TravelStream™ news feed for member kateandalison on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/kateandalison en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:42:23 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kateandalison/1/1214062800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kateandalison/1/1214062800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kateandalison/1/1214062800/tpod.html Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:42:23 -0400 Kate and Alison's Big Adventure!

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St. Petersburg, North-West Russia, Russian Federation

Once we arrived in St Petersburg we walked to the St Petersburg Internation Hostel and made some noodles for lunch.
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Moscow, Central Russia, Russian Federation

We arrived in Moscow at 5pm, and then went down into the Metro to get to our hostel. Unfortunately we saw a dead body on the stairs down to the Metro, and even worse the officials who were there were making no effort to block off the stairs or to cover the body, so rush hour foot traffic was basically stepping over this body - it was really horrible to see.

The metro stations are really ornate in Moscow so itś quite a pleasure to travel through them. The only difficulties are that you have to queue for a while at the ticket office to buy tickets (according to the number of journeys you want, at 19 rubles per journey), and then once on the train you have to count the number of stops as from the train you cannot see the station names (unlike the London Underground where you can see through the windows for example).

It was easy to get to the hostel, and it was very nice. We both had showers and then headed to Old Arbat St for some dinner. We sat on the terrace outside a restaurant and got typical Russian service (scowling when you ask anything, smiles do not exist, no words exchanged at all!) The food was good though.

On Thursday 19th June we woke up to a brilliantly sunny day, collected the train tickets to St petersburg that we had booked through the hostel, and headed into town. We discovered that the Kremlin is shut on Thursdays, so instead we walked to Red Square and went inside St Basilś. The first sight you get of Red Square is quite unbelieveable - itś hard to believe that St Basilś was built in the middle of the 16th Century. Inside, St Basilś is really interesting as it is made up of many tiny chapels rather than one huge space, and the decoration on the walls is really wonderfully restored and of a really interesting simplistic style, which was quite refreshing after the intricacy (and repetition!) of the Chinese temple design.

We had lunch at a Russian chain restaurant that was recommended to us, called Yolki Palki. I had goulash and Ali had blinis and we both really enjoyed the food and the friendly service. The chain can also be found in other locations in Moscow and St Petersburg and is pretty good value compared to other restaurants. The restaurant was close to teh Bolshoi Theatre, which is unfortunately closed for renovation and currently covered in scaffolding. We decided to walk along the river for great views across Red Sqare and of the Kremlin, The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and a huge statue of Peter the Great on a giant ship...

That evening we went out to a park near to the hostel to have a picnic dinner. It took ages to get what we needed as we couldn't find a supermarket for a long time, but it didn't really matter too much as the nights are so light anyway (there were small children playing in the park at 10pm, I suppose because according to the light it's no different to 5pm!).

Walking around Moscow we saw some amusing evidence of the presence of the nouveau riche - a white Rolls Royce driven by a man driven only in beige, a furniture shop selling silver winged chairs, and a car with the number plate 'MILLION' in cyrillic... of, what style the Russians do have!

On Friday 20th June we packed our bags and checked out, then took our bags to the train station and stored them there for the day. Then we went to Red Square and tried to see Lenin's mausoleum to extend our 'preserved dead communist leaders tour' (after Mao in Beijing), but unfortunately he's shut to visitors on Fridays. We went to the Kremlin instead, which involved having to queue for quite a while and also to store our small backpacks in a luggage room (for a fee of course). From our time in Russia we learned that every tourist attraction has different prices for foreigners, which are up to 5 or 10 times more than the price that Russians pay - it's very annoying and makes it expensive to go into attractions. Itś well worth going into the Kremlin though, as the ticket allows you entry into several cathedrals and museums that are in the grounds, as well as the small gardens and the opportunity to see inside the complex where the government is housed.

After a few hours inside the Kremlin we went to get some lunch and sat on the grass in the gardens to the west of the Kremlin to eat it. We did some souvenir shopping and then took the metro to visit a cemetary that has the graves of many important people in it. However we did not manage to get in as it had already closed. We sat beside the nearby lake instead, with a lovely view of the monastery itself. After a while we went to have some dinner and drinks on Old Arbat Street, where there were many souvenir shops that opened late, and many buskers. Then we went to Red Square to see it all illuminated at night (it was very beautiful) and got the metro to the train station to be there in time to collect our luggage before midnight. Our train left at 2am, so we had to wait in the station until then.

The train to St Petersburg took 12 hours, and we were in 3rd class (plaskart). It was very crowded and I didn't really enjoy the extreme lack of space (it was really hard to find somewhere to put our big bags). Luckily we were asleep for most of the journey, and at least it was cheap!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kateandalison/1/1213462020/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kateandalison/1/1213462020/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kateandalison/1/1213462020/tpod.html Sun, 29 Jun 2008 05:12:07 -0400 Kate and Alison's Big Adventure!

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Irkutsk, Siberia, Russian Federation

Back in Irkutsk we spent Saturday 14th June exploring the city. The city is quite pretty with nice buildings, especially the traditional wooden houses which we loved. We had lunch in a strange restaurant (decorated with false house fronts etc) which is accessed through a pizza place. The food was OK but the portions were not large and it was very quiet. We decided to go elsewhere for some dessert as the restaurant was quite overpriced, so we found a very good cafe. Afterwards we went to a museum to see an exhibition about shamanic culture, which had some excellent items on display. We didn´t know what everything was used for, as there were no English labels, but it was interesting nonetheless.

Later I found a telephone call shop to call the UK and after ages of trying to work out how the system worked, I managed to get through. Then we walked towards the river and saw some beautiful churches, one with a wedding outside. Finally before heading back to the hostel we bought food from the supermarket for our traintrip to Moscow the next day.

On Sunday 15th June we left our bags at the hostel, walked around the area, had some lunch and then made our way to the train station to catch our train at 4pm. On the train we ended up in a compartment with two English girls who were making their way back to the UK after 2 and a half years teaching English in South Korea.

I decided to change my watch back 5 hours to Moscow time straight away, which didn´t really work because my body clock didn´t agree! We all got along well and chatted all afternoon and evening, eating when we fancied and just relaxing. There was a gorgeous sunset out of the window on the first night and some strange low-lying mist in the fields and forests.

On the first night of our 3 and a half day trip on the train from Irkutsk to Moscow, we all slept in very late. I think it was because the compartment was so pitch black with the blind down. But when you have nothing to achieve in a day, a lie in doesn´t really matter so much!

During the days on the train we entertained ourselves playing cards, chatting, reading and watching the scenery pass the window. Every now and then we would stop at stations for half an hour or so, so that we could get off and have a wander around. We also bought food from the platforms, such as pancakes filled with cottage cheese, bread and drinks.

In the evenings we found others on the train to socialise with besides the four in our carriage. There were 3 friendly Swedish travellers a couple of doors down (who played europop for us, and introuced gin and tonic ready made in a can, which had a strange blue tinge that I think it is better not to ponder on too much...), and also an Australian couple that the other girls had met on their previous legs of the trans-Mongolian experience. The provodniista (carriage attendant) got annoyed with us for being noisy on the first night, and from then on they seemed to make an extra effort to inconvenience us (for example locking the toilet door as I was on my way there). They seemed to be very uptight, and we are not really sure why they do not make an effort to be friendly with the passengers in the carriage. It was more funny that anything else, especially when trying to outrun the provodniista to the toilet before she could lock it!!

On the train we mainly ate food that we had brought on board with us - bread with jam, instant noodles, porrige etc.

On the second day when we stopped at Tyumen, we made our way out of the station to buy vodka for that night, and then ran back to the train worried that it might go without us! We used the vodka to have a celebratory drink that afternoon when we passed the obelisk that marks the Asia-Europe border. That day we also walked to the end of the train to take picture through the window in the door of the track extending behind the train.

