Bayangobi 27.08.12

Five hours in a seatbelt free van, rattling around avoiding massive pot holes we zig zagged all over the road through the steppe and finally arrived at our destination.....Bayangobi Ger camp, a peaceful little Ger village with amazingly electricity and running water, though not always hot.
Sitting in my little pagola looking out over the seemingly endless steppe........ complete silence.........all I can hear is the distant bleeting of sheep and goats as well as the occasional motorbike hum.
It's beautiful here, I feel nothing but complete contentment in this moment...absolutely beautiful.
I'm sharing with Talida tonight as per our schedule and lucked out with the most gorgeous view from our little door....

It's so peaceful, the cool breeze is moving the long grass aside me and it's completely silent.......just my watch ticking, that's all I can hear.

Later we went for a horse ride out on the steppe after meeting a nomadic family and visiting their Ger. It was so homey inside with photographs and a tiny kitchen and table, we tried some more fermented mares milk...the Mongolian version this time 'Airag' a lot more alcoholic and not so foul tasting. We had some hardened goat curd which was interesting to say the least, a really strong flavour and really tough. Also some yummy pastry home made which was nice. The ladies in the family showed us how they milk the mare, they sort of trick her into thinking the foal is feeding but letting it stand next to it's mum and have a tiny bit of milk then pulling it off the teat but keeping it's head out of mum's sight so she thins it's still feeding and they do this with each female 5 or 6 times a day and retrieve half a bucket of milk which is a LOT of milk every day. They had two beautiful kids and twins on the way which we learned is quite uncommon in Mongolia but we seem to find twins everywhere!

We got a very quick lesson in riding which consisted only of the word 'Chu' which means go basically. We donned our chapps and off we rode to the top of a mountain overlooking the landscape....absolutely gorgeous. On the way back we assisted the father in the family to round up his huge flock of sheep, goats, cattle and a few horses which was a lot of fun, practically a jillaroo now :) We rode back into the now setting sun and back to the families camp, where we remembered how painful riding can be on your backside, we unhinged or locked knees to get off the horses. Completely worth it.......,
I learnt some really interesting facts about Mongolia today, though this country is massive they only have a population of 3 million people and 1 million of them live in Ulaanbaator their capital.

The entire steppe is not owned land, there are no fences and no boundaries. The nomadic people move as they need to which really only depends on the seasons, they move underneath the mountains in winter to protect themselves from the extreme cold.

The animals they own are tagged however they are allowed to run free, wherever they wish to roam and graze as they please. When it's getting close to sun down the male of the family will go and collect them on horseback or motorbike, round them up and bring them closer to home but they are never fenced in. Aagy said they never go too far because they know that the family are their home.
It is such a beautiful concept...complete freedom for the animals and they are all fat and healthy. They don't really have any vet services they just let nature take it's course which is fair enough I guess as that is what was intended, even the dogs that roam the steppe are not desexed or anything, they seem to be few and far between. Families don't own a dog, one will come and they will feed it and it stays close by. The dog in turn protects the family and the livestock but Aagy said rarely do they if ever attack the animals or chase them, their job is to protect if they choose to stay.

The temperature has dropped tonight and my bag just got a lot lighter, our Ger is cozy and warm and the mosquitoes have backed off with the temperature drop...time for bed.

Taking it all in...

Nice Photo Bomb :)

A beautiful moment this Mongol man happily let me capture.......

Out in the cuds with the sheep...Baaaaaaa

Ulaanbator 26.08.12

Digging in my backpack attempting to fish out the long forgotten about jumpers and long sleeve clothing. Ulaanbator is a little chilly today we had met up with two young guys from Germany at a random stop yesterday who were heading in the opposite direction on the train back to Beijing they had said Mongolia was between 0-10 degrees at night and probably similar to Sydney winter during the day, though I admit I'm enjoying the change.
There's a half half feeling here some high rise in the city and backing onto fenced off Gers and then the city sort of spills onto the landscape as you could kind of see in the below photo.
We met with Agy our honcho, loaded up on Turgriks and had a nice shower in our lovely little hostel. Agy took us to the Mongolian History Museum which was really interesting as we had a guide to explain and give us a tour. We also visited a humongous souvenir store and then made our way back for some relaxing before dinner...pizza.

