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Published: January 9th 2008
wow it's cold here in Beijing!
the journey so far: despite dire warnings of train strikes on new yrs eve, all went well and I travelled via eurostar to Brussels, then to Berlin overnight all OK. met with my travelling companion, Gay, at airport and we flew to Moscow on N yrs day. thankfully she'd arranged a transfer from the airport to station, cos my Russian wasn't up to much, despite several lessons, however our taxi guy showed us a little of Moscow by night, lit by loads of lovely Christmas lights, looked wonderful, must return to peek at the old churches etc.
he left us at the right station, but we took hours to find a platform or any trains! strange place, but a good explore and plenty of time, we eventually found them. so many folk sitting waiting patiently, lots of different ethnic groups, and lots of babushkas well wrapped against the bitter cold. We found a shop and bought some last minute snacks to take on the train, and then to our train no 4, a chinese train with chinese carriage attendants, shame, I was looking forward to practising my russian, ah well.
glad we booked a private compartment just for 2, I got the top bunk, and all v. comfortable, tho v. limited space.
the guys stoked up the coal fire at the end of each carriage to heat carriage and the water container, so constant hot water, and they did a good job of keeping us toasty throughout our trip. good, cos it turned colder and colder, down to -30 on some stations, so lots of wrapping up before we jumped out for our 2 or 3 times a day excursion onto a platform for 20 mins, to excercise and stock up with goodies...babushkas selling their homemade wares on the smaller stations, yum! the dining car was really awful, and the guys there dirty and inconsiderate, we gave it a wide berth after one or 2 tries.
extraordinary riding thru Russia, Siberia, so much wide open frozen space, with just a sprinkling of snow up to 6" max, loads of birch trees shining white and bare in the sunshine, occasional dachas, little wooden painted houses, or clusters of them, sometimes strangely next to mini high rises, nasty concrete blobs in the most unexpected places.
about 4 days of that, then into Mongolia, and a different scene, the Steppes, then Gobi Desert; lots of farming, lots of yerts or gers, steaming hot chimneys, some right in town, next to houses,
on the steppes we saw camels, groups of gazelles, lots of ponies, and cattle. seemed a much busier place than siberia, wher there had been lots of industry in occasional places, between the spaces.
finally into china on the last morning, after loads of customs checks, and changing of dining cars, and even changing of wheels into China! that took 3 hours, and a lot of jolting.
lots of mountains to tunnel through to reach Beijing, and much heavy industry and all appeared v. neglected and sad.
then here we were in Beijing, and finding a taxi to deliver us and our heavy bags to friends flat, wonderful to have some space for a few days!
no-one speaks much English here, not even taxi drivers, but am now v. adventurously finding my way round the metro on my own, and have a few chinese characters written down to find my way home later.
A city of many characters, parts v. modern, next to v. old places. and a dearth of internet places!
it's still v. bitter cold here, but less than we've been used to, so feels comparatively warm, tho the rivers here are frozen solid. people flying kites and playing outside, lots with no hats on, brave folk!
today I've toured the Forbidden City, most wondrful, could have gone on for longer, but came to the end of the day. such beautiful buildings and extrordinary places for the emporers of old.
I'll get a hot sweet potato on the street on my home to warm me up, and tomorrow will go on guided tour of the great wall.
that's all for now folks, we're here till Sunday 13th, then another train 2 nites to Hanoi, and Vietnam.
over and out, love, M x
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Rachel
non-member comment
Amazing
Crikey sounds a miliion miles and years away from Cowley! Great blog, amazing, have fun! Rachelx