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Published: July 13th 2008
Hi All, as you can tell our Tans-Mongolian train adventure is now over. It was such a great trip, great craic, and we had some new and interesting experiences. The last leg of the trip saw us enter China. Our entry into China was a bit stressful to say the least, and there are definitely some things about China I'll never get used to, but by and large I'm a fan and Maeve is definitely coming around.
After we cleared the border we had to go into the bogie changing shed - Russian and Mongolian trains run on a 5' guage rail, whereas in China runs on a 4' 9" rail. So therefore the wheels from the mongolian train have to be changed to narrower wheels for the narrower Chinese railway. They drive the train into the bogie changing shed, lift up the carriages and swap the bogies.
The way it goes on the Trans-Siberian railway is that the toilets are locked about 30 minutes before you arrive at any station, so you need to plan beforehand to get into (and out of) the toilets at least 30 minutes before the next stop otherwise you my have to wait up to
Birds Nest
The new Olympic Stadium blending in a bit too nicely with its surroundings90 mins to get some relief. What happened this time was that we arrived earlier than expected and therefore the toilets were locked before we had planned they would be and we were caught short to say the least. We woke up early, with our storage tanks full if you know what I mean, to discover that the toilets were already locked. Then we had to go through passport, customs and baggage checks which took 3 hours, not the 2 we were told they would. Eventually we were let off the train in the bogie changing shed and made for the direction of the nearest toilets. It took 15 minutes to get to the station to find that the staff were refusing entry to the station. We went to the next building along the street which was another part of the station and were told to go back to the building from where we came. Again we weren't let in, needless to say some of the group were getting a bit cranky from the pro-longed wait (nearly 15 hours for some) to use the facilities, also we were locked outside the train station in 30+ degree heat with no shelter.
Eventually myself and Maeve headed off up the town to see what we could come across. 2 buildings up the street was a waiting room with toilets - thank God - although like horse milk we came across a new phenomenom that I'll never get used to: "Chinese Toilets". After relieving ourselves we went back to the rest of the group, some of whom were in the middle of applying sun tan lotion. They were glad to hear of the relief of toilet facilities and shelter that the waiting room offered.
After an hour we boarded the train (with narrower wheels) and headed off to Jining, where we were to change onto an express train to Beijing. When we got off we learned that the 2 hour wait we were expecting was actually 4 hours long. We were so lucky to meet Chris, a German guy who was working in Beijing for the past 5 years, and who spoke brilliant Chinese. We were told that we would be met by a travel Rep who would meet us off the train, sort out our tickets and put us onto our express train - bit of a fabrication here. We were met by a Chinese guy who could only speak Chinese, couldn't answer any of our questions (which train?, which platform?, what time?), you know the basic and essential questions any traveller might have. He then doled out the tickets and disappeared within 5 minutes of our arrival. Thank God Chris, with his excellent chinese, managed to glean the necessary information from him. We (Maeve, I, Richard, Ger, Chris and 2 lovely Icelandic girls) headed off in the direction of a good restaurant and had a great time showing off our relative chop-stick skills. We had a huge feed, a couple of beers and it only cost about 6 Euros each. We walked back to the train happy and contented and after the nightmare of our arrival into China (which included us wondering and worrying how we were going to get back on the train when we were locked outside the station). Maeve was not feeling too much love for China that morning but was starting to mellow after the nice feed and a few beers. Jining is a city that has not seen too many westeners ever, this became apparent as we were attracting a lot of interest from the locals who were crowding around to look at us and hear our funny language. (As an aside I've just remembered an incident that happened us in Russia. Maeve managed to order a meal of 'Calf Language' - talk about lost in translation, she was not impressed when she was presented with a plate of thinly sliced Cow Tongue). Anyway we were approached by lots of curious Chinese saying Hello and Where are you from? We felt like famous people, espeially when they started taking pictures of us just walking in the street.
We got the overnight express from Jining to Beijing, and despite being on 'Wall' watching duty the promised views of the great wall never materialised. Maeve's new found fondness of China quickly vanished when our tour guide who was supposed to meets us off the train never showed. Again a mess-up by our tour company meant that the tourguide was waiting for us off the 6.30am from HuaHong insted of the 8.10 from Jining. She got fed up waiting and left. Anyway after waiting 2 hours outside a humid smoggy Beijing East railway station we were rescued by our tour guide, I have to admit that none of the 4 of us managed to get her name, but she was great craic and had interesting insights into most things. She brought us to our hotel and told us to shower and rest - I don't blame her we must have beeen stinking at that stage.
