Mongolia

OK, if you missed it on my livejournal blog, here is the account of my travels in Mongolia. Over the next few days and weeks I shall be updating my blog more as I now have time, what with being in Australia and all...

(14/10/2006-25/10/2006)

The unplanned train journey to Mongolia with Nina and Luca, with Miia and Chris the Canadians in the compartment nextdoor, was fairly uneventful, but as I was travelling with others for a change it was not so boring, even the 8 hours it took to cross the 5km between the Russian border check and the Mongolian one weren't so bad. When we got off in Ulaanbaatar we were surrounded by people trying to get us to go to their guesthouse, but we'd already decided we'd go to the Golden Gobi guesthouse as it had been recommended to us, and they had a free pickup for us too.

Once there we asked about tours we could do and discovered that Sally, the Australian I'd met on Olkhon, was waiting for others to go on a 10 day one to the Gobi, so that we were able to have it all organised before the afternoon to start the next day. That sorted, we got our train tickets for Beijing for when we got back, ate, and went to the black market, a huge place full of pretty much everything, although all I got were some gloves, the two girls got some pretty cool Mongolian boots.

The tour was for 10 days with the driver Tsengel and the guide Tsenguné a.k.a. Cowboy Clint in a Russian jeep-van-thing, but I don't have the time or energy to give a blow by blow account, so instead here are some of the highlights: on the first day, and quite frequently afterwards we could see some huge birds of prey, eagles, hawks and condors, not far from the road. Also on the first day we stopped at some very impressive rock formations that would make a good setting for a Western. We'd often see heards of various animals, sheep, goats, cows and horses weren't that exciting, but on the second day we saw some camels, and on the third Cowboy Clint yelled out "Yak yak yak yak yak!". The third day was the first really interesting stop at a place called Bearded Vulture Canyon, and then at a salt lake where we discovered some bones which we could only assume to be the remains of a Ninajoelosaurus Rex and a Sallysaur. After that we had some fun when Tsengel spotted some gazelles a while after sunset and drove of the road to chase them in the van headlights.

The fourth day featured the joys of camel riding. At first this wasn't much fun as the camels were stupid and slow so to reach the sanddunes before sunset they had to be tied together and rushed along so close that my shin kept banging into the bony arse of the camel in front. On the way back though I managed to get mine to gallop, which was great fun. We then saw the Flaming cliffs, where lots of dinosaurs were discovered, a ruined monastery pony trekking in some mountains to a waterfall, and finally Kharakhorum, Chinggis Khaan's ancient capital, although there is nothing left of it. Instead there's a new city and a Buddhist monastery with temples built in Chinese, Tibetan and Mongolian styles, and plenty of very violent and explicit paintings that undermine the hippy stereotype of Buddhism as a peaceful religion. And on the last day, as we all suffered from the vile cheap Mongolian vodka of the night before, we saw Turtle Rock and Penis Rock, which looked as you would expect them to.

Apart from one night in a hotel, all the others we spent in girs, commonly known as yurts in the West. They have a stove in the middle which heats it wonderfully, but if you forget to get up in the night and put more wood (or coal, or dung) on it then gets bloody cold. Another interesting experience was driving. Like Olkhon, out of Ulaanbaatar Mongolia has very few real roads, and those that do exist are in a terrible state, so everyday we would have about 300km of rollercoaster like driving. But it wasn't scary because you soon realise that Tsengel knows exactly what he's doing and you're probably safer than on the roads in the UK. Even when things break, such as the front right suspension did on the seventh day, ten minutes with a bit of rope was all he needed to fix it and it was fine right back to Ulaanbaatar.

The main problem in Mongolia was the food, as 4 out of 5 meals included mutton. The food was very nice, even camel (which tastes like beef), but mutton soon gets very monotonous, and I never want to taste it again in my life. The cold was also getting quite bad by the time we left, so even though that was by far the best and most fun part of my trip so far, I was still glad to be moving south to China.

Test post by email

I haven't posted for a while because blogspot is
blocked in China, this is just a test post to see if
posting by email works. in the meantime, I've created
a LiveJournal blog which is not (yet) blocked here, so
I shall be posting there as well as here. The address
is http://wanderingjoel.livejournal.com.

Olkhon Island

The journey to Olkhon Island took about 6 or 7 hours. Once on Olkhon, the roads are dirt tracks, which is why it takes so long, although the road to the main village, Khuzhir, is almost a motorway compared to the rest of the island. I stayed at Nikita's, a guesthouse run by the former world pingpong champion, which was really nice, a great atmosphere, you get full board, a heated log cabin room, and the first night there I was given beer and vodka by random guests (and met Sally, the Australian, who left the next day, but who you shall all meet in my next blog entry...). Also, there are loads of cats, especially kittens, one of which sat on my shoulders for about half an hour on my last day there while I was writing postcards.

