Yabuli train station
The resorts offer beginner to advanced slopes, and for as low as 100yuan (approx. US$15), you can ski for 2 hours, and it even comes with snowboard/ski and piste rentals and ski-lift rides to the intermediate or advance slopes. Hire a coach if you can’t ski to save your life.
While I was there, struggling not to fall down the bunny slope, I saw little kids from the national team repeatedly whizzing past me (running uphill in their skis) and then racing down at top-speed N times– so much for thinking I’m athletically-inclined! However, I saw just as many beginners crashing into the fence. My excuse for my poor form - I was born in a tropical country!
At Yabuli, the ever-resourceful beau found us a homestay in one of the nearby villages for an "authentic” dongbei experience for only 50yuan a person.
Dongbei people traditionally in-build brick stoves into their brick houses. The locals burn wood-fire to cook and warm the house. The heat from the stove is channeled into various parts of the house, including the walls, and the bedrooms which have a platform about 1 m high (thus eliminating the need for a bed-frame) where you can lay mattresses and bedding. This keeps the house incredibly warm and toasty during the long, harsh winter.
However, for whatever reason, i couldn't sleep well that night. Maybe the platform was too hard and i was used to sleeping on a thicker mattress. Or, maybe it was because the heat coming through the mattress was so strong that i felt like i was a pizza being cooked over a fire.
Anyhow, our homestay was very pleasant and relaxed- we felt enveloped in warmth inside the house (even though it was minus 20 deg C outside) and the very nice hostess also served us hearty home-cooked meals.
The next day, Beau and I embarked on an ambitious plan to hike from the village to the top of the mountain. It didn't seem very far (from where we could see) and it appeared to be a half-day job - just had to walk past the lake, and into the forests and cut through a couple of hills to get to the top - or so it seemed. Everybody we enquired said it could "possibly be done" although they had never tried. Needless to say, we lost our directions since we didn't have a topo map or a compass.
After walking past the lake, we entered the forest and meandered our way through. the trees There were no visible trails and the ski-slope was obscured from view. I grumbled at Beau while we trudged in knee-deep snow and fought the branches in our face. The snow in my shoes were making my toes frosty!
Suddenly, we became aware that someone else was amongst the woods, watching us as we walked through. We turned and saw some wild-looking man in a tatty army jacket and a dead deer lying by his feet. He sat there motionless, staring at us until we said hello and ask for directions to the ski-slope but he seemed very sinister and unfriendly. He pointed us in the opposite direction of where we were heading, and without saying much else, dragged the deer into the forest and disappeared. We were sufficiently spooked-out when he appeared behind us just as silently 15 minutes later without the deer. We let him past and again, he melted into the forest in a matter of minutes. We decided to turn back - there was no way we could make it on to the ski-slope by our targetted time, and this guy spooked us out. Did he shoot the deer? it looked like a bullet went through its body but we didn't hear any gunshots.
On our way back out of the forest, we saw drops of blood along the trail and we figured out that he had dragged thie animal down the hill to store it somewhere and came back up again. How on earth did he drag this load down and return so quickly?!
Beau and I had a field day speculating various theories about this guy - he didn't seem like a farmer from the nearby villages. Our most plausible theory being he was a convicted criminal on the run, hiding in the woods and living off the land. Was he alone or did he have some fellow hunters?
Anyway, that was how we ended of our little hike and in the end, we had to hop on a bus to get to the ski-grounds -an unglamorous conclusion to our little Siberian wilderness adventure.
By the lake
I love the wilderness and the stark landscape -pristine white snow that glisten in the sun and the desolate forests. In the distance, spires of smoke rise from the farmhouses. There is an overwhelming silence except for the crunch of snow under your feet (or in your shoes!).
This is what i imagine Siberia looks like.
I didn't take that many photos because my fingers were frozen beyond mobility. Plus, my camera battery went flat frequently because of the cold and i couldn't be bothered to take my hands out of my pockets to warm them up!
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