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Published: April 26th 2006
Monk
Bayan Gobi, MongoliaAfter a goodbye meal with Alexey and Irena - our Muscovite friends who we met via a motorbike chat room - another story - (big thanks guys for showing us a great time) we hopped on our home for the next four and a half days as the wheels were almost rolling. Imagine our surprise as the train was not the sumptuous beast that transported us to the Capital, but perhaps a reject from BR’s 70’s rolling stock. Post steam. Just.
The next few days were spent mimicking Anne Frank (we stayed in quite a lot) and an average speed of 70 km/h ensured our window on the ever-changing scenery (actually not much) was not too blurred. The riotous scenes at the infrequent station stops as our carriage companions peddled their clothing wares to local punters and we all stocked up on essential food supplies was a good alternative to TV.
The clock went forward by an hour daily and our fitness regime (huh?) went out the window. Fortunately Andrew’s bowel movements adjusted to avoid having to use the ‘facilities’ too often. Function of the facilities not form being the order of the day!
As we approached the
Our Cabin
Trans Siberian Railway Journey Russian border, we wished we had broken the journey and stopped to take in the beautiful scenery around Lake Baikal (largest fresh water lake in the world) and Goose lake (some reference to Geese perhaps?). However, the 20 min train stops would require some pace to make it down to the water and back.
We arrived at the Russian border in what seemed like no time (ahem!) and spent the next 7 hrs somewhat anxious as to what to expect having read rumours of many scams where officials help stop currency leaving the motherland. Fortunately this was not the case and the only highlight was when the train disappeared at dusk to shunt off the restaurant car leaving Andrew stranded on the station platform on a food hunting mission, returning 30 mins later where a whiter and quieter Andrew reappeared to an oblivious Grace (no change there then). Andrew vowed never to leave her side again!
Next stop Mongolia
Ulaan Baator (much alike Beirut we imagine) appeared next morning and we were whisked off to our Ger (nomadic tent) in the Bayan Gobi desert 6 hours away. The 4*4 and occupants took a battering as the ‘roads’
were so bad it was easier driving on the dirt beside them.
Our private Ger came equipped with IOL (instant on lighting), electricity and log burner (much needed). We met the Jones’ down the road who provided us with local delicacies such as dried cheese, milk teas and horses milk. Managed not to throw up (just) and were ‘treated’ to the scary sight of a horse being milked. That’s just not right.
We also visited a local monastery where Genghis Khan had roamed and met a bunch of monks who were saving to build a new school and monastery. We bought them a brick in exchange for a photo which seemed like a fair trade. Most of the rest of our brief stay was spent driving round the desert and taking photos of Grace standing by camels, Buddhist monks in temples and such like. The language was quite hard to master and seemed to require a degree of flem in the throat to master the accent properly.
We were soon on our way to UB and boarded the train to Beijing. We headed first through snow and then the desert (carcasses by the rail tracks and tumbleweed
The Russian Train
Trans Siberian Railway Journey aplenty) onto the Chinese border to be greeted by the Vienna Waltz and a bunch of engineers to change the bogeys (wheels) on our train to make it fit the Chinese gauge.
The journey will remain in our memories for a lifetime for all the right and some of the wrong reasons. The crossing of continents and bartering with the locals at stations in the middle of nowhere, meeting fellow travellers, traders and railway users (who looked after Andrew during his ‘lost’ spell) made for a rich and memorable experience that a 777 to Beijing could not provide. The toilets and washing facilities, hmm….. For Grace the acceptance of the pot noodle as palatable food!
The Peoples Republic of China - 1.3bn of them!
Our trip took us the length and breadth of China using the railway to zig-zag through:
Beijing
So much history and architecture. The government presence meant ridiculous amounts of PLA (military police) and reinforced the communist status. More Russian than Russia in most respects and with a job for almost everyone, it was both efficient to the point of disbelief (levels of service unseen in a capitalist system), but frustrating to
Goose Lake
Trans Siberian Railway Journey work through ‘the process’ and to see the shoddy workmanship. Quite how they got anyone into space is one matter, but another is who made the decision to spend vast sums on doing so when so many people are on / under the bread line. This town proved what a small world it is when we met up with Paul Sayce who met Ian Leitch some months earlier in South America!
Shanghai
Under continuous redevelopment, vying to take the crown from Hong Kong as China’s financial powerhouse. Not so much ancient history here - a lot like London with the docklands and with construction of modern skyscrapers. We met up with Simon Russell and Emma and took the maglev train to town at 431 km/h (built by Germans not Chinese!). We spent a great weekend sightseeing around the old colonial buildings and Shanghai’s market, ate with Taiwan’s PM and enjoyed views from the 87th floor of the Jin Mao tower (4th tallest building in the world).
4 day Yangtze River Cruise / 3 Gorges
Our Chinese language skills were coming along nicely so we booked onto a river boat cruise up the Yangtze as the only
Sweeping Left Hander
Trans Siberian Railway Journey non natives on the boat. An already interesting journey was spiced up further by small stories and customs incl. piped musak into our berth: wedding march; theme from Titanic, Merry Christmas and very unnatural frogs, crickets and bird sounds. At all hours.
