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Here goes potentially our last blog entry until we're safely over the Chinese border to Vietnam, due to the firewalls on the Chinese internet. We're unsure if Offexploring is on the black-list, but if so, be prepared for the next entry to be the length of the distance we've covered!
We woke up on Wednesday morning feeling excited for the train journey ahead. As the train wasn't due to depart until 21:35 that night, we spent the day checking out some more Moscow sights and shopped for our food and drink rations for the next five days. Shaun was getting very excited to be walking around with lots of snow, taking pictures of almost anything covered in it. Aw bless! :) By the grace of the Moscow Hostel's staff, they allowed us to use all the facilities for as long as we wanted, so we killed a good 5 hours watching In Bruges (which was on the to-do-list since Bruges!) and cooking a massive dinner to put us on for the evening. We gave the kind staff at the hostel a bottle of vodka to say thank you for all their help, as is tradition in Russia.
We finally left the hostel at around 7pm for one final mission on the Moscow Underground and feeling nicely pre-sweated, we located the Yaroslavski train station with relative ease. When it came to finding the correct platform, I didn't quite want to believe what Shaun felt was the right one, simply because through the Moscow snow and slush there were hoards of Mongolians lugging what appeared to be a life-time supply of almost everything. From cable wire to squirty cream, there was absolutely tons of goods; mountains of boxes of everything and anything, where were they going to fit it all? Surely there would be some sort of freight part to the train?! Also, to our amazement, we appeared to be the only Westerners in sight.
The train pulled in and we walked towards our carriage, number 3. It was only at this point when we began to realise that all the boxes and other various items were coming into the carriages with us. Again, where were they going to fit it all? We were shown our very rustic, cosy compartment and our beds 9 and 10 (after the attendant lady flushed a few Mongolians out from there). There was a 5 minute agonising wait to see who would be joining us on the bunk-bed opposite. Thankfully, two jolly chaps poked their heads in looking for their beds. I had already clocked the language but Shaun was oblivious. Still, it didn't deter him from pretty much just grabbing them and insisting that this was also their room (thankfully, it actually was); the reason being is that these were the first westerners we had laid our eyes on since arriving at the station. Their names were Jens and Tim and they happened to be from Skane in Sweden. Our happy chatting of pleasantries must have carried to the compartment a few doors down from us and we were quickly greeted by another Englishman also called Tim (who ended up sharing his compartment with a random selection of Mongolian men). We spent the night chatting and laughing from the relief of finding fellow English-speakers, sharing vodka and food, before deciding to venture down to the restaurant car 10 carriages away. We were a little cautious on our first night but as the Swedes had been drinking all day in Moscow, they jumped into it with a fearless attitude and attempted to make friends along the way, which unfortunately, due to the language barrier, resulted in an altercation with an overly animated Mongolian wielding a small meat cleaver, thankfully just to scare us all off I guess. After finding the restaurant car closed, we sheepishly wandered back to our compartment, settled in for the night and closed our eyes with apprehension for the days ahead.
We woke up on day 2 after a rough night's sleep with the train jolting and shaking and the driver honking the train horn every 5 minutes, or so it felt. If we weren't convinced of the Swede's party attitude the night before, it became very apparent after Swedish Tim excitedly woke up from a siesta when he heard a can of Fanta being opened, by literally jumping up and shouting 'Beer?!'. At around mid-day, we began to notice a sudden scurry of people putting their coats on; Yes, a stop for food and drink! We got off the train (Shaun and Jens were in their shorts in -10c, something which became a bit of a tradition) and were suddenly surrounded by ladies selling food portions, fruit, nuts, gherkins, eggs, smoked fish and to Shaun's delight, vodka. We hurriedly bought chicken and potatoes, oranges, beer and vodka, and happily scampered back to our carriage, so not to miss the train and be left on the platform as the stops can be very brief. The afternoon consisted of us being much of the show to the Mongolians and we got a few curious peeks in our carriage. We wondered what the Russian train would have been like but decided we were definitely getting the real experience here! In the evening two guys from next door knocked on and sat down to drink with us, one which ended up quite drunk on vodka (with a few hand/body gestures to show us his might). At this point we learnt that Mongolians aren't great fans of the Chinese and even made Jens remove his Star Wars T-shirt as it had some Chinese writing on it! The guys (apologies for not noting down the names) weren't tradesmen, they are UN Peace-Keepers and are very proud of their profession as well as their country, showing us the uniforms and later on in the journey, pictures of their peace-keeping missions, Mongolia and their families. We were invited back to their full compartment for some dumpling soup prepared by the train attendant ladies, which was extremely tasty (this was possibly aided by the beer-infused state). After the vodka induced Mongolian decided that it was time for bed, the Tims and Shaun trekked to the restaurant car for a few beers, Jens fell asleep and I listened to the album my brother Antti put together for us. In the low-lit carriage it suddenly hit me, what an experience we were living! I slept a lot better that night (again, it might have been the beer).
