Mongolia! - Darcy

Our journey into Mongolia started full of adventure! We took the Trans Siberian train from Beijing to UlaanBaator, the capital of Mongolia. Now we we're quite excited that we were on the Trans Siberian for this leg of the trip as it gave us a taste of the big trip that will take us across Russia. The train was very nice, good compartments; four beds and a lockable door, smooth tracks, the bed's we're a little hard but very bearable. The funny thing is that in every train we've been on there has been boiling water available at the end of each car, what surprised us though was that the hot water boiler on the Trans Siberian used a coal stove! Everything else seemed quite modern, but every so often our train assistant would have to open a little hatch in the bottom of the boiler and toss in some coal.

Also the tracks between Mongolia and China are different widths. So as we approached the border the train stopped and each car was individually lifted up with immense jacks, and they had to change the wheels! We weren't allowed to get off the train to watch, but they changed a group of cars right next to ours so we had a good view out of our windows of the whole process. They also processed our visas during this whole time. The Mongolian border guard was a very tall strong looking woman with a very elaborate uniform. Aside from being incredibly intimidating she was helpful though and the border crossing was quite painless. The only real problem was that this whole process took about 3.5 hours, during which the bathrooms were closed. (For good reason, think of the poor workers changing wheels under the train!) Wanda was very relieved however as when the bathrooms were finally opened, the car assistant held back a line of eager men to let Wanda get in first.

So after all was said and done it was 1:00 AM, but we were in Mongolia and on our way. We drifted off blissfully to sleep...

I remember waking up and feeling strangely cold but I pulled the blankets up a little tighter and tried to ignore the small draft coming from the window. Again I woke up but this time the draft had a strange moist feeling. But asleep again. Again awake, about 6:30AM. This time I peeked out the window and saw nothing but fierce blowing snow and an endless stretch of desert. Now there wasn't a lot of snow, but it was blowing hard, and had been sneaking through the window onto my pillow, making a small pile. I decided to get up and get some hot water from the boiler to warm up, so I snuck out of the compartment careful not to wake up Paul, Tamara or Wanda. I found the car a little smokey. I got my water just as the assistant went to put more coal in the boiler, and when we opened the little door, smoke just POURED into the car. The wind was blowing so hard that the coal smoke wouldn't go up the chimney! He waved me to get back into my cabin, which I promptly did to find Tamara and Wanda just waking up. I started to explain all the bizarre things that were happening, but rather than just tell them I decided to show them. So I lifted the curtain over our window, not realizing that 3/4 of an inch of snow had collected around the edges of the window. Raising the curtain had unfortunately knocked off some small chunks of snow onto the face of the sleeping Paul. Paul, in good humor, just moved to the other side of his pillow. I was a little flustered by the absurdity of the snow on the inside of our window and quickly pulled the curtain back down in order to prevent more snow from falling on Paul. This had the unfortunate effect pouring a LARGE amount of snow on the face of Paul.

Now that we were ALL up, we all enjoyed the adventure of being stuck in a storm in the Gobi desert. The coal smoke that would pour by every so often only added to authenticity of our Trans Siberian adventure. The tracks were covered with sand, so some poor workers had to get out and shovel before we could move on. All said and done though we were delayed about 5 hours, which meant after about 35 hours we rolled into UB (Ulan Baator).

We were thrilled to be met by my brother-in-law Jonny. It was VERY nice to have someone who knew the country and the language. It's amazing though how soon you start to rely on someone who knows the language though. One time I wanted to buy a bottle of juice from a vendor, and my first instinct was to find Jonny to have him translate. As though I had never bought something from a vendor the past two months!

One of the first things that we did was leave UB for a Ger camp in National Park. The park was beautiful in a way that is similar but different than Canada. It was early spring, and since they don't get a lot of snow fall in Mongolia, it is a very dry, and bleak time of year. But there is so much space!(like Canada) Especially compared to China, which seemed full of people. I think we read that Mongolia has the lowest person per sq/km ratio in the world. We were able to go on a couple hikes and it was astounding to see the country stretching on and on. Also the rocks and boulders in Mongolia seem so ancient. They have that worn down look. We also got to do some riding (horses and two-humped camels), as well as hold a Gold Eagle, and live in a Ger. Ger's are the traditional homes of the Mongolians. They look kind of like little igloo's, but are made out of felt. Most Mongolians still live in them.

