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Published: August 7th 2007
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Hey guys!
Ok, ok... we're finally there in the end. We've been extremely lame on the blog front. 5 days on a train doesn't help, and then there’s the extortionate internet prices in Moscow. But we're now in Ulaanbaatar, much time has passed, and suppose we best sum up the last 4 weeks for you that have brought us from a very bleak Canterbury night on the dodgiest bus ever, to the capital of Mongolia, which tests your nerves and dodging tactics every time you cross the road, but is also a launching pad for some camping in the desert!
Yup - be warned - that bus from London/Canterbury is extremely dodgy. Jay ended up sat next to a true geezer who just complained how you just can’t buy the quantity of drugs in the Amsterdam shops like you used to ‘in the good ol’ days’, whereas I was sat next to a very large, non-deodorant-using Nigerian. These seemed to be the more normal folks on the bus. After the channel crossing, we managed to get seats together and just slept to our first stop - Amsterdam.
Our plan was to travel through Europe reasonably quickly as it’s
Amsterdam
Now this is where we found Chimp in the Dam - so naughty!!! likely to chew up our hard earned funds quite easily. From the Dam, through to Berlin, Riga and Moscow, we bussed all the way. The longest was the 22hour journey between Berlin and Riga, although it was overnight and didn’t seem too taxing. We loved the Dam, and had been there a few times before, so it was a nice comforting place to start the trip. Berlin, we weren’t too impressed with. The place struggled on character with swanky new wine bars, construction sites and no real ‘old town’ centre. But the place obviously has some awesome history - got my passport stamped at Checkpoint Charlie! - and then there’s the massive Litre beers! Riga is like a small fairy tale city that is on the verge of being taken over by stag dos. The Latvian countryside was then a break from the cities, where we ventured to the beach and the forests with our tent for some hiking.
Abosultely loved the vibe in Moscow, although at 37deg, it was swealtering. We were staying with this lovely Russian lady called Galina in her very Soviet-looking flat. Unfortunatly, she was the only nice Russian person we got to speak to
and we’ve come to the decision that the Russians are the rudest people that we’ve ever met. They seem to rush about barging into people with a scowl on their face and if you dare ask for directions (which are desperately needed when everything’s written in cryillic) or a train ticket (from the ticket office!), your lucky to even get eye contact. Tis a shame though, coz Moscow is a beautiful city. Red Square is awesome and we got to see Lenin in the flesh! They’ve preserved his body over all these years - yup, we thought that slightly icky too. Then the Moscow circus with the tight-rope walkers, acrobats, tigers, monkeys(!), magicians etc, was just a jaw-dropping show and never quite seen anything like it.
The Trans-Mongolian train then took us from Moscow to Ulaanbaatar. It’s a 5 day journey through the bleakest scenery ever - and this is in the summer! We even saw snow! The novelty of the train never seemed to wear off, or boredom kick in, and we just seemed to spend our time reading, snoozing, chatting and drinking.
So that’s kind of our journey in a nutshell so far. We love it
here in Ulaanbaatar. The people here are so friendly, which is so nice after the scowls of the Russians, and it’s so cheap to stay here. We have a double room in the centre for 6quid a night between us and a beer is only 75p for a litre in a nice bar. The only slight concerning thing here is when you need to cross the road. Now there’s no system like traffic lights or crossings. You have to just go for it and calmly dodge through the 6 lanes of traffic hoping that the drivers have seen you and are in a good mood. Our tactic is to find a local and just stand next to them!
On Thursday we’re heading out into the Mongolian countryside for some adventure! We’ve hired a jeep and a driver and we’ve planned a route that will take us through the Gobi desertert, nomadic ger tents, elaborate monasteries and alpine mountains. We’ll be away for 12 days and will be wild camping all the way - no one owns the land in the countryside and so camping is free! We can’t wait!
Anyways, better sign off now. I hope that everyone
else s doing well. Thanks for everyone’s emails and FB messages - it’s lovely to hear from people when we’re so far away from home!
Hopefully the next entry won’t be such a long wait!
Jenny and Jay xxx
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Michelle Lynn
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THe Monkey Faces
HI guys I love the monkey faces ......... i always knew my little boy was a monkey at heart! x