On Wednesday 18th June we were due to arrive in Moscow at about 5pm. We were now all on Moscow time (all had taken different approaches to changing watches, ranging from living on Moscow time from the start, living on Irkutsk time until the last day, or changing the time every day by one hour) by now. We saw some impressive churches on the way - one at Vladimir - and took some pictures. Then we packed our bags and had some lunch in the restaurant car. Ali and I both had soup, and it was very tasty although I wasn´t sure about the quality of meat in mine!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kateandalison/1/1212911460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kateandalison/1/1212911460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kateandalison/1/1212911460/tpod.html Sat, 28 Jun 2008 12:47:18 -0400 Kate and Alison's Big Adventure!

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Olkhon, Siberia, Russian Federation

On Sunday 8th June we got up early, ate the free breakfast at the hostel and got a taxi to the bus stop (just outside of someone's house it looked like!) to get a minibus to Olkhon Island, which is a 70km long island in the 400 mile long and 1 mile deep Lake Baikal. Some of our luggage had to go on the roof, but the rest was cleverly hidden under seats etc. It was nevertheless very cramped inside the minibus, and we were glad to arrive in Khuzhir, the village that we were staying in on Olkhon Island, 5 to 6 hours later. Driving out of Irkutsk we could see beautiful traditional wooden houses everywhere, and after leaving the city the landscape was quite hilly and forested.

To get onto Olkhon from the shore, it is necessary to take a short ferry ride. As we were waiting for the ferry to unload so that we could get on, a van reversed off the ferry into another man (almost crushing him), and the squashed man quickly pulled a gun out of the glove compartment of his car! Luckily he restrained himself and did not shoot, but this was a scary moment...

Once on Olkhon Island we drove for about an hour on dirt roads to get to Khuzhir. Nikita's Homestead where we had booked to stay was in a beautiful location, and the place was very nice. We weren't very impressed with the service from the reception staff, as they had messed upour booking and were quite unhelpful during the rest of our stay, but we were happy with the accommodation we ended up with. For 750 Rubles each per night we got a 'twin ger' - so a ger with only 2 single beds, some furniture and a fire - it was so sweet! The price included all of our meals, and they even provided a late lunch for us when the minibus arrived at 4pm.

We stayed at Nikitas for 5 nights from Sunday 8th June until Friday 13th June, and during that time we were fed great home cooked Russian food from the canteen (or they provided packed lunches if you were going to be out over lunch). These meals consisted primarily of Omul (a local fish in the lake, a white fish related to the salmon) prepared in various ways, rice, potato, vegetables, soups and meat. The canteen was a great place to meet people, and we made many new friends there.

Washing at Nikita's could only be done by using the banya (Russian sauna) - you booked a slot in the free banya (which was booked up a couple of days in advance!) or paid for a private one. When in there you sit in the sauna, then mix cold water from a barrell with hot water from the boiler into a bucket, and throw it over yourself! I found it quite difficult with long hair to rinse shampoo out etc, but I think Ali has decided that it is her new washing methodof choice! On the first couple of days we were only able to book one 20 minute session between us, so we had to have only 10 minutes each - that was a real challenge! Maybe the locals are better at it aftermore practice!

On our first evening we headed to the beach with some beers, and skimmed stones with James, our friend that we travelled from UB with. After that we played some cards in the ger and went to bed. I suddenly realised that I had managed to leave my shoes on the bus from Irkutsk, but luckily was able to collect them the next dau when the bus arrived!

The next day we had our first breakfast at Nikita's, a very generous affair with porridge, jam, bread, eggs and pancakes! We spent the day walking around the area and sitting on the beach. We tested the water by standing in it, and it was freezing! Not surprising really since it freezes to a metre deep and had only melts in April!

We climbed around the cove to the Shaman Rocks (there is a lot of Shaman activity on Olkhon) and wrote our names in pebbles on the hillside. Later when Ali met some new people at Nikita's and said her name was Ali they responded with 'as in "Kate and Ali"'. After some confusion about how they knew of us, we found out it was because they had seen our names written on the hill! Further along the coast there was an amazing view of a huge beach that turned into a sand dune with a forest growing among it. In the afternoon Ali went on a walk along this sand dune while I had a nap for a few hours.

Access to the internet was difficult on Olkhon - there was internet at a small gift shop, but it was expensive, and gaining access depending on whether the shop owner's children were playing video games or not!!!

A couple of evenings while we were at Nikita's a concert was put on with an accordionist and two ladies singing. The first time was a little disappointing as the audience in the canteen was small, and the concert was quite short. The second time it was great - loads of people watching, the performers were in costume, and everyone was joining in when they knew the words and children were dancing!

James left on Tuesday 10th June, as he was unwell and needed to get back to Irkutsk. Ali and I got packed lunches and went off for a walk for most of the day. We walked along the sand dunes, through the forest where there were beautiful pink flowers growing, and then over grassy plains close to the lake. We ate our picnic on top of a cliff with a beautiful view and then walked further along the coast. A dog belonging to a local house tagged along with us, but it seemed sedate enough, and after a while it found some other walkers who appeared more fun I suppose!

On the way back to the ger we walked along the beach, which was really long and took ages to cross! Then we bought some vodka from the local shop, and ate some ice cream in Siberia! At dinner that evening there was a local Buryati man (an ethnic group in this area of Russia who are related to some of the Mongolian tribal people) challenging guests to arm wrestling matches. He was enormous and beat them easily, but it provided some good entertainment watching other try to beat him.

On Wednesday 11th June we went on a day long jeep tour of Olkhon Island. The driver did not speak English, but we were lucky to have on the tour an American lady who spoke fluent Russian and could translate for the rest of us. We had a great day seeing some amazing sights around the island, although the driving was very bumpy (enough to rival the Mongolian roads at times!). We stopped to see the view from the west of the island across the lake, where the mountains on the other side are thought to look like various things like faces and animals. After that we stopped at some Shamanic posts representing 4 generations of Shamans in the village, where local people leave offering of money, cigarettes and broken vodka bottles for luck. Another stop was at a village that used to be a soviet work camp. Afterwards we went to the most dramatic part of the island - the northern cliff faces that were amazing. The guide said that it is possible to see Nerpa seals here, but we didn´t unfortunately. Just before lunch we moved on to the most northerly tip at Cape Khoboy, where we spent an hour walking to the end to see the view (and build a Shamanic pyramid of stones with some money inside for luck) before heading to a spot where the driver had made a barbeque for lunch. We had barbequed Omul with sandwiches, biscuits and tea. We ate the fish in the Russian style with our fingers, which was quite messy. After lunch we drove to the eastern side of the island where it is possible to see the highest point of the mountain, next to which the deepest part of the lake is (at about one mile deep). There is a legend about the place that we went that spending time there can help fertility, and that even now older women will go there to pray for grandchildren. The last stop was at a picturesque stony beach to get close to the water, and after that we headed back to Nikitaoe.

We saw lots of smoke across the town that evening, from some kind of fire on the other side of the village. It made the scenery very mysterious, especially when storm clouds also came in across the sky later on.

On Thursday 12th June it was still horribly rainy weather after the storm of the night before. I went into the village to go to the internet cafe (set inside a small souvenir shop in a ger). I asked to use the internet and had to wait for quite a long time as the owneroe children were playing computer games! She was being very nice and gave me some tea and chocolate for free. In the end I had to go as I had agreed to meet Ali for lunch. I bought some souvenirs at the shop, and still don´t quite understand why I didn´t manage to use the internet!!!

After lunch we walked around town, tried to visit the small museum but it was closed for the public holiday. We spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in the canteen with coffee and chocolate. It was really busy at dinner, and the concert that evening was very well attended.

