UB to Beijing

UB to Beijing

Well! This photo proves we made it! I am writing this on the plane from Beijing to Dubai after three and a half very busy days in Beijing. There was no time to write a blog!

We boarded the twain in Ulaanbaatar at 6.30am on Thursday 22 September for the 30hr journey to Beijing. It was just coming light and very chilly at that time in the morning. The train was on a return trip from Beijing, so it had Chinese coaches which were a great improvement on the Mongolian ones we experienced on the last leg of the train trip. We were travelling with even more luggage having collected last years' Christmas present (a very traditional felt rug) plus Amanda and Orlo with pushchair etc! Soon all was safely stowed away and we settled down. We got out the bacon sandwiches and muffins and waited for the samovar to heat up so we could make coffee. The first few hours of the journey covered ground which we had driven over a few days before, so the landmarks were familiar. The train was very slow, the track is single with passing places so there were quite a few stops to wait for other passenger or freight trains coming north from china.

Orlo was great, he loved watching out for other trains and looking out of the window at the passing scenery. He ran his engines along the top the heaters in the corridor and made quite a few new adult friends. Of course he also realised that it was great fun to run up and down the corridor too, which was fine as long as he didn't shout along the way!!!! He also explored the top bunks which Granny and Grandad were using. The restaurant car made a good expedition for lunch, it was about 6 coaches back up the train which involved crossing lots of 'bridges' between the coaches.

Crossing the Gobi was fascinating, first there is the desert grassland, then it changes to an even more arid landscape with sand and some dunes, then back to the grassland again. We passed a few oases with tress. For much of the time we could see vehicles on the road. It would appear that part of the route is tarmac, but the rest is gravel and sand as we had experienced a few days earlier.

There were two main stops before the border, with just enough time to get out for a stroll along the platform. I didn't get chance to count the coaches, but it was a very long train, maybe about 12 in all. The border crossing was tedious, once again they took the passports away, but then the train moved off to the sheds where the bogies were changed. This takes several hours and involves lots of shunting. Eventually we pulled not the station in China with the staff standing to attention, lots of lights and music to welcome us.......and the passports were returned. By this time Orlo and Michael were asleep but Amanda and I stayed up as we were still expecting a customs inspection........that did not happen. The train pulled away at 0.35am and we each dashed to the loo. The toilets had beenlocked for several hour as they were the type that flushed direct onto the line.

To be continued......

Leaving Mongolia

Beijing

We got here, no time to blog about the train trip yet!
Off to hike on the Great Wall tomorrow.

Sent from my iPad

Birthday girl!!

Amanda's birthday

On the 16th we celebrated Amanda's birthday, I managed to smuggle some decorations in to the restaurant Ger and a cake, which I had baked in UB.

Ger interior, Red Rock Ger Camp

Red Rock Ger Camp, Ikh Nart

This is another low impact Ger camp run by Nomadic Journeys, they stayed open for an extra three days for us... The gers were comfortable and it was interesting to note the different painting inside them....see next photo. Gers were being dismantled whilst we were there, s that by the last evening there were just the two we were using and the restaurant Ger left!

Ikh Nart rock formations

Ikh Nart Nature Reserve, Mongolia

This nature reserve was established in 1996, it is an uninhabited area on a plateau at 4,500', and therefore the pristine ecology of the area has been retained. The reserve contains Argali sheep, Siberian ibex, and many Mongolian gazelles. We were very fortunate to see them during our 4 days, along with a number of raptors including Golden Eagles, Cinerous Vultures, Little Owls and other smaller birds. The vultures made huge nests. We also saw some small mammals, the Mongolian pika being the most common, several tolai hares and jerboas.

The terrain is desert grassland with the rocky outcrops and canyons, and then occasional sand dune. We got our bearings eventually but there are few landmarks. One useful one was a large ovoo, with lots of scarves and flags. The tracks all look alike so it was very useful to have the images which Andrew had downloaded into his iPad from Google Earth to his GPS app.

One of the striking features for me was the number of grasshoppers, they were very well camouflaged until they jumped, when they displayed very red parts. The valley bottoms support stands of Siberian elm and willows, whilst the predominant grass is onion grass. Where the land is heavily grazed the artemesia takes over. Most of the wild flowers were over, but there were still a few asters and the odd potentilla and something which looked like a miniature mimosa. There were some very colourful lichens on the rocks too. The rock formations were pancake like granite, very grippy to walk on!