After dinner we met up with another Honcho and her group to go out we ended up at an underground nightclub called 'Dorgio'. Such an awesome experience mixing with the locals and our Honchos Ana and Agy danced along with us most of the night, when we decided to leave around 2am as soon as we had left the club one of the guys from the other group tripped on a bike rack and immediately our Honcho Agy tried to help and tripped on the exact same thing...quite a good laugh.

Bottle of water and bed....Ger camps tomorrow!!!!!!

Hohhot - Mongolia 25.08.12 - 26.08.12

The sun set on our exit from China and we settled in for a very long night, we passed through the border of Mongolia and immediately I could sense the change in landscape. Even in the moonlight I could see the outline of the rolling hills and steppe. But my favourite part was the stars.....just lying back and watching a sparkling blanket through the window above the ever changing outline of Mongolia's landscape. I drifted off to sleep watching the stars and listening to Eddie Vedder's 'Society' .
At 4:30am like clockwork I snapped awake and just sat up and watched the sky, in that moment I felt an amazing connection to where I was and what I was doing, completely at peace with myself knowing that finally after many years of dreaming I was finally here. I had a little smile to myself and lay back down to sleep.

30 hours and many passport checks later after one 10 hour stop in the middle of nowhere from 6am until 5pm the day before and one 2 hour stop in the middle of nowhere in the early evening....I woke up to a Mongolian sunrise and to the beautiful rolling green, dreamy hills and sights that I had always imagined, finally seeing it with my own eyes and not through someone else's.......I cannot explain the euphoria of just being right here right now on this train watching a dream come true outside my window.
In this exact second Eddie Vedder's 'Hard Sun' just came through my headphones and I could not be happier...I'm here with my two very best friends in this moment, in this place......just a moment I will never forget.

Hohhot 24.08.12

Aimee and I woke up pretty early and fussed around avoiding the Chinese breakfast and instead went with the much needed oats and honey for breakfast with Bec something that we actually bought in Beijing before getting on the train, our bowels are thankful today I think.
We went down to meet with Tom but instead Frank arrived as Tom had an emergency so Frank would be our guide for the day.
He took us to shopping complex for a quick lunch and headed off to the Government Building for the General overseeing the civil war era an ancient complex designed for the officers of the Qing Dynasty. Quite interesting but many many tourists, after that we headed off to the Inner Mongolian Museum where we saw the most beautiful art works from the age of Inner Mongolia's alliance with the Huns and some historical pieces from ancient times. I was really impressed with their display of prehistoric dinosaur bones and animals, they had mammoths, ancient elephants and horses quite incredible. They had all those dinosaurs that you see in Jurassic Park but never actually see the bones for because they are from different countries.
Today was definitely a lazy day but I really think we needed it, we just enjoyed Hohhot for the city that it was and prepared ourselves for a long train ride.......Mongolia awaits.