On Friday 13th June we got a bus back to Irkutsk, chatting for quite a long part of the journey with a Russian couple and their young son. Back in Irkutsk it was very sunny (unlike Olkhon which had been raining), and we made our way to the hostel. That evening we went to a sushi place for dinner (not very Russian I know, but we´d had a lot of traditional Russian cuisine on Olkhon and fancied something different!). The evenings are very light in this part of the world, staying light until about 11pm - itoe nice not to have to worry about it getting dark in a city you don´t know well. On our way back to the hostel we met a group of Russian teenagers on the bus who invited us to a party! It was very nice of them but we declined and went back to go to bed.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kateandalison/1/1212839940/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kateandalison/1/1212839940/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kateandalison/1/1212839940/tpod.html Tue, 24 Jun 2008 03:51:30 -0400 Kate and Alison's Big Adventure!

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Irkutsk, Russia

Hi everyone,

Really sorry that it has been so long since writing anything on the blog. It has been difficult to access internet for long enough periods over the last couple of weeks. I will have to update the blog in stages even now, depending on whether someone else is waiting for the internet!

So, after the last entry here's what we got up to!

Still in Ulan Bator in the evening of 5th June Ali and I went with Margot to a nearby pub for dinner. We all ate nice salads and also tried some Mongolian fruit teas, which were pretty interesting flavours (we don't really know what!). Lucio, who we had first met on the Great Wall in Beijing, also turned up at the pub and we spent a while chatting.

On Friday 6th June Ali and I checked out of UB Guesthouse, and went into the city to run some errands before our train into Russia. We did some souvenir shopping and sent postcards, and also bought supplies for the trip. Also, I found somewhere to get a copy of my Russian visa made to carry with me in Russia in case evidence is required by the police.

Back at the hostel we got a lift to the station with a number of others catching the train, including a Welsh guy called James who we had met at the hostel. As we were leaving we ran into the same Australian who we had met in both Xi'an and Beijing already - what a co-incidence!

On the train Ali and I were in 2nd class, which is a compartment with a door with 4 beds inside. We were sharing with a Russian mother and daughter who were travelling to Moscow we think. James was in the next door compartment, so we spent a lot of the journey chatting and playing cards with him. James had some Mongolian traders in his compartment, and there were many more on the train who were trying the plant their wares in compartments to get them across the border into Russia. Luckily we were not affected by this though. James was asked by one to carry some jeans across, but of course he said no! The smuggling seemed to be surprisingly organised with the train attendants, who seemed to be travelling along the carriage ticking off how many items there were in each cabin - very suspicious!

We reached the border at 9pm, and by the time we left the Russian border it was 4am - so quite a long stop, but not as long as many other people we know, some of whom had to spend up to 16 hours at the borders! The Russian border guards were scary when they came onto the train in their stern uniforms and face masks, but they were in fact polite enough. The process went well apart from being very tired.

On 7th June I woke up on the train - having fallen asleep on the bed in my clothes I was so exhausted! The scenery was absolutely beautiful, and having just reached the shores of Lake Baikal, we could see the enormity of it as it stretched off into the distance, just like a sea. There were birch tree forests the whole way. After eating some breakfast and reading my book we came to a very mountainous area which has ski resorts in the winter.

We arrived in Irkutsk at about 3.30pm, and were collected by a girl from Baikal Hostel who took us on a very crowded matrushka (minibus) to the hostel, which was about 10 minutes out of town. It was a very small and quiet hostel, but the staff were very helpful and kind. James came with us to the same hostel, but as he hadn't booked he was put up on a camp bed. Ali and I were in a strange room where 2 staff members slept, and there was a small office in the back of the room separated by a curtain!

At about 6.30pm it was announced that we should join the staff, some of their friends, anda couple more guests for their 'start of the summer season party'. It was a bizarre experience involving a quiz about the area, a Russian folk story that the guests had to act out whilst in costume, a slide show of photos of the area, and some lovely traditional Russian cakes (apple flan and buns filled with cottage cheese) and tea. It was very odd, but really nice actually as the small group of people there were so friendly.
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Ulan Bator, Mongolia

Hi everyone,

Just to update you again on the last few days:

On Tuesday 3rd June we left Kharkorin at 8am as we had been told that the drive back to UB would take 8 - 9 hours. About an hour and a half into the drive we stopped at a sand dune called the 'mini Gobi'. It was pretty nice, with sand dunes set against the mountains in the background, but it wasn't particularly impressive, and I doubt it gives a real impression of the Gobi desert! We were a bit disappointed as we were told we could ride camels on the sand dune, but there were none to be seen when we arrived. I think the way it works is that if the driver sees a camel he grabs it.... Not very reliable!

A couple of hours further on towards UB we stopped for lunch at the same restaurant that we had lunch on the first day. I had mutton and rice, which was fine, but the ones who did best were those who ordered the goulash, which was excellent. In typical Mongolian style, these were the only dishes on the reasonably lengthy menu that were being served...

While we were waiting outside the restaurant to get back in the van, we saw a Mongolian ride up on his horse, tie it up outside while he had a quick lunch, and then ride off into the distance again. All of this while he was in traditional dress - it was really quite amazing.

On the way back to UB we saw quite a few mini tornadoes blowing dust up into the air in spirals - they looked really strange! We got back to UB at about 4.30pm, and then did some laundry, showered for the first time in 6 days (urgh) and then went out for some dinner. After all that Mongolian food during our trip, we fancied something with vegetables and flavour, so went to an Italian restaurant called the Green Olive for some nice salads and enormous portions of tiramisu...

On Wednesday 4th June Ali and I had to spend the day doing various errands that had been piling up. We went to Great Ghengis Expeditions to collect the train tickets for the next leg of our trip, walking through the main square in UB on the way. There isn't anything very impressive to be seen there really. UB isn't really worth a trip on its own - Mongolia is made by its amazing scenery outside of the city. It's amazing that in this huge country there are only 2.5 million people, and 800,000 live in UB. There are apparently 13 horses to every person and 0.5 people per km squared!

Back at the hostel we had some breakfast and then Margot and I went to the internet cafe for a couple of hours. After that I tried to make some phone calls home, but the phone shop next to the hostel was shut for lunch.. So we had some noodles for lunch and then set off in a taxi for the 'black market'. The market sells everything you can imagine, and dirt cheap. Ali and I were shocked by how little it is possible to bargain the prices down from the original price, as in China you tend to cut the price by at least two thirds before you consider buying! I bought some jeans and Margot picked up some traditional coats for souvenirs.

After a taxi ride back to the city, we made a quick trip to the State Department Store to look at the souvenir floor, then dashed back to the hostel to meet a group of others to go out to see a show. We saw an hour long show of traditional Mongolian music, singing and dancing by a national company, and it was really great. There was also a display of mind boggling cortortion by 3 small girls.

After the show we all headed to a nearby Irish pub (they seem to like those here) for some drinks and dinner. I had a good chicken salad. We all sat outside until it became far too cold at about 9pm, and then we moved inside to the very pub-style interior of green leather seats and dark wood. Inside Ali and I got Irish coffees and I (typical) scoffed a huge dessert... There was a band playing inside but they were playing nothing Irish at all, and weren't particularly talented! We headed back to the hostel at about 11pm.

Today Margot, Ali and I took a day trip from the hostel to Terelj National Park. We were up pretty early since the others in our dorm were leaving at 6am... Then the next delight was that there was no hot water in the hostel any more!