After the nice wind down time at the Ger camp, we left to see as much as UB as we could before we left to go see my sister in another city. The highlights of our time was the very diverse market, and an extremely interesting cultural show. Mongolians have very pleasant traditional music, which mostly centers around a horse-head fiddle, which sits on the lap like a cello, has two strings made of horse hair, and has a carved wooden horse head on the top. (Mongolian culture really centers around the horse, there are 14 horses for every person in Mongolia!) The Mongolians also do something called throat-singing, which is fascinating. There are different ways that it is performed. One is a find of choppy chugging/croaking sound, and another is a high pitched whistle that comes from the chest as much as anything. When I first heard the whistle, I was completely blown away. It sounds like some kind of flute or another instrument more than a human noise.

After this we travelled by bus to Erdenet, to meet up with my sister Marina, and my 20 month old niece Amy. I really enjoyed the wonderful opportunity to get a taste of what their life has been like for the past four years, see there friends and learn about their work. And just to be with family was the best of all.

We enjoyed getting to know the city of Erdenet. It's a very young city, only about 30 years, and was built to support a large copper mine. I think it's the third largest copper mine in the world. While in Erdenet we were able to also experience one of the premier Mongolian experiences, airag! Airag is fermented mare's (horse) milk. I don't know the exact process of how it's made, but most families are able to make it in there own gers. It's a Mongolian favorite, especailly in the summer. Kind of like our lemonade. We weren't sure if we were going to be able to have any since it was out of season, but a barrel came into town full of airag. Our Mongolian friend said that the quality was 'medium good'. I have to agree! I can't say that I'd love to drink it day after day, but I can honestly say that I enjoyed my cup and a half. It kind of tasted like bubbly skimmed milk with sour yogurt mixed in. It is mildly alcoholic. About 2% I think.

I feel like I could go on and on about how interesting Mongolia is. I'm not sure if it was because we finally had a guide who could tell us about the particularities of the culture, but Mongolia seemed extra-interesting. A very neat mix of modernity simple living, kind people, tradition, and bizarre facts.

Beijing - Darcy

So, before we head off into the great Mongolian countryside I thought I'd blog to catch things right up to date. Paul, Tamara, and I arrived in Beijing in good time and enjoyed exploring the old parts of the city. We have found Beijing to be the least foreign feeling place yet. It's a very nice well developed city, which has made it easy to get around in (a spectacular subway system!), but we've really enjoyed the more colorful hutong (old parts of the city).

A big treat was having our good friend Wanda join us. It's been very nice to have someone come along who can see things through fresh eyes, bring a lot of enthusiasm, and share stories with.

We visited the summer palace before going to the airport to pick up Wanda. It was quite nice, kind of like a big fancy park with some neat buildings. We all liked different parts about it, but my favorite was a long wooden walkway/corridor that was about 800 m long. The really impressive thing though was that each roof space and crossbeam and pillar had a painting of Chinese history, landscapes, etc. After 800m you've seen a lot of art!

So once Wanda showed up we planned out our three day plan off attack to see Beijing. The first day we went to the Forbidden City, which is really quite nice. It's the most visited spot in China and it was BUSY! It's not immediately all the impressive, the architecture is very nice and all, but it is once you walk through courtyard after courtyard that you start to feel the scope of how impressive the entire complex is. We even managed to escape the crowds for some nice quiet hang out time in the forbidden city.

This is just a side note, but we've been reading through a lot of guidebooks, and they are often quite witty. One of my favorites was about the Forbidden City; "About 100 years ago admission would have cost you your life. Now 60 Yuan will do."

After the Forbidden City we took Wanda to her first market experience, but it ended up being me who had the experience after a very enthusiastic middle-aged lady trying to sell me a gift took a swing at me with her calculator after I refused her first few offers. (I think she was joking. Plus I ended up buying it eventually so it was a happy ending.)

