中国之旅-西北篇（2/4/2009）

在火车上的早晨，感觉还是昏沉沉。我拿了一罐Tuna鱼和一包Milo去找鹏和嫣，在两个中国人好奇的眼光下吃完早餐。交谈之下才知道原来那位广州老兄要到拉萨去，他还怂恿我们办中国人进去。“你们说得一口流利的普通话，样子像广东人，肯定没问题的！”。不过我们还是没有去，因为什么都没准备，也没有足够的御寒衣物，不想冒这个险。
I wake up after sleeping for long time, but still feel dizzy. I go to find Sam and David, and had my Tuna fish and Milo (chocolate drink) 3 in 1 for breakfast. After some conversation, we found that the Guang Zhou guy is actually heading to Tibet, and he encouraged us to enter as well. "Three of you looks like Chinese from Guang Zhou, and you speak Mandarin fluently, they won't suspect you are foreigners!" But we did not enter Tibet eventually, because we have not prepare the proper attire, the contacts for accomdation and where to visit.

华山的侧面 Side View of Hua Shan

翠绿的油菜花和西安古城 Rape petal and Xi An Ancient City


途中所见的河南/陕西边界风光 Scenery at the border of He Nan and Shan Xi

虽然很冷，还是得装成很enjoy的样子，演技不赖，呵呵~~
Although we feel very cold, but we still need to take a photo showing that we enjoy it!

沿途上，我们看到了各地完全不同的风光。湖南是一片翠绿，偶尔看到小桥流水人家；河南一带则少了河流，但仍然可以看到农作物和油菜花；到了陕西则是一片荒凉，都是黄土高原。这时我们才知道，中国是多么的大~~
We found that in China, the view for different provinces are totally different. In Hu Nan, we can see lots of green grass, small streams, bridges and villages. In He Nan, there are not many rivers, but we still can see plenty of farms and rape petal. But after we passed by Shan Xi, we can only see the loess plateau, full of sands and rocks. By taking the train, we get to know how huge the China is!

两个中国人都很健谈，从天文地理军事社会万象到中国崛起和本身旅途所见所闻，谈了个不亦乐乎。能在中国第一天就遇上这两人，也算是为我们的运气，让我们多了解中国的风土人情。兰州老兄还特地把床位腾出，让我们拍下华山的侧面和西安古城的正面。
The two Chinese are very talkative, they chit-chat many issues from geographical topics, military, society illness, what they see when they travel, and how the people around the world look at the emerge of China. We should be grateful to know them, as they tell us many faces of China and the Chinese culture. The guy from Lan Zhou even let us sit on his bed, just to snap the view of Hua Shan and Xi An ancient city.

午餐，我们下定决心要善待自己，就各自选了一份火车餐，到餐车厢享受去！火车餐没想象中那么难吃，但是很贵。好不容易熬到了6点多，我打了个电话给青海桑珠青旅的虎子，才知道原来他们旅舍赶不及完成装修，床位满了，所以只好把我们介绍给另一间旅舍。
We decided to have a better lunch today, so we ordered the meal and eat at the "restaurant" in train. The food is not as bad as we think, but very expensive! Finally, it is 6pm, so i make a call to Sangzhu Youth Hostel, and found out that the hostel is full! The boss told me that they can't finish the renovation on time, so he introduce us to another youth hostel.

8点我们终于到达了西宁，告别了31个小时的漫长旅途。当我走下火车的刹那，才发觉原来外面的风是那么大、那么冷！本来我们已经有心理准备天气会很冷的，但还是忍不住要大喊：“好冷啊~~~”。据后来旅舍的人说，当时的温度接近零度了。
8pm, we reached Xi Ning after 31 hours of tiring and loooooonnnnng journey. I am so eager to run out the train for fresh air, but end up shivering like hell... Although we know that it will be very cold in Xi Ning, we still feel like screaming, it is soooo colddd! The people in hostel tell us that it is nearly 0 degree that time, phew~~


有趣的标语，连英文都懒得翻译~~晕倒！ What a good translation! Do you understand?

好不容易熬住走出了车站，我急忙去寻找出租车到石坡街去，一问价竟然是30元。当时我知道应该是被砍菜头了，但环顾四周有没有其他的交通工具（都是同一伙 人），加上我们也不知道石坡街有多远，就只好乖乖引项就砍了。路上我假装问司机有没有到青海湖和其他地点，价格如何等，以作为将来的参考，了解一下他们是 怎样砍人的~~（后来才知道，原来这一段路只值7元，果然被宰了）
After walking out from the railway station, i rush to the only pool of taxi drivers, hoping to get a ride to Shi Po street. When the driver told me it cost RMB30, i know that i was being "slaughtered". But it seems like we got no other choices, no other transportation around, and not many people passed by as well, so we have no choice but accept the expensive ride. (Eventually, we find out that the journey actually cost RMB7 only!) I pretend to be innocent and ask about the prices to go to places around Xi Ning, so that we know how much the taxi drivers will charge if they want to cheat you.