We left in a car at 9am, and got to the park just over an hour later. We were amazed that the drive the whole way there was on tarmac roads - what a luxury in Mongolia! Our first stop in the park (it's huge) was a temple set high up in the mountains, and very scenic indeed. After walking up to have a look, we drove on to the family whose ger camp would be our base for the rest of the day. We went walking for an hour or so in the hills around the camp before lunch. Lunch was truly delicious - pasta with vegetables and lots of flavour. It wasn't very traditional, but it did taste great! After lunch we went horse riding for 2.5 hours, with a small boy as our guide (and a very good rider he was - completely mad!) We rode to Turtle Rock, which really does look like a turtle, especially from a distance. On the ride, although our horses were certainly hesitant, we had plenty of cantering, and lots of freedom as well. It was brilliant fun. When we got back to the camp we were quite sore though, and the 'saddles' they use here are pretty uncomfy!

So after that we drove back to UB, through the awful traffic of the city, and the incessant whistling of the traffic police and they try to order the chaos!

I'm now in an internet cafe trying to burn photos onto CD, and it's taking a while. Once that's done we're all going out for dinner somewhere.

Catch up with you soon, (we're getting the train to Russia tomorrow!)

K xxx



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Ulan Bator, Mongolia

Hi everyone!

It's been a while since my last entry on the blog. We've been really busy over the last week or so, and so this is the first opportunity I've had to seek out an internet cafe to write something!

So, I last wrote on the blog on Sunday 25th May in the evening. That night Ali and I were in the bar at Leo Hostel in Beijing, chatting to lots of people that we had met over our stay there.

On Monday morning we woke up and had breakfast in the hostel - I enjoyed having their excellent scrambled eggs with tomatoes on toast for the last time! Ben and Drew, a Canadian and an American that we had met, came to say goodbye to us while we were having breakfast, and suggested that we should all try the special 'Leo's Vodka' before they left. (Note that it was just before 11am at this point!) The Leo's vodka looked disgusting - it was meant to be medicinal (many things in China are...) but it was essentially Chinese rice wine (a strong spirit) with lizards, mushrooms and other disgusting things sitting in it to give it flavour. Well, we tried a shot of it each and it was pretty horrible! Good to have tried it though as it looked pretty impressive in the big jar it was kept in!

After that Ali and I packed up all the things we wanted to send home, and went to the post office. We sent a large box home, and it should arrive after 4-6 weeks - fingers crossed! After sorting that out we caught the metro to the largest Bank of China to try to get some Mongolian currency. After waiting for an hour in a queue to be served (the service was pretty awful and so slow) we eventually found out that you can't get Mongolian togrogs in China. We were so angry that we weren't told this earlier when we arrived!

We tried to go to see a temple where the 18 layers of Taoist hell are described, but when we arrived the place looked like a building site, and the entry fee was very high. We gave up on that and instead just got a cold drink and headed over towards the Bell and Drum towers to find a restaurant and bar for a few hours. We didn't go in any of the many bars beside the lake, as the prices were ridiculous, so we returned to the 'Bell and Drum' for some food and drinks, where we had been before during our trip to Beijing. Later on we walked down 'Bar St' for a while, and then got a taxi back to Leo's. Once we were back we went shopping in the supermarket next door for food for our train journey the next day.

On Tuesday 27th we were up early to catch the train from Beijing to Ulan Bator at 0745. We were surprised to see that there were so many westerners waiting for the train in the departure room, even one family with a toddler - we thought they were so brave to be travelling with small children on such a long journey!

We got on the train and we were amazed by our 'deluxe' carriage - there were 2 beds, an armchair and a small washroom shared with next door. The cabin was wood panelled, just as you would imagine the trans-mongolian trains to be, and at the end of the carriage there was a coal fired samovar (hot water boiler) for hot drinks. We only booked this class for the first leg of the trip, but we were pleased to have the opportunity to experience it.

The trip was about 30 hours long in total, leaving Beijing at 0745 on Tuesday, and arriving in Ulan Bator at almost 1400 on Wednesday. We spent most of the day time on the first day reading, playing cards, watching the rapidly changing scenery and having naps after the early morning! At lunchtime we ate some dumplings that we had bought from street vendors when we left the hostel at 6am that morning. We felt a bit funny eating this cheap (but delicious) food in our posh cabin!

Close to Beijing there were quite a few high mountains and gorges with rivers and lakes beside them. We also passed by parts of the Great Wall many times on the trip - as we got further from Beijing and into the flat dusty and arid landscape further north the bits of wall were just random lumps of stone which were the watch towers. It was interesting to see the remains of such a huge wall stretching over so many hundreds of miles - it makes you realise how huge it was! These arid dusty parts of northern China seemed to be dominated by coal mines and the odd man with a donkey - it wasn't a very tempting place to visit!

In the later afternoon we went to the restaurant car (Chinese since we were still in China) and had something to eat. It wasn't bad, but nothing very special. We sat with a friendly Dutch couple who had been travelling for almost a year and were heading home to see their families, and we drank some beers with them.

At about 9pm we arrived ar Erlian, the Chinese border town. Customs officials came onboard to check our luggage, and then passport control collected our passports and took them away (scary!). We were in Erlian until about midnight, about 2 hours of which was spent in a massive shed where the wheels of the train were changed to match the different track width in Mongolia and Russia. We were given the option of leaving the train for this time and spending it in the station building, but we stayed on the train and were so glad we did! It was amazing being on the train and seeing the train being driven into the shed, split up into individual carriages and then lifted up by hydraulic lifts so that the wheels could be rolled out, and new ones attached. Since the carriages we all split up and put next to each other in the shed, we met new friends by leaning out of the windows while the whole thing was going on - it was pretty surreal! After the whole process had been completed we got back to the platform, our passports were returned and we drove to the Mongolian border. There again there were customs checks and our passports were taken. In our tired state we made the mistake of speaking some Chinese to the officials (it was about 1am and we had been up since 5am) and it did not go down well at all!!! Big dogs were brought onto the train, and there were armed soldiers standing on the tracks looking quite menacing. But, when one of the guys in our carriage waved goodbye to the soldiers, they suddenly smiled, waved and shouted 'Welcome to Mongolia!'. We were so shocked and surprised that they did that, but it was a nice welcome! So once we got our passports back, we went to sleep at about 2am.

After quite a comfy night's sleep on the train, we awoke half way through the Gobi desert inside Mongolia. It was a pretty bleak welcome to Mongolia, as it was sandy and dusty as far as the eye could see (not far with the dust storms) across flat desert! Someone who went onto the platform at one of the stops said that it was freezing cold. Quite a change from 30 degrees plus in Beijing! We ate some breakfast and then I tried to have a shower in our washroom, but there was no hot water so I gave that a miss!

After a while we noticed that there was white stuff appearing on the ground, and after not too long, we were travelling through a desert covered in snow! We were so shocked! In the snow we saw herds of cattle, gazelle, horses and camels, all looking so cold in the snow. Also we saw some beautiful black and white cranes.

We arrive in Ulan Bator (UB as it is often known) at about 1350 on Wednesday and the representatives from the guesthouse met us there. It was such a shock arriving in UB where it was 6 degrees C - we were so cold! They drove a minibus full of us to the hostel, we checked in and found our beds in an empty 4 bed dorm where it was just us staying. It was sooo busy and manic in the hostel, with so many people arriving at the same time in a place that wasn't very big. After we'd got our room we got some information about the tours that the guesthouse organise, and Ali and I decided to go on a 6 day tour out to the White lake leaving the next morning.

After deciding that we went to exchange our Chinese currency into Mongolian curreny, then popped into the first place we saw for food - an Irish pub (!!!) - and had amazing salads and hot drinks there. After that we found a shop to buy supplies for our trip, and then back at the hostel we packed for the 6 days, showered and had an early night.

