Of course, since it was still morning, I had to use the restroom before climbing the Great Wall, so we all caught the tram and the driver took us to the restroom. I was happy to see that there was a western style toilet, but was quickly disappointed to see there was no seat attached to the bowl. Guess it was still better to hover above rather than use the squatty toilet?? Was a tough feat since I left my bag on the tram and I needed toilet paper. Someone ran to get it for me, but I ended up getting my squatting exercise in while waiting. One thing for sure, I will not miss the Asian restrooms and searching for western toilets or the major smells of it all...ugh, enough, I'm making myself sick just typing about it again. I don't do well with public restrooms anyway.
After we all used the restroom, we jumped into the tram so it could take us to the entrance. We all had a good laugh because it was literally right next door!
Here we all are getting ready to climb:
You can see the wall behind me:
The steps leading up were very steep and varied in height which made it even more of a climb! Needless to say, I was exhausted and hot, so I had to rest and couldn't make the rest of the climb. I was very over heated and was thinking I need to burp or fart, something to make me feel better so I wouldn't throw up. I know, so lady like, but I did't want to throw up! Once I drank some water, I felt better and finally burped. I also had a wet washcloth on my neck and worked my handheld fan to cool me down along with my hiding under my umbrella. Such the ajumma! Old Korean lady, but that's ok, I have labeled myself that.
My hubby did make the last of the stairs to the top and here is the view:
I was so close, but really, I know my limits and was happy just to have gone as far as I did. Not everyone can say they have been to The Great Wall of China!
By the time we sat down for lunch, I was more like myself, but still hot. We had to pack up our luggage and load up the van as we would be traveling to a different city after lunch. As we sat at the table at lunch, my hubby was busy texting our son, who was on his cruise in Rome, rough huh? The Director of the China program was explaining some things to us and the van driver came in to join us for lunch after he packed our luggage into his van. As my hubby is busy texting and not paying attention, I notice the van driver, who is sitting to the left of my hubby, sitting with his shirt rolled up his belly to cool off. I nudged my hubby to look, but he thought I was nudging him to pay attention so I nudged him again and tilted my head towards the driver and when he noticed, we started laughing. We just thought this was a funny way of cooling down, but had seen many of the Chinese men doing this thru/out the day so of course, my hubby had to join in and say he was going to bring this practice back to the states and make it a trend and call it 'Hansoning' like the pic trend, 'T-bowing'.
Another couple in our group thought this cooling method was pretty funny too and they had noticed the driver doing this and we all started laughing, as in the church laughing because we were all trying to be respectful of the Director talking. My hubby was laughing so hard, I told him to take the wash cloth that was provided for cleaning our hands before the meal, so he took it and covered his entire face so he could laugh into it. Seriously, it was the funniest thing, but guess you had to be there. Here's hubby Hansoning on the bus:
Time to load up the van for our trek to Meihekou, a five hour drive, tho the driver said it would be more like 3 1/2 hours. Let's just say it was a very LONG five hour drive being all cramped in a ten passenger van, tho two of the seats were taken up for the luggage...ugh! And to top it off, my hubby needed to use the restroom and was depending on getting to our destination in 3 1/2 hours. And to top off the whole trip, the driver was getting sleepy and began swerving and driving slower so we all told the Director to keep him awake! We made sure to keep an eye on him the rest of the trip.
Reading the road signs of how much further, he thought he was ok waiting, but the waiting dragged on and on and on. I kept asking him if we should stop and he kept saying no! Once in the actual city, it took forever to find the hotel. I informed everyone once we pulled up to the hotel to stay clear of the door so my hubby could get out quickly. I felt so bad for him!
And the 'fun' continued as we checked into our hotel rooms...let's just say the hotel was not up to our standards, really anyone's standards as our room was smoke filled, the carpet leading into the bathroom was wet and moldy with the black mold very obvious on the wall. The bed was as hard as the floor, no wifi or internet. This hotel was in place of our original hotel we were booked at, but the government was holding a meeting at that hotel and took over the entire hotel so we got bumped to this hotel...our loss for sure...
Having dinner at the hotel was a shock when we walked into our own private room, this is what we saw:
The food was amazing and there was so much of it! After dinner, we all had to sort thru our donations we brought and sort into gift bags for the next day. During the business, I made sure we would be moved to a different room since I knew my hubby was not a happy camper with our current room. While I was busy packaging bags, hubby moved our things to our new room. Once I was done and saw our new room, it was amazing to see such a difference. The one annoying thing about hotels in China, smoking is allowed in the rooms and the smell is horrid! But at least we had a better room than previous. I then got the other person a different room since her room was horrible too with the wallpaper torn and shredded halfway up the wall, seriously? Why would they even consider giving these rooms to guests?? So disgusting.
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