Date: 1 April 2018

Day: 15 days since leaving NZ

Location: Shanxi, China

Route: Shouyang District to Taiyuan City

For Throwback Thursday, we picked a random photo and tried to remember how that day went.

Up and Above

The sun rose and lit our tent, not too brightly because the smog already blanketed the city. We camped on top of a hill in the forest park of the Shouyang District (寿阳县). Having had a great sleep, we quickly made breakfast and started our day.

There were two roads we could choose from that day, and we picked the shorter one (we don't always pick the hard option!) The route turned out to be a mountain pass, considerably steep too. We were sweating hard out under the beating sun. "Gotta make those gains" some personal trainer would be calling out.

We made it to the top just in time for lunch. The view on top was beautiful, having climbed above the smog revealed the true blue colour of the sky.

Food Lesson

For lunch we made curried couscous with beans from a can we bought over from New Zealand. Since we only recently started, Pheng was complaining about the food being plain. Matt suggested to add more spice and herbs to give it some more flavour. So Pheng got out the spice bag and this happened...

Curry powder: added

Cumin: added

Let's add more cumin for extra flavour!

The meal finally cooked and we served it out into two plates. Something didn't taste right. We were certain the beans don't usually taste bitter. The couscous couldn't be, they absorb flavours. It was the cumin. So much cumin made the dish so bitter we struggled to swallow each spoonfull. Eventually we threw out the last 5% after we tried so hard to not waste any. We did enjoyed the view (↗️Instagram) where we had lunch though!

Pheng recorded the ride going down after lunch on (↗️Strava).

It's a Yes

Earlier that week we had requested from a few hosts on CouchSurfing if we could stay at their place. One person kindly accepted us and we met him at his restaurant.

Once inside, he got us tea and we shared and talked about our travel. As we talked about home, he said him and his wife had been to New Zealand and how he sorely misses the lamb shanks he had. Before it got dark he told us to go and have a look around the river where everyone hangs out.

We returned just after sunset back to the restaurant. The restaurant was in the final days before the grand opening and we were the lucky guests to try out some of their menu. We can't remember but the aunty or sister joined us for the meal too. They hand made all the dumplings and we complimented them on how skillfully folded they were.

We really enjoyed that day. The road took us to many places and we met some kind locals who fed us so much, we couldn't thank them enough. The next morning we left and wished him the very best for his restaurant business.