Merrell/Chong Family travels: Yabuli. More travel adventures

The man who rented us our apartment had found a taxi driver willing to take us 200 kilometers to Yabuli and wait while we skied and then drive us all the way back for 1000RMB, about $150. Pretty good deal since the best I had been able to find otherwise was about 2500RMB. You can also take a train followed by a bus for about 100RMB per person but that only leaves you a few hours to ski. So, we hopped in the cab at about 6:30 in the morning and headed out. Took forever to get out of the city but once we were on the highway we made good time. Kind of reminded me of trying to get to Hunter Mountain from NYC. Once we got there the driver drove us to a little guest house apparently owned by a friend of a friend of his. We called the owner "Rocking Man Bun" for his hairstyle. We changed in his guest house and he rented us helmets. He took us over to the ski resort and got us set up with lift tickets and rentals. My guess is he got some sort of kickback but we paid the listed rate. Full day lifts and rentals was about $110. The terrain itself reminded me of a mid sized east coast resort. About 1500 vertical feet. 10 or 12 runs. 2 lifts (Gondola, and high speed 6 chair). The snow was mostly hard packed or groomed machine made snow. The 2 or 3 beginner runs were absolutely packed with Chinese learning to ski and their instructors and photographers documenting it all. The regular lifts had no lines and the black runs were completely empty, no moguls. The blue runs were nearly empty. Overall we had a good time. I will say that Chinese slope etiquette is similar to Shanghai driving etiquette. I saw behavior from several skiers or boarders that would have resulted in a fist fight in Colorado and the few times there was any sort of wait for a chair it was a free for all. We left about 3:30. It was just starting to snow as we left. We stopped at Rocking Man Bun's place to return the helmets and change clothes. We headed down the road. About 10 miles later we got to the on ramp for the highway and it was closed. Apparently ice and blowing snow had caused several accidents. There was a way back to Harbin using country roads but in those conditions it would have taken all night. Our driver called Rocking Man Bun to see if there was any room at the inn and then we headed back to his place to spend the night. Kids were pretty stressed about not getting home but it turned out to be a good experience for them.

Rocking Man Bun's guest house had three kinds of rooms. The most traditional for North China has what is called a Kang bed. Think of a platform made of bricks about 50% larger than a king sized bed. Could probably put a dozen people on it if you wanted to. There is a coal oven under the bricks where you build a fire which heats all the bricks and then you sleep on a nest of quilts on top of the Kang. There is also another version with an electric heater instead of the coal oven. Finally there were rooms with regular beds. The kids got the last room with regular beds. Margaret and I took one with an electric Kang. It was very warm but the quilts don't do much to soften the bricks.

That evening was a great experience. Before dinner we sat around a table with the taxi driver, Rocking Man Bun, and the older couple he had hired to cook and help run the guest house. We talked about life and politics and healthcare and all sorts of things. We used a mix of translation apps on our phones and relied on Syd and Nick for a lot of translation. At one point Margaret got a huge laugh when we were discussing US presidents and she called Trump a "Si Gui" Its apparently an epithet she learned as a child from her parents and literally means dead ghost but I think the word may be a bit more spicy or profane than that. Anyway all our hosts laughed at that one. It was interesting watching Syd and Nick get involved in the conversations. They were both listening intently and Syd was very active in the conversation. Nick was his usual quiet self but whenever Syd didn't know how to say something Nick was usually right there with the correct word or phrase. They actually made a very good team and I was very proud of them. For dinner that night they brought out a huge iron wok with chopped up chicken and mushrooms. You ate the chicken and mushrooms and then threw in noodles and vegetables like a hot pot. There were also some very good homemade dumplings. Our driver ate with us and taught us how to do it all.