Day 28: The Tale of Two Cultures
We ate breakfast, and Phil went to the theater. I joined a group going to this area of town that was supposedly Arabic. We weren’t sure what that meant or what we would find. I just now googled it and all I could find was that it was the “Arabic Fashion Center”. It was definitely a shopping area. The architecture was so neat. It was Arabic (well, it was more of the stereotype architecture) meets Mongolian.
See what I mean? A mosque-type structure next to a Pagoda. But it was beautiful, nonetheless. Especially with the blue skies!
We found a place to make a wish. Or more like three.
We also found some street-side pastries that were unique to this area. Yummmmm. So cheap, too. 2 yuan. That’s like 36 cents. So awesome.
(Aren’t those ladies beautiful?)
(Isn’t this old man adorable?)
We continued simply walking down the street. There were just so many lovely sights!
We were told some parts might be a little “Las Vegas” ish. You decide.
Regardless, I loved the architecture of so many buildings. It had a very quaint, old world feeling about it.
Then we found this cool bridge.
And along the way there we also found puppies!
I wanted to just put this little guy in my pocket and take him home with me. Good thing he wasn’t a kitten, otherwise I really would have!
I went back to the hotel in order to walk down to this shopping place everyone was talking about. It actually was very cool inside, had some interesting things, would bargain with you, and was pretty cheap.
The entrance:
The inside:
It was fun. Good practice for the Silk Market! I spent about an hour there, and then walked back. It was about a half hour walk (so much walking on this trip!) with pretty sights along the way.
Call was at 4:45, so I got to see Phil and tell him about my day.
Here are shots of the theater. This one was quite large.
The outside:
The inside:
We called it an early night because Phil was sick, and we had a fun day trip for tomorrow to the Grasslands! So excited about this one.