Saturday 2^nd December, 2017 1600

Surprise, surprise! Whereas for dinner they are often late, with a trip beckoning the girls turned up ten minutes early. Odd that.

Taxi to the west train station, at which point the girls wanted something for breakfast. KFC seemed appropriate and I considered having one of their cheese and egg muffins. I have no idea when they stop the breakfast menu (McDonald's is 1030) but at 1020 it was daytime rubbish. The last thing I want in the morning is fried and breaded chicken legs so I passed and left the females to get French fries. I could wait for tonight's curry.

We did go to the Dongguan Grand Mosque. Yes it is fairly substantive, albeit dwarfed by the surrounding tower blocks. But ancient it certainly was not. In fact I have seen better looking school buildings. Of course the girls wanted to get up close and personal so I had little choice but to follow, there being nowhere I could discern to sit down with a pizhou. Perhaps any attempt to sell alcohol near the local Muslim capital would see the premises torched.

Whilst taking the odd photo outside a car stopped and the driver admonished me for smoking. Hold on, I was outdoors and not on mosque premises. Pissed off, I told him where to go but he nonetheless persisted in repeating “no smoking!”. Eventually I twigged that they are offended by smoking on even the outside entrance and so moved a pace outside the bollards. Two feet six inches can make all the difference between being berated and being accepted. Lunacy.

I refused to go in, I have seen mosques before and to be honest this one never impressed anyway. However, whilst standing there puffing, a legless (quite literally) beggar came shuffling up the road using his hands. Normally I simply ignore beggars or bluntly tell them “no” but on the way into Lanzhou west train station, Annie and Stephanie had walked straight past money laying on the ground. I am a little more observant and picked it up, waiting until we queued to collect our tickets to see how much my haul was worth. Forty yuan. I did wonder if it was a TV set-up but no, some poor sod now couldn't maybe afford their train ticket.

So I gave the beggar the 40y and immediately felt less guilty.

The girls naturally had to go into the temple and after walking around the block they found a back entrance where women wearing headdresses were entering. I refused entreaties to join them and instead waited outside, yet again being accosted by the smoking police!

Waiting for a taxi to get to the hotel was all but fruitless. Luckily a private car stopped and offered erroneously to take us for 15y. He obviously had no idea where we wanted to go and it took Annie to engage satnav to find our way, way further than he thought. And do you know, I was so impressed that he never tried to increase the price when it was patently a more expensive ride. I had to give him 25y despite his protestations that he quoted fifteen so he would honour it. A rare thing.

So the apartments are attached to the Xining Sofitel. Nice hotel. The apartment itself is enormous and both bedrooms have their own bathroom. In fact it is on a par with the General Manager's suite in an Hilton hotel. See photos.

Needless to say, the back-country girls with me have never been anywhere as plush.

So the plan now at 1735 is to try and get a table at the Indian restaurant which, commensurate with my luck, happens to be closing down on Monday whilst the owners return to the States. Fingers crossed, we actually get to eat the raison d'etre for the trip!

2140

There are perks when you pay for the best seats in the house. One of those is that the hotel will do their best to book you a table at your chosen restaurant.

There was in fact no need, for despite fears it would be packed due to the closure on Monday for a couple of months, there were few other customers.

Not an extensive menu it has to be said but the roti, dahl, pakora, butter chicken etc were perfectly ok. The beef sizzler would have been lovely but the meat was tough and I shan't do them down on that having had the same problem myself recently. A very pleasant meal finished off by the unbelievably low price of 250y! I was so surprised that I bought the girls a purse apiece. The restaurant sells them for a friend of the owner, she hand makes them using only Tibetan materials. Presumably a small gesture in the fight for what Tibetans perceive as Chinese oppression. Personally I am ambivalent as to whether the “occupation” is good or bad but then it is not my fight.

Now back in the apartment, bottle of red on the go. Hell, why book the best rooms and not use them??