An "interesting" night. The stove in the ger was stoked at about 8pm and was lovely and warm, however by 1am it had almost died down and it was a chilly night - minus 30 outside. However with plenty of clothes and bedding, not too unpleasant, the temperature inside never got below freezing. At about 6am a man came in and rebuilt the fire ready for us to get up.
After breakfast we returned to UB a different way driving through a local town. Interestingly we entered over dirt tracks, despite it being a major industrial centre, populated mainly by native Kazacks who had been moved there in Soviet times.
When we had checked into our hotel, Joey, our guide took us to Mongolian restaurant where you chose the ingredients for your meal, placed them in a dish and passed this to the chef who stir fried them on a giant hot plate - it was delicious.
We then wondered around central UB, it is a strange mixture of Soviet style tatty buildings and modern. Sukhbattar Square in the centre is an large open space where I would guess military parades used to be held. It is now dominated by a new parliament building, built in 2005. However it doesn't look that new and blends in well, it is dominated by an enormous statue of Chinggis Khan flanked by smaller statues of his sons.
Wednesday
I did not do a lot for two reasons, one I had a lurgy and two, it was Tsagaan Sar - the lunar new year and Mongolia's most important family festival so basically everything closed down. Steve went exploring, including walking out to the "Royal Palace" - a housing estate presumably on the grounds of the former palace J while I stayed closer to the hotel. I was fascinated at the number of ordinary people who were walking around dressed in traditional costume.
In the evening unfortunately I had to decline an invitation to Joey's home, but Steve went and was charmed by the hospitality and food but slightly embarrassed because he ate with Joey in the living room as honoured guest while the family were relegated to the kitchen!
Thursday
Feeling much better, we caught the train for the 30 hour journey to Beijing. Once we were away from the mountains around UB we passed through the edge of the Gobi Desert. Most of it though was not typical sandy desert but rolling steppe covered in scrub grass. For no easily apparent reason some of this was clear and some still snow covered. We passed frequent flocks of wild horses, several Bactrian camels and many gers, both isolated and in small encampments, a sparse barren landscape. The one things I will not miss upon leaving are mutton dumplings - we were first served them in soup on the Listvyanka snowmobile trip and they seemed to have cropped up every meal since!
We arrived at the Chinese border town of Erlian at around 8pm for a four hour stop. Despite China being a communist country it was like moving back into the west. As we crossed the border there were neon signs everywhere and we could see fireworks, presumably New Year celebrations for the ethnic Mongolian population. The station was very modern (though with squat loos L) and had piped western musac such as Viennese Waltz and Love Story.
The main reason for the four hour wait was to change the carriage bogeys from broad gauge used in Russia and Mongolia to standard gauge, used in the rest of the world, however this actually only took a couple of hours in a giant shed and we spent the other two hours just sitting (or sleeping) in the station.
Friday
We awoke to our first real sights of China. Generally favourable, understandably most of the land was heavily cultivated. Most of the towns were highly populated with rows of terraced houses, but set out in a way that seemed quite nice. There was lots of new building work going on with new, well designed blocks of flats and many new railway lines. We frequently saw men working in the fields, normally on their own with just hand tools, no evidence of mechanisation. We passed, what I assume were rice paddy fields, completely frozen over. As we approached Beijing, however, there was more and more unfrozen water, evidence that it was getting warmer. Two sad things were the amount of coal; hundreds of railway wagons full and large heaps right next to residential districts. You could actually see the coal dust blowing in places. And the amount of rubbish, we passed one large tip from which you could see plastic bags have been blown across fields for at least the next mile L
Beijing
An interesting city of 22 million people, two and a half times that of London! On the whole quite modern nowadays, some things nice, some not so nice. We had a wonderful meal of sweet and sour pork, the nicest I have tasted and too much for even Steve to eat, cost £4 each! There is a pedestrianised street leading up to Tiananam Square which is quite tastefully done with a mixture of traditional and top line western stores. We couldn't get into the Square however, there were security gates which were closed when we arrived at around 6pm - no chance of any more protests!!
Everyone seems very friendly, this was especially apparent on the metro which equaled Moscow for packing people in like sardines, but they packed in a much more friendly way.
Trans-Siberia Stage 3
Tuesday
An "interesting" night. The stove in the ger was stoked at about 8pm and was lovely and warm, however by 1am it had almost died down and it was a chilly night - minus 30 outside. However with plenty of clothes and bedding, not too unpleasant, the temperature inside never got below freezing. At about 6am a man came in and rebuilt the fire ready for us to get up.
After breakfast we returned to UB a different way driving through a local town. Interestingly we entered over dirt tracks, despite it being a major industrial centre, populated mainly by native Kazacks who had been moved there in Soviet times.
When we had checked into our hotel, Joey, our guide took us to Mongolian restaurant where you chose the ingredients for your meal, placed them in a dish and passed this to the chef who stir fried them on a giant hot plate - it was delicious.
We then wondered around central UB, it is a strange mixture of Soviet style tatty buildings and modern. Sukhbattar Square in the centre is an large open space where I would guess military parades used to be held. It is now dominated by a new parliament building, built in 2005. However it doesn't look that new and blends in well, it is dominated by an enormous statue of Chinggis Khan flanked by smaller statues of his sons.
Wednesday
I did not do a lot for two reasons, one I had a lurgy and two, it was Tsagaan Sar - the lunar new year and Mongolia's most important family festival so basically everything closed down. Steve went exploring, including walking out to the "Royal Palace" - a housing estate presumably on the grounds of the former palace J while I stayed closer to the hotel. I was fascinated at the number of ordinary people who were walking around dressed in traditional costume.
In the evening unfortunately I had to decline an invitation to Joey's home, but Steve went and was charmed by the hospitality and food but slightly embarrassed because he ate with Joey in the living room as honoured guest while the family were relegated to the kitchen!
Thursday
Feeling much better, we caught the train for the 30 hour journey to Beijing. Once we were away from the mountains around UB we passed through the edge of the Gobi Desert. Most of it though was not typical sandy desert but rolling steppe covered in scrub grass. For no easily apparent reason some of this was clear and some still snow covered. We passed frequent flocks of wild horses, several Bactrian camels and many gers, both isolated and in small encampments, a sparse barren landscape. The one things I will not miss upon leaving are mutton dumplings - we were first served them in soup on the Listvyanka snowmobile trip and they seemed to have cropped up every meal since!
We arrived at the Chinese border town of Erlian at around 8pm for a four hour stop. Despite China being a communist country it was like moving back into the west. As we crossed the border there were neon signs everywhere and we could see fireworks, presumably New Year celebrations for the ethnic Mongolian population. The station was very modern (though with squat loos L) and had piped western musac such as Viennese Waltz and Love Story.
The main reason for the four hour wait was to change the carriage bogeys from broad gauge used in Russia and Mongolia to standard gauge, used in the rest of the world, however this actually only took a couple of hours in a giant shed and we spent the other two hours just sitting (or sleeping) in the station.
Friday
We awoke to our first real sights of China. Generally favourable, understandably most of the land was heavily cultivated. Most of the towns were highly populated with rows of terraced houses, but set out in a way that seemed quite nice. There was lots of new building work going on with new, well designed blocks of flats and many new railway lines. We frequently saw men working in the fields, normally on their own with just hand tools, no evidence of mechanisation. We passed