On Thursday 29th May we had the free breakfast that the hostel provide (bread and spread and tea and coffee), left luggage at the hostel that we wouldn't need for our tour, met the other 3 people on our trip (an Australian couple and an Austrian girl called Margot) and our van driver and then set off at 0900. Our driver had just got married and had a small baby, and had asked us if it was OK if his wife and baby joined us for the first day's driving so he could drop them at his parents' home. We said it was fine, and so we picked them up further along in UB. The baby was so cute - chubby cheeks and so cuddly looking! We stopped off at a market before leaving UB, and when I went in to buy water for the trip, I saw lots of military personnel buying bottles of vodka! On the rest of the 6 day trip we would often see disgarded bottles of vadka beside the road, so they are obviously heavy drinkers! On the first day we drove loads - for about 12 hours in total. We quickly left tarmac roads after leaving the city. Mongolia is an enormous country with only 80km of paved roads apparently, and I can believe that! Most of the driving was off road on dirt tracks that were only made by other vehicles also driving across the steppes! Over the entire 6 days our driver did not look at a map once, and I can't understand how he knew which tracks to take, as there were no signs at all and the turnings never even really seemed to have landmarks!

At about 1230 we stopped at a restaurant which appeared to be in the middle of nowhere, and ordered meat dumplings with rice and some vegetables. The Mongolians are not great fans of fruit and vegetables, so we thought we'd take every possible opportunity to get some vitamins! The food was really cheap, costing about 70p for a huge hot meal and juice.

At about 3pm the van broke down and our driver had to spend about an hour in the middle of nowhere fixing it. He carried all the spares he needed in the van - you'd need to since we were already miles from anywhere with tools or parts. While we were waiting, only a few vehicles passed, one being another touring van with some Polish guys in it who were going to do an epic 2 week canoe trip in western Mongolia. We chatted for a while while their driver helped ours out! Along the way on our trip we saw whole families travelling on the back of motorbikes and on top of trucks, as well as many nomadic herders with herds of goats, sheep and horses. The landscape was absolutely gorgeous, and so huge it's difficult to describe. The landscape would often change from being quite dusty and flat with mountains in the distance, so more rolling grassy plains. We saw many huge birds of prey sitting right beside the tracks, and circling in the sky. We saw some huge eagles take off right beside the van - they were so beautiful. I also saw one catching a small rat thing on the ground.

At around 7pm we stopped at a beautiful lake called Oguiy Nuur and took some photos. From here it was another 2 hours to get to the first night's stop, which was our driver's family's place. To get there we had to cross a couple of rivers in the van, and they lived in 3 gers (one for his parents, one for his brother, and one for tourists) in the middle of NOWHERE! It was absolutely gorgeous in a flat plain between mountains, with their nearest neighbour about 2 miles away! There were cows and sheep and goats that wandered freely around, and I have never seen a toilet with such an amazing view, as it was simply a hole the the ground a few hundred metres from the camp! The ger that we 5 stayed in had 5 beds around the edge, a stove for warmth (it was cold at night), a table and some stools. The tour arrangement was that we would get a bed, dinner and breakfast from the families who hosted us for 5000 togrogs per night (less that 2 pounds!). That night we had hand made noodles with goat (we think), and then we shared some chocolates around. We had borrowed sleeping bags from the hostel and were very warm with these. We noticed here that even very late at night the sky was not pitch black - there still appeared to be some light from the direction where the sun went down. It was strange that although this family lived by themselves (with a dog and their animals) 12 hours from UB, they had a solar panel to power a TV which they enjoyed playing quite loud late into the night!!!

I woke up very early the next morning, and had a nice wander around in the clean fresh air before breakfast of home made bread biscuits and hot water provided so we could make hot drinks. The fire was re-lit in the morning as well. This one burned dung, as there were no trees to use for firewood.

Although we were woken up quite early with breakfast being brought in, and we were all ready by about 0830, there was no sign of our driver for a couple of hours, and our van had disappeared to run an errand of colelcting wood for the family. We were quite confused and had to wait until after an early lunch of rice and goat before we set off at 12pm. It was a bit annoying to be left hanging around, but we supposed it was because this was the driver's family and they had been up late the night before catching up! The family wore the traditional Mongolian dress of long coloured coats tied at the waist with wide bands, and they looked really spectacular. On our trip we noticed that many people wear this in the countryside, although it is not so popular in UB city.

When we left the camp, the driver wanted to deliver some presents to a neighbour's children, but when the van approached it turned out nobody was home. There were 2 dogs there though and they were barking so much that not even the driver would get out of the van. When we left the dogs chased the van as far as they could, barking all the way - one was running beside the van for ages while it drove at 40km/hr!

Not far on we passed a small town of gers with fences around each person's land, and the rubbish from the town was just discarded onto a nearby hillside - it was really awful.

After about 4 hours of driving through more wonderful scenery we reached Chuluut Canyon - a beautiful green blue river running through a gorge in the rock. We stopped to have a little walk and to take photos. By this time the landscape had changed and there were more trees on the hills, whereas before we had seen only grassly hills. Also yaks started to appear with really long coats. Later on we saw an enormous eagle by the side of the road, and then saw it fly off and saw it's enormous wingspan.

Close to the White Lake (our destination for the next 2 nights) we stopped in a small town for the shop. I didn't need anything, but I went in to look. It was a shop where you had to ask the lady at the counter for everything you wanted, and took lots of 'no, to the left. Next one' etc to get anything!

To get into the White Lake national park we had to drive across a plank bridge with loads of holes in it, and lots of the planks moved when we drove across. We all held our breath but it was fine...phew! As we crossed we saw a nomadic family who were moving their belongings around try to cross the bridge with their 5 or 6 yaks pulling carts. The yaks were getting quite impatient waiting in the road, and with their horns I wouldn't have liked to have an angry yak on my hands! As we drove into the national park we passed a volcano, and lots of black volcanic rock everywhere. The views over the lake were incredibly beautiful. The camp we stayed in was 4 gers in a row next to the small wooden house of the owners, and right beside the enormous unspoiled lake. Outside was their very sweet puppy, and a small girl who was really over excited to see us and was dancing around. She had such rosy cheeks as many of the Mongolians do and was very cute.

For dinner we had noodles with mutton or goat (we couldn't decide), and then Ali, Margot and I went for a walk along the shore and saw a gorgeous sunset. We saw a herd of yaks grazing beside the lake, and then when the dog barked at them, one charged at him...it was funny as nobody was in the way luckily. We also saw horses being herded past the gers.

At this camp the toilet had a small wooden hut built around it and actually had a seat, so that felt like luxury!

On Saturday I was also up very early, and when I went outside the lake looked exactly like a mirror for a while until the wind came and rippled it. I read my book for a while outside (when the wind wasn't blowing it was quite warm in the sun) until breakfast. I saw the horses that we had asked to ride this morning being herded from the mountains and then tied up outside the camp. Breakfast was bread again (as it was every day on the trip). After breakfast we set off on a ride of about 2.5 hours along the lake and towards the volcano. The horses did not seem to respond to any encouragement to move faster according to how we had been taught to ride in Europe, and the guide got them to move by shouting the Mongolian for 'go!' at them and waving quite a large stick in their view... We had a slow ride really, with the horses only voluntarily speeding up when we hit a swarm of mosquitoes beside the water. The swarm lasted a couple of minutes, and was awful - I swallowed one - urgh! After the swarm of flies, the guide (who had been playing music on his mobile most of the time) cantered off, and we were told to continue on our way. We were joined by a boy in his place a few minutes later. After about an hour we stopped beside the track, the boy tied up the horses (just tied 6 horses all to each other, and they stayed where they were told...) and we went off to look at a couple of caves. They were full of black volcanic rock and one had a huge lump of ice still inside. There was also still some ice on the far side of the lake across from where we were staying, which didn't surprise me when I put my hand in the water, which was soo cold!

