In the morning, despite our original plans, Larry woke us up early. "I have an idea, let's go to Ruoergai (若爾蓋)!"
"Where is that?" I grumbled, still half-asleep.
"It's a couple hours to the northwest of Songpan by car. I've never been there but heard it's quite interesting. Lots of Tibetan and Qiang minorities. And I met a driver who is willing to take us there for 40 RMB a person!"
"What about the lawyers?"
"They'll understand... we'll just tell them later. I'm sure the two of them will have a great time going horseback riding in Songpan."
And so the three of us got our stuff ready, and headed down to the car, a "bread van." The driver was a Mr. Kemu (克木), and he was taking a bunch of people (we were 6 people total) with him. I dropped one of the lawyers a text message while in the car, wishing them a safe journey. We were on our unexpected way once again.
Larry then brought out the bread he had bought this morning in Songpan. It was a huge loaf (or perhaps pie or cake, given the shape), and it only costs 5 RMB. We shared the bread for breakfast, but could not come close to finishing:
On the ride, as the elevation was ever-increasing, we saw plenty of yaks, also called maoniu (毛牛) in Chinese (it translates to "hairy cow"), grazing in the fields:
As we neared Ruoergai, Mr. Kemu veered off the main road – apparently he didn’t want to pay the 30 RMB toll up at the both ahead (to the left):
Instead, he headed for the side dirt path (on the right) that only costs 5 RMB, which he paid to a local:
This dirt path was extremely bumpy, though luckily it was quite short and just a cut around the tollbooth station. In a few minutes, we arrived in Ruoergai.
Mr. Kemu and the passengers alighting the "bread van:"
This is Ruoergai. At first glance, it looks like a small frontier town:
Of course, it has a much different from most Chinese towns, and even Songpan, which is just two hours away. Ethnic minorities roam the streets; they had dark skin, but red cheeks, due to the high altitude. There seems to be lots of idlers just hanging out by the main road, perhaps they were waiting for transportation or just had nothing better to do, but it seemed like a troublesome town. Police cars patrolled the streets regularly. Maybe it was just me, but it seems like there was tension in the air.
We go and use the bathroom by the bus station, which costs 1 RMB.
Though usually people have to pay me to use restrooms of this quality. I let them off the hook this time.
We looked around for a place to stay. The cheap hostels unfortunately also had terrible bathrooms and no showers. We could have done it, but Baba didn't feel like roughing it again. Instead, we found a nice 3 star hotel:
We negotiated down the price to 160 RMB for a room that would fit the three of us, as it is off-season. After dropping our stuff off, we head over to eat lunch at a restaurant on the main road. The selection was pasted on the wall:
Larry recommended the Big Plate of Chicken (大盤雞), which by itself, was enough for the three of us. However, Baba wanted some of Xinjiang's famous Hand-Grabbed Lamb (手抓羊) and a ramen, while I wanted to have some 羊肉泡沫 (Lamb Paomou, a noodle soup with bread dippings instead), which I still remember from my trip to Xi'an (西安) four years ago. We asked the owner if there was a smaller size for the Big Plate of Chicken – he said there was, but it was only 45 RMB instead of 50 RMB for a small "Big Plate of Chicken." Given there wasn’t much difference in price, there was no point.
To break the impasse, I suggested, "Why don't we just go find some people to eat with us?"
Larry asked, “Who? It’s already close to 2pm!” I saw a beggar outside the shop:
He was missing half of a leg but I'm sure he was still hungry. So I said, “I know there are beggars outside the street. Maybe we can invite them in."
Larry disagreed, “No! We have to be very careful, lest they ruin the atmosphere. You never know what kind of character you would bring in on the street!”
“Well I’m sure there’s someone still hungry. Let's go look anyhow... after all, this is your specialty!”
“My specialty??!” Larry laughed good-naturedly. So we placed our order for all four dishes even though we knew we had no chance to finish it ourselves.
Larry and I headed out of the restaurant to look for potential diners. On the main street there were the usual suspects, people waiting around and being idle. I asked Larry if any of them will do. “No, I don't think so. We must be wary of the people around the train station. But maybe we can wait around for backpackers to get off the bus. They are the safest.”
I was skeptical. “At this time of the day?”
“Perhaps there are still buses that come in.”
“Okay, but we don’t know when the next one will come.”
“You see, the main problem is, it’s already close to 2pm. Everyone has eaten who wants to eat...”
“I'm sure that is not true... perhaps most people have eaten but surely there are still some who have not.”
All we needed was someone hungry in this city and who is pleasant enough to provide good conversation and not to ruin our atmosphere. We looked around desperately. Time was running out, and we were hungry. Could we find someone before our meal arrives?
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