23/6/25
In the morning we sat in the dreary restaurant and had our coffee with one of the brown sugar buns we’d bought the day before. It didn’t take long for us to decide we would wait one more day before leaving. It wasn’t just the consistent rain. We felt a little unrested too. We watched the world go by, and before long the sky brightened. Perhaps we should have left after all. We’d finally decided to head north. Dreams of the edge of the Tibetan plateau were just that. It would take too long to head so far west before turning north. We planned to rely heavily on the route of a German couple who had headed south. They’d found a path, there was no reason not to use it.
It took a long time for us to decide to go anywhere. We really wanted to do some laundry. Pounding around for 45 minutes we only came across dry cleaners. Back to the hostel. Only then did we discover they had washing machines of their own. Wasting our time really got to us. We felt down in the dumps. We weren’t coming or going and hadn’t rested our minds either. The hostel washing machine was an infuriating joke. It required WeChat, of course, and 20 different dialogue boxes to be navigated to start the machine. Then we were stuck in the hostel waiting for it to finish, perplexed at our own stupidity for not doing it early in the week. We lay in our room for an hour, feeling sorry for ourselves.
Once the washing was finished we pulled ourselves together and went to hang it up. Then we made for the metro station. Next stop, the World Horti-Expo garden. It was created in 1999 and has been maintained as an attraction ever since. The Sun had come out and the afternoon had turned into a hot summers day. We sought shade in the ‘tree garden’ after trying to access the main greenhouse. It was closed. There were no notable trees that we could see. We meandered slowly up to the cable car. It would take our lazy bodies 1km and 100m uphill. It was obviously old and didn’t even slow down to let people in. It was a well timed operation whereby two people opened the doors, stuffed you in, and swiftly locked them. Toward the end of the journey it became stuffy.
The top of the hill was notably cooler. It was a park. Multiple scenic spots and pools of water. A group of young people were collecting insects. The bell tower was nearby. A 14 tonne bronze bell inside. It wasn’t the original location. It had been relocated several times. At the bottom and top were souvenir shops. On our way to the Golden Temple we passed a series of bronze cast statues.
The Golden Temple was entirely cast out of bronze. There were some golden guardian figurines inside. A group of young men were filming a video on the steps. Presumably informational. There were some lovely old trees beside the entrance. The outside, turreted, wall had a perimeter of precisely 365m. One for each day of the year.
Our walk down was via a long and steep set of stairs. We took a bus to the vegan buffet again. This time we were early, and the first people in. We once again scoffed our faces on all manner of delicious vegan foods. Not making ourselves quite so full this time. The battered durian were enticing though. We got ourselves back early to have a restful evening.
Surly They Won't Make It 