The next day we planned to strike out to the Great Wall! We had a good plan made to get there for cheap from our guidebook, but as useful as they are, sometimes the guidebooks lead you astray and after wandering around Beijing for the morning we could find the mystery long distance bus station, and had to admit defeat. But all was not lost, we made the most out of our day. We went out for Peking duck at a very nice restaurant. It was very delicious! I can see why the dish is a big deal. The restaurant had a neat history as well. It's been serving Peking duck much longer than Canada has been a country!

We also started to look for tours to take us to the Great Wall, since we didn't want to miss our last chance to see it! We found a nice Hostel that offered a "secret" wall tour that seemed very nice. The big plus was that there would be few or no other tourists there, and it's original wall, with no restoration.

Boy was it amazing! One of the grandest sights of the whole trip so far. It started of with us being really lucky as the day before there was a big windstorm and it blew all the smog away! (Boy is the smog bad in China.) We've only had a handful of smog free days in China and this happened to be one of them. The scenery around the Great Wall is spectacular in it's own right. Eerily like the foothills in springtime. It almost felt like home. There were plum trees blossoming and early flowers, blue skies and fluffy clouds. The wall itself is built on the highest points of all the hills and winds down and around in a very... well... beautiful kind of way. It was really something to see the watchtowers just visible at the end of each horizon. Plus our tour group was basically the only ones there, so it really added to the whole majesty of the hike to be able to fall back and spend a few moments alone with the wall. (I don't know if I've ever been as attached to an inanimate object in such a short time as with the wall! I got a little emotional spending a few moments alone with it and even miss it right now as I'm typing this!)

So that's China. On to Mongolia!


Mmmmm.... Duck.

My attempt at an artsy wall shot.

Ohhhh I really love this wall!

Our first sight of the wall. It was a bit of a hike. But beautiful and fun!

Part of the Forbidden City. Reduces maintenance costs in nearby cities. (Sorry, inside joke.)

Chengdu and Xian - by Darcy

So after we left Yangshuo, we took the train (always a good time!) to Chengdu in the Sichuan province. Chengdu was quite nice. A good transition for us into the bigger Chinese cities. Big, but not too busy, and easy to get around.

Now the Sichuan province is famous for it's food, tea, and pandas. Our first experience with the food was a bit of a suprise. We went to an authentic Chinese resturaunt and ordered 'fragrant chicken in garlic sauce.' It seemed a safe enough bet. We got a big bowl of oil/broth with lot's of different spices and some chicken floating in it. It seemed fine so we dug in. The taste was fine. Paul described it as a little 'flowery'. What really surprised us though, was that after a few bites our tongues and lips started to go numb. REALLY numb.
We discovered the next day during a cooking class that there is a special Sichuan pepper that has a numbing effect. Since then we've had it in lot's of dishes, but never as much as that first dish, and never in the same potency.

Our food dilemma was solved though through our wonderful discovery of a Tibetan resturaunt in a Tibet district within the city. We were a little nervous when the language barrier seemed especially thick, but as so often happens, we were helped by a Tibetan man who spoke perfect english to order a delicous meal. This was oe of the best of the whole trip. Yak meat dumplings (mo mo's) might not sound great to you back home, but they were AMAZING!

We were quite struck throught he whole experince how charismatic the Tibetan people are. Very friendly and social and excited to meet you. Even their distinct fasion is endearing. I can see how many travellers become very attached to the place. (And we weren't even in Tibet! Just a Tibetan community.)

The next day we headed out to see the pandas. There is a big panda research and breeding center near the city and they have lot's of viewing areas. Boy are those pandas charismatic! They even seem to have a bit of a knack for showmanship, doing extra cute things just for the fun of it.
So a little panda info; pandas actually have the stomachs of carnivours, but only eat bamboo (which is basically just wood). They can only digest 2% of the bamboo they eat, so they have to eat as much as possible and use as little energy as possible. This has led to the panda being VERY laid back. They recline in a very humanlike manner and just munch on bamboo stalks all day long. If pandas were human, they'd be the guy living in their parents basement watching movies and eating chips all day.
We also started to delve into the tea culture in Chengdu. We wandered into a tea shop and were invited to sit and sample some of the teas. Our hostess, a very kind young lady, went through many of the little ceremonial acts that made us realize that tea drinking has a long history that we know little about. It was tricky to learn more, becuase, for example, when we tried to ask why our hostess would pour a little extra tea on a little frog figurine, she thought hard for a few seconds, and then replied. "He's thirsty."

