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Published: March 4th 2008
Strap yourselves in kiddies, this is a long one!
After a fantastic 23 days traveling through Bali, Tokyo and China we finally came to another much anticipated leg of our journey: the Trans-Mongolian & Trans-Siberian Railway.
The Beijing main railway station was a hectic scene, lots of people, lots of bags, lots of mess, lots of smells. Some people were sleeping in the waiting rooms, some crowding the escalators, some begging and some trying to help themselves to the contents of other peoples luggage - ours included! We had been warned by our guide to look out for pick pockets etc so when Kerry felt someone trying to open the bag on her back she knew what was going on and decided to carry all her gear in front instead.
Getting on to the platform and the train itself was like being cattle herded off for shipment complete with much bleeting. It was a cram through the gates with lots of pushing & shoving to keep your head above the crowd. Then there was the scuttle down the stairs divided by a ramp for wheeled suitcases (which nobody seemed to know how to use) at the bottom of
which was an ambulance - we suspect they got regular business here!
Finally on board the train we found our cabin to be small but well designed so that it easily swallowed our overstuffed baggage which surprised us no end. Soon we were joined by our only cabin mate Paul, a young American uni student who was equally amazed by the way his luggage disappeared so neatly. Eventually the train pulled out of the station to begin our 30 hour trip to Ulaan Bataar, Mongolia. Our carriage appeared to consist mostly of Chinese & Mongolian travelers though we soon met Denise, an American 'citizen of the world' and Sandrine, a young French girl who had recently come from a year traveling Australia. Before long Denise and Sandrine had joined the 3 of us in our cabin and we laughed away many of the hours telling stories and playing crazy card & drawing games. It helped to make it a really great start to our Trans-zip adventure. We also met Jim, a very interesting Chinese Australian ex-pat who had come to China to visit his mother.
It doesn't take long to experience the stories you read and hear about
like the often locked toilets for no apparent reason. One of our more interesting experiences was the border crossing. It began at the Chinese border town of Erlian where the border officials check your passport and visa etc and struggle to match your face to your passport. Next a somewhat bizarre event: the train had to have it's wheels changed! No this was not due to the stress of carrying our excess baggage, it happens to every train that crosses the border. Apparently Mongolia was for many years influenced (read controlled) by the Soviets and so adopted their rail guage as opposed to the guage used by the entire rest of the world! We had the option of getting off the train and going into the station with it's food , shops and toilets or remaining in our carriage to witness the 2 hour process. During this time the toilets are locked and not reopened until the train has passed through the Mongolian customs checks - if you are familiar with the operation of train toilets you will understand why. Knowing this event, and the locking of the toilets would happen, we were well prepared and stayed onboard. After over
half and hour of being heaily shunted about as they separated each of the carriages and positioned them over hydraulic lifts. Each carriage was then lifted off and detached from it's bogeys (the set of wheels at each end). Then new bogeys were rolled in under each one and they were lowered down and attached, often with much help from hitting with feet, fists or crow-bars. Not sophisticated but effective enough. Eventually the train was put back together with more shunting and rolled back to the platform, whereupon the other passengers returned and quizzed us about what we saw.
Soon we were on our way through no man's land to the Mongolian border town of Dzamyn Ude. We had heard stories about the immigration officers and ours lived up to the reputation. Dressed in a short skirted military style uniform complete with peaked hat and shiny medals, she stood in the doorway of our cabin, saluted and demanded "Passports". She also wore knee high black leather boots known in Australia as "F**k me boots". After our encounter with this woman we now call them "F**k with me & I'll f**k with you boots". We handed over our passports quick
smart and she thoroughly inspected them, handed them to one of her lackies and vanished up the hallway. As we chatted & laughed about our meglomaniacal immigration official we noticed one of the male guards on the platform waving to us and making the gesture for drinking. He could see Paul's beer bottles on our table in the window. He was giggling like a school and waving to Kerry when *SNAP* - he stood to attention and saluted as we saw madame immigration nazi walk by him on the platform. As soon as she was out of site though he was back to his antics. Sometime later colonel Lip Gloss re-appeared, distributed our passports, spat out "Enjoy your stay", turned on her rather fashionable heels and marched off never to be seen again. Finally at around 2.30am, after a 6 hour total border performance we were on our way again.
After finally getting some sleep we excitedly arrived at Ulaan Baatar to be met by our guide, Naki. He took us first to the Gandan Temple, the only surviving Buddhist Monastery in Mongolia after the 1930 Communist purges. Next stop on our brief tour of the town was to
visit Zaisan Hill memorial, built by the Russians to commemorate both Soviets and Mongolians killed in previous wartime. This area offers a complete view of the expansive city and overlooks a public park with a huge golden Buddha statue. We were then taken to a fantastic bath house to shower before heading off to the Elstei Ger Camp. The camp usually has toilet and shower facilities but we arrived at the end of winter and the pipes are all frozen and will remain as such until around April!
We were very excited to arrive at the ger camp and find it still largely surrounded by snow and snow covered hills. Cold but Beautiful! We soon found out we were the first tourists of the season and the only guests. We were actually outnumbered by the staff. The Ger (pronounced 'gear' with a rolled 'r') is a traditional nomadic round house with a collapsable wooden trellis wall covered with thick felt around the outside and on the roof. They have a small wooden door, are filled with brightly painted wooden furniture and heated with a central stove which is also used for cooking.
