whoever thinks Beijing is not a cool city should go there again!!

When thinking about how to start this post, I first wanted to write "Time passes so quickly..." but then realised, that I was recently writing this simple but true fact all the time - I should become more creative... BUT IT'S SO TRUE!!!

I am in China since not even two weeks now - but it feels as if I was here for months... Mongolia seems sooooo far away. Maybe also because the difference between the two countries is so huge! Just comparing the border stations you can see how modern China is in comparison to Mongolia...

 

Getting here was rather adventurous as we - another traveler I got to know in UB and me - were taking a train till the border, a jeep to cross the border and a bus after the border... And I find it ridiculous now having been surprised about plazkart in Russian trains, because the train in Mongolia topped it: the carriage was like plazkart but people are not having the whole bed for themselves but are sitting. So not only 6 people would fit in one of these open compartments, but 9 - making a total of official 81 persons in a carriage (instead of 54 in plackart, or 36 in kupé) - but who cares about the official number?!? There were far more people anyways...

After one day in Datong I am now in Beijing since 10 days. There is so much going on here, that I somehow regret to be leaving on Sunday already!!

Of course I was visiting quite a lot (luckily it was not smoggy for the first 3 days when I got here, so I do have original photos of sights in China with a blue sky!!), walking through the forbidden city...

...visiting the various parks and lakes in the city, checking all the nice little side streets and the numerous hutongs.

I am really lucky to live in a really fancy area with loads of hutongs: they are small alleys and sideways with bungalow-alike houses. All the people would be sitting on the street, playing cards or other games together, cooking or whatever...
What is more, it is really quiet in hutongs: you can't hear the noise of the mainstreets, and also the numerous bikes and motorbikes (all electro-driven) make harldy any noice neither - which sometimes is rather dangerous as they wouldn't switch on the light in the night...

Trish from Perth and me in the 798-Art-District

But the mainreason I enjoy being in Beijing is definiely the people I hang out with: I am really lucky to be hosted by two great couchsurfers, who were appart from me hosting 3 other people while I was there! It is like a small hostel at their place with the typical hostel-atmosphere: we're hanging out together, visiting sights during the daytime and eating (very important in China!!) and drinking (well, Chinese beer won't make it on my top-10-drinks-list) in the evenings.

And thanks to them I've even been to a punk-concert last week! A what?? Yes, me who is not a really big fan of punk has already been on two concerts since I'm away (one in Moscow, second one here) and both groups were into punk. However, the one in Moscow is not to be mentionned further as they were rather average (if not even less...) but the Subs were really cool - you gotta check them out! Knowing the drumer I was hanging out with the band drinking warm Chinese beer (how good does that sound??) afther the gig.

But I haven't only been hanging out with other couchsurfers: On the bus from Datong to Beijing I got to know a girl from Beijing with whom I met again a few days ago: she invited me to a great chinese restaurant. Eating in China is really a social thing: you would always order loads of different dishes, they'd be put in the middle of the table and everybody just picks out whatever he or she wants! You definitely won't lose weight in China...

SO I DEFINITELY DO HAVE A BLAST HERE!!

And last but not least I finally went to the Great Wall yesterday... it is absolutely fascinating and beautiful. I went to the part of the Wall at Mutianyu together with two Russian couchsurfers. It was a really brumous day, but we could still see how the Wall is climbing over the hills and peaks and is eventually disappearing in the fog...



We were lucky as there weren't so many tourists so I have loads of photos without even one soul on this great historical building!

Before coming here I didn't have any expectations whatsorever of China and people who had already been there often told me that the Chinese were not friendly or helping. What is more everybody used to tell me that Beijing is not a beautiful or interesting city...
This is why I am now positively surprised about this country, the friendliness of its people and its capital! So I do really like it here so far, and am looking forward to the other places I gonna visit - because I will definitely try to get the best out of the 60 days in China, that I can stay here according to my visa!

New Gallery: Mongolia...

I just uploaded loads of great pics from Mongolia - check them out: Mongolia
(you also find the link on the side-bar in my linklist)
SORRY GUYS... I was told the link doesn't work - tried to fix it: I guess now it should be fine...

Gobi desert

I am now back in Ulaanbaatar - tomorrow I will already leave to China... time passes to quickly or I am travelling too fast... However, even though I will have spent only 14 days in Mongolia I have the feeling of being here already since months.

