Monday 13 May
We emerge from Urumqi (ooo-roo-moo-chi!) station at about 9.30 am, into a bustling, jostling, jangling kaleidoscope - this is China! There are people everywhere. Almost immediately a knarled old woman asks me for money - but since then this has been a rare occurence. Reg thinks the hostel is near the station, but there's no sign of it where we think it is. We are well and truly lost within minutes. We stand by the side of a busy street, lined with small open shops selling all sorts of wares, while we try to get our bearings. People stare at us. Suddenly a young Chinese woman comes up to us and asks,
"Do you need help?"
And those are the sweetest words we could have heard at that moment in time. Frances is Chinese, and a 4th year English student, but she is also learning to be a tourist guide. She takes us into a the ground floor reception area of a quiet building (her tourist agency is on the 4th floor) and we open up our laptop. which has the full name and address of our hostel in Chinese, saved in Open Office. (Well done, Reg!)
It must already be at least 26 deg c outside and it's lovely and cool in the building. Several other Chinese people come and sit around us, seemingly fascinated by what's happening. Frances tells us our hostel is about 30 minutes away by bus! We definitely got some directions wrong somewhere. This wonderful young woman (thank you, Lord, yet again!) tells us which bus to catch, shows us where to get it, writes down the name of our destination in English and Chinese, gives us each the 1 yuan (10p) fare for the bus as we have no small change, and says she can sort out a Chinese simcard and credit for us. She's a quiet, unassuming girl who said she valued being able to speak to some English people!
We ask Frances if she will be our guide around Urumqi, but explain that we need to rest at the hostel for a while. She gives us her telephone number and the number of her tourist guide agency.
On the bus we show the name of the bus stop where we need to get off to a passenger. She's obviously getting off before us and asks another passenger to tell us the right stop. So far, Frances is the only person we've met in Urumqi who can speak any English; our experience of this town is that very few people speak our language.
After asking directions a few times we're grateful to arrive at our hostel. It's on the first floor of a lovely cool building. We are welcomed by Summer, the English-speaking Chinese receptionist. Soon we are settled into a very nice room with en-suite facilities; however after a few minutes, we discover that the toilet doesn't flush and there's a drip of water coming through the bathroom ceiling. We are given a new room immediately and have no further problems.
Reg acknowledges that he's really glad we bought the travel kettle in Almaty, Kazakhstan. We have a cuppa, sleep for a couple of hours, and then - a wonderful shower after our 1 day and 2 nights on the train. We are just getting ready to go out and explore when there's a knock at the door - Frances has arrived with a sim card for our phone, with credit for phone and internet. We are amazed that this sweet girl has gone to all this trouble for us. We go into the lounge area of the hostel and she sorts out Reg's phone. My "Orange" phone hasn't had a signal for most of the time we've been away - Reg's sim free phone (where we buy a new sim in each country we visit) has been a life saver.
We arrange to meet Frances tomorrow to go to Urumqi museum, and in the evening she can book a special all-inclusive meal and show - we say, yes, please! The show will involve singing and dancing. It's 200 yuan a head (£20) which seems reasonable. Frances gets in free, and as students are alwayts hungry from my experience, this will be a good evening for her!
Reg and I then go off on our own exploring, and looking for somewhere to eat, as all we've had to eat today is a piece of bread and butter each, and a few Pringles, left over from the train journey. Summer, the hostel receptionist indicates the general direction of where we can find places to eat. We enter a small cafe/bar, where the staff are astonished to see English people. They immediately enter busy mode, finding us a table. The only other customers appear to be a group of men playing cards at a table and drinking tea.
At the centre of the table, there's a round metal "well" about 4" (10cm) deep and about a foot (30 cm) in diameter. It has don\t touch, may be hot" written on it in English and Chinese. There are chopsticks, and a cup, bowl and plate. The waitress hands us the menu; it's in Chinese only. She fetches a colleague who knows a tiny smattering of English. We manage to communicate the words "rice" and "chicken" and "tea". The tea is hot and weak, and is brought in a large round metal kettle. This is left for us to help ourselves for the duration of the meal.
We are brought a little bowl of boiled rice each, not very hot, and a hot small-wok-ful of a very spicy chicken stir fry dish. I ask for a spoon - Reg tries chopsticks and does extremely well with them. I lived in Singapore as a teenager and tried and failed for 3 years to learn how to use chopsticks.
The dish is spicy-hot like curry, but very tasty. Each little piece of chicken has bone in it, so it's a case of spitting out the bone as you go along. With plenty of tea to wash it down its fine!
Afterwards we sit in a local park eating an icecream - and then wander through a very posh department store near our hostel. We walk through nearly a whole floor of shoes; there are familiar brands of shoes for sale; they are at least twice, and sometimes 3 times the price they are in England.
Reg has had an email which indicates that our special tour within China ( I don't want to mention where in this blog) is probably off. The tour company may be able to arrange it later in the month, but this would mean lots of extra travelling for us and a huge re-arrangement of plans, and what if it gets cancelled again? We think it's all to do with the current political situation.
Reg is torn as to what to do, as he's really disappointed for us both. He doesn't think it's viable to change all our travel plans in China, especially as it's not absolutely definite the tour could go ahead later in the month. So we could change our plans for nothing.
I am absolutely devastated. It was the highlight of the whole trip for me.
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