鹏、嫣和小强合照。 David, Sam and Xiao Qiang

鹏、嫣和小飞合照。 David, Sam and Xiao Fei

终于轮到我出场了~~~ David, Sam and ME finally~~~

到了石坡街，才知道我们将入住的旅舍叫“西凉驿”，也在进行装修，但我们的房间都很宽敞舒适。老板元外是个北京人，也是个旅游迷兼超级背包客，非常和蔼可亲。我们还认识了老板娘和两位在旅行途中被“劫持”当临时工的小飞（男）和小强（女）。看到我们一脸饥饿相，小飞和小强带了我们到附近吃西宁最出名的美食--烤羊肉！
Finally, we reached the Xi Liang Inn Youth Hostel. Although the hostel is still under renovation, we manage to get a spaceful room. The friendly boss Yuan Wai come from Bei Jing, he is also an enthusiastic backpacker. We get to know his wife and two other travellers Xiao Fei and Xiao Qiang. They are "kidnapped" by the boss to help out temporarily. When we told them we are very hungry, Xiao Fei and Xiao Qiang immediately bring us to the nearest restaurant to have the most famous food in Xi Ning -- toasted mutton!


烤羊肉 Toasted mutton

烤羊杂 The organs of lamp

超级多的面 Noodles, damn a lot!

饿了4个小时的馋相 This is how we look like after starving for 4 hours

据说小飞一餐可以吃5公斤的羊肉，但我们3个吃了半公斤就已经饱了。还有那碗面，吃来吃去都吃不完的，这时才相信，中国人的食量真大！小飞为了“减肥”，眼神尽量不和羊肉串接触，看着我们大快朵颐而猛吞口水，真难为他了，呵呵。小强是位苗族姑娘，失业后就到处旅行去了。
According to Xiao Qiang, Xiao Fei can eat 5kg of mutton in normal meal, but we already very full after eating half kg! Somemore, the noodles is damn alot, now we know that Chinese people do eat a lot compare to us. Xiao Fei said he is "on diet", so he try not to look at the mutton, else he will end up eating all of them, haha.... Xiao Qiang is actually from Miao ethnic group, and she starts travelling after losing her job.

吃完晚餐回旅舍后，发现元外和两个女生用半咸不淡的广东话在交谈，不时还夹杂两个女生发音奇特的普通话，我就好奇的过去看看。嘿，那两位女生原来是香港人，一听说我们会讲广东话，就好像见到久违的亲人一样，叽里呱啦地说了一大堆。原来他们可是憋了好几天的广东话没处说，呵呵~~可惜明天他们就走了，不然还可以结伴同行。听他们和元外错误百出的交谈，简直就像是鸡同鸭讲，真还不知他们怎样沟通的，哈哈！不过我想只要重要的事情没误会，其他的就当作旅途的笑料吧，也不错！
It is indeed a very good dinner! When we reached the hostel, I heard that the boss is speaking broken Cantonese (oops..) with another 2 girls. The two Hong Kong girls are so excited when they know that we speak Cantonese, and start flooding us with what they had experience for past few days. I bet they have not speak with people that understand Cantonese for a long time! Too bad they have to leave by tomorrow, else we can travel together. I was wondering how they communicate with each other since the boss know limited Cantonese, while the Hong Kong girls know limited Mandarin. Haha, as long as the important messages are conveyed, who care!

元外介绍了一位司机给我们，说能带我们到塔尔寺一趟，来回才100元，比我们想象中还便宜！我想真是出门遇贵人了，这个福报可真大！
The boss Yuan Wai introduce us a reliable taxi driver to take us to Tar Lamasery, the whole trip cost only RMB100, which is cheaper than we expect. I think we meet good people this time, thank GOD!

我们的3人间 Our hostel (Big big bed that can sleep one and a half person)

我们在寒冷的西宁度过了在中国的第二个晚上。
We spent our cold night in Xi Ning, which is also the second night in China. Good Night!

西宁伊斯兰妇女的装扮（对不起，我出卖了你~~）Islam lady in Xi Ning? (Sorry David~)