traditional chinese pose
xian terracotta warriors
impromptu amateur chinese opera
water calligraphy, beijing
park kareoke
candied apples
past chairmen
forbidden city
jellied tomatoes
storm clouds over temple walls, mongolia
mongolian throat singing
our desert ger camp
ger fireplace
little genghis, about 3 years old, born on a horse
wedding photo in host-house
mongolian nature park
cobra-juice (in jar)
hello everyone!
well here in China I cant access our blogspot or any other photo sharing website which is a bit annoying, so ill have to wing it on email, and then somehow transfer it later..I think we were up to Irkutsk last time I wrote, so here goes..
(Now im in a Vietnam Internet place, so transferring away..)
So we made our way across by a relatively long minibus ride to Lake Baikal, where we were expecting the worst of weather, as it had been snowing relatively heavily in Irkutsk, and the small mountain range we had to pass was pretty deep under snow, at some parts, half a meter (which didnt stop our driver ploughing through at 80 km/h). We were heading to a small island in the middle of Lake Baikal, called Ohklan Island.
When we arrived it was quite windy but sunny and we had stunning views over the lake to the other side, where the sun was coming down and being filtered through the clouds quite spectactuarly. We stayed at 'Olga's', a quaint little homestay, with longdrop, and just a russian sauna (banya) to clean ourselves (which was really nice).The next day was sunny and fine, but pretty fresh and with a biteing wind, and we set off on a tour to the northern cape of the Island. The scenery there was really stunning with good visability over the lake to the other side, and while the rest of the countryside was relatively barren, the island had quite alot of trees, alot of which had yellow needles, quite autumnal. But the excursion involved driving through the forest and other wobbly, bumpy terrain, so we were driven around on an old russian 4x4, which was fun! I think Ive already talked about the Island on the blog, its annoying, I cant look at the bloody thing to see where I was up to, and not sure if youve read all this already, so moving swiftly along..
After arriving back at Irkutsk, we then took the 'Circum-Baikal Train', which is like a tourist train that runs along the Baikal coastline for about 70 kms, and where you trundle along the old train line, passing through tunnels and over bridges at a snails pace (evidently its the worlds slowest railroad, taking us something like 7 hrs to do the 70kms!). That wouldve been fine I guess had it not been grey as hell, and a little cold and miserable. But it was make all the better by a large group of boisterous Russians from Irkutsk, celebrating their 15 years anniversary with their company. Needless to say, there was alot of vodka going round, and by the end when we got off in Listvyanka, on the shore of Lake Baikal, more than one of them were worse for wear. So we stayed 2 nights in this little coastal town, where the weather had inproved considerably, and was about 15 degrees, and spectacularly sunny, and windless which was great. We basically strolled around the township, visited a Russian wooden-house museum which was really cute. On the way back we stopped off on small beach which was really warm, and I made the plunge into the water, naked of course! Well that set the heart racing, and putting your head under wasnt such a great idea- it was refreshing(ish) but more just icy, even-soI managed to go in twice! someone told me later that the water temperature was someting like 6 degrees- thank god there was no wind about as I only had a t-shirt to dry myself! After a couple of days we took a hydrofoil up the angara river (the only and massive river that flows out of the Baikal), back to Irkutsk, where we took the train on to Mongolia.
Ulaan Baator is a funny town, dusty and dry (like all of Mongolia really, it has something like 260 sunny days a year), and sort of trying to be international, but still a bit shabby around the edges. But the first thing we did was arrange a horse-trek into Terelj National Park, north-east of the capital. We shared the costs with 3 others, really nice people who we had alot of fun with, 2 really laid back Australians from Melbourne, and a really nice American girl from L.A. The whole trip would prove to be a real get your boots on, get down and dirty grubby adventure! With nowhere to wash the whole 4 days, and of course no running water and just long drops, it was nothing for city slickers! We stayed with Nomad families the whole time as well in their really cosy Ger's (teepee like tents), where they shared tangy mare's mild and butter with us. It had a kind of fermented sour flavour, and tasty still quite horsey! But the trip was to include about 6 hrs a day of riding, so after a quick practice run the first night, the next day we were off into the wilderness. The area was really beautiful, with massive rock formations, massive open fields, where goats, sheep, horses and yaks roamed about, nibbling everything they came across. Not much green grass around, more straw like barrenness (which also has it's charm..) So we were riding to a place called the Genghis Khaan Monument, and it was something like out of a Monty Python film. In the middle of nowhere, soft, rolling hills, someone (I dont think it was the Government), has built a humongous statue of Khaan that is shining bright silver, and stands about 40 metes high! Kind of a Trojan horse, but with Khaan on top of the horse.Its so mental to ride on horseback over a small hill-top, and there is this massive 'thing'- quite mind-blowing, and a real waste of money when you consider half of mongolia hasnt got proper roads or an infrastructure to talk about. One word, Strange.