From there we travelled onward yet agian, to Xian (pronounced She-Ann). Xian is the ancient capital of China so there has been lot's to see. The most notable being the Terra Cotta Warriors. They were quite spectacular. What struck me the most was how lifelike they seemed. It almost seemed like the at any second the figures were going to turn they're heads to see who was looking at them. We were also struck at how bizzare the ancient world is. The labor that must have gone into creating thousands of clay warriors, each unique, with actual weapons, is absolutely mindboggling. And all just to have an army in the afterlife!? It sure doesn't make sense with our modern werstern minds.

Xian also has many other neat sights. There are massive ancient city walls (about 18m high and 15m wide.) surrounding the inner-city. They are quite neat because you can bike around the whole thing from the top. We even tried out a tandem bike, which was quite humorous. There is a great museum. There is also a muslim sector left over from the silk route days, that we enjoy shopping around and snacking in. Sesame and sunflower cakes mmmmmmm! We even saw a spectacular water fountain show in front of an ancient pagoda.

Tommorrow we leave for Beijing via train to meet with our friend Wanda who is coming to join us for the rest of the trip. We are sure excited for her to join us and add some new perspectives!

China- Yangshuo

The view from our first hotel in Guilin, China!!


Exiting Vietnam proved to be a beautiful drive through lush mountains. The border at Vietnam was quite chaotic, the system for getting an exit stamp was a whole bunch of people crowded around the counter trying to get close enough for the border guy to see your passport and grab it. None of us Canadians were really interested in participating in this but, eventually realized that this seems to be their system and we don't have much of a choice. Just as we were developing our plan of attack a guy came out the side of the counter where we were standing and just took our passports and continued to take a whole stack of passports from people. We were pretty sure we would get our passports back... A few minutes later the guy came back a crowd quickly formed around him as he called out peoples names and gave people back their passports. From there we continued on into China. The China border was much more orderly and flowed nicely with the exception of them searching all of our packs...
From there we took a bus to Nanning the capital city of the Guangxi province and immediately switched buses and continued on to Guilin which is the connector city to our desired destination of Yanghsuo which is a small town surrounded by mountain karsts (limestone peaks). It was here that we immediately notice the differences between China and the rest of Southeast Asia. No one really spoke English, all of the script at the bus stations was in Chinese, we were the only white people and EVERYONE was staring at us, staring beyond normal social boundaries, I think even beyond normal Chinese social boundaries. (We have since noticed that people particularly stare at us when we wear shorts, which we don't quite understand because the Chinese wear shorts and short skirts all the time... we think maybe they are looking at our 'weird' shoes (we all have Keens), I don't know...we are also a little dirty... that might be it). Once in Guilin we were met by a lady who spoke English and told us she could take us to a hotel, it was late so we went. It was actually quite a nice hotel room, very large with an en suite. We were woken up in the morning by a peculiar fellow knocking at our door asking us what our plans were and then offered us a boat ride to Yangshuo. We had heard that this was a nice boat ride but very expensive, as such we had planned on taking the bus. His offer was significantly lower priced than the regular boat ride but significantly more expensive than the bus. After this man accompanied us to the bank and then to lunch we decided to accept his offer. We began our journey with him giving us a hand written receipt that read "3 foreign friends from Canada are taking a boat trip down the Li Yang River to Yangshuo" (the receipt system is a little different here, also, in the past recipes have been important to keep because they will get you through all the steps of your journey, we had our doubts about how far an hand written english receipt that reads like a childrens story would get us) The man first took us to a city bus, then he got off the city bus and told us his wife needed his keys but he would be back... and so we were left on the bus, going... somewhere... with our 'receipt'. But, sure enough he came back on the bus only to again get off a short while later again because he had something to do... again, still on the bus, going... somewhere... But, yet again our friend somehow got back on the bus. I still have no idea how he got off and did whatever he had to do and then caught up to the bus. By this time it was early afternoon, cold and rainy- perfect for a boat ride. We arrived at the river and got on our 'bamboo' (plastic piping) raft. The boat ride truly was amazingly beautiful, unfortunately we were all freezing, particularly Paul who was at the beginning of a cold/flu. At the end of our boat trip we had a mandatory and expensive, but delicious fish lunch at a fishermans house who lived right on the river and then continued on a bus to Yangshuo.