Main road south to China!

This is what happens when the tarmac runs out.......the land becomes more and more eroded as vehicles try to avoid each other and other hazards.

The road south towards China

It is almost a week since we took this road to go to stay at the Ikh Nart Nature Reserve in the NE part of the Gobi Desert. As you can see the road is quite good at this point, in fact we drove for almost 3 hrs on tarmac, which is a first for us! Most of the road journeys we have done in previous years have been on the dirt tracks, very bumpy ones too! We drove to a town called Choir, the rarmca came to an end very soon afterwards. A new road is under construction meanwhile the road is dirt and sand. On the way back we saw one very large truck deep in a 'wash' of deep sand. We got through it with 4WD. It is amazing to think that goods transported by road from China have to negotiate hundreds of miles of this terrain. Many goods come in by train though.
See next photo......

Monastery approach

Amanda with Orlo in backpack. He walked across the bridge on the way back, and he walked up all the steps......123 in all!

Terelj river crossing

Jalman Meadows to Ulaanbaatar

We woke to a beautiful sunny warm day on Sunday, the hottest day for us so far here in Mongolia. After another great breakfast and packing we set off about 11.30am. As you can see from the photo, there are no proper roads and absolutely no sign posting! We drove to the confluence of the Tuul and Terelj rivers, this was marked by a stupa and an ovoo. An ovoo is a kind of shamanist cairn built of rocks or wood and usually found at important locations such as passes and mountain tops. Offerings are left in the form of food, drink, skulls of dead horses, money, and blue or yellow silk scarves etc.

We drove on along the Terelj river through woodland and over bumpy ground. After about 15 minutes we arrived at the place to cross the river, having already crossed a couple of side channels. This river has a stony bottom and the flow was fairly low however the wheels on the Land Cruiser has slipped a bit on the way out, so Amanda put the diff locks on. We crossed without any problems causing a bit of a wave which disturbed some children who were playing at the waters edge. The new 5 star Terelj hotel is located very close to the crossing, it looked fantastic; it was created from an old sanatorium building a couple of years ago. We drove to the Ulaanbaatar 2 hotel which was next door, for lunch. Goulash with rice and French fries for Amanda and Orlo, pork schnitzel for me and 'roast pork' for Michael.

So now the tricky part of the drive was over and we were on tarmac......but not of quite the standard we are used to in the UK! It was still a very bumpy and dusty drive ! We drove through the Terelj valley which is a national park, however the valley bottom is mainly given over to tourism with many Ger camps along the way. I saw a huge change from my last visit 10 years ago.....and not for the better!

When we arrived at the famous Turtle Rock we turned off the road to park up and walk to a small monastery situated high up on the hillside. It was built a few years ago as a retreat but has become quite a tourist attraction as well as a special place for Buddhists to visit. It was a hot walk but we made it and were rewarded with great views of the valley below.

The rest of the drive back to Ulaanbaatar was uneventful, rocking and rolling along until we met up with the main road and Sunday afternoon traffic returning to the city. The traffic built up and was quite heavy once we approached the centre and we arrived back to be met by Andrew, at about 6.30pm. Showers, unpacking, pizzas and bed completed the day!

Jalman Meadows cont..

On Saturday we drove a short distance up river, and then took a short walk to the river bank. It was warm and sunny and Orlo was in his element throwing stones into the river. Grandad found a fallen tree trunk to sit on and settled into his book, which he just happened to have in one of his many pockets! Eventually we dragged Orlo away from the river and moved a very short distance to some gravel/river sand where he wanted to make holes. We were very happy to let him play, he doesn't get much opportunity to play in the dirt in the city.

After lunch Amanda went off for a ride on her mountain bike and we were left in charge! Orlo wasn't too happy to begin with but we made fora small steam we had seen the day before and he was soon very busy building a dam with his Grandad. We spent a couple hours there and then walked back up to the camp. On the way we watched the local herders bringing their stock back home for the night, lassoing some cattle, rounding up the goats, the calves being let out to find their mothers. Grandad towed Orlo up the hill with his stick and Amanda followed soon after.

A good day was had by all. The journey back will follow in the next blog...

The dam!

