Blogs from Inner Mongolia, China, Asia - page 13

Having finished work and now getting a week off for Chinese new year festivities, I'm in a very good mood. Tomorrow (07-02) is new year's day, so at the moment there is loads of fireworks being fired in the streets. Especially the loud bangs, favourably the ones that last a minute or longer seem to be very popular, they woke me up at 09:30 this morning after a wild and extremely fun night in Hohhot's nightlife. Weirdly enough, everything is for sale on the streets! It's actually being sold year-round in the shops, fireworks are used to celebrate birthdays, weddings etc. Tomorrow I will be leaving to Datong to visit some of the local sights with the other foreign teachers. Should be good. Another exciting train trip to look forward to! See you in the year ... read more

I just got back last night from Inner Mongolia or Nei Mongol and had a blast. I am also sore all over from the saddle, but it was so worth it. Cait and I left our dorms in Beijing at 4:30 in the morning on the first of October for the beginning of China’s National Day Holiday in order to catch the bus and drive the supposedly 7 hour drive to Hohhot. It was a rainy start as we stood in the one lone store open at that time to avoid the rain and waited for the buses and all the people to arrive. When we were finally sorted into the correct buses, we headed off north. What should have taken maybe 9 hours with traffic took us 14 hours plus a break for lunch and ... read more

More Apologies Mongolian internet cafes are similar in nature to Sloths: they are awfully slow but do eventually get the job done, however, they are most likely eaten or stuffed before they get there. Because of that it is virtually impossible for me to post photos right now, and I probably won't be able to until the 7th of October. In the meantime please enjoy some small text and keep faith that when I do find a good cafe there will be in excess of 300 awesome pictures. The Trans-Mongolian Express The Trans-Mongolian Express is one of the worlds most revered train journeys; well at the very least it’s commonly taken as a part of the Tran-Siberian which is supposedly the world’s best. As far as romantic old-world train rides go, the six day haul from ... read more

Many people don't realize that there are two Mongolias. Good old standard Mongolia is a standalone country north of China, and is best known for its famous conqueror, Genghis. Then there is Inner Mongolia, a province in the far north of China, that was claimed a long long time ago for the Chinese empire. Both places are known primarily for grasslands and horses. Not sure why people find grasslands so fascinating, since I'm sure we've all seen big fields of grass before. But somehow, those tourism brochures make walking through big fields of tall itchy grass seem like an exciting heart-pounding adventure. It must be all the cavalier cowboys charging about on snorting horses. Since Inner Mongolia is just a stones throw from Beijing, we decided to do a quick weekend trip, together with a few ... read more

Day 155, 2nd November Erlian - Km 55 marker Had a decent sleep and this morning a hot shower in the piss-stinking toilet block of our first Chinese hotel. We went out to change money and have breakfast, another delicious and massive meal. The people in the small restaurants seem happy to serve us and are keen to wait on us. And the delicious food is so cheap too. Around midday, a taxi driver drove us to an internet club where I spent an hour reading my emails, some lovely ones from Kathryn, but I could only manage to write short replies before dashing back to the hotel to check out. It was a funny experience at the front of the hotel. We brought our panniers down first and attracted the attention of loads of rickshaw ... read more