Ulan Ude (Russia) - Mongolia - Bejing

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On the train from Tomsk!

Yes the views were pretty and the lake was amazing! This train journey was a completely new experience this time. I think this is the part that is most untrodden! The carriage is really quiet and the woman in charge is really strict - she does not seem to like us and keeps telling us off! We have a constant battle with having the window or the curtains opposite us open! We depart on bad terms as she is going mad about the linen she says (in Russian) that we have not given her enough back but we have - opps so we think! There are some hidden that we did not use! Its sorted and she may have smiled (not at us) or maybe it was just a bit of wind!

Arrive Ulan Ude and we are met by Jayc a lovely lady that works at our hostel. The hostel is not in town so we get picked up in a mini bus and taken to the hostel which is about a 10 minute drive! It is in a traditional shanti town type area and we have lots of cows sat outside the hostel which is very nice. Later that day we get the number 4 bus (which is just a small mini bus) back into town with Jayc. She helps us find the building where we have to pick up our bus tickets for Mongolia! Then we go off and buy some fresh fruit and veg and meet her back at lenin's head and head back to the hostel.

Tuesday 7th September

It is hot hot hot today and we have headed back into town this time with livia - as she was unwell yesterday! The actual downtown area is really pretty and we do a bit wondering looking at the sights! Tomorrow our bus is at 7pm so another early night for us before we head to Mongolia where Nat will discover her people and become queen of the Mongoles!

Wednesday 8th September

After some confusion with the owners of the hostel we realise that they are going to take us into town to get the bus and not a taxi, which is a relief! We did plan to get there an hour early but as expected we arrived not long before the bus departed. The bus is much nicer than any of us expected and we even had a cold blower which was great. No one on the bus spoke English except for a 3 Europeans sat at the back of the bus. A couple of hours in and we have our first stop at a really pretty sight that has some sort of mini stone henge thing but we have no idea of what its for or where we are! The rest of the journey to the boarder was also fairly painless with some amazing views en-route! From here to Mongolia its all desert!

Arriving at the boarder and 3.5 hours later we moving again! What an experience - even though we have all our visa's now it does not stop us from wrring a little that we have done something wrong hehe! Firstly we go through Russian controls and about 5 different people get on and off the bus checking our passports. We all then have to get off the bus with all of our bags and go put them through a scanner! Here we also show our passports, visa's, registration card and our train tickets. The Russians are really making up for not checking anything before - at least they get it out the way in one go!

We all head back on the bus and inch forward to the next building about 50 meters away. Here we all pile of the bus again for exactly the same process with the Mongolians! There is absolulty no form of queing here its a massive free for all. So in this tiny dorr way we stand our ground and try and hold our places but in the end we loose and end up last haha! They are very good at pushing in Nats people!

Back on the bus and we drive out of the gates round a corner and we stop at this random block of flats. We sit on the wall and make ourselves somw sandwiches/ We then realise that everyone has gone inside to a room that has been turned into a cafe. Sat outside there are a couple of old ladies very interested to speak with us and find out what we are doing and where we are going! So in broken English we have a lovely conversation and learn some Mongolian phrases! The rest of the journey is very long and hot with only one other stop but again the views are amazing! It is vast and moon-like with Gerts scattered, heards of cattle and wild horses!

7.30 - 19.30 its been a long day! We are all very tired and most excited about a nice meal and a shower. After finally finding our hostel which again is a few rooms in a block of flats we get ourselves sorted and head round the corner to the ATM and the first eatary we find! A Posh Japanesse place haha (2 pound a meal)and we have not showered yet - o well too hungary to care! After food we head straight back for a shower and bed!

The guy at the youth hostel could possibly be the nicest person in the world (except for Greg lol. He is just so helpful with all our million questions! It cost us dollars a night and is really nice clean and friendly - i would definately recommend this place to anyone heading in this direction. I think it is called Gobi Tours Youth Hostel.

Thursday 9th - Saturday 11th September

We headed out to the Mongolian wilderness with our crazy taxi man who either had a hearing problem or just really enjoyed shouting at people on the telephone whilst driving. We arrived at our Gert with our first taste of mutton mmmm we have 3 meals a day of mutton to look forward to. Livia did very well indeed and managed to clear every plate while the rest of us struggled to make a dent in the plates. Its lovely here. after an inital look round Nat and myself go exploring and climb up one of the nearby hills. Ha o yeah that is after the photo stick storey Liv and myself appeared in haha (which will be printed on Facebook) when we can get on it. The nights here are very cold but we have a wood burner to keep us warm while we drink some beer that was cooled earlier in the river and play cards! The second night we learn our lesson and i get up at about 4am and get the fire going again as it is frezzing cold.