Anyway it was about this time that I 'fell' off my horse, and he decided to panic and drag me around on the ground a bit. Kind of a blur, but what happened was he seemed like he was about to fall over, (he was stumbling the whole time due to overgrown toenails), and fell practically onto his front knees, a which time io thought it may be better to 'hop' off. Of course he didnt fall, and while half off, the horse decided to jump up and run, while one of my boots still in the stirrup. So I fell on the ground, and the horse freaked out and bolted, with me attatched! What wasnt so pleasant was that he was also bucking, and managed to get me once on the inner thigh, and twice on the nuts. nice..was a little painful, but as we still had to ride for 3 hours more, I had to bite the bullet. But after a while it wasnt so bad, I'd live! The next day something else happened, but thank god to not to me! Our companion Joel, went swimming, but not voluntarily! We were trying to ford a river, and one of our guides was testing the water to see how deep it was, unfortunately for Joel, his horse decided it wasnt, and plunged in- it was. He was up to the neck in freezing water in a mater of seconds, before the horse decided to swim back to shore. And on that day it was sunny, but the wind was also icy cold- luckily I had about 6 layers of clothes on, some others to, so we shared them with him and went on..Well there are more funny stories from this little adventure, but ill move on, needless to say we got back safe and sound (and really stinky) to Ulaan Baator, where we washed off a few days of horse smell. The Mongolians a much friendlier than Russians we found, with most people speaking a little English, and when not attempting to help however they can, which was not really the case in Russia, outside the Hostels.We stayed in UB a day, looking around the monastery there, and also going to a really interesting huge 'blackmarket', where one can buy almost anything under the sun, even a Ger! We arranged another tour with the Australians (since we had such fun), this time without horses, to the 'mini Gobi', the sandy desert like start of the Gobi desert. We only had 3 days for this trip, as our train was leaving for Beijing in a few days.
This trip proved a little less exhilirating, but beautiful nevertheless. The first night was spent also in a traditional Ger, where the had especially slaughtered a goat for our arrival, and were going to cook it for us, Mongolian style, with hot stones, vegies (well, a few potatoes and carrots). It was all very rudimentary, some parts of the goat were delicious, some tough as boots, and extremely fatty! We ended up eating this for the next 3 days in a variety of ways, in dumplings, with rice, with noodles, so by the end, I couldnt stomach any more, the smell the taste..Mongolia it seems is not so renowned for its cuisine, although we found a pretty good place in UB that did Mongolian Barbeque, and that was nice. The trip also included camel riding in the small dunes and a buddhist monastery visit, all in all very interesting, with no misshaps!So without further ado, it was off on the train to Beijing, which invloved a lengthy stop at the border, as the train gauge in China is different than in Mongolia. That meant our whole train carriage was lifted into the air, while new wheels were put on underneath, quite a pain for the workers, and I dont know what they do with all the freight trains that travel west from China.
Beijing was/is fantastic- massive, loud, hectic, but in an orderly and friendly way if that makes sense. Everything (almost) is super modern, pretty clean, and just people everwhere! I've now gotten used the amount of people, but still not the hawking and spitting that goes on constantly, even in the restaurants next to you. But the people are on the whole smiling and good natured and always willing to try and help. The language isnt realy a problem, im sure everything would be easier with an understanding of Mandarin, but its funny trying to communicate anyway.The first afternoon we arrived we were a little worse for wear, having a small bout of food sickness from something, so we slept that off. The next day we went to the Forbidden city and Tiannamen Square. Little did we know the first 10 days of october were part of celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the Peoples Republic of China. The crowds the the Forbidden City were Ok, but when we got (eventually) into Tiannemen Square, the amount of people was unbelievable. It was packed, and very hard to get around as alot of the exits were closed, so we spent hours milling around there, admiring the communist propaganda, the lights, the 3 story high TV screens which were showing footage of the fireworks, singing and performance extravaganza that were part of the celebrations. There was also a 40 metre long screen that was showing (still) highlights of the 2008 Olympics, basically a tribute to everything Chinese and all that is great that makes China great. It was pretty awesome.
