Overnight in Inner Mongolia

Things took a lot longer than expected in Hohhot. It took time for the BA flight crew to arrange to have the plane refueled (Hohhot is not a regular BA destination, and I was told the captain had to use his credit card to pay for the avgas...). Though we waited and waited, the fog in Beijing didn't lift. After several hours the crew had to rest and it was decided that we would stay in Hohhot overnight. Then it took time to obtain permission for us all to disembark and go through immigration. It was the middle of the Spring Festival (Lunar New Year) week, so they had to dig up immigration officers during the holiday. We went inside and milled around, and waited, and sort of queued in a very confused manner, and finally went through immigration. Then we waited again for a bus to take us to a hotel (which turned out to be a < 5 minute walk away), where we queued again to check in. There weren't sufficient rooms, so single travellers were told they had to double up. Luckily we had each other ;-)

All in all, not a great introduction to China - it was cold, we were cranky and tired, we had no local money and there was no ATM, we spoke no Chinese/no one spoke English, we were miles from the town center with no way of getting there, we had no idea when the plane would leave, it was a mystery as to what we would eat - and when the food arrived what it was. Fortunately other passengers were very kind. They let us use their cell phones to call our hotel in Beijing to let them know that we'd been delayed and would arrive the next day; they exchanged money with us so we could buy breakfast and coffee; and they provided entertaining conversation during the endless hours of waiting.

Though disappointed about losing a day in Beijing, we'd been interested in seeing Hohhot itself (top attraction according to our guide book: camel races in June), but unfortunately had no way of getting into the town. When we flew out the next day I did see a temple rising from the dusty plain. This vacation is turning into a tour of unexpected airports - I'll post pictures of Hohhot's in due course.