Day 2 at the Gert and we have a full days horse riding round the national park booked. Our guide does not speak any English and really seems like he would rather be doing something else. Laura has a massive phobia of horses but decides to still come. She is having trouble steering her horseand is lagging back. After about a couple of hours we head up through some wooded area and out to an open clearing, once the wild horses have been shooed on (they were amazing)! We come to an open clearing and get the horses going! Laura is not there so the guide goes back to hurry her horse back. We then see Laura's horse come running towards us wikthout Laura and hear her screaming like a crazed woman. Liv Nat and myself head back to the woods on the horses to find the guide craddeling her on the floor with a mis-shapen elbow! After settling her down an getting her more comfortable, luckily Nat explains what she did when she poped her elbow out previously! It was just a matter of wsinging her arm to put it back in place. She does this and on the third attempt it goes back in. We are in the middle of nowhere here so we have to then walk the horses back to the main road where Laura and Liv get picked up and taken back in a car and myself and Nat continue back on the horses.

When we get back to the Gerts we discover that there are hoards of other Chinese tourists staying in the other Gerts. It is like the Chinese version of Brits abroad hehe. We get to listen to their load singing all night - which is actually pretty good. By the time we head back to the city we are all very much looking forward to a nice shower.

When our crazy taxi man pickes us up we ask him if we can stop off at Turtle Rock as we did not get chance to before because of the horse accident. It is pretty amazing, except for the drunk Mongolian tourists. 2 4x4s pull up next to us and about 20 drunks all pile out - most amuzing! We take their picture for them and we are on our way! Not before our taxi man decides he wants a 5 minute sleep just before we hit the town. So we all sit on the road and wait for him to wake up!

We get back to our Hostel and this time it is full of people. We decide to be really minging and save showering for later - its only been 3 days hell we have done 6 before by now haha! So we head of to visit the square and the temple - both very impressive and worth visiting!

We have a train booked bound for China tomorrow morning but have not been out at all yet and we are all excited about going clubbing in Mongolia haha! Who can say they have been clubbing in Mongolia - that is brilliant! We previously found an Irish sports bar so we head their first so that we can watch the Arseanal game (at 10pm our time). On our way out from the hostel we get chatting to a girl from Norway and invite her along with us. and later on her 2 friends join us. We then discover that they are part of a bible group and that they have never been to a nightclub before. We convince them to break their nightclub cherry get them drunk and convince them to join us haha - could this night get any better!

The club is hilarious - by this point we also have another American and an English guy from the Irish bar join us. Or should I say take us to the club. They live in UB and told us that in all their time there they have never once seen a group of western woman go to that bar haha brilliant! Anyhow they end up staying for one drink paying for all the drinks and leave - bless how nice! We dance till about 2 am and then have to head back!

Sunday 12th September

6.15 pick up urhhhhh, actually it is not too bad and this time we are travelling in style - we are 2nd class! Yippeee we have are own compartment! So we get on get our beds set up and sleep for a few hours! This train has some lovely people working on the train really friendly Chinese men - actually a little too friendly as Laura discovered! Whilst having a cigarette the guys grabbed her boob and asked "how you call these"? "Boobs". "Ahhh yes you have nice boobs" lol. When the train reaches the Chinese boarder the train has to be lifted into the air and have its wheels changed because the Russians have weird tracks that don't match the rest of the world! We are at this boarder for about 5 hours.

Monday 13th September

We arrive in Beijing and figure out the underground system so we head off to where we think our hostel is - 5 hours and a taxi journey later we find the hostel which is actually right by where we originally came from hehe! Beijing is hot hot hot hot. Our hostel is down a Hutong which are famous streets of Beijing - they are narrow old streets with many streets shops. Most people eat and cook food on the streets and you can get a masive meal for 1 pound 50pence!

Beijing is massive and we spend a lot of time finding things! To save money we catch local transport everywhere! We figure out how to get the the Great wall instead of doing a tour saving us about 20 pound. Other sights were Tiannaman Square and the Olympic stadium. On our way to Tiannaman square after stopping in an air-conditioned posh hotel for a drink so that Nat did not pass out haha, we were approached by a couple of guys with bikes! They offered to take us on these bikes for 30pence. We decided to take them up on it, but we then get split up and told that we need to be on a bike each becaue we are too heavy. Its at this point that we wonder when and how we are going to get conned! We get taken round some old streets and to some strange house. We then get to a really quiet street and seperated equally along this street and each told to get off and pay them 30 pound each - pay us now they say but we are just not interested. Unfortunaly for them they think we will be scared little woman but we tell them they can have their 30 pence and we go ha! Our first con!

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Comments

[Other Liv]

So far so good
Bloody brilliant. xx