. So we learned our first Chinese swear word.

We finally arrived to our destination, a mountain that we got up by chairlift. Before going up the mountain, we met a delightful little billy goat, who acted just like a bad puppy. He was the pet of the people who ran the store there. He nuzzled the woman, climbed up to the table and climbed up on a chair outside to reach a bowl on the window sill. We were so enchanted by this little fellow that later that night we all drank a toast “to the billy goat!” The mountain itself was so beautiful with the leaves changing colour. We had to climb to the very top, but the reward for our hard work was the view – a valley on top of the mountain. It was breathtaking… We explored around there for a while and then went back down. We drove back to Chi Feng for supper and a big discussion/fight that ensued over supper between the foreign teachers.