Dàtóng (大同)

Sunday, May 11, 2014

After our visit to the Hanging Monastery we drove to Dàtóng were we arrived before noon and checked in to our hotel. This was again a ‘Home Inn’, a chain we’ve come to like: nice, clean rooms, wifi… and you know what you get for your money.

We spent the afternoon relaxing, planning and preparation for our trip in Mongolia and doing laundry. Sterlin has been converted to camping mode again. The weather seemed to clear up a bit so we decided venture out for a walk. After about 30 minutes it started raining again so we turned back, but not before finding a reasonably good supermarket. Amongst others we bought some (plastic) cheese and fresh bread buns. You’d be amazed how tasty that can be, having been deprived of cheese for some weeks!

We decided on ‘dinner in’ which consisted of pot noodles and beers, and we were joined by Kim and Vaughan.

Monday, May 12, 2014

We woke up to blue skies and warm weather, perfect conditions for what just about turned out to be the ‘pièce de résistance’ of our China trip: Yungang Grottoes. We literally hit a road block driving there due some sort of demonstration, so we had to consult our gps to find an alternative route.

We’d been looking forward to seeing these ancient Buddhist grottoes, but nothing prepared us for the actual experience. Absolutely Amazing. Naturally Yungang Grottoes are also a Unesco World Heritage Site. We spent a couple of hours exploring the dozens of caves with thousands of Buddha statues and sculptures, in all shapes and sizes.

We then drove in convoy to Stephen and Vaughan’s favorite family restaurant to take a McBreak from Chinese food. We parked our cars right in front of a sign that pointed to Walmart, so after lunch we stocked up on supplies like cornflakes, jam, wine, Stella Artois,…. You can imagine we were very happy campers!

Back at the hotel we spent time on Sterlin to convert him back to camping mode: cleaning and filling the water tank, checking the tent,… and updating the blog, working out logistics for Mongolia and beyond.

The convoy in Datong traffic.
McBreak.
Stella… reassuringly expensive.

Meanwhile, Ivor had developed an issue and needed some TLC, and, most importantly a new starter motor. The parts were ordered and promised for the next day. We all kept our fingers crossed…