The first day I was there I took a tour to the north of the island in a Russian jeep, which looks like a dodgy mini-van, but is able to go up and down what seemed like near vertical hills, and over huge holes in the road, which is lucky as there were plenty of those. It was worth it though as there were great views of the cliffs, and from the tip of the island you can see both shores of Lake Baikal. We also so some strange fat goose-like birds, and had omul soup in the forest. For those who don't know, omul is a fish something like trout, and forms the main part of the Olkhon diet. I think I only had two meals without omul, and one was a packed lunch. In the evening I found that Nina, a Finnish girl I'd met in Moscow, and Adam, an English bloke who I'd met in Irkutsk earlier had arrived along with a Swiss guy, Sebastien.

The second day I went for two walks, one to get a view on the village, and another along the coast to the next one. It was strange, because there was a proper beach, and some small waves like by the sea, but the opposite coast was really close. In the evening, me, Adam and Sebastien went to the banya, which is a Russian sauna. First you add water to some stones heated by a stove and sweat like mad, then after about 15-20 minutes you go to the next room and pour cold water on yourself. You're then meant to whip each other with birch branches, but we skipped that bit, and went straight to chilling and have a cup of tea. Then you do it again, and again, though we only did it twice before our time was up, before washing with warm water properly. It was pretty good and warming, but I think I have some serious circulation problems as my feet got cold again less than 5 minutes out of being in the steam room.

For the third day, Nina, Sebastian and I decided to go to Lake Shara-Nur, a lake on the island several people had told me they tried to find and had failed. So we looked at a map that we weren't alowed to take with us, then I set off on my own route by foot, while the other two went my bike along a different route. Despite missing the turning I meant to take, I found it a bit before I expected to, and only 40 minutes after the other two (it took them 3 hours). The walk was really nice, especially before the woods when there was no wind and I was the only thing making any sound. In the woods there were woodpeckers every 5 minutes or so, and not afraid, I could walk write up to them and they wouldn't fly away. The walk back was even quicker as I found my shortcut, so I was very proud of myself...

On the fourth day, it snowed, so I didn't do much, I wrote a couple of postcards, which may or may not get to their destinations, and went for a walk to the pier. Then the next we had the long ride back to Irkutsk, where I was persuaded by Nina, Luca (an Italian guy I met in Moscow and who appeared again on Olkhon), Chris and Miia (a Canadian couple on the bus from Olkhon) to change my ticket and go to Mongolia for longer. How could I resist the lure of desert and camel riding? Then we had some great Russian food at the market, which seems to be the best place for it. Good dishes are borsch and the dumplings whose name I forget. Then we got on the train to Mongolia.

So, finally, my impressions of Russia: it is ridiculously bureaucratic, and those behind counters are often very unhelpful. Few people seem to speak English, and they don't make much effort to understand bad Russian, often those in authority have a similar attitude to speaking to foreigners as the English i.e. say it the same in you're own language but louder and slower, but on trains an so on, people are very friendly. And they have a strange way of making tea: they brew a pot really strong, then your pour about a shot into your cup and add hot water.

Going to Mongolia

I'm not going to write up Olhon Island yet, because I've got a train to catch to Mongolia in an hour, but it was fantastic. I've decided to stay in Mongolia for a while rather than just passing through, so already my itinerary has changed. I've uploaded most of my photos of the Golden Ring towns to my Yahoo! Photos account though, and I might be able to finish tonight or when I get to Mongolia. Anyway, hopefully I'll be going to the Gobi dessert for a week or more with some people I met, so I won't be able to post too much.

Trans-Siberian Railway

Ah, at last, the firm ground! The last few days I spent on a train, passing through 5 time zones from Moscow to Irkutsk in Siberia. It was alright actually, not too boring as I had plenty to read, and just staring out the window at the countryside was quite hypnotic. Most of Russia is fairly flat it seems, even the Urals were just little hills where the train passes, but most of it along the route is also covered in woods. I'm not sure if all of it or just some counts as taiga though. It was very beautiful though, with all the autumn colours, the occassional cluster of wooden houses, and from the Urals onwards, frequent sprinklings of snow.

For the whole way I was sharing the compartment with a Ukrainian guy and a Tajikistani (if that's the correct adjective) called Sergei and what sounds like Sultan respectively. Neither spoke much English, but were very friendly, the Ukrainian was even discussing the TV series about Nestor Makhno at one point, from what I gathered. And they hadn't brought any alcohol either, which I was very relieved about after all the stories of Russian drinking alcohol for whole journeys and being very offended if you refused to join them unless you claimed to be an alcoholic. The train wasn't quite as plush as the one from Novgorod, but it was fine, and there was a samovar at the end to keep me well supplied with Earl Grey and Jasmine Green tea.

At some point during the night of the 4th I passed over the geographic border between Europe and Asia, so I'm now officially in another continent. Siberia is cold, which I should have expected really, but so far at least my coat is perfectly sufficient. Tomorrow I'll be getting the bus to Olkhon Island on Baikal Lake, the biggest freshwater lake in the world (it has about 20% of the world's freshwater apparently) where I'll be staying until Friday, then I get the train across Mongolia on Saturday at 6 in the morning, so I probably won't be posting again until I reach Beijing on the 16th.