The Forbidden city is massive. Much bigger than I'd imagined, and it took us more than half a day to just wander around and admire, the statues, ornaments, carving, everything there is just spectacular, grandious and very old. The nexty day was spent simirally walking around the Summer Palace, another Emperors opulent gift for himself, which was added onto by subsequent Emperors. Not really a quiet sunday stroll in the park as I had imagined, again, I reckon half of Beijing was in their as well..But beautiful nevertheless, unfortunately rather grey and hazy, so not optimal photo weather.The next day was the Great Wall. I dont think Ive seen anything so amazing before, the amount of work toil and trouble the soldiers went to in building the wall is hard to describe. They dont call it the longest graveyard in the world for nothing, thats for sure..We took a bus for 4 hours, about 150 kms north of Beijing, to an especially beautiful section of the wall, where we had to hike for about 4 hours along some challenging, almost vertical sections of stairs, up as well as down- the old knees, hamstrings and calves really got a workout! But it was worth it as the views were stunning, and thank god, the day was clear, sunny, and even a little too warm! After sweating our way along to the pick up point, we took a cool flying-fox ride down through the valley, a scenic and exhilerating way to finish the day before heading back to Beijing. That night our Peking Duck tasted really good!
We are now in Datong, a small (well for Chinese standards, but still where more than 1 million people live).Here is alot of Buddhist sights to see, and yesterday we spent looking around the Yungnang caves, where more than 56,000 Buddhas are carved into the rockface, and in the caves themselves. The tallest was something like 25 metres tall, so pretty impressive, especially that they were all made by monks in 60 years between 460-520 AD. We also visited other temples in the city itself, and evidently the longest ceramic, glazed wall in China, 45 metres long, depicting 9 dragons, the ultimate good-luck symbol. Now were just waiting for our overnight train to take us to Xi'an, where the Terracotta Warriors await us!
Like I said at some stage I'll transfer this and photos to the blog when I get the chance, but I guess that wont be until a few weeks time when were in Vietnam. All picture sharing devices here seemed to be blocked, seems weird and a little over cautious from the Chinese.
well thats all from me congratulations on making it this far! you must be family!
haha we're are well and healthy, no major problems so far!
gotta runlots of love to everyonejoe and leona
ps not proof read, sorry about the mistakes!
well here in China I cant access our blogspot or any other photo sharing website which is a bit annoying, so ill have to wing it on email, and then somehow transfer it later..I think we were up to Irkutsk last time I wrote, so here goes..
(Now im in a Vietnam Internet place, so transferring away..)
So we made our way across by a relatively long minibus ride to Lake Baikal, where we were expecting the worst of weather, as it had been snowing relatively heavily in Irkutsk, and the small mountain range we had to pass was pretty deep under snow, at some parts, half a meter (which didnt stop our driver ploughing through at 80 km/h). We were heading to a small island in the middle of Lake Baikal, called Ohklan Island.
When we arrived it was quite windy but sunny and we had stunning views over the lake to the other side, where the sun was coming down and being filtered through the clouds quite spectactuarly. We stayed at 'Olga's', a quaint little homestay, with longdrop, and just a russian sauna (banya) to clean ourselves (which was really nice).The next day was sunny and fine, but pretty fresh and with a biteing wind, and we set off on a tour to the northern cape of the Island. The scenery there was really stunning with good visability over the lake to the other side, and while the rest of the countryside was relatively barren, the island had quite alot of trees, alot of which had yellow needles, quite autumnal. But the excursion involved driving through the forest and other wobbly, bumpy terrain, so we were driven around on an old russian 4x4, which was fun! I think Ive already talked about the Island on the blog, its annoying, I cant look at the bloody thing to see where I was up to, and not sure if youve read all this already, so moving swiftly along..