Here is a lovely place on the Li River that also happens to be on there 20Yuan bill


This is the same place without the money, I wish I hadn't posted it but it took a long time to load the picture so I am leaving it up.

Waking up the next morning we were disappointed to realize that Paul was quite sick and I (Tamara) was also sick. Darcy had been quite sick in Vietnam and was still recovering, which made for a sleepy day in our hotel room. We ventured out to eat, took a stroll down the tourist road, but that was about it. The next day was much the same. By the third day we were all feeling a little better and decided to rent bikes and cruise around the country side. Yangshuo is a truly beautiful place, small and laid back. The guide book says that it is a backpackers paradise and that some people who come here end up stay for months and even years. We all agreed that we could easily stay here for a long time. We biked to some main tourist spots particularly free ones called Moon Hill and the Dragon Bridge. Moon Hill is a mountain that has a bizarre hole in the middle of it. The Dragon Bridge is a bridge that is apparently 1000 years old, it was mostly restored but still cool. Now, Yangshuo's one downfall is that the only map in English is modeled after an ancient hand painted map that happens to be entirely useless, we spent a lot of time wondering where we were and where we were going but that made for the best part. The best part was biking through rice patties, weaving through the village streets, hitting dead ends, getting stranded next to a river and having to pay to get fairied accross. The fourth day we spent biking in the country side again, going through muddy trails on our cruiser bikes (some people did the same trails on tandem bikes, I have no idea how) we also explored some caves, watched some people go climbing. Yangshuo has been a wonderful time for us to recuperate and enjoy a less structured form of tourism.



This is the view from the top of Moon HIll- truly amazing the mountains went forever


Here is Darcy attempting to bicycle through the rice patties, some of the places were not bicycle friendly... but very fun!


Paul maneuvering through narrow (and slippery) paths


The 1000 year old Dragon bridge


Beautiful Yangshuo right before sunset

We were quite sad to leave Yangshuo but China is a big country...

More Pictures!

I had a good chance to post some more pictures, so here they are. Hope this gets you even MORE excited to join us Wanda! They are random shots from the whole trip.

This is from the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. They really do love the conical straw hat.


Another shot of Angkor Wat. It's a little to bad the scaffolding was on the main tower, but I hope the picture communicates how majestic the temple really is.

This is Wat Bayon, it was definately the most bizzare temple in Angkor. Look carefully to see all the faces.

There was good snorkelling around this rock at Koh Tao. This seems like so long ago already!


I couldn't resist another elephant photo. This is our newfound friend Billy showing a little appreciation for the ride. (Unfortunately Billy got really sick a couple days after this. We are SO thankful our health has been good!)

Vietnam Pics - Finally

Ok, so this is a look at Halong Bay, there must have been hundreds of mountain/islands like this. We were lucky with a really nice day. It can often be foggy, but we had a good clear afternoon.

This is inside a cave in one of the bigger island/mounatins. The cave was very impressive, even though there were cheesy mutli-colored lights throughout. This was a nice shot though.

Another classic of Halong Bay. There should be a little boat by the island if you look carefully.

Paul and Tamara with classic Vietnamese hats on a pull boat in the Mekong Delta. If you look carefully you can see that Paul's hat has a pink ribbon.

This is some prawns that we were cooking over our hotpot fire. After this we put the pot back on and cooked pieces of beef and noodle and veggies and bread in a spicy broth. Kind of fondue style.

Just a quick note!!

There are 3 parts to Vietnam and despite the order we posted them in, blogspot posted them in a different order, oh well. It will make the most sense to read them in order starting with part 1.
One more thing that we neglected to mention about Vietnam is the introduction of the audible turn signal light, yes it doesn't matter if you are in the vehicle or on the street you will hear every bus, motorcycle and car that is turning... On top of that, you know that beep that big trucks or buses have when they are backing up? Apparently, all vehicles can get customized reverse sounds (that resemble ringtones)my favorite of which was the Happy Birthday song.