After the ride, Margot, Ali and I ate lunch in the ger, and then set off over the hill behind the ger camp for a walk of about 4 hours. The hills were covered in gorgeous wild flowers, and we also saw a large hare running off as we walked along past him - it ran so fast! We saw some abandoned animal pens and then a big pile of animal bones nearby as well. As we walked back towards the lake we saw some English cyclists who were cycling around Mongolia for a couple of months. Their bikes were so heavily laden it looked really hard, especially knowing how sandy and dusty most of the roads are.

In the evening we played cards and chatted, and then just before dinner some new arrivals came to the camp and they decided to swim in the lake - it looked so cold they must have been mad. Dinner that night was rice, potato and meat.

On Sunday 1st June the minivan left at about 10am, taking not only us but also a couple of Mongolians from the camp who wanted a lift to towns on our way. We imagined our driver made a little extra money by doing things like this. One girl jumped out of the van a few gers down the lake to collect what ended up being her phone charger - it was so funny seeing these people who live such simple lives having these electrical items. At the same place we saw a young woman dressed in traditional Mongolian dress carrying a huge saw, but also wearing kitten heel boots with the outfit - it was a very stylish look! On the way out of the park we stopped so that we could walk up to the top of the volcano. It was very impressive, with a pool in the centre of the crater that looked like it would be very warm. The volcano is extinct luckily, but since there was no wind inside the crater, it was very warm.

On leaving the national park we had to pay the entry fee of just over 1 pound, then we dropped one of the extra passengers in the town on the other side of the park. The other girl stayed with us all the way to our final destination a few hours later, a town called Tsetserleg. Half way there the car broke down, and there was a very strong smell of burning. The driver seemed to fix the problem, but on climbing hills there was sometimes a burning smell for the rest of the day. Approaching Tsetserleg there was a lovely stretch of new tarmaced road, but there was a road tax that we had to pay for the pleasure of driving on this - not much though! Tsetserleg is at the base of some beautiful mountains, and is made up of gers inside fenced off areas of yard. We were dropped off at a cafe run by an English couple called 'Fairfield'. We couldn't understand why they would have moved here, but we took advantage of their pizza and ice cream offer that they had on. It was not cheap, but it was very nice. 1st June in Mongolia is Mother and Children's Day, so this was the reason for this menu. After lunch, the driver took us to a small abandoned temple that overlooks the town, which was nice, but it was raining quite hard so we didn't stay long. Next we went to a shop, where Ali and I tried to buy oranges, but they were mouldy! We couldn't believe that the shop was seriously trying to sell these - it just shows that fruit and vegetables are not very important to the Mongolians.

When we went on to the ger camp for that night, it turned out to be in someone's back garden! When we arrive there were a couple of yaks in the garden as well, but they were removed quite quickly! Margot, Ali and I tried to go for a walk, but could not get far as there was a factory and a rubbish dump in the way, and we did not want to walk the opposite direction as there were many dogs around. We played cards back at the camp, and for dinner we had rice, meat and today, some VEGETABLES!!! Margot and I washed our hair under a cold tap as we couldn't wait longer (none of us had been able to wash since we left UB) - it was cold but nice to have clean hair again!

On Monday 2nd June we left in the van at about 10am and drove to Kharkorin, the ancient capital of Mongolia (although there is little evidence of this history in the town). On the way we came across a road that had an enormous ditch across it! We had to turn back and find another way around. The van turned off the main road to go across country, but the ground was boggy after the rain the day before, and the back wheel got stuck in the mud. The driver tried digging the wheel out, and placing planks to help the van out, but it was too late. He had to hail a passing jeep to pull us out. The first attempt did not work, and we only got out after another passing van provided another cable to double the length so the van could get a proper run up! It was an exciting episode! After we drove away, we saw a family in a normal front wheel drive car stuck in the mud as well, and we helped to push them free.

Once we got to Kharkorin we had lunch of fried dumplings and some salted yak milk tea before heading to the ger camp. The lady who ran the small camp spoke very good English. We walked to the old monastery that was about 1 km away and looked around for a couple of hours. Margot and I paid for a short tour inside the buildings, and Ali picked up some very good value souvenirs at a market inside the walls. It was such a hot day that we were just wearing T shirts, and needed to buy more drinks on the way back to the camp. The lady who ran the camp had small children who liked playing football etc with the guests and got rather over excited.

Dinner was delicious steamed vegetable dumplings, and then after dinner there was a small concert by a neighbour in our ger of traditional musical instruments and singing, as well as a small girl's incredible contortionism! It was a great show as they were in their traditional costume as well. There was also a great souvenir shop at the camp or many handmade goods, so I bought some presents and then we all went to bed.

Sorry that's so long - it's been ages since I've had chance to get to a computer, and we've been doing so many interesting things!

I'll try to write a little less, a little more often if I can from now on!

Bye!

Kate x
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Beijing, China

Hi everyone,

We are now in Beijing, and the last couple of days in China before we head to Mongolia on Tuesday morning. I'll give you a round-up of what we've been up to over the last week.

On Saturday 17th May we didn't get much done - after packing our things away and having some food outside at the hostel for lunch we checked out of the hostel in Xi'an, leaving our luggage there for the day, and spent the afternoon shopping in the Muslim quarter for food for the train journey to Beijing. We had a spicy tofu dish, some savoury filled pancakes, persimmon cakes and bean curd cakes as well. The latter were very dry and sweet, but everything was good. Our favourites have to be the filled pancakes though - they're so delicious and come with lots of different fillings.

We headed back to the hostel to collect our bags, and headed to the station in plenty of time for the train at 6.30pm. As we got ready to leave the hostel the heavens opened, and even crossing the pavement from the door to the taxi outside we got drenched! This was the first rain we'd had since Shanghai, and it was really impressive - just wish we hadn't been caught in it!

The train left Beijing at around 2030, and other than playing some cards and eating our dinner, we mainly just slept for the 11 hour trip. We were in a hard sleeper, with middle beds again, and slept very well. For much of the journey we could see lightning from the train windows, so there must have been some serious storms going on! The train we were on was the Lhasa to Beijing train, and there were oxygen outlets above the beds for when the train crosses high in the mountains.

We arrived in Beijing at about 7am, caught a bus to Qianmen and walked to Leo Hostel where we had booked to stay. We showered and settled in before getting an early lunch at the hostel bar and heading out onto nearby Tiananmen Sq. We walked around the square, and then walked around the outside walls of the Forbidden City towards Jingshan Park to the north of the Forbidden City. The park is lovely, with peonies planted everywhere (when we were there we saw lots of children painting pictures of the flowers), and also a lot of singing and dancing going on. From the pavillions on top of the hill there was an amazing view of the rooves of the Forbidden city, so we took lots of pictures!

From the park we explored the Hutongs in the area (these are the narrow lanes of one storey buildings that still a quarter of Beijing residents live in). We found some kebabs to eat, and then went for a coffee in 'Bar Street' before doing some shopping. We have dinner in a Tibetan restaurant. The decor was beautiful, and the food was really interesting. We both tried butter tea, as we believe it's popular in Mongolia and we wanted to prime our taste buds! It's actually very nice, so I'm looking forward to some more. After dinner we walked back to the hostel and went to bed - it had been a long day!

On Monday 19th May we were up early again, this time to go on the hostel's 'Secret Wall Tour'. This tour was recommended to us by a friend we met on our trip, and was the reason we chose the hostel. The trip left the hostel at 0730, driving in a minibus of 12 people for 2.5 hours to a remote area of the Great Wall. When we arrived, we met a local guide (a little old lady who spoke no English and walked with a stick - she was very sweet!) and set off walking up to the Wall, and along it, for about 3 hours. The stretch of wall was beautiful - unrestored so that the climb was tricky at times (I slipped over embarrassingly...) - and deserted. We saw only 2 other walkers on our whole trip - totally different to the restored areas of the wall where there are hawkers selling things to you as you walk along! We walked back to the guide's village for a very nice vegetarian lunch, and then got the minibus back to the hostel. We watched a film in the bar, had a shower and then headed out to a nearby roast duck restaurant for dinner. It was great value, and really nice food. I think we have mastered the skill of rolling the pancakes and eating them entirely with chopsticks, but it's not as neat as the locals!

