Blogs from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Asia - page 8

On the road again. Dromen, organiseren en doen - reizen, ik ben er gek op. Wat wordt onze volgende bestemming? Hoe komen we daar en waar slapen we? Wat is jullie goedkoopste wodka? Dat meen je toch niet? Dat zijn de vragen die we onszelf het meest stellen tussen de bestemmingen door. De gekozen vervoersmiddelen zijn al talrijk: te voet, met de tandem, trein, bus, taxi, liftend in een bus(je) of auto, roeiboot, metro, tram, kano en niet te vergeten de waterfiets. Zowel doelmatig naar bestemming als recreatief op plaats van bestemming. Ik zat even te twijfelen over welke van deze ik wat verder uit zou wijden – en hoewel ik boeken vol kan schrijven over de voor- en nadelen van het verplaatsen per waterfiets (inclusief zijn historische betekenis) – lijkt de trein me ook wel ... read more

Day 57 – Sunday 12th August 2012 to Day 62 Friday 17th August 2012 The Wild Wild West of Asia – Welcome to Mongolia Wild horses, rivers, mountains and deserts. Day 57 to Day 62 takes us through Mongolia and the halfway point of our adventure. We left Irkutsk on the 10pm train to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The taxi ride from the hotel was an adventure alone. The trick must be to go as fast as you can weaving through the traffic. Well that’s how they drive in Russia. The biggest difference is the number of backpackers/travellers on this leg of the Trans-Mongolian. From Moscow to Irkutsk, apart from the 50 odd Germans, we were the only non-Russians on the train. Now, it feels like a Contiki Tour. Our carriage is full of travellers. Swedes, Norwegians, English, ... read more

Flight 9: Yangon to Bangkok was a bit rough. We were slightly delayed as the plane was late arriving, then they got us all on, we were just waiting for cargo to be loaded and said sorry because they have been on the ground for 25 minutes they have to complete some immigration thing. All up we were about an hour late and then took off and went straight into a monsoon storm. It was dark but from the lights on the wings we could see the rain pounding the plane. We shook, rolled and dropped consoling ourselves by the fact that we are flying AIr Asia and they must be used to this weather. It was fine once we were through it but it's not an experience we're keen to repeat and we were happy ... 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

It is Tuesday May 29,2012 and I am packing and getting organized to leave for Hong Kong on Friday. The plan is to visit Hong Kong and Macau for 2 days ,then fly to Taiwan where I have a downhill bike adventure and mountain hike booked for the Tarako Gorge. After Taiwan it will be back to Hong Kong for the flight to Mongolia on June 7th. Total team size this trip is 14 and a number of people are doing lots of pre-build exploring. In addition after the build some of us are going to Russia to take the Trans-Siberian RR to Vladivostok and then home via Japan. One more sleep and then the long trip to Hong Kong starts-early ferry (0615) then bus and skytrain to YVR , then 13 hours on plane etc. ... read more