The next morning I woke up about 2 o'clock to find the 3 guys in our compartment having an impromptu party consisiting of drinking, singing and playing cards. I was feeling a touch hungover from the night before and struggled with a steaming cup of tea to clench my thirst. Everyone fell back asleep eventually, and we woke up again to a very snowy and sunny Siberian scenery. In the afternoon one of the UN Captain's showed us a presentation about Mongolia on his lap-top; what a nice guy. Later, we stopped again to purchase some more food and beer (can you see a pattern forming here?) and while everyone was out, Shaun managed to almost pop his eyeball out on a clothes hook trying to play hide-and-seek... so this goes down as accident number three of our journey. Thankfully, with only some slight bruising mended by a bag of snow, all 5 of us sat down for drinking games (including the 3-man game picked up from Tallinn) and chatted the night away in a tone that can only be blamed on the number of drunk guys in the room. Good times!
Day 4 - Christmas Eve; this meant that the majority of us were celebrating and I finally got to open a present given to us by my folks back home (thank you to Reetta, Hannu, Antti and Aiti). The winter wonderland whizzing past our window was a perfect addition and so we sat down to enjoy the treats and the atmosphere. As we had now ran out of Russian Rubles and against the advice we'd read up online, our US dollars were no good on the stops to purchase more food and drink. So we enjoyed the Tuc biscuits & duck pate, along with more noodles for substance and waited for a new stop which finally came at around 9pm. Tim and Jens kindly let us swap some of our dollars to Rubles, so once again, much of the night was spent with Shaun and Tim's hand-made drinking games with lots of funny moments, some too crude to share on a public blog... Shaun did want me to add somewhere in the blog though that he loves the Swedes, so I guess this would be fitting right here!
On our final full day on the Tran-Mongolian the past days of drinking really creeped up on us, and we woke up feeling quite dreadfull. That aside, it was Shaun and English Tim's day to celebrate Christmas, so we filled up on noodles and enjoyed the very tundra-like scenery outside while waiting for the Naushki border crossing from Russia to Mongolia. There was a mad flurry of action as everyone was frantically cleaning the carriages and trying to literally hide as much of the stock they had brought on the train anywhere possible. I guess our nervousness about the Russian border crossing what nothing compared to theirs.
The border control officer arrived on our door to collect our passports and to check our nationalities, asking 'Country?', if there was ever a stereotype for their native country, then Jens and Tim would have been it at this point. Dressed in matching white vest tops and the same Adidas shorts, only one in blue and the other in red, they rather jollily answered in harmony "Sveden!", whilst pratically bouncing in their seat. The passport control lady blankly stared them for what seemed to be an eternity and simply asked again, "Country?". It was probably one of those moments when you had to be there, but we were all in stitches. After about 4 hours and our passports taken for inspection & stamps and brought back, our and everyone else's compartments being searched with dogs 'n all, we were finally off. The border control procedures in the Mongolian side were much quicker and we were soon on our way towards Ulaanbaatar. Swedish Tim had found us some more Mongolian friends to drink with, but at this point me and Shaun had to put our hands up and admit defeat. It was 02:00 when we switched off the lights and tried to squeeze in some 4 hours of sleep ready for our arrival in Ulaanbaatar at 06.30.
The next morning wake-up call was as painful as I'd thought and we struggled to pack our bags and tidy the compartment whilst layering our clothes preparing for the Mongolian winter waiting outside. The Mongolians who were sharing with English Tim had apparently played a game of hide the sausage the night before. In a very literal sense. They had hoards of sausages hidden under the mattresses of their beds, which they uncovered after the border crossing. When Tim walked in, one just looked at him and said "This is life". As we left the train, the same mad rush with the boxes ensued and we were almost pushed out from the train. The -35c temperature was a shock to say the least (the mean temperature in the train compartments was around +35c) and Shaun experienced a first, his beard freezing! We said our goodbyes to our friends, arranged to see them all in the same train to Beijing and went about to locate the owner of the Mongolian Steppe Guest House, Eiggy, who had arranged to pick us up from the station. In the dark we were confronted by several scary looking Mongolian men offering taxi rides, but after a while one of them actully pointed us towards her and so we were safely on our way to warmth! On our way Eiggy gave us a few tips, to confirm what we'd already heard, to watch out for very professional pick-pockets and the mad traffic in the city. The hostel was really nice & cosy and we rushed for hot showers after the 5 days of toilet-sink only washes. After cleansing our bodies and souls, we were soon fast asleep and stayed there until early afternoon. We woke up to get ready to go shopping close-by for food, and met the Swiss couple with whom we are sharing the hostel-cum-apartment with, their names are Celine and Xavier and they have cycled here all the way from their home country! A feat which has taken them 18 months so far. We felt a little paranoid in the shopping complex after all the warnings, but on our return we cooked food and had a long chat with Xavier and Celine who have stayed here for a few weeks and assured us that they'd had no problems. So with full bellies and our minds at ease, we went about arranging an overnight stay in a Ger (Jurtta for you Finns) with Eiggy for the following day, just to get a more of an authentic Mongolian experience from our three days here.