During my trip to Gobi I had the same feeling: it was a trip of only 5 days, but still I had the feeling as if I had been on this van for weeks watching the landscape passing by...

that's us five :)

We were lucky to meet a polish couple in Tsetserleg who asked us if we wanted to join their trip to the Gobi desert - it corresponded completely to what we were looking for: a short (as Sylvie and Gwen had only limited time in Mongolia) trip to the main parts of the desert...

Suvd

Unlike the tour operators in UB this tour was organised by one really nice Monolian woman -  Suvd (check the link her guesthouse in case you just found my blog when looking for information about trips in Mongolia - I can only recommend her trips!!). She accompanied us throughout the whole trip, provided us with food and organised accomodations with locals in gers as well as horseriding and camelriding trips.

Driving through the Gobi is amazing: first of all, there are no streets, only roads that were created by cars driving through the desert. The more South we got the less gers we saw. We would quite often drive to them just to make sure that we are driving in the right direction. Suvd explained us that Mongolians have two compasses: the stars in the night and the sun during the day - however, in the desert you should still always double-check that you are driving in the right direction because getting stuck somewhere without petrol or water is - well lets say: not really healthy...

typical "equipment" of a ger: solar-collectors, satellite dish and small kids

Driving through the desert you would cross some cars every once in a while - same story here: stopping and double-checking the directions or quite often they stop you because they need some help as their car broke down. Oh yes, the desert kills your cars! The only cars that survive - and the only ones you would usually see are either the old but super-solid russian vans (can please some car-expert tell me the brand of this car?? - got it: thanks to Nati I know that it's an UAZ-452 - great vehicle!!) like the one one we were driving in; or jeeps. Our driver - Bade - was great! Considering the state of the roads you need to be a f** good driver in order to drive through the desert - and he definitely was...

 

So all in all we were driving quite a lot - a bit more than 1000km through the desert (that is a lot - we usually took 8h for 300km - it is not like driving on a motorway...). It is gorgeous: as already mentionned in my last story it is simply amazing to drive through this vast country without seeing any settlements - only some gers every once in a while. In the North there are a lot of green but sandy hills. The Gobi however is more a stoney desert. But still, we passed so many different types of landscape - this desert is soooooo huge...

We stopped in Bayanzag where you find the flaming cliffs (at this place they found dinosaur eggs...)
looks like Uluru, ha? ;)

Then of course we also stayed for a night near the sand-dunes of the Gurvansaikhan National Park. They are also really impressive: in fact they are around 200km long, in average 300m high and 12km wide. It is really funny: a long stripe of sanddunes within a quite green valley. We stayed overnight with a really nice and funny Mongol family that made us taste horse-milk, cheese made of horse-milk and yak-milk-tea... well, I guess you have to be used to this taste up from childhood in order to like it. The next morning we we went for one hour lasting camel-ride - touristy but funny!

Driving further West from the sanddunes we finally arrived in the canyons (yes in the canyons - we were driving through them...).

I definitely have to thank Bade here for driving us so safely through the canyons! Impressive!!

So, yeah, can't say more but that it is simply amazig how many different types of landscape you can find within this vast desert!

 

The time passed really quickly and finally I also had to say goodbye to my dear two travelmates Sylvie and Gwen whowere taking a flight to Beijing right after the trip while I had decided to stay a few more days in UB to let all my impressions settle a bit. So here I am now, in another hostel than the one I was last time because it was fully booked. And now I am happy about that because it is so much cosier here. There are 10beds in my room and we are all like a big family :) and I found my next travelmate...

I am still not a bigger fan of this city but I got a bit more used to the horrible manners of the car-drivers here (I'd better get used to it as other travellers told me that further in Asia it is only getting worse...)... And after dancing at a kind of practice-night in a nearby dance-school (which was in fact like a ball only with elderly Mongolian couples) I feel nicely exhausted and ready to leave tomorrow - direction China!!

Mongolia: tailor-made-trip

It is really difficult so start talking about Mongolia after Russia. This was already my third time in Russia, which made it a bit familiar to me – even if I hadn’t in the Asian part so far which is definitely completely different to the European part (people- and landscapewise). But Mongolia is still completely different to Russias Asian part even though the Buryat people are ethnically related to the Mongolians, and speaking Russian sometimes helps a lot in Mongolia...