That evening a much rested and refreshed group were taken to Tianamen Square and some of the very familiar sights of Beijing. It was interesting to hear our tour guide's (i.e. the Chinese communists governments) views on what we were discussing - the 1989 Tianamen Square riots was just a demonstration by a few students; the anti communist government riots we'd only just missed in Ulaan Baatar (which were actually a group of really drunk young lads who were a bit bored) were 'actually' caused by Terrorists; and she enthused at how Mao was such a clever and great leader of the revolution, but failed to mention the complete fucking mess he made of the country after. A mess so big that only nearly 60 years later China is starting to look like the great country he promised to deliver. Oh, and what we said was Smog she said was actually Fog (the debate still goes on, we're not sure who's right).
Thursday the 10th of July was a great day apart from being me and my twin brother's birthday (Happy Birthday P) it was also the day we headed to climb the Great Wall of China. It took us 3 hours to get to JinChangLee. We passed the new Olympic stadium, which is unfortunately communisms favourite colour 'grey' and it was lost in the cloud of fog/smog that engulfed it - not surprising considering that next door, and about half a mle away, are large chimneys still belching out smoke. On the wall we walked 10kms which was more like continuously climbing up and down really steep and high stairs in 32 - 34 Degree heat with fog/smog all around us. It was hot, it was sticky but it was really well worth it to see the wall like this. We had a few really annoying hawkers who wouldn't F-off until you bought something. Eventually (about 6-7kms in) they disappeared and we could really enjoy the experience, the views, and the peace and tranquility. Just at the end we took the easy way out and hooked ourselves up to a zip-line and sailed down towards the car park which otherwise would have been a 20 minute walk.
That night we went out for food and a few celebratery birthday drinks, but we were so wrecked from our climbing that it was none too hectic. As we sat drinking in the nicest bar in town 'Let it be' John Lennons song came on the radio which was really nice and very appropriate as it was the song we sang with Andrea the Russian Submarine captain in the bar in St. Petersburg on one of our first nights as a group together. We had a good chat about all the things we'd done and how great the trip was and now it was all over, well not really till the next night.
On friday Maeve and I had to move from our hotel to our new hostel. Our new hostel is so nice it was voted No. 7 in the world out of 10,000 hostels on the Hostelworld website and it deserves it. The room is really nice, there is a gorgeous traditional Chinese courtyard with lounging space and this computer (free use) and a really relaxed atmosphere. The staff are great, helpful and friendly (Take note Russia) and the beer is just 30cent for a 600ml bottle, happy days.
That evening we met up with the lads again and went to the Temple of Heaven which was spectacular. Afterwards we went to the Pearl Market where Maeve bought a very nice and expensive (! - EUR 4.50) black necklace. We all went back to our respective accomodations with plans to meet up with Chris our German friend and Chinese translater. We met up with Chris, Johnannes and Benedict - 2 friends of Chris. Despite Ger swearing that it was going to be an early night as he had an early flight back home he was still going strong in the Beijing disco at 3am when we left him chatting up some local bird. We had a great night, a great meal, followed by an assault on the Beijing nightclub scene which included several bars and discos. We had a great chat with Johannes and Benedict who are great craic and are actually slowly completing an 'Axis of Evel' world tour. They've been to Iran and Syria and possibly Libya, plans are afoot to go to N. Korea. Although plans are much further afoot to go to Iraq or as Johannes put it when I asked him 'Are you Fucking crazy, we're not on a kamakazi holiday'. We also had a really good conversation about how they also found that the western media had seriously tainted their views on these countries. Iran they said was one of the best places on earth and that the food was great and the people were unnaturally helpful and friendly and not a major threat to western civilisation as G. Bush would love us to believe. I'd rather believe Johannes than any dossier the yanks can manufacture.
At the end we had to say a final good to the lads. It was an absolute pleasure to travel with them and we gone on like the proverbial 'house on fire'. Poor Ger was heading back to rainy and miserable Dublin to work but I think overall he'll have found the trip a 'good stop'. Richard is travelling on in China for a bit and eventually making his way back to Sydney. He started in London and is trying to get to Sydney without flying - I hope he succeeds. We're going to meet up with him in Sydney and take up his kind offer to go fishing at 5am in the morning and watch the sun rise over Sydney harbour.
Yesterday was a day off on our holiday so I made great use of the free internet to catch up on this blog and get pictures updated, got all the laundry done (thank God) and to call home and catch up with the news from everybody.
Today we finished up our sight seeing by going to the Summer Palace - v. nice and the Forbidden City - also v. nice and a bit like a square version of the Temple of Heaven. Now as I type Maeve is snoozing on a couch across the courtyard pretending to read. I'm just about finished this blog, I'm going to upload our newest pictures, have a few nice 30c beers and then pack, shower and take it easy for the evening.
Tomorrow morning we're off to HoChiMinh via Hong Kong so I'll writ to you from there.
Here you go Kev!
Chinese Men: 3/10....but Chinese Men in the Kung Fu show get 9/10!
I think that's cheating Maeve!!!!!!!
Chinese Women 5/10
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Kev
non-member comment
Ratings?
Chinese girls ?/10 Icelandic girls ?/10