We woke up after a bit of a restless sleep, perhaps not quite knowing where we'd be taken and what the ger stay would be like. We were picked up at 9:00 by a driver that Eiggy had arranged (we think it's her dad) and after a few words of advice from her, we found out that not only does the driver who will be carting us around for 3 hours not speak any English, the family who will be putting us up for the night from lunch time onwards doesn't speak any English either. The three words we barely knew in Mongolian were to come in handy. Or so we thought. En-route to the Terelj National Park, we picked up our tickets for the Beijing train and then stopped at a number of tourist sites, including a great big monument on top of a hill overlooking the city (and the smog, my word the pollution is terrible here) and also the Great Chingghis Khaan statue on the edge of the National Park. After entering the Park we pulled up next to a ger and due to the language barrier, we thought that this was our accommodation for the evening. However, the driver got up and led us towards the adjacent rock and began to ascend it by foot. Slightly bewildered we just followed and found ourselves in what could have been a pre-historic cave, which I'm sure it was, taking into account the 60-odd million year history of this country. Very impressive. We followed the winding snowy roads between the mountains and eventually reached a picturesque valley where the family lived.
The ger was just as we had wanted, so warm and welcoming, the family lived just a very simple life, nothing more than just a bit of land and a few farm animals. Oh, and a toilet outdoors which proved for very eventful trips considering the temperature. After sitting down to a lunch of simple, yet the tastiest ever dumplings, we headed to conquer a few nearby peaks. The experience was just very surreal; snow covered mountains, tranquil silence, snow flakes the size of leaves, wild horses and even a camel. I think we took about 100 photos in the space of two hours. After the trek we built up an appetite and headed back to see what Mrs Ger had cooked up for dinner. We arrived back to find that the sofa bed had been made and we beginning to suspect that we would have to spend the night in different beds. We ate our dinner of mutton and homemade noodles, again simple but delicious and after litres of tea we began to feel drowsy in the warmth from the stove. We were in our own beds by 9pm, waiting for a sleep that didn't really happen (maybe the dead silence takes some getting used to). Shaun got up a few times at night to add wood to the fire, but despite the efforts, it was still freezing at 5am. The lady came in at about 6.30 to get the fire going properly again and then brought us breakfast around an hour later, which consisted of rice, mutton and some skinless sausage things (the dogs from last night had mysteriously disappeared). We waved goodbye at 8.30 as our driver arrived to pick us up and despite our best efforts, she refused to have a picture taken as she hadn't yet done her hair.
Today has been more of an organisational day. However we have just arrived back from a presentation which Celine and Xavier had given in a local cafe about the epic (an understatement) cycling journey from Switzerland, through Eastern Europe, some parts of the Middle-East and onto Asia. Should you be interested, their website is www.ylia.ch. They also have an online blog in a national newspaper in Switzerland, which is getting a growing following. The couple are truly inspirational and I think we will be taking a leaf out of their book in taking things slower and appreciating the moment more as we enter China.
So that's it, we're still safe & well and enjoying every moment. Speak soon, China permitting. Happy New Year to each and every one of you!
- comments
Martin Smith A fine entry indeed :-) the train sounds a lot more fun than any train journey I've been on, have a wonderful new year and enjoy China xx
Mum Hiya, Well that's the funniest blog yet! That train journey sounded very bizarre haha ! Enjoy China, Happy Birthday to Anne on Saturday and Happy New Year to both of you xxxxxx Chat to you soon hopefully! xxxx
äiti Aiti Hei Anne ja Shaun. Mielenkiintoinen kuvaus matkastanne. Hyvä tietää, että oltte kunnossa. Hyvää matkaa edelleen. Annelle, tyttökullalleni hyvää syntymäpäivää ylihuomenna. To all Annie's friend and relatives: My dear daughters Annie's birthday is 31.12. Congratulations to her!! Annie's mom.
an-ti Awesome blog entry. I laughed my *beep* off reading this and can't wait to hear about your adventures in China. And happy birthday to Anne! Now party like it's 2012... because hey, it actually is! :)
unnah+atteer (+2 mystery guests) Nice to "hear" that you are having a wonderful time in China. And happy birthday to Anne from us too. Hmmh... I guess you already knew that the chinese celebrate their New Year on 2012 January 23rd so you can have a great excuse to party hard 2 times!
Uncle Andrew flaming nora by the time you ywo have finished your travels, print the blogs off and bingo you have an instant book :-) Glad your both enjoying it and having an amazing time... Will save China and the pics for tomorrow
Shaun Yeah, we've thought about that before Uncle Andrew! :)