Finally..... from Qiqihar to Hailar， part 1 - (从齐齐哈尔到海拉尔，第一部分)

          

The meat in this food from Qiqihar tastes fresh.

              My whole idea of going to the north of the country always involved going to Inner Mongolia. Initially, I planned to come here first and work my way downwards but for some reason, I was not able to book a flight to Hailar . So , I altered it to come here at the end. I thought I would see plenty of grassland here. I did not know what to expect as regards the people. To be honest, everyone (that was not concerned with the virus had been nice.) Well, apart from the guys who wait until you leave the train station and then shout in your direction. At this point in time, (or at any point in time) I always need at least 10 minutes breathing space when I leave the train station just to get used to the new environment. Anyway, as it happened I need not have worried about the taxi guys today. So why was that?

           Well, the virus was building in strength (the rumours about it , the possibility of people carrying it, cross border (as regards cross provincial) travelling etcetera.) I still needed to give the ears a bit of a cleaning and I had no look with the hospitals in Harbin and Qiqihar. 

           When I got off the train (along with about 80 others) we went to the main exit but we had to swip the health code thingy. At this point the woman who was observing the health code saw that I had been in Shenyang (and I think Dalian) so she asked me to see the nucleic acid test (核酸检测). I did not have any. I just brought the sheet of paper that indicated that I took the vaccine. (I don't think anyone cares about that one.) 

          Anyway, the upshot of it (after a bit of deliberation -- (i.e: Myself asking her to speak a little slower , a few odd looks -- followed by another woman (also wearing the full hazmat garb) who  explained everything.) was a visit to the hospital straight from the train station. [To be honest , I was really glad that the second woman explained the procedure as I was a bit confused as to what was going on. At the same time as she was explaining the procedure to me, she had at least 6 guys shouting at her to tell her the their health codes were fine and that they did not want to wait in queue's]. The guys that work in these station must have some patience.

        So , 2 other people and myself were loaded up in the bus and transported 7 km to the local hospital. It was about 5.30 P.M. We were escorted to the place where the tests were taking place but it appeared like everyone had gone home. 

           After a quick phone call, the keys to the hospital were obtained and the cotton bud down the throat test was completed. We were told to wait in a deserted bus for 2 hours to get the results. To me this sounded a bit strange as if one of us had the virus, surely sitting on a bus with others might easily spread it? 

waiting....waiting...waiting

           I guess the others thought in a similar manner as nobody ended up sitting in the bus and we waited in a field for the 2 hours. It was nice to get talking to a couple of people who had taken their test right before us. I asked one guy what he was doing here. He relied that he is here for a meeting and that he comes from Wuhan... We both started laughing.

The result.

The word '阴性' means negative.

               Anyway, around 7.30, the results came through and everyone was OK, so the police gave us the piece of paper and I left the place to find a place to sleep for the night.

Not sure what this symbolizes but it looks nice

People are always busy at any time playing chess or dancing.

The new place complete with fan (Which is not necessary up this far north)

Clouds v waste 

Hailar on a chilly morning.

        I had heard that there was a museum for the 鄂温克族 Ewenke people nearby. I wanted to check it out as I heard that the culture is quite different.

Typical clothes from the past

These might come in handy in  the winter.

                                 Those hats are needed when the temperature goes below -40 degrees celsius

A typical scene

A bow and arrow as well as a deer horn caller

I heard that there was a park in the centre of the town called Genghis Khan square. I am sure it had some symbolism so it was time to find it. First, grab a bus.

Em , not much room on this bus.

I was wondering at one point how could I actually get off the bus...

The man himself....in statue form.

I walked around the park for a while. A couple of locals saw me and wondered if I was a lost Russian. There were not interested in asking me but I responded to their loud conversation anyway. 

Genghis and the lads

Sunshine on a sunny day

Although the park always has its moments, it is always nice to just go for a ramble and see other things (usually this ends up in me walking into another park.) Anyway , people really like flower arrangements up north. 

The pot hot sick and out came the flowers. 

Russia that way!

            I found out that the locals like to take a dip in the river , too. (Many people down south seem to have an aversion to water. That does not seem to be the case up here.)

Looks like a safe enough place to swim

I decided to head back to the hostel. I did not bring an umbrella with me as I had not seen any rain  at any point along the journey. The heavens opened for maybe 10 minutes and afterwards I could not get over the amount of rain that had fallen on the street! I had to walk in the middle of the road as some of the path were flooded.

After a 10 minute torrential downpour.

It might be easier to row to the other side.

                         I went home for a few hours and by the time I went back out on the streets, the floodwater had disappeared. 

                         I still needed to get the ears cleaned out and it appeared that the hospitals would cause more harm than good at  this point. As I was ewalking down the street I noticed a sign in one of the massage place '采耳' (pick ear)so I thought that I might as well give that a go. So I walked into the place.

                        A woman brought me into the place and I told her that I had a ton of cr*p in my ear and please help me get it out. I guess she had not done this that much before (I don't think people in general go in there for the ear picking activities.) But she proceeded to get a lot of gunk out of my ears. Afterwards she became VERY confused . She asked if I wanted anything else and at this point I was just happy to realign my balance again. I said I REALLY did not want anything else and thanked her for doing what the hospitals refused to do.

                        It was one strange experience . I must remember to clean the ears out the next time before going on my travels.