Again, we were up pretty early on Tuesday 20th May, this time to meet up with Carine, the French girl who we met in Xi'an on our climb up Hua Shan. We met her just after 8am at a large shopping market called Sanlitun Yashow. We spent the whole morning in the market buying souvenirs and good value clothing - it's irresistable when the prices are that good!

After some lunch in the food court of the market, we headed back to the 'Bar Street' area of town to find a new hostel. Leo's was fun, but very noisy at night - annoying when you're trying to get up early! The hostel round there was fully booked, so we decided to ring around later in the evening to enquire about the following day. We stoppe at a cafe for drinks and cake before getting a taxi to the place we needed to collect our trans-mongolian train tickets from. Although it took a while to find the place, they were very helpful and presented our tickets without a problem.

We walked back to Leo's via a different area of Hutongs, and I made the mistake of going into one of the public toilets (none of the hutongs have toilets in the houses, so communal toilets are used) - which were WAY too public for my liking...!

Once we got back to the hostel we had a beer in the bar and then headed to a reataurant just over the road. It has a TV that played an English language documentary about Chairman Mao (!) and the food was good and cheap. We decided to name it the 'anti-communist cafe', as it certainly had that sort of feeling about it.

On Wednesday 21st May we were up ridiculously early - 0430 (!) to try to catch the sunrise flag raising ceremony in Tiananmen Sq. Unfortunately the sun rises very early here, and by the time we arrived, it was all over! We couldn't believe that there were tour groups out at that hour to see the ceremony - we just couldn't believe how busy it was! Back at the hostel we showered and had breakfast, then at 0800 headed to Tiananmen Sq again to see the Chairman Mao mausoleum. We weren't allowed in as Ali had flip flops on, and it turns out you need to wear covered shoes. We didn't have time to change and then come back, so we decided to leave it for another time.

We went pack to the hostel to pack our bags and we checked out, leaving our bags in storage for the day. Together with a friend we had made at the hostel, we went to the Forbidden City at about 1030. Ali and I stayed until closing time (5pm) - there's just so much to see! It's a real maze of buildings, and everything is so beautiful and interesting. I rented an audioguide which was very clever as it worked using GPS to work out where you are and what recording to play you regarding that location.

After returning to the hostel to collect our bags, we headed to the new hostel that we had booked - Lama Temple - on the metro. It was in a very interesting area of town, but the hostel itself wasvery quiet, we we just watched a film, got some dinner at a nearby restaurant, and went to bed. We weren't very happy with our room as it had no window and so was very dark. We decided to stick with it for a couple of nights to see the sights that we wanted to see though.

On Thursday 22nd May we had breakfast in the hostel and washed some of our clothes. Then we headed to Lama Temple via the local hutongs, for a bit more exploring. Lama Temple was wonderful - the largest Tibetan Buddhist Temple outside of Tibet, and so impressive. At the back hall (of many!) there is an enormous (26m high) buddha that is carved from one single piece of sandalwood. It is unbelievable to look at. Back at the hostel we made ourselves some cheap instant noodles for a quick late lunch, grabbed our clean washing, and headed out to find the Olympic stadium. We ended up walking through a sort of construction site, but nobody stoppped us so it turned out to be a useful shortcut! We only saw the Olympic park from a distance, but later discovered that it was possible to go in and see warm up events (or maybe qualification events) inside the stadium!

After getting a taxi back to the hostel, we headed out onto 'Food Street' - a street full of restaurants - for some dinner. We ended up in a bad one though - the food was bad, and in the tanks behind me there were some very unhappy looking fish and turtles... We didn't enjoy our meal. To make up for it we headed towards the Bell and Drum towersand found a nice bar with a rooftop terrace for a couple of drinks. It was called The Drum and Bell.

On Friday 23rd May we had a walk around the local area of the Lame Temple hostel, but then checked out of the hostel and returned to Leo's! We decided that we preferred a lively place with a bit of noise to a dead place! Once we got to Leo's we had some lunch and then walked to the Temple of Heaven for the afternoon. We really enjoyed the park, although some of the smaller sights were unbearably crowded. The buildings are really beautiful though. On our way out of the East gate we went into the Pearl Market, and bought some shoes! (It obviously doesn't only sell pearls!)

For dinner we headed to Lao She Teahouse, where over a wonderful dinner and great tea we saw a shadow puppet show, and martial arts style tea pouring with metal teapots that had really long spouts! It was great fun and comes highly recommended.

On Saturday 24th May we went to a nearby hostel called 365 (which comes highly recommended by friends that we have met here) to get some breakfast. It's only 20 metres down the same road as Leo's, and made a nice change. Then we got a picnic from the supermarket (including lovely mini mangoes) to take to the Summer Palace with us.

From Qianmen we caught the number 826 bus to the Summer Palace - it took about 1 hour 20 minutes, and we had to stand the whole way - it was not enjoyable at all! Inside the Palace there is so much to do - it's an enormous parl with a huge lake and many beautiful things to see inside. We spent about 5 hours there, and could spend many more. The lake reminded us of a smaller Hangzhou - it was quite strange! Heading back into town at about 5pm, the bus took closer to 2 hours, but luckily we had seats for the trip back. The bus got so crowded it was difficult to see where our stop was!

After a shower we headed to 'Snack Street' near the south of Wanfujing Dajie to investigate the street food. We were really disappointed as there was no good quality food - just unusual foods that is meant for shock rather than taste, like scorpions, seahorses, starfish and snake (which we unwittingly tried thinking it to be something else. Snake is disgusting and we do not recommend it!). We did find some vegetarian wraps and some kebabs, but they were nothing compared to the street food we've had in other Chinese cities. We headed back to the 365 bar for some dessert (I had a great homemade apple pie!) and a drink, then we went to bed.

Today, Sunday 25th May, we were up early and headed to Beihai park to try to see the typical morning outdoor activities of the Chinese people. We saw so many different things - many kinds of group exercise, fan dancing and strange games being played with bats and balls. It was really interesting and nice to see the parl while it was not too busy. After visiting the park I bought some really good steamed dumplings for breakfast, and then we went to Mao's mausoleum. That was a really strange experience - he looked so waxy and orange that I'm not convinced we saw the real thing (there are rumours that there is a summy Mao that is sometimes in the place of the real body). It was very interesting that so many Chinese people were in such reverence of him, even buying flowers to lay at the foot of a large statue of him.

After seeing Mao, we headed to the silk market to buy the last of our souvenirs, grabbed a sandwich for lunch, and then tried to locate a matinee performance of Beijing opera. We found one at Lao She Teahouse, so bought tickets and after dropping our things at the hostel, headed back there for the 3pm performance. It was certainly an interesting experience - that screeching sound must be difficult to achieve! After an hour and a half we had had enough, but we were pleased to have seen it. We have spent this evening getting some dinner locally and playing cards in the bar.

Hope you're all OK.

Kate xx
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kateandalison/1/1211049300/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kateandalison/1/1211049300/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kateandalison/1/1211049300/tpod.html Sat, 17 May 2008 03:31:18 -0400 Kate and Alison's Big Adventure!

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Xi'an, China

Hi everyone,

Sorry it's been so long again since I've written anything in the blog. We've been busy in Xi'an, meeting new people every day, and seeing some very interesting things as well.