Jalman Meadows - our Ger

Jalman Meadow, Khentii, Mongolia

We arrived here last Wednesday, after a 3hr drive from Ulaanbaatar. The camp is located above the Tuul river with great views up and down the main valley and up a side valley. There was a cold wind when we arrived and I soon got the thermals on but the stove was lit in our Ger, so we were soon nice and cosy. This camp is one of a few run by Nomadic Journeys, it has solar power and wind power with a generator for such things as the washing machine. The gers were very comfortable with traditional ger furniture, all beautifully painted as the next photo will show. I think there were 13 gers with double occupancy, a restaurant ger, a library ger with a very good selection of reference and reading books, two shower gers and two 'wooden toilet houses'.

There were three ladies from Scotland on a birding holiday along with their guide from the Uk, a Mongolian interpreter and a German man name of Axel who had tagged along but who happened to be the expert on birdlife in Mongolia. They were good company until they left on Friday. On Thursday they very kindly offered us a lift up the side valley where we were planning to walk. We woke to snow on the hills that morning, but clear blue skies. The lift gave us a great advantage and we followed the track up to a pass, walking through light snow in the process. We then turned left (south) and worked our way up and down a ridge to the highest point which was marked by a wooden ovoo. It was a great walking day, not to hot and not too cold and clear, so there was no danger of getting lost! We had fantastic views over mountains, hills and steppe. Eventually we made our way down to the track and walked back to the camp, 5 hrs walking in total.

The following day Michael went off riding for the day, a full 7 hours! He hadn't ridden for two years, but arrived back having had a great day and not too sore! I happily sat outside in the sunshine, with a fleece on I might add, knitting another Aran jumper, this time for one of Fiona's children in Switzerland. We were very pleased to see Amanda and Orlo arrive around 5.0pm. Amanda had driven from Ulaanbaatar which is no small undertaking on the so-called roads here! She had been on tarmac for 2/3 of the way, but the last 35 km was on tracks across the steppe. In theory she just had to follow the river, but there are tracks all over the place. She also had to cross the Tuul river. Thank goodness for GPS!

It was great to see Orlo immediately running around, he was completely safe and had as much space as he wanted! He soon got his ball out and we enjoyed a good kick-about.

I must mention the meals as I am sure everyone will be wondering what we get to eat here! Breakfast was buffet style, with bread, toast, pancakes or bortzog......which are the staple biscuits made from fried dough, urum.....which the local butter/clotted cream, local berry jam, cereal, yoghurt, fried egg, salami, cheese, juice, coffee, tea etc. Really great, especially the urum with jam on a pancake or bread! Lunch was 3 courses: a salad, possibly potato and egg, or carrot with apple or raisins, or beetroot, followed by soup, usually a clear one, then a plate of meat with rice and/or potatoes or noodles. The meat was usually beef or maybe yak, but we did have chicken for one meal. The beef would be in a casserole of some type, and we also had hawshaw, which are the traditional meat pasties which are fried in deep fat. It's no good trying to keep to a Weightwatchers diet here! ......and you need the fat to keep warm. Dinner was also 3 courses, a salad as before and a meat course as before, but with the addition of a dessert of some kind......slices of fruit, apple, orange, watermelon. However on Saturday we had some cinnamon flavoured lightly stewed apple with ice cream! In general the food was tasty and filling. Wine, beer and soft drinks were available at very reasonable prices considering the location.
To be continued.......

Ulaanbaatar Childrens Park

There is a great children's park. We went there today, and I had the scariest experience of the holiday so far!

Ulaanbaatar -city of contrasts 7

.....here we are!
I am not including the photo taken of me with my mouth full!! ;)

Ulaanbaatar -city of contrasts 6

......and then tucked away, you can find a little park with some fountains, a good spot to stop for with a take-away sandwich

Ulaanbaatar - city of contrasts 5

Ulaanbaatar - city of contrasts 4

Most of the pavements are quite a hazard too! Some are in the process of being paved, but on others there are open manholes and open trenches to negotiate.

Ulaanbaatar - city of contrasts 3

This is typical weekday traffic and crossing the roads is a nightmare! Even when the green man is lit, cars appear from around the corner. The best technique is to cross with a crowd and to make sure that there is someone else between you and the vehicles! Taking a child across in a pushchair is even worse!

Ulaanbaatar - city of contrasts 2

There are now 600 monks at Ghandan Khiid Monastery.

Ulaanbaatar. - city of contrasts

This dusty city is full of traffic and people, but there are areas where you can get away....this view was taken as we returned from a hike up one of the mountains which surround it.

Arrival photo

Amanda has just sent me this so thought I would put it on the blog for all to see! I think we look quite pleased to be here!