Hohhot-23.08.12

We arrived in Hohhot at around 7am and were met by Tom our honcho for our stay there. We got to the Jinye Sunny Hotel and our rooms weren't ready given that it was 8am I wasn't surprised. We waited and went down to have breakfast for 10 yuan Chinese brekkie.....not to my taste having random pancakes fried rice, weird chicken soup and noodles with green tea is not my idea of breakfast......massive cravings for just a ham, cheese, tomato toastie. It's almost taboo to talk about it because the cravings are that bad now.
After breakfast our rooms were 'ready' as in housekeeping were not even close to touching them and we sat in the hallway and waited, it didn't take too long and we were able to relax before heading out to a temple in the afternoon and a do spot of shopping.
At around 10:30am we met up with Tom in the lobby and headed out, plenty of stares awaited us however I certainly feel like Hohhot was a LOT different to Beijing just in the way I felt about it. I feel like Beijing made me claustrophobic after a while sometimes mainly because people there are always staring and making you uncomfortable, you just get over it after a while. Though even in Hohhot sitting in McDonalds all eyes are on you, I was over it by the end of the day. Though the temple that we visited was the oldest Buddhist temple in Hohhot and quite beautiful with all of it's intricate detailing. After the temple we went to old town and shopped around,  I love those tiny streets and the history they hold, it's like a different world where you jump back to a different era just a few paces away from the modern conveniences.
Once we were back in the early afternoon just about everyone had a nice nap apart from me, I pottered around doing my laundry and organising my bag and trying to catch up on blogging. The girls woke up late afternoon and we decided to have a look around that night, funnily enough it was Chinese Valentines Day and we could hear blasts of fireworks going off and suddenly lanterns started floating up past our bedroom window and so we decided to investigate. The whole city was out in this plaza across the road from where we were a completely random event we were so pleased to be a part of, everywhere lanterns were going up in the air, some more successful than others. There were people everywhere soon dancing and kids rollerblading and practising tricks (everyone roller blades in China so no one can laugh at me anymore ).
Of course we had to light a lantern and make a wish Bec, Aimee, Alison and I bought one and attempted to light it and of course a huge crowd of onlookers wanted to see if the Aussies went down in flames or succeeded. Pfft of course we succeeded for about 150 metres :) We faired better than others though coming down in flames of love.
We just stayed around and lit sparklers and enjoyed the joyous atmosphere in Hohhot following the festival of love we grabbed some much craved McDonalds and headed back through the crowds for a late start.....a much needed late start.

Beijing-The Forbidden City 22.08.12

Typical me I woke up at 6am plugged in my laptop lay back down and slept in :/ Woken again by a 9:15am wake up call saying where are you? Luckily I had packed up all my things the night before and quickly changed while Aimee came up and helped me collect my things. We checked our bags in at reception and headed out for a full day of exploring. Boarding the dreaded Metro to Tiananmen Square where we found half of China's population we squeezed on and held onto whatever was closest be it person or object. When we arrived the square was filled with Chinese tourists we only visited the square itself for a few minutes and then continued across the way to the Forbidden City....where the other half of the Chinese population was. I'm not even half joking this place was filled to the brim with 1000's of Chinese tourists and not the polite kind there was pushing and shoving and forcing of children in front to find a good reason to push forward, all of which to see the rather unimpressive emperors throne room. There was less shoving involved for the empress's throne room however when we left that area just standing around talking as usual someone would take a sneaky photo of us like we were the attraction, less surprising was one mother's sly attempt to get her son in a photo with us. This poor boy had no idea what was going on and neither did we, she grabbed him and pushed him in front of us, took her photo and then he finally got to turn around and see what the heck he was supposed to be smiling for....he looked terrified and confused and made  hasty retreat to catch up with his mum.
The size of the Forbidden city is something that cannot be described, you honestly have to see it for yourself, it was beautiful though, the amount of thought and dedication that went into creating this royal retreat was breathtaking right down to the last corner stone of the buildings and roof detailing. This place was certainly built to almost rival the gods which is what was intended for, to be just one step down from the gods in beauty and majesty.
The colours.....green, red, blue, yellow and gold, amazing. I absolutely love every photo I took in the forbidden city for that reason, eye popping colours and every building had something different about it. Snow told us about the past emperors and their many concubines, one had 3000 or more concubines and in his lifetime maybe saw 5 of them. The reason for having so many of them was just because he could, to show how powerful he was. The other 2995 concubines once chosen could never leave the Forbidden City and in their lifetimes some never actually knew who the emperor was or what he looked like, they lived together in rooms of 2 or 3 and never saw their families again. The Dragon Lady who chose the concubines at one time was in complete control of the youngest emperors who were 5 and 3 years old. Each one during their time of ruling were told what they could and could not do and who their empress would be, usually one of 5 concubines the Dragon Lady would choose however even though she told them they could pick which one when they selected one and walked towards the girl of their choosing the Dragon Lady would cough and the emperor would choose another girl until the Dragon Lady was silent upon choosing her.