On our first full day in Xi'an (Sunday 11th May), we hired bikes on top of the ancient city walls, and cycled around in just over an hour. It was great fun, especially since Ali hadn't been on a bike for years and had to remember how to ride!!! Towards the end of our ride, we caught up with 3 guys from our hostel who were also cycling around the wall. We finished the ride together, and then headed to a nearby bar for a couple of beers, and to a restaurant for some (very late!) lunch.
For the rest of the evening we played pool in the bar at our hostel, ate some dinner there of wonton soup and spring rolls, and then went for a drink on the nearby bar street.

On Monday 12th May all 5 of us joined the hostel run tour to see the Terracotta Warriors. It left the hostel at 0930, and got back at about 5 or 6pm. It was good value because we were in a small group, which made the trip more personal, but the guide was not really very knowledgeable, and also we were taken to a couple of places on the way to the warriors (a factory that made replica warriors, a restaurant for an early lunch and a silk museum next door) where we were encouraged to buy replicas etc.) That was annoying, but as soon as we made it clear that we were not interested, the tour moved on quite quickly. The lunch cost extra money, but was actually very good value as lots of delicious food was provided.

The warriors were amazing - it's incredible to think that an emperor would create an underground army for his afterlife! Also, it is believed that there are 100s more pits other than the ones that have already been excavated. The excavation is being delayed until there is god enough technology to preserve the colours of any materials found within them.

As I mentioned in my earthquake post, it was while we were in pit 2 at the warriors that we felt the earthquake. Pit 2 is the one that is being quite seriously excavated, so our first concern was that the building was caving in, and then later it because obviuos that it was in fact an earthquake. As we were quite far from the epicentre, the movement that we experienced was in long waves resulting in a swaying motion rather than a jolting. My first instinct was that I was fainting!

Earthquakes are not common in the region, so the security guards at the warriors did not seem to have an earthquake procedure to carry out. There was a lot of confusion, but everyone made their way out of the buildings instinctively.

Eventually we were permitted to return to the buildings, and we witnessed no further effects of the earthquake. The final building that we visited was the museum that holds the bronze horses and chariots, and many bronze weapons.

In the evening, we headed to the Muslim quarter of Xi'an for some dinner. There are some delicious foods to eat there - it's great to try as much as you can! After that we went to the bar at another nearby hostel, then tried to go to a club but Ali and Phil did not meet the dress code as they were wearing flip flops! We had some food on a street corner near to the club and then headed back to the hostel to watch a DVD until very late! It was expected that there might be some significant aftershocks, but we did not feel anything.

On Tuesay 13th May Ali and I intended to check out and climb Mt. Hua. However, we were advised against this by the hostel staff as they were concerned that the mountain might not be safe in case there were aftershocks. We decided to stay at the hostel for another night, and then headed to a nearby coffee bar for a drink and some fruit. The fruit plate was very ornate, but the service was unbearbaly slow (as it often is in China we have found!). Later we walked to the Bell Tower to try to visit it, but it was closed for some reason. We carried on the the train station to investigate transport options to Hua Shan for the next day. At the train station we noticed that there were many people camping out, and a high police presence. Later we found out that these were people stranded in Xi'an as they could not return to Sichuan. The police were there as there had been small scale riots happened as people became more and more frustrated.

We ate some dinner in the hostel bar again (it serves good Chinese and western food, but we always go for the Chinese food except at breakfast time!), and then got a taxi to the Big Goose Pagoda to watch the fountain and music show. It is meant to be the largest in Asia, and certainly is quite impressive. After watching the show and walking around the area for a couple of hours, we got a taxi back to the hostel, headed to the bar next door again to play darts and table football, and watched some more DVDs.

On Wednesday 14th May we checked out at midday, left our bags at the hostel for free, and headed to the train station. We got a bus from outside the station to Hua Shan (about 1.5 hrs on the bus). The bus leaves when it is full, so it is difficult to know when to turn up. We arrived in Hua Shan village at about 3pm, ate some lunch, and then set off on the 7km climb with a French girl called Carine who we had met on the bus. We started walking at 4pm, and arrived at the hostel (on Green Dragon Ridge) at about 8.30pm. The climb is easy enough for the first 4km, but thereafter it is resentless steep steps. The views are so wonderful though, that it is well worth it.

We arrived at the hostel and found that they were almost deserted, so there was plenty of room for us three! We stayed in a 20 bed dorm, but it was only us in there. The standards of the hostels at the top of the mountain is VERY VERY basic, as you might imagine. The beds were like board, there was no inside toilet, and the staff seemed mainly concerned with getting us to go to bed than anything else! Nonetheless, we waited about an hour before sleeping, eating some overpriced instant noodles first.

On Thursday 15th May we got up at 0430 (and we were grateful for the excuse to get off the horrible beds!), and walked about 40 minutes to the East Peak to watch the sunrise. It was beautiful. Although our climb up the mountain had been very quiet, many locals climb up the mountain during the night, so there were many people around by 5am. After watching the sunrise we walked around the East, South and West Peaks for about 3 hours (again reasonably strenuous) and then walked to the North peak to catch the cable car back down the mountain. From the bottom of the mountain we caught a bus back to Xi'an, arriving at around midday. We went to a restaurant with Carine for some lunch (one dish included something that was very strange, and I'd rather not know what it was, but it tasted fine...), before going our separate ways. We went to check back into the hostel, whereas Carine caught a plane to Beijing. We agreed to meet up again in Beijing in a few days. After returning to the hostel, Ali and I enjoyed nice hot showers. We got some sandwiches at the hostel, and then at 6pm we were collected by a tour guide called Clarence Guo who we had booked to take us on a tour of a cave dwelling village outside of Xi'an. He was really knowledgeable, and made us regret that we did not take his tour of the Warriors as well! It was really interesting seeing the caves that about 1million people still live in in this province alone. The tour took about 3 hours (mainly driving time there and back), and although the time there was short, it was well worth it.

On Friday 16th May (yesterday) we decided to have a lazy day around Xi'an. We did some shopping in the lovely markets in the Muslim quarter, and visited the Great Mosque as well. The mosque was very interesting as it was in a very noticeable Chinese style, but with obvious Islamic influences as well. We also went to the advanced train ticket booking office to buy train tickets to Beijing for Saturday. This was a much better option than braving the chaos at the train station booking hall as we have in the past!
We headed back to the hostel in the early evening, and then spent from 6pm until 4am talking to LOADS of new people! Every Friday night at this hostel they hold a free dumpling party, where you can learn to make dumplings, and then eat what you have made. We met a Danish couple, a Finnish girl, an Italian guy, 2 Australians, some Indians, and many many others all in the course of one evening - we had such a great time. One of the Australians had been caught right in the earthquake, so we were all listening to his stories of the chaos and fear. After the dumpling party, the time just flew by as we talked for hours about everyone's home countries and their travelling experiences.

Today is Saturday 17th May, and we are getting a train to Beijing this evening at 8.30pm. Today we have not doen much other than to check out, get some lunch, play pool and mess around on computers! We will head in to town in a bit to buy some supplies for the 12 hour train journey.

I'll let you know more when I can!

Kate xx
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kateandalison/1/1210706280/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kateandalison/1/1210706280/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kateandalison/1/1210706280/tpod.html Tue, 13 May 2008 03:24:24 -0400 Kate and Alison's Big Adventure!

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Xi'an, China

Hi everyone,

This is just a really quick message to let you know that Ali and are I fine, and were not affected by the massive earthquake that happened 24 hours ago. We felt the quake when we were at the terracota warriors yesterday, but it was not too big where we were, and we were shocked when we heard about its magnitude.
There are problems moving around the country somewhat at the moment, so we are sitting tight in Xi'an for a few more days.

Kate xx
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