Well, we (the two French girls I got to know in Ulan Ude – Sylvie and Gwen – and me) went to Ulaanbaatar by bus which was a great decision: it is not only nearly 4 times cheaper than the train but also wastes far less time at the border (1h50min in our case instead of approx. 7h with the train – no joke!!). Driving on the road we quickly got an idea of how our trip to Mongolia would be like: great landscape all the way long!!

However, entering the capital we felt really quickly that we wouldn’t like it... We stayed two nights, using the day we had in the city for the organisation of our trip and a short sightseeing tour to the main square, the main road and the monastery, which was unspectacular apart from the really amazing statue.

The people in the capital were not really nice or open (well, I guess capital cities or big cities are often like this). What really annoyed me personally was the traffic: a complete mess where everybody is only tooting all the time.

As a pedestrian you really have to take care, because cars would for sure not stop: a few times I got nearly hit by a car... Everybody says that in Russia drivers wouldn’t pay attention: bullshit!! you put your foot on the pavement in Russia and the cars will stop for you! But don’t expect that in Ulaanbaatar!

The atmosphere in the hostel reflected a bit what we had already read in guides before: everybody writes and says that it is difficult to travel in Mongolia by your own and that you should rather take an organised tour or rent a jeep with driver. Both options are cheaper the more people join is so all the other backpackers in the hostel are either trying to make you join their tour or their jeep-trip. Everybody is on the look for his own tailor-made tour, and believing this bullshit (that you can only travel in Mongolia with tour-operators or jeep+driver) they end up with having the same trip like everybody else... and this competition for travel-mates really poisons the whole atmosphere. 

 All three we really didn’t like this attitude and agreed upon leaving UB as quick as possible: So already the next morning we were sitting in a crowded bus, only with Mongolians, on the way to Kharkhorin. Without even being asked the woman next to Gwen passed her her telephone: her daughter was renting gers in Kharkhorin where we stayed the upcoming night! The woman – like all other Mongolians we met afterwards – was really nice and helped us a lot!

The next day we went on to Tsetserleg: we knew approximately at what time the bus from Ulaanbaatar would pass so we would just stop it and hop on. This bus was completely overcrowded: all seats were taken and moreover loads of stuff (people seem to buy loads of stuff in the capital to get over the winter...) was packed in the corridor. We as well had to sit in the corridor in the beginning till other people were getting off... 

The time on the bus passed really quickly and the kids on the bus sitting near us were happy to have some entertainment after having been on this bus for hours… I must say, the rides on the busses made us seeing and understanding so much of the country and the people than a trip with a jeep somewhere! Furthermore: not speaking the language doesn’t hinder you of getting in touch with people!

In Tsetserleg we finally stayed for 3 nights, going to the hot springs Tsekher on the second day with a really nice taxi driver, that would drive us all the way through the great landscape to the hot springs and back. He would always stop for us when we wanted to make photos of the great landscape and of all the animals and the gers. And I am now proud of speaking a few words in Mongolian: I can say cow, horse, sheep and snow (yes, you could see the snow on the top of the mountains...) – I should put “Mongolian – intermediate level” on my CV :D

All in all I really enjoy my trip to Mongolia so far and am really happy to travel with two really great girls who have the same idea of travelling like I have: without using tour operators but trying to organise everything by ourselves and getting in contact with the locals as much as possible. However, tomorrow we are off to a few-days-tour to the Gobi-dessert with jeep and driver, which is really the only way to travel there... Looking forward to this as well!

last day in Russia: simply gorgeous!!

I was leaving Irkutsk in the evening with a train to Ulan Ude, where I first didn't wanted to stay but catch the early-morning bus to Ulaan Baator (which is in fact up to 4 times cheaper than the train…). Unlike for all my other traintravels I decided to travel on плацкарт (plackart – 3rd class) this time, and made me regret not having taken these carriages more often: in comparison with 36 beds in a compartment-carriage there are 54 beds in plazkart: the 4-person-compartments are open and there are 2 more persons sleeping where in a normal sleeping-carriage would only be the corridor. The good thing is, that everything is open and you are not only in contact with the 3 others in your compartment, but can see who else is in the same carriage. However, I do admit: this train was rather empty - I can imagine, that it is not super-comfortable when there are really all 54 beds taken...

I started talking with the man opposite of me – Evgeniij, a 60-year old buryat man from Ulan Ude; and he ended up phoning loads of his friends for me in order to find out about when and where the bus to Ulaan Baatar would leave. After all I decided to stay in Ulan Ude for one more day and take a bus the following day – which was the best decision I ever took!