We continued right through the city until we reached the imperial garden where there was a beautiful man made mountain. This mountain looked towards the actual mountains surrounding Beijing and as they could never visit them represented a place for the concubines to visit and think of their homes and families which they would never see.
After that we found a little place to have lunch and visited the old Beijing, original streets and buildings maybe 400 years old which was amazing and had a nice little shop around, and found a lovely little tea shop where we stopped and had some beautiful lychee black tea and green tea which was really nice. We bought some of the black tea for our train trip in the next few days.

We bought a few bits and pieces for the train trip to Hohhot that night and grabbed a quick bite before we headed to the station. We met three beautiful little girls in the waiting room of the station who were from Hohhot and spoke such good english, they had an Australian teacher in Hohhot. One of them had run up and said, "where you from?", their names were Mary, Annie and Betty and they were so sweet they spoke with us for about an hour and took photos. I gave them a little Koala each which they loved and they ran off and came back with a little squishy orange pig thing that stuck to walls and ceilings. It was so nice of them, they even came and found us after we boarded the train and had some chips with Bec and Aimee before heading back to sleep for the morning arrival into Hohhot.

Beijing-The Great Wall 21.08.12

Awake at 6:30am to leave by 7:30am we got ourselves organised and headed downstairs Echo the guide for the day met us and we jumped on the bus. Clearly the driver had no idea how to drive a manual car as we jerked forward and back, we bunny hopped I think for a lot of the way there.

We arrived at the Great Wall three hours later. It was one of those surreal moments where you think about the amount of times you had seen it in a book or travel magazine or on TV but I'd never actually imagined myself being there, it was quite incredible. Aimee, Bec and I caught the cable car up to the top instead of the 40 minute stair climb, being at the top for the first time I said to myself "now I feel like I'm in China". We'd spent the last couple of days pottering around as if we were in Sydney city at least that's what it felt like to us. No, this moment was something entirely different.
The view from the top was beautiful completely surrounded by mountains under a clear blue sky which we were told is not very common, we have definitely been quite lucky in that sense everyday apart from one has been gorgeous.
We strolled along the wall though it was hard to look at the view while walking because you could potentially go flying on an uneven ancient paver or step. You had to admire the ingenuity of construction, how on earth did they get all that stone up there? The easy answer is it was all hauled up there but how exactly? 6000km of stone........200 years to build, definitely a wonder of the world.
Each guard tower we reached was incredibly cool inside and a nice short break from the blazing heat and humidity outside. We reached number 13 and had to call it a day, we were all quite dehydrated even though we were guzzling down water every minute. We decided to take the toboggan back down  which was awesome fun we 'fanged' it all the way until we caught up with a rather large lady in purple who was on her toboggan learners.....brake, crawl, brake, crawl.
When we got to the bottom we put our bartering skills to good use, Aimee bought a copper horse and she and I both bought a scroll water colour painting, mine was Panda and hers was a Tiger. All three of us bought a 'year of the snake' stamp made of malachite with our names in chinese etched on the bottom not bad for around $7 each. We headed down grabbed lunch with the group with was quite nice then jumped on the bus back where we got chatting with three Scottish girls who lived in Beijing teaching English.
Once we had got back we had a quick noodle dinner with Snow before going to see a Chinese Acrobats show which was pretty impressive, sort of like a small scale Circ de Soleis which only went for an hour and half.
We braved the sardine filled metro back to the hostel and settled in for a 9am checkout.