Monday 21 May
Last night it rained heavily - the first rain we've seen since Moscow, back in April. It's still raining this morning, but not so hard - but it's an encouragement to stay in bed a bit longer. We have no particular plans for today, except that I'd like to post home a parcel of warmer clothes I'll no longer need, and Reg needs to book a couple more trains and hostels.
In the shower room this morning I get talking to a young Chinese woman traveller who's just arrived at the hostel. She notices my cross and asks me if I'm a Christian. I say, "Yes, are you?" and she says she is - we hug and I am nearly in tears, because she's the first Chinese Christian I've spoken to, as far as I'm aware. She tells me her parents are Christians too. I tell her how I've missed going to church on Sundays while I've been away. She says Chinese people meet together in someone's house on a Sunday to worship.
I need to buy sellotape to do up my parcel. It's double wrapped in 2 black plastic bags. I ask the hostel receptionist to write sellotape in Chinese on my piece of paper. He tells me that I can buy sellotape in the supermarket just around the corner. Then off Reg and I go, parcel in hand, as the "China Post" isn't far away.
In the supermarket, I show my piece of paper with the Chinese writing on, and immediately the assistant disappears, returning with a roll of wide sellotape - just what I need. At the China Post, we cover the parcel in sellotape, to make it stronger - as we are doing this, the counter assistant looks bemused, and consults with a colleague. Reg and I take the parcel to the counter. The assistant talks to us in Chinese; we don't understand, but obviously the gist of it is that they can't take my parcel. They write something in Chinese, plus a bus number - it seems we have to go to a bigger Post Office to post the parcel.
We return to the hostel; the receptionist is confirms that the bigger China Post is a 30 minute bus ride away, on 2 buses. We decide to wait until we get to Xi'an and try there. What makes me think that posting this parcel home is not going to be easy? I'm sure I'll have to fill out a customs form. Will they want to open the parcel? We'll see.
We're searching for some lunch. We pass lots of small places where food is being cooked at
the cafe entrance, but it doesn't look that appetizing. Reg walks into a small cafe and sees someone eating a rice meal, with meat and vegetables, that looks ok to eat. We smile at the cafe owner and point to the food the man's eating, hold up 2 fingers (in the nicest possible way) and say,
"We'll have 2 of those, please."
The meal arrives soon afterwards, and is delicious - not too spicy. We are given hot water to drink with it - in Urumqi it was always tea in the kettle. We are grateful to have had something good to eat, and the total cost for the 2 of us was 16 yuan, or £1.60.
When my purse was stolen in Kazakhstan, our spare passport photos, which we'll need for our Cambodia and Thailand visas, went with it. We spot a photographic studio, and venture in to enquire about passport photos. The lady photographer is very friendly and takes a lot of time and trouble to take and produce our photos - 8 for Reg and 4 for me, as I already had some. The cost is 36 yuan, or £3,60.ed
I spend the afternoon replying to emails, while Reg sleeps - this is a catch up day. In the evening, we go for a walk through the backstreets, where we find a medley of different shops and food points, selling everything from meat to fruit to noodles to mobile phones. Later we search out a takeaway we spotted yesterday, which sells stirfried food in baps. We choose, from a selection of meat and vegetables, what we want in our baps, and we can have a fried egg too, so we do.
We take our feast back to the hostel, and enjoy it in our room. We haven't done so badly for food today.
Later we will pack up again as tomorrow morning we leave Lanzhou, taking the day train to Xi'an, arriving there at about 11 pm.
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