jamandjohntocn

The train to Beijing was pretty uneventful - our carriage was entirely full of Western travellers but there was no vodka fuelled madness. Even the border was simple with only cursory checks, no smuggling of boots or anything else was visibile last time (though maybe in the other compartments?). Once again the wheel bogies had to be changed (as China uses standard gauge) but after Belarus we knew the process and it was all a little tedious really. As we rolled towards Beijing you could immediately tell China is a much richer country than Mongolia, there are visible paved roads and construction happening everywhere. As we approached the capital the smog visibly thickened! We arrived into Beijing Central Station (which isn't very central) and said goodbye to Cathy and Lianne who were staying in a different ... read more

The ger camp consisted of about 25 gers, a restaurant/bar/relaxation area and thankfully a toilet and shower block. The camp insisted on carrying our bags much to our protest, which seems to show a difference between Asia and Europe. Both John and myself, and Lianne and Cathy, want to carry our own bags rather than put the locals out but they insist. I think we may have actually been seen to be rude trying to reject our host's hospitalities but I can't quite work it out. Not sure whether our rejection of help comes from Western politeness, empire guilt (though this doesn't explain why our Irish friends felt the same!) or something else entirely! Each booking got a ger so John and I had one to ourselves, consisting of three beds, a table and a central ... read more

The next morning we were awoken by a 03:30 alarm call ("Hello, get up now please") so we could get our 04:10 taxi to the station to catch the Mongolia bound train. This was actually a Mongolian train (Mongolian carriages and staff) and we were sharing our cabin with a Mongolian lad who was studying in Moscow. Fortunately for us he spoke passable English so we could talk, but unfortunately for him every conductor on the train was using him to translate for other Western tourists. Still, he didn't seem to mind and seemed on good terms with everyone. Also in our carriage was a Dutch couple who had just got married and were travelling the trans-siberian for their honeymoon. We spent most of the time chatting to those guys, and we also spend the afternoon ... read more

Okay the area is starting to grow on me, but only if I ignore the main street and only think about the unpaved roads and the strange wooden houses. We started the day with a hike in the Siberian forest that surrounds the lake, it was pretty hot day so we ended up sweating bucket loads. Our guide was not very talkative and mostly marched ahead of us. The hike went round the mountain and down to a secluded spot by the lake for lunch where we met a few Russian students who wanted to practice their English. The hike was enjoyable but it seemed a little intense for a leisure hike, they didn't mention this when we booked it! Fortunately we had walking gear (decent boots, long trousers and shirts to avoid in horse flies ... read more

The guy who drove us to the station was the same one who picked us up when we arrived from St Petersburg, still as grumpy as before so it wasn't down to the early start as I'd assumed. Still, although he didn't speak a word of English he was able to get the message across about which train we should catch, which platform it would leave from and what time we could board - most of which was printed on the tickets or I had found online while I should have have been working (hello Andy!). Boarding was a long walk down the train to find our wagon and show our tickets and passports to the conductor (or Provodnista in Russian - see I'm learning!). Our compartment was more basic than our Cologne -> Moscow sleeper ... read more