After arriving back at Irkutsk, we then took the 'Circum-Baikal Train', which is like a tourist train that runs along the Baikal coastline for about 70 kms, and where you trundle along the old train line, passing through tunnels and over bridges at a snails pace (evidently its the worlds slowest railroad, taking us something like 7 hrs to do the 70kms!). That wouldve been fine I guess had it not been grey as hell, and a little cold and miserable. But it was make all the better by a large group of boisterous Russians from Irkutsk, celebrating their 15 years anniversary with their company. Needless to say, there was alot of vodka going round, and by the end when we got off in Listvyanka, on the shore of Lake Baikal, more than one of them were worse for wear. So we stayed 2 nights in this little coastal town, where the weather had inproved considerably, and was about 15 degrees, and spectacularly sunny, and windless which was great. We basically strolled around the township, visited a Russian wooden-house museum which was really cute. On the way back we stopped off on small beach which was really warm, and I made the plunge into the water, naked of course! Well that set the heart racing, and putting your head under wasnt such a great idea- it was refreshing(ish) but more just icy, even-soI managed to go in twice! someone told me later that the water temperature was someting like 6 degrees- thank god there was no wind about as I only had a t-shirt to dry myself! After a couple of days we took a hydrofoil up the angara river (the only and massive river that flows out of the Baikal), back to Irkutsk, where we took the train on to Mongolia.
Ulaan Baator is a funny town, dusty and dry (like all of Mongolia really, it has something like 260 sunny days a year), and sort of trying to be international, but still a bit shabby around the edges. But the first thing we did was arrange a horse-trek into Terelj National Park, north-east of the capital. We shared the costs with 3 others, really nice people who we had alot of fun with, 2 really laid back Australians from Melbourne, and a really nice American girl from L.A. The whole trip would prove to be a real get your boots on, get down and dirty grubby adventure! With nowhere to wash the whole 4 days, and of course no running water and just long drops, it was nothing for city slickers! We stayed with Nomad families the whole time as well in their really cosy Ger's (teepee like tents), where they shared tangy mare's mild and butter with us. It had a kind of fermented sour flavour, and tasty still quite horsey! But the trip was to include about 6 hrs a day of riding, so after a quick practice run the first night, the next day we were off into the wilderness. The area was really beautiful, with massive rock formations, massive open fields, where goats, sheep, horses and yaks roamed about, nibbling everything they came across. Not much green grass around, more straw like barrenness (which also has it's charm..) So we were riding to a place called the Genghis Khaan Monument, and it was something like out of a Monty Python film. In the middle of nowhere, soft, rolling hills, someone (I dont think it was the Government), has built a humongous statue of Khaan that is shining bright silver, and stands about 40 metes high! Kind of a Trojan horse, but with Khaan on top of the horse.Its so mental to ride on horseback over a small hill-top, and there is this massive 'thing'- quite mind-blowing, and a real waste of money when you consider half of mongolia hasnt got proper roads or an infrastructure to talk about. One word, Strange.
Anyway it was about this time that I 'fell' off my horse, and he decided to panic and drag me around on the ground a bit. Kind of a blur, but what happened was he seemed like he was about to fall over, (he was stumbling the whole time due to overgrown toenails), and fell practically onto his front knees, a which time io thought it may be better to 'hop' off. Of course he didnt fall, and while half off, the horse decided to jump up and run, while one of my boots still in the stirrup. So I fell on the ground, and the horse freaked out and bolted, with me attatched! What wasnt so pleasant was that he was also bucking, and managed to get me once on the inner thigh, and twice on the nuts. nice..was a little painful, but as we still had to ride for 3 hours more, I had to bite the bullet. But after a while it wasnt so bad, I'd live! The next day something else happened, but thank god to not to me! Our companion Joel, went swimming, but not voluntarily! We were trying to ford a river, and one of our guides was testing the water to see how deep it was, unfortunately for Joel, his horse decided it wasnt, and plunged in- it was. He was up to the neck in freezing water in a mater of seconds, before the horse decided to swim back to shore. And on that day it was sunny, but the wind was also icy cold- luckily I had about 6 layers of clothes on, some others to, so we shared them with him and went on..Well there are more funny stories from this little adventure, but ill move on, needless to say we got back safe and sound (and really stinky) to Ulaan Baator, where we washed off a few days of horse smell. The Mongolians a much friendlier than Russians we found, with most people speaking a little English, and when not attempting to help however they can, which was not really the case in Russia, outside the Hostels.We stayed in UB a day, looking around the monastery there, and also going to a really interesting huge 'blackmarket', where one can buy almost anything under the sun, even a Ger! We arranged another tour with the Australians (since we had such fun), this time without horses, to the 'mini Gobi', the sandy desert like start of the Gobi desert. We only had 3 days for this trip, as our train was leaving for Beijing in a few days.
