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Published: September 24th 2007
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Hello everyone hope you are all ok we are still having loads of fun, really feel like our adventures have begun over the last week. Earlier we completed the final leg of our epic (130 hours in total ) trans-siberian train journey and arrived in Beijing. We have met a couple from NY and Peggy speaks Mandarin so we are very lucky as we all made our way to the hostel together. Obviously before we started the blog we looked at the footie scores, Andrew is in a state of shock but the bustling streets of Beijing will take his mind of it very quickly I am sure!!!
When we last wrote we were just about to embark on the 2nd leg of our train journey to Mongolia. What can we say accept this train journey was very interesting to say the least!! The train was a mixture of tourists and mongolians the border crossing at russia and then mongolia took 9 hours in total as it appears there is a well established smuggling racket (denim jackets weirdly enough??) on the trains so lots of funny goings on.
We arrived in Ulaanbaatar in the morning and checked into our
Ulaanbaatar
Kim in Sukhbaatar Sq hostel. We had a look round the city, which isn't going to win any beauty awards but had a great atmosphere. It felt more modern than I had expected, and the locals seemed very westernised, lots of people spoke english. We had a look a Sukhbaatar Square and the main monsatery. In the evening we went out for dinner and I felt like I'd eaten a horse. Thats because I had (Kim didn't want to eat black beauty so she had Crazy Chicken)! The restaurant had the catchphrase "Monglians say: Meat is for Men, Grass is for Animals," so obviously we had to buy t-shirts!
Ulaanbaatar is like any other city really the main reason to go to Mongolia is to see the countryside. So we got ourself a guide..good ole Nasa...and embarked on a 4 day trip to explore the mongolian countryside. What can we say it was an amazing four days the scenery is stunning and the people are so friendly.
Mongolia is bigger than Britain, France & Germany combined and at last count, I think there was only 900km of paved roads so after leaving Ulaanbaatar we soon hit the dirt tracks. The roads are
Ulaanbaatar
Kim outside the monastry the quality of farm tracks at best, and are often worse. It was lucky Nasa had his trusty Mitsubishi Delica which took the bumps like a trooper. Its a brilliant car - I think I want one when we get back! The first day was a nine hour drive across stunning scenery with large flat plains bordered by semi-mountainous peaks. During the journey we saw lots of gers dotted about, these are felt covered circular tents where the nomadic Mongolians live. Its amazing, because as you're driving along you can see men riding on horseback, dressed in traditional clothes, herding their livestock - it really is another world!
We stayed in a ger on each of the 3 nights which was really like going back to nature. The second night, Kim asked where the toilet was expecting a designated hole in the ground and they pointed to a field! I was quite proud that I went through the whole trip without changing one item of clothing, although my socks have now been binned in the interests of public safety!
During the trip we saw beautiful national parks, forests, monastries, beautiful waterfalls, hot springs and mini-deserts. In the mini-Gobi
Ulaanbaatar
Monks in Ulaanbaatar we went horse-riding, I was the biggest there but some reason they gave me the smallest horse, maybe it was because I'd eaten his big brother for dinner the other night. The saddle was ball-crushingly tight which made for an unpleasant ride, furthermore we must have looked like something out of Monty Python when the horses broke into a canter - I don't think there were any naturals in the party!
The staple food was mutton and rice, and milk tea. No sheeps testicles, but I can't say that I'm that disappointed!
Special mention has to go out to Nasa, who was a total legend and a brilliant off-road driver. We'd recommend Mongolia to anyone it was absolutely wicked, we could have spent a lot longer there.
Right we're off for some crispy duck but hope everyone is well and we'll be in touch again soon!
Andrew & Kim
Sorry if when you read the email its difficult to keep up with who is writing it but we take it in turns to write a paragraph.
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rosie
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so jealous!!!
Hi ya - fantastic record of your journey - how long you gonna keep that up for?!! Glad you are having a good time - looks amazing - can't wait for next update (will give me something of interest whilst pretending to study!) Did you hear Helen's news - look her up on facebook for updates on their itinerary! Take care, Love Rosie