Bye Bye Beijing

April 4, 2015

Today started very early and didn't end nearly early enough! We had to leave our hotel at 3:30 this morning to catch a flight to Datong. We had a bit of a snafu at the airport when it was discovered that Claire's reservation was made with 2013 as her birth year rather than her actual birth year of 2003. Thankfully, our tour guide was able to get that resolved quickly enough to get Claire and her parents on the flight with us.

It was a very short flight - just an hour from Beijing to Datong. Out luggage all arrived fine and we were ready to roll - but there was no guide. After a short wait, he (George) showed up. We had an immediate issue with the bus that was provided as there were no luggage compartments, so all of our suitcases had to be loaded on the bus into the back seats, taking up room that we needed for seating. We were able to all get a seat, but just barely and the luggage had to be stacked very high.

Our first stop was a visit to the Yungang Grottoes. There are 45 separate caves or grottoes that date back to around 490 AD. They were created as monuments to Buddha aqnd each had different carvings or statues of Buddha. They were incredibly detailed and very impressive. Some of them had statues that were 25 - 30 feet tall  and there was one that had to be at least 40 feet wide and was carved on all sides of the cave as well as with a huge center column that was square and the column was 20 feet wide. What was most impressive was that ALL of the statues and carvings were part of the original stone. Nothing was brought in. Our guide told us that they 'opened' the cave at the top and started their carving and statues from the top and worked down to the floor of the cave and base of the statue. It's hard to describe, but it was a very good stop and we all really enjoyed it. I found out that this was an 'add on' to the tour that was requested by Les (my brother in law).

Next stop was lunch - you guessed it... Chinese food. I guess it is an easy way to feed a large group of people, but I'm ready for some other options.

After lunch, we headed to our next stop  which was the Hanging Monastery. Unfortunately, getting there proved to be very difficult. We drove and drove and drove and just as we reached the base of the mountain road that we needed, we hit a major traffic jam. Our driver got out and asked others what was going on and he was told that there was a bad accident up ahead. We turned around and took a different route. This new route took us another 45 minutes to reach the monastery, so we didn't arrive there until after 4 pm.

I mentioned the seating issue - well spending that amount of time in the bus on winding mountain roads was less than comfortable. Aside from the comfort issue, the drive had a GPS device that was making some sort of noise constantly! It was either talking to him (in Chinese, of course), or chirping or beeping or ringing or whatever... What it really was was annoying!

The Hanging Monastery was really cool! It was built - literally - hanging off the side of a cliff. There were 3 levels and they were all open to climb and walk through. It was built in the year 400 something - can't remember the exact date, but that means it's 1500+ years old! I loved it and of course, I climbed to the top - not everyone was comfortable enough to do so and several from our group chose to stay on the lower levels. The setting was beautiful as well - it was nestled in a river gorge between 2 very high cliffs. It was well worth the drive and is now my 2nd favorite attraction of the trip, 2nd only to the Great Wall.

By the time we loaded everyone back into the bus, it was after 5 pm and we had several hours of drive time to reach our hotel. So we settled in and prepared for hours (and hours) of listening to the Chinese GPS. We were supposed to have a 3rd stop - a visit to the Yingxian Wooden Pagode - but it was too late in the day and we told our guide to skip it and get us to the hotel.

We finally arrived at about 9 pm, all of us hungry and very tired - remember that our day started at 3 am... We got checked in and dropped our luggage in our rooms, then went in search of some dinner. The hotel restaurant was closed by this time, so our closest and easiest option was McDonald's. Not my favorite but by that time, I didn't really care, I just wanted food.

My roomie (Jen) & I had been put into a smoking room. At first, we were just going to live with it but then we were chatting and decided that was not ok with either of us. Even though I'm a former smoker, I never smoked in my house or really indoors at all so I didn't appreciate the smoke smells and neither did Jen. She argued with the front desk people (through our guide) and got us moved to a different room. It was also a smoking room, but they had opened the window to let it air out, plus sprayed air freshener so it was better than our first room, but only marginally so. By the time this was all settled, it was after 11 pm, so we had been up for 20 hours and we were exhausted.

Throughout the day, I had been unimpressed with George - he didn't seem to have as much knowledge and information as we had come to expect. Our first guide (Apple, from Beijing) was great and I think she spoiled us. Well, George was not as great - he knew some stuff but we all had the impression that he didn't fully understand many of the questions that we asked him. Well, George redeemed himself (in my eyes) with the room fiasco. He understood our discomfort and went to bat for us in trying to get us moved to a new room where we would be more comfortable.

Even though we've been up for 20 hours, there won't be much rest this night because our train leaves at 7 am so we have to be ready to leave the hotel by 5:30 am. Hopefully, I can catch up on my sleep AFTER vaction, right?  :)