Navigating blind, with our intuition and taste buds

From the frontier with Russia we headed north west, to the frontier with Mongolia. The Chinese province we were aiming for was so similar to China's northern landlocked neighbor that it goes by the name Inner Mongolia. Our destination: the grasslands.

To get there, we took our third overnight train from Ha'erbin to Haila'er. This one was the cheapest, only Y275 (~$40USD) for a 10 hour train ride with a soft bed. Not a bad deal. We knew we were getting close when we woke up the next morning and the view was full of grass and livestock.

The train pulled into the Haila'er train station at about 7am. Our plan to secure a bit of breakfast and a ride out the grasslands, about one hour away. Simple, right? Or so we thought.

We scoured the Lonely Planet China. Whoops, no map of Haila'er, not even a basic quarter page affair. Hmmm. No worry, we would head to one of the hotels, in the center of town, and begin asking around. We caught a taxi relatively easily and arrived at the hotel. No luck, though, because they spoke not a modicum of English. We ventured out into the streets of Haila'er, with our bags in tow. We didn't know if we were walking north or south, the right way or wrong. We went down into a pedestrian tunnel to get across a particularly nasty roundabout.

We emerged, look around, and were lost as ever. We found another, larger hotel, and went inside. No luck at the front desk, but at least it was a chance to use the free and nice restrooms. On our way out, a staff member saw me looking confused and asked what we were trying to do. "Hire a car to Jinzhanghan" I said. One moment...she looked and came back with a sheet of paper full of Chinese characters that quoted a price of Y150 for the ride. Not bad, but higher than we had expected. We headed back out.

There was one place in the Lonely Planet that sounded particularly promising, a hotel near the Mongolian part of town. But, for the life of us, we could not find it. We kept walking around in circles. Finally, as Max was venturing down another side alley trying to get a clue, I brought out my iPhone. Somehow (divine intervention?) there was a free wireless signal there. I called up Google Maps and we were able to get a bit of orientation and locate the hotel.

At this point, however, we were starving. So we headed to a cafe near the hotel, where we were quickly hidden upstairs in a room away from the other customers. I tried to order, but the waitress said one moment and left. She returned with a telephone, with a live call on it. She handed it to me. I said "Hello" and a torrent of Russian poured out of the phone towards me. Russian! Nice to know that my beard works, but it is not a language I speak. So I said thanks and hung up, then placed a very random order with the waitress, literally just pointing at two random items on the menu.

First, though, she brought us a large thermos of milk. I don't know what kind of milk it was, but it was very grey in color. Yak? Horse? Other? It wasn't bad, and the warming sensation it provided was delightful.

Next came the julienned potatoes in oil and vinegar. These were great, light and refreshing. I don't know if they were even cooked all that much, as they retained a fair amount of crunch.

Finally, the noodles in milk broth with lamb arrived. These were, to put it charitably, not good. The noodles were ok, if a bit overcooked and too thick. But the broth was fairly heinous - warm savory milk that tasted a little funky. And the lamb - so gamey and so so overdone they must have boiled it for hours. I could eat only a little, and I was hungry.

Coming out of the meal that provided enough sustenance for us to continue, we were determined to get out of town. It was nearing 11am, and we wanted to spend this day on the grasslands. We went to the hopefully helpful hotel and began to talk to them. Their English was limited and our Chinese was worse. Using every bit of our two skimpy guides' language sections, plenty of hand gestures, and some dumb luck, we managed to communicate what we were trying to do. But then nothing happened. And then it appeared we needed to negotiate. So we turned to our secret weapon, my friend V. We called him up on our (well, his actually) mobile and asked him to play go between. He talked with them. He talked with us. They talked with us, sort of. He talked to them again. He talked to us again. Finally, we had determined that they wanted Y600 for a two day trip to Jinzhanghan and required the inclusion of a guide. Too much!

On Max's good suggestion, I ran back to the other hotel and confirmed that we could get a one way ride for Y150, and that it would be easy to get a return trip for the same price. I got Max away from the overcharging hotel. Once booked, our bilingual hotel helper walked outside, talked to the first taxi she saw, and agreed the price. We piled in, and were off!