Jul 2007

Arrived in Mongolia over a week a go now, and have been have been really enjoying it here. It seems like a great country and is suprisingly different to Russia, evryone is a lot friendlier and the place has a much more relaxed atmosphere. The train from Russia to Ulaan Baator,the capital of Mongolia went Ok. The border crossing took about 10 hours, but I think thats about average. Had no problem with my visas but they keep the toilet locked the entire time so it was a relief when we finally started moving again.
Only spent a day in UB before setting off on a trekking trip in a remote part of Mongolia, which meant a long and painful bus journey to get there. Had been warned to arrive early for the bus but didn't really understand why, but soon found out. People with tickets got on, and all there luggage was packed around them, then nore luggage was packed on, followed by more people who climbed on on top of that. We also couldn't understand why the bus was suppossed to take 10 hours to travel about 450km. Soon after leaving the city we found out, they hadn't actually built the road yet, so the majority of the journey was across sand tracks and fields, and the main traffic was horses, goats, yaks and camels. The bus actually took about 12 hours then we had a further 2 hour jeep ride until we reached the first camp.
The trek was 7 days walking of between 20-30kms a day between gers - traditional Mongolian Nomad houses, staying with the families and then guided between the gers by herders. Was in a group of 6 with a Mexican woman and some French people, who were all very nice and so we had some interesting converastions in a mixture of English, French, Spanish and Mongolian. With that and trying to learn some Chinese on the train I think I am now just confussed.
Each day we packed up our stuff onto the yak cart then spent the day walking with the herder and normally one of his sons. The scenery was impressive and very varied, mountains, lakes, rivers and forests. Staying at the gers was very interesting, chance to see the normal daily life of the Nomads, which is all based around the animals, mainly yaks, goats and horses. they also provided most of our food, which although was very nice, they don't have the most varied diet. Basically it was anything you could make from yaks milk, tea (not actually tea but boiled yaks milk with salt), cheese, yoghurt, cream, butter, dried curd and in the evening mutton.
Had a couple of evenings when we given homemade Mongolian vodka and airag, which is fermented mares milk, and not to be recommended. We also had a couple of nights camping out which provided another interesting meal. They caught a marmot, took its head off, pulled out its insides and stuffed it with hot coals from the fire. The fur was then burnt off in the flames. Apparently this is a very traditional Mongolian dish. Sounds like all I've been doing is eating, but the actual trekking and just staying with the families was a great experiance, despite the language barrier we did manage to learn a lot about a completly different way of life. theres just too much to write about everything.

Back in Ulaan Baator now for a few days before the final part of the train journey to Beijing.

Had a great time the last few days camping a t Lake Baikal, one of the biggest lakes in the world. It is huge, about as wide as the English Channel and 400 miles long, but apparently in Winter it still freexes enough to be able to drive cars across it.

Had a guide for this part of the trip, so met him in Listviyanka a small village at the southern end of the lake. Spent the day walking alomg costal tracks to the village of Bolshie Koty where we camped.
In the evening we did consider going swimming in the lake but the water must of been close to freezing, after just a few seconds it made your feet numb.

Our guide Valera was excellant as he had done a lot of field biology work in the area, so new about everything and spoke relativly good English, although we did have a few misunderstandings, like he carried a tent for us when we had one as well. He also carried all the food for the 3 days and cooked all the meals for us, normally while we just lay around on the beach. Could easily get used to that way of camping. Valera also turned out to be a Russian equivalent of Ray Mears, lighting fires, making great teas and soups from anything he found in the forest. The village where we camped was a small place only accessable by boat or on foot, there are only about 50 people that live there in the summer and nobody stays in winter.

The second day we walked further along the coast and then back to the village. In the evening we had a kind of Russian auna called a Banya, which was an experiance. It was basically a shed in an old womans garden. It had in it a stove surrounded in rocks that you poured boiling water over, it made the hottest sauna I've ever been in. Then, you were suppossed to hit yourself with bundles of birch tree branches soaked in either boiling water or cold water, well at least we think that was what the old woman was telling us to do. After that, the lake was certainly refreshing.

Yesterday we walked back to Listvinyanka by a more inland route over a mountain through the forest, which was a good contrast to the costal route. Apparently there are bears up there but unfortunately/luckily we didn't see any.

Back in Irkutsk today to get on the train for another couple of days until we reach Mongolia.

After several days sight seeing in both St Petersburg and Moscow getting on the trans-siberian train for a few days was a welcome break and a rest from the cities. It's a great way to travel, very relaxing sitting around all day watching the scenery gradually change as we travelled from Europe into Asia, reading and playing cards. So relaxing I've completly lost track of days and time, but I think I was on the train for 3 days, 4 nights. Travelling across into different timezones everyday (and not knowing where the chages occurred), but with the train and stations still running on Moscow time just got too complicated. This wasn't helped by the carriage attendents seeming to bring meals at random times of the day and never being quite sure whether it was suppossed to be breakfast, lunch or dinner. Instead of judging things by normal time I've been working on distance from Moscow instead, as beside the track there are posts marking every kilometer.

Arrived in Irkutsk, in Siberia (5185km from Moscow) this morning. It's a bigger city than what I was expecting and have just spent the day walking round it as everything seems to be closed on Monday. Heading off to a nearby place called Listvinyanka tomorrow to get out into the countryside for a few days treking.

So after the first few days away everything is going well and having a good time. Despite the majority of people speaking as much English as I speak Russian(which has improvedto at least 5 words now), everything has been suprisingly easy. Getting by using a combination of sign language and trying to read Russian. I've found that the best thing to do is try and translate the cyrilic into the normal alphabet and then with a bit of imagination you can make a guess about what it means.

Have spent a few days in St. Petersburg going to some of the main sights and just wandering around. Its an amazing city just to walk round,even outside the tourist areas all the buildings are unique and most of them were palaces at some point.

Last night got the overnight train to Moscow. Went for the third class budget option as it was a lot cheaper than both 2nd class or just a seat, but it was suprisingly good. Had a bed in a carriage with about 40 people but slept OK. I think all the weekends away with GUMC have been good training for being able to sleep anywhere.

Have spent the day walking round Moscow, seems quite different from St. Petersburg, with a lot of stereotypical communist tower blocks. Planning to go the Kremlin and Red Square tomorrow.