Before long we had to find
out what toilet arrangements the camp has during the winter/spring freeze. It turned out to be a long drop pit with 3 seperate cubicles over it and slots cut in the carpeted wooden floor. The stalagmite of poo was an amazing phenomenom! How people had managed to crap that many times in exactly the same spot was beyond us. It was at least 6 feet tall without exaggeration. We have seen some amazing feats of human engineering but this one is top of the heap! Hahaha!
The next morning, against the advice of a friend who had formerly gone horse riding at a Mongolian ger camp, we decided to take up the opportunity. We were quite clear that we only wanted to ride for around an hour (no 4 hour butt breaker for us Michael!). The Mongolian horses are quite small and ours were fortunately calm and slow, to the point that they stopped several times out of disinterest. Unfortunately this meant having to trott to catch up and therefore some sore 'riding bones' that evening.
Later in the afternoon we went for a walk to visit one of the local nomadic families, still living their traditional lifestyle
nearby in their winter location. We were greeted by the dogs first and then by a smiling middle aged gentleman. After some conversation with Naki in Mongolian we were shown inside the ger and offered the most honoured seating position, opposite the door. We had read about the Mongolian tradition of never refusing hospitality and so when our host offered an old tin full of dry bread, sugar cubes and small sweets we were obliged to gratefully accept. The bread was made more edible by a dunking in the 'unusual' tea. Excited at having guests from so far away he then offered to cook us all some dumplings and as refusal was not an option we all forgot about our recent lunch and accepted with thanks. While the dumplings were steamed over the centre stove we offered our host some gifts we had picked up on the way to the camp. Lee gave him a bottle of 'Chinggis Kahn' Vodka (some of Mongolias finest) and Kerry gave him a large pack of soap and 5kg of rice as per our guides suggetions. Of course these gifts were gratefully accepted and after he had put the rice and the vodka away
and placed each bar of soap amongst the ger's wall trellis to dry (which is the normal thing to do) he served up the dumplings. While eating the gentleman decided he would open the vodka to share with us.
He filled a small bowl and stepped outside the ger. Naki advised us that the first serving is always an offering to the ground and the sky and after it was sprinkled around the ger he returned to refill the bowl. The second serve goes to the first guest but only for a taste and Naki got this job which he was pleased about as he's not keen on vodka. The bowl was topped up and offered to Lee, who also doesn't much like vodka but, you know the story, he couldn't refuse. It took quite some time to empty the bowl but he got there, helped by the knowledge that Kerry was next. Kerry took her bowlfull and steadly sipped away and it was empty before too long leaving Lee feeling somewhat inadequate. But our host showed us all the way to do it, emptying the little bucket in one swig. Naki didn't get off so lightly as he'd
hoped as a full bowl was presented to him and he dutifully emptied it as quickly as he could manage. Thankfully a second round was not offered but instead we all went outside to water the goats and a friendly calf who took a shine to Kerry. We then bid our host farewell and strolled back the ger camp, full of dumplings and tipsy with the 80 proof vodka.
After a BEX and a little lie down Naki plucked us out of our ger to try some archery. He was clearly having fun, showing off and trying to shoot 3 arrows at once. He also tried to show Kerry how to shoot 2 arrows at once but Lee was the only one who managed to hit the target, reclaiming a little pride after the vodka fiasco.
After our unscheduled afternoon dumpling feast we had arranged to have a late dinner but we where still full when that time came. Of course what was for dinner that night? Yep, dumplings. Needless to say we didn't finish our meal. After dinner Naki came to our ger to show us how to play Ankle Bones. As the name suggests, it uses
Cooking dumplings
Our host cooked us yummy dumplings washed done with 80 proof vodkathe small 4 sided ankle bones of goats. Each side is a different shape so they can be rolled like dice and various games have been devised around this premise. Kerry beat Lee in the first game and, another Mongolian tradition, he had to give her a present. A kiss on the cheek would suffice. Another game and another defeat for Lee left him scanning the room for another present. It just wasn't his day. Naki intervened and suggested Kerry's present should be that Lee would act like 3 animals that he had heard of but never before seen. Lee started wondering who this present was really for! The animals were a Panda, a Giraffe and a Cheetah. Lee gave some passable versions of a panda and giraffe but decided that if he hadn't seen them before, Naki would not know that a cheetah is not a bird that calls "who who"! He wasn't convinced but let it slide.
The next day was our last in Mongolia so we packed up and headed into town for a bit of a wander round. During this time we also finally updated out travel blog for Tokyo and China. In the evening
we returned to the train station to re-board the Trans-Mongolian and head for Russia.
We thoroughly enjoyed our couple of days at the ger camp and would reccommend it to anyone. Though we could really only suggest a summer stay for Lee's mum. Hanging your arse out over a hole in the ground in -10 degrees celcius is well beyond her idea of roughing it!
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Walshie
non-member comment
What a pile of poo
What a fantastic time you're having! And great reading. Ah yes, but would Lee's mum appreciate what happens to your stalagmite in the summer? With global warming permafrost ain't what it used to be. Lotsa luv from Deb (it's her birthday), Steve (glad it's not his), Alec (when will I have girlfriend?) and Danny (rub my tummy).