The Dam project had already flooded the river by 139m so far and when completed (2008/9) will flood it to a total of 175m. Over budget already by nearly 400% to the tune of $75billion US dollars. There are rumours that the dam is cracked and if it gets worse it is feasible it could wipe out neighbouring Yichang in under an hour. It was a pity we met the project safety manager on the train before we found this out…..
We stopped at obligatory temples and palaces and took a journey up one of the tributary rivers where local trackers row and then in the shallows, wade / pull the boats up the river. To avoid chaffing this used to be done naked, but the modern materials and modesty now provides shorts to cover the nether regions. Grace was sorely disappointed.
The 3 Gorges were diminished significantly but are still a sight to behold
- even if the boat took the most breathtaking at night so we could visit yet another bleedin’ temple!!
Chengdu
The home of the panda breeding and research centre and the spicy Sichuan cuisine was on the agenda for Chengdu. Unfortunately the wonderful countryside will require another visit. Perhaps combined with Tibet Mr Dellow & Ms Kneller?
We saw the little (and not so little) guys snacking away on bamboo and making noises just like the locals when eating. The Pandas were fantastic to see and even posed for photos with the younger cubs taking delight to look back as if we were the ones on display. We even got to hold and feed red pandas.
Xi’an
A quick trip up North to visit the Terracotta warriors was our last trip in mainland China. The warriors were quite a sight, despite the price of entry and the hordes of tourists jostling elbows for the best photo spot. Amazing to think they were buried at the time of the big fella JC’s arrival and were only excavated in the 70’s.
China thoughts
The Communist face of China was exemplified through the PLA, a
The Jones' pad
Bayan Gobi, Mongolia job for everyone and strictly controlled information. The internet is massively restricted (no BBC). Propaganda TV promotes only positive images of China and even public signs provide both factual information AND detail on how you should feel about the subject. On the other hand hawkers would make an East End barrow boy blush with their steadfast determination to part you with your wallet. The locals would be the first to offer you food or help you if you attempted to engage them in Chinese - the mocking of your accent is free of charge. These genuine and poor people are trying to eek out an existence in a world rapidly westernizing probably at the detriment of their culture and traditions. Too much knowledge of that Beckham idiot, desires for mobile phones and reality game shows for our liking.
Other fascinating points that made this visit really interesting included:
Middle aged men and women jogging in suits and work shoes; OAP’s walking backwards through parks; OAP’s playing draughts in the park, on the street, wherever…. ; Walking the dog at 6pm in their PJ’s (and also laughing at us in shorts despite the heat); Constant spitting; The most dangerous
driving we have ever seen - The Parisians know nothing; Kite flying, Tai Chi and afternoon dancing in the parks;
Lying to save face if they did not have an answer to your question; Did we mention the spitting?; The staring as if you had two heads or were Britney Spears / Justin whatshisface; Enthusiasm to help answer questions - the more people to answer the better!; And not forgetting:
Barging, pushing and always wanting to be inline even when arriving last. Even more impressive when combined with complete spatial unawareness and inability to point out a location on a map - even if you were outside their house.
The Chinglish - very poorly translated Chinese into English on signs all over China - absolutely brilliant.
Did we mention their habit of chewing all food v. noisily with their mouths open, constant spitting after snorting their flem up (even in restaurant floors) and disposing of gristle straight from the mouth onto the table!?
Oh, and for Antoinette, Chinese keyboards have both English and common symbols on them - Windows does something to translate it into Pinyin.
Hong Kong & Macau
Not proper
China yet and a stark contrast to the mainland. Level of income, education and the overall system was to Western standards (for obvious reasons) and the mix of Western and Eastern people made this a really great place to people watch for a few days. Throw in the financial centre, climate and wonderful scenery (beaches and mountains) less than an hour away made this a breath of fresh air from China and perhaps the ideal location to live, work and play. A quick visit to Macau was like being in the med for the day and gave us another stamp on the passports.
A big thank you to Rodney Lo (a friend from Andrew’s days looking after SCB) who showed us the town and took us to the best place for Peking Duck, the local fish dishes and both Western and local bars.
We sign off in Bangkok, about to jet off to Southern Thailand for two weeks R&R where we will catch up with Adrian and Kati who will be spending their honeymoon here instead of Mexico due to hurricane Wilma. Next update in one month’s time after our visit to Vietnam and trekking in the North.
Great Wall
Simatai, nr Beijing Thanks to everyone for news from home - please keep us updated with your goings on - it’s great to hear from you!
Chris, Stu, Natalie, Helen, DeMoor, Adrienne, Teresa, Gill, Max, Rebecca & Rafa, Lexy & OddJob, Paul, Keith thanks for your mails - we will mail you individually over the next 2 weeks - just running out of time at the internet café here…..
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