Well. We spent about 6 hours on the border of Russia heading into Mongolia. We were fully expecting to be heavily fined for not having any stamps in our passports to prove the hotels had been registering us in Russia but thankfully no problem there. Clearly the invite/registering system has slackened a little since the last time I visited Russia!!
The Irkutsk (Russia) to Ulaan Bataar (Mongolia) train had quite a few tourists on it, but none on our wagon. Consequently we created quite a stir of interest from our fellow Mongolian passengers (traders from the looks of it); every one of them poked their heads in as they passed our berth to check us out and a few asked us where we were from.
We couldn't figure out, at first, what everybody was doing on our train- as soon as the doors would close the relentless moving would start, people would start carrying boxes, packages, stuff on trolleys etc. from one end of the carriage to another. And it seemed one woman's job was to masking tape everything in sight- and i tell you, there was a whole lot of masking going on.
When we got to the first big Russian station we realised what was happening- Usually at the Russian stations people get off the train and buy food from vendors on the platform- in this case, our trader friends were getting off the train and selling goods to the local Russians on the platform- mostly cheap clothes & toiletries. They even had manequins to advertise their wares. Hilarious. After the Russian trains the Mongolian traders sure seemed like a jolly lot and we had good fun with them.
It didn't happen to us but apparently at the border when the officious Russian border control officers got off and the Mongolian officers got on, they slid open the carriage door dramatically bellowing; "Welcome to my country. Home of Chinggis Kan. Where are you from?" and shook all their hands. Classic. This was pretty much the sentiment in Mongolia. People were great fun.
We tried some horse-riding, mostly because there is no getting out of horse riding in Mongolia- it's like a national hobby or something. Nearly died at first when the guide tried to make my horse go faster. Naturally my horse had a mind of its own and kept heading off towards cliffs and steep drops (or so I felt). The Mongolian guide kept indicating to me with wild gesturing and Mongolian grunts that I should stick with the group and I kept shouting at him- tell the horse not me!! Anyway, we lived to tell the tale and quite enjoyed it at the end- even Kieran who had a slight phobia of horses (some story from his childhood about a horse and a paddock and his kite but I'll let him tell that one!)
Mongolian Archery was another highlight (Kieran got 3 Bulleyes), as was sleeping in a Ger hut for 2 nights (freezing in the morning when the fire went out), visiting a nomadic family (and drinking watery tea and curd biscuit things), singing national anthems and Beatles songs with our tour guide Ocean, climbing the 108 steps to have a buddhist temple all to ourselves for meditating, and eating our weight in excellent Mongolian meat!! Thank god I'm not a veggie any more, otherwise it would have been eggs all day, every day for me.
On the train from Monogolia into China we were, for certain, on the tourist train. Almost everyone was from Europe or Australia. We shared our wagon with our first tourists (an English lad and a German woman) since Scott and Gill left us at Moscow. The rest of the time we were with sleepy (& snoring) Russians. The border crossing took just as long as the Russia- Mongolia one but that was because they had to change the bogies under the train. We got the giggles when the Norwegians in the next carriage started singing 'Yes sir, I can boogie". I think they thought bogie and boogie was the same word.
So now we're in Beijing and loving it so far. I'm amazed at how much Chinese I think i can read (a little knowledge could be a bad thing) but of course can barely speak a word but we're trying. It was great today to have a shower and unpack and just wander the local streets (we seem to be in a shopping district- hurrah!) I'm also looking forward to sleeping in a non-moving bed for 5 nights. We're thinking of visiting the Summer Palace tomorrow, or Tiannemen Sq and leaving the trip to the Great wall for later in the week.
Zaitian!
(C/0 dee)
2 comments:
beijing! it feels like you are close now!
how does someone come to be named "ocean" in mongolia?
yep- we are getting closer by the minute. certainly the time difference is not so great. and now we are in Hanoi, Vietnam so inching closer all the time!!
I think Ocean's English name was a bit made up but I didn't want to say it to his face!!
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