This trip proved a little less exhilirating, but beautiful nevertheless. The first night was spent also in a traditional Ger, where the had especially slaughtered a goat for our arrival, and were going to cook it for us, Mongolian style, with hot stones, vegies (well, a few potatoes and carrots). It was all very rudimentary, some parts of the goat were delicious, some tough as boots, and extremely fatty! We ended up eating this for the next 3 days in a variety of ways, in dumplings, with rice, with noodles, so by the end, I couldnt stomach any more, the smell the taste..Mongolia it seems is not so renowned for its cuisine, although we found a pretty good place in UB that did Mongolian Barbeque, and that was nice. The trip also included camel riding in the small dunes and a buddhist monastery visit, all in all very interesting, with no misshaps!So without further ado, it was off on the train to Beijing, which invloved a lengthy stop at the border, as the train gauge in China is different than in Mongolia. That meant our whole train carriage was lifted into the air, while new wheels were put on underneath, quite a pain for the workers, and I dont know what they do with all the freight trains that travel west from China.
Beijing was/is fantastic- massive, loud, hectic, but in an orderly and friendly way if that makes sense. Everything (almost) is super modern, pretty clean, and just people everwhere! I've now gotten used the amount of people, but still not the hawking and spitting that goes on constantly, even in the restaurants next to you. But the people are on the whole smiling and good natured and always willing to try and help. The language isnt realy a problem, im sure everything would be easier with an understanding of Mandarin, but its funny trying to communicate anyway.The first afternoon we arrived we were a little worse for wear, having a small bout of food sickness from something, so we slept that off. The next day we went to the Forbidden city and Tiannamen Square. Little did we know the first 10 days of october were part of celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the Peoples Republic of China. The crowds the the Forbidden City were Ok, but when we got (eventually) into Tiannemen Square, the amount of people was unbelievable. It was packed, and very hard to get around as alot of the exits were closed, so we spent hours milling around there, admiring the communist propaganda, the lights, the 3 story high TV screens which were showing footage of the fireworks, singing and performance extravaganza that were part of the celebrations. There was also a 40 metre long screen that was showing (still) highlights of the 2008 Olympics, basically a tribute to everything Chinese and all that is great that makes China great. It was pretty awesome.
The Forbidden city is massive. Much bigger than I'd imagined, and it took us more than half a day to just wander around and admire, the statues, ornaments, carving, everything there is just spectacular, grandious and very old. The nexty day was spent simirally walking around the Summer Palace, another Emperors opulent gift for himself, which was added onto by subsequent Emperors. Not really a quiet sunday stroll in the park as I had imagined, again, I reckon half of Beijing was in their as well..But beautiful nevertheless, unfortunately rather grey and hazy, so not optimal photo weather.The next day was the Great Wall. I dont think Ive seen anything so amazing before, the amount of work toil and trouble the soldiers went to in building the wall is hard to describe. They dont call it the longest graveyard in the world for nothing, thats for sure..We took a bus for 4 hours, about 150 kms north of Beijing, to an especially beautiful section of the wall, where we had to hike for about 4 hours along some challenging, almost vertical sections of stairs, up as well as down- the old knees, hamstrings and calves really got a workout! But it was worth it as the views were stunning, and thank god, the day was clear, sunny, and even a little too warm! After sweating our way along to the pick up point, we took a cool flying-fox ride down through the valley, a scenic and exhilerating way to finish the day before heading back to Beijing. That night our Peking Duck tasted really good!
We are now in Datong, a small (well for Chinese standards, but still where more than 1 million people live).Here is alot of Buddhist sights to see, and yesterday we spent looking around the Yungnang caves, where more than 56,000 Buddhas are carved into the rockface, and in the caves themselves. The tallest was something like 25 metres tall, so pretty impressive, especially that they were all made by monks in 60 years between 460-520 AD. We also visited other temples in the city itself, and evidently the longest ceramic, glazed wall in China, 45 metres long, depicting 9 dragons, the ultimate good-luck symbol. Now were just waiting for our overnight train to take us to Xi'an, where the Terracotta Warriors await us!
Like I said at some stage I'll transfer this and photos to the blog when I get the chance, but I guess that wont be until a few weeks time when were in Vietnam. All picture sharing devices here seemed to be blocked, seems weird and a little over cautious from the Chinese.
well thats all from me congratulations on making it this far! you must be family!
haha we're are well and healthy, no major problems so far!
gotta runlots of love to everyonejoe and leona
ps not proof read, sorry about the mistakes!
Have you tried dumplings and roast ducks? They are the famous and traditional Beijing dieshes. And also bird's nest soup? Its a delicacy in China.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your days~~~
Gillion
www.geocities.jp/hongkong_bird_nest/index_e.htm