I woke up and realized why I was so cold last night, the windows were left open and it didn’t notice because I arrived so late and so tired that I didn’t check behind the curtain covered windows. I headed down to the reception to check out and to complain of the hot water that was promised but didn’t really exist. I was replied with that is how it goes here. I then complained of how cold I was that the windows were left open by the service maids. There was no sympathy or any sense of service. I had already paid them the money last night and they really didn’t care that I was unhappy.
As I laid in bed last night I realized how much I much I enjoy comfort even though I can rough it and how much I like to eat well even though I can go on very little.
I had millet porridge for breakfast. The pickled vegetable was too sour for me. At the restaurant I saw two people who were also heading for the caves but they had just filled their cab with another couple. The four of them were splitting a hired car for a day for the local rate of 200 yuan.
Another patron at the restaurant who was once a cab driver now a long distance bus sleeper berth bus to Lan Zhou connected me with his brother Hsu who is still driving a taxi to take me to the caves and will also help me take care of train ticket to Lan Zhou. We agreed on 100 yuan for his service all the way to 4:30pm. The other option would be to take public bus for 8 yuan to Mogao Caves and 10 yuan to Crescent Moon Spring and 5 yuan to bus center, another 20 yuan to the train station with the grand total of 43 yuan instead of 100 yuan. However, public bus runs every hour here and there and not always on time and taking the direct route. I may risk missing my train and have to stay at the hotel for another 150 yuan and forgo my train ticket on top of that. So, I felt the cheapest and most time consuming way was go for a hired car for 100yuan.
I told my driver that I needed to go shopping for thermo wear because I was too cold and needed a thermo to hold my tea. So he took me to the right places and wasted no time and helped me out with prices too.
At the historical famous caves of painted flying Devas, my driver told me that the whole tour would take 45 minutes in the caves, well, I took two and half hours. I didn’t bring a flash light like I was suppose to. The caves are kept dark and parts of it can only be seen with flash light lit by the tour guide. The paintings on the walls looses its vibrant colors and grows dark due to oxidation. I joined three different tours just to see as much as I could. Each tour guide had different caves it visits to keep the traffic flowing.
I learned there was a cave where a monk was sealed in along with thousands of scrolls of Buddhist scriptures. This one man discovered this by accident when the sealed wall was cracked a hundred years ago. He decided he would go ahead and sell the them even though they were not his to do so and he didn’t have the authority to make such a decision. As a result, most of these important scriptures and were lost for profit of one man.
Somehow at these caves there was no translation available in English for foreigners so I stepped in and helped fellow travelers. They thanked me on how much of a difference this made to their understanding of the significance of these caves and recommended I should consider the career as a translator or a tour guide. I said they don’t pay me enough.
The paintings were amazing, intricate and detailed. I like the flow of the lines and it is these lines so well done that these caves were famous for. I hope somehow these painting will be preserved in the long run and the colors too.
