Hohhot-23.08.12

We arrived in Hohhot at around 7am and were met by Tom our honcho for our stay there. We got to the Jinye Sunny Hotel and our rooms weren't ready given that it was 8am I wasn't surprised. We waited and went down to have breakfast for 10 yuan Chinese brekkie.....not to my taste having random pancakes fried rice, weird chicken soup and noodles with green tea is not my idea of breakfast......massive cravings for just a ham, cheese, tomato toastie. It's almost taboo to talk about it because the cravings are that bad now.
After breakfast our rooms were 'ready' as in housekeeping were not even close to touching them and we sat in the hallway and waited, it didn't take too long and we were able to relax before heading out to a temple in the afternoon and a do spot of shopping.
At around 10:30am we met up with Tom in the lobby and headed out, plenty of stares awaited us however I certainly feel like Hohhot was a LOT different to Beijing just in the way I felt about it. I feel like Beijing made me claustrophobic after a while sometimes mainly because people there are always staring and making you uncomfortable, you just get over it after a while. Though even in Hohhot sitting in McDonalds all eyes are on you, I was over it by the end of the day. Though the temple that we visited was the oldest Buddhist temple in Hohhot and quite beautiful with all of it's intricate detailing. After the temple we went to old town and shopped around,  I love those tiny streets and the history they hold, it's like a different world where you jump back to a different era just a few paces away from the modern conveniences.
Once we were back in the early afternoon just about everyone had a nice nap apart from me, I pottered around doing my laundry and organising my bag and trying to catch up on blogging. The girls woke up late afternoon and we decided to have a look around that night, funnily enough it was Chinese Valentines Day and we could hear blasts of fireworks going off and suddenly lanterns started floating up past our bedroom window and so we decided to investigate. The whole city was out in this plaza across the road from where we were a completely random event we were so pleased to be a part of, everywhere lanterns were going up in the air, some more successful than others. There were people everywhere soon dancing and kids rollerblading and practising tricks (everyone roller blades in China so no one can laugh at me anymore ).
Of course we had to light a lantern and make a wish Bec, Aimee, Alison and I bought one and attempted to light it and of course a huge crowd of onlookers wanted to see if the Aussies went down in flames or succeeded. Pfft of course we succeeded for about 150 metres :) We faired better than others though coming down in flames of love.
We just stayed around and lit sparklers and enjoyed the joyous atmosphere in Hohhot following the festival of love we grabbed some much craved McDonalds and headed back through the crowds for a late start.....a much needed late start.