Upon arrival the man offered me to stay at his flat what I accepted with pleasure – knowing already what Russian hospitality means :) Arriving there he would of course cook a typical buryat dish for me: буузы (buusi). He was really happy seeing me eating soo much (and those who know me know that I can really eat a lot ;) ) After lunch he organised that his nephews would drive us downtown where they dropped me so I could walk around the city by myself and organise my bus ticket.

I was lucky to arrive at the main square with the worlds biggest

Lenin-head perfectly in time to see how a big group of children was repeating a dance performance for the promenade that was supposed to take place one week later for the 345th birthday of the city (happy birthday Ulan Ude!)

However, buying a busticket turned out to be nearly impossible as all the tour agencies were closed on Sundays… With loads of luck I found one open agency – and even there the woman was just about to leave. With my ticket in my pocket I happily walked back to big-Lenin...

...and bumped into two french girls (well – you’d always recognise tourist, won’t you??), who also wanted to get a bus to Ulaan Baatar the next morning.
So: us three back at the travel agency – phoning the woman who had left in the meantime and making her come back (great!!!) – buying bus-tickets for the girls – going for a drink – organising our trip to Mongolia that we decided to do all together – yessss ;)

Back „home“ my friendly host had already prepared dinner – and was again really happy seeing me eating so much – I am a good guest not rejecting any food! After that we went together to the two nicely (kitsch) lightened fountains of the city where Evgeniij – even though he by himself is from Ulan Ude – had never been before by night!! So he thanked me as well for that!

So now I was leaving Russia this morning with a smile on my face, loads of great impressions on my mind and the big wish to come back and do the whole transsib again!

so now I am sitting in Ulaan Baatar - which is btw all but not a nice city - and with the two french girls we gonna leave tomorrow to Kharkhorin (somewhere in the countryside)... but more about Mongolia in a future story ;)

Beautiful Olchon on the Baikal-lake

A bit shorter than first planned but fully successful was my trip to the beautiful island Olchon on the Baikal lake. After a 6-hours trip with a small Marshrutka and a ferry I arrived in the 1200 inhabitants counting capital of the island "Khushir" and checked in in "Nikitas Homestead", a hostel which is - thanks to Lonely Planet - populated with many foreign back-packers.



The island itself is quite sandy and dry but still really beautiful - just get some idea of it (travellers from Scottland told me that it looks exactly like this over there...):

a ger near the lake

buryat-tradition: you can find loads of trees all covered with coloured bands (couldn't find out what this tradition ment though...)

So of course I spent a lot of time walking around and drawing.
However, what I really wanted was taking a bath. But I got rather desperate regarding the outside-temperatures knowing the lake itself is - due to its incredible depth - supercold throughout the whole year anyways...
There's a saying that if you take a bath in lake Baikal 25 years will be added to your life - who wouldn't want that??
And I got them!! hoooraaayyy!! I was really lucky when walking around the beach I discovered a movable Banya!

Oh yes, Russia, the land of extremes: hot banja and then freezing cold bath in the lake! and this again and again - loved it! :D

On the second day I rented a mountain-bike in order to see a bit of the islands inland and forests. I will definitely try to do some mountainbike trips in the future again to get a better condition - how embarassing: I had to push the bike when the hills were too steep :/
The nice girl from the hostel had prepared a lunch-pack for me. But when I was sitting in the middle of the forest two wild dogs running up to me let me know that - by eating away my two cookies - I had eaten enough sweet stuff the last days... (I was quite happy when they left shortly after though...)

Yes, all in all it was a really nice bike-trip as the roads were definitely more interesting to ride on than our asphalt-streets (there is not one single asphaltstreet on the whole island...)

 Still I decided to leave after 3 nights due to the fact that it was the end of the season on the island: still sunny but cold and windy weather and Nikitas homestead, which in summer is said to be overcrowded, being rather empty. But there were still enough travellers to spend the evenings with as Olchon is like a small oasis of calm (there is no noice except from a car sometimes and the barking of the dogs) where travellers are taking a rest before or after their trip on the transsiberian. All the people I got to know were all really nice: some of them were travelling in the same direction as I am, some in the opposite. So I was lucky to get a lot of information about Mongolia, which I am now really looking forward to discover!

So, on the third day in the morning I left beautiful Olchon Island again - good bye красавица!