17.10.06

Beijing


So, we took a night train from Ulaan Bator to Erlian, on the chinese side of the border and then, after our first chinese lunch descended towards Beijing in a sleeperbus.


Met this belgian guy Pieter on the bus we´d encountered earlier while in Terelj on horseback. The bus was in Beijing 4 o´clock next morning. We decided to take a cab to this district where Ile had pinpointed "Poachers guesthouse" a place a french girl living in Beijing had recommended and drawn a map of to help us find it.. Well, turned out that the map pointed to a completely different district than where the guesthouse actually was! After some wandering around and a growing amount of frustration we decided to stop for some breakfast at a place that was just opening up beside us. The owner understood a bit of english and was kind enough to tell us, that we were´nt even close to where we wanted to be and gave us instructions on how we could take a bus going the guesthouse located in the middle of a partydistrict called Sanlitun.

We did´nt really like the place that much, so decided to stay for only one night and take advantage of the free laundry service.. Wandering around that day we found a nice place to stay just east of of the forbidden city called Xi Hua Hotel -or just plain Jade Youth Hostel as we´ve come to know it. for a 4 person dorm we pay 60 yuan(~6€)We´ve been staying there and making tours around the city ever since.

rented a boat at a park:

Some perspectives from around the town:




I just love bonzais:


Pete decided to fly home to his girlfriend last sunday. I´ll miss this guy a lot, but then again we all have our own paths. Besides I have a feeling I´ve gained a dear friend. All the best for him. May he find what he´s looking for.


Beijing is a lot about shopping and making good deals.

I went to the silk market one evening to fing some silky nightgowns for my sis and mom. Pete and Ile decided to stay at the hotel, so I went haggling on my own. I actually made a quite good deal on them I heard later on. I also visited a flea market.. Nothing with clothes though, but lots of stuff. I bought this old Mahjong made of bone and wood. Maybe somebody had died and they sold it away. Made a good deal on it too. Made my best deal yet at the Pearl market buying an 8Gb memorystick for only 50y(5,25€)..
I have to say that Beijing is usually full of smog. You can seldom see the sun:

Visited the forbidden city, which turned out to be a bit of a dissappointment compared to lots of beautyfull stuff you can see for almost free(for example the park on the northern end(2y):







Seen also some nice pieces of art:


Climbed the great wall the other day too, but took so many pictures I have´nt edited them yet.. Hope to be able to publish some soon.
Meanwhile, we´ve been planning on heading west. Let´s see where we end up..

Later

16.10.06

Mongolia Post Scriptum



There is something similar to finns in the mongolian spirit. Something melancholic I guess. Maybe it has something to do with the harsh natural conditions.. Winter was certainly on its way there, when we we left. On top of the normal cold nights we got a taste of wind blowing in straight from the vasts of siberia. It´s the wind that really gets to you. On our last morning there was even snow on the ground. Time for us to head a bit southward. I want to go back though, but that I'd like to do alone or at most with only one friend and hichhike around, maybe buy a horse and just wander around without any hurry anywhere. Ulan Bator started to get to us: its poorly upkept probably mostly due to the nomadic nature of the people: there´s just no tax income to spend anywhere.. There are some things that are nicely planned, but lets say it this way -they were nice some tens of years ago. People drink alot of vodka.

2.10.06

A trip to the countryside


Last weekend we decided to make a getaway to see some mongolian countryside with the intent to go fishing. We asked around for public transport to see if we had the chance to do the trip for our selves, but that proved difficult since there´s public transport only to the capitals of the provinces and the odds of getting a ride with us three hitching out of there with all our stuff seemed a bit unlikely. Not that waiting on the side of the road has ever worried me, but with our sleepingbags being for temperatures above 10 C and the nights here dropping below zero a night on the side of the road didn´t exacly appeal to our desired level of comfort. It´s suprisising to be able to walk around with only a t-shirt during the days and then see ponds of frozen water in the mornings.

So we asked around for the cost of tours from local organizers and they were all over 40$ per day and for a tour to one of the bits of river where there was taimen to catch would have been at least a four to five day tour -we decided to skip our ambitions on fishing for taimen. Instead we got a bargain for 33$ a head/day for a trip to Terelj national park from our host Manlai.


Saw my first yaks:

So we got to stay at this family there with meals included and horses at our disposal for the whole three days we spent there -sweet! We still had the best of intentions to go fishing there, but horseriding proved to be exhausting enough to keep us from heading out to the river in the evenings. Exiting enough to ride with no prior experience. Especially going over the river with the horse was a scare at first. Luckily slipping with one foot doesn´t still get the horse to tip over.



Some awesome views we got to see with a little help from our horses:

Mongolian cuisine:


some more mongolian food:


saw also "the famous Turtle Rock"


On our way back we stopped by the Zaisan memorial again to snap a pic of UB at night:

Finally we booked ourselves tickets out of Mongolia. We'll take the train to the chinese side of the border on sunday and then take a sleeperbus to Beijing from there.. Let's see how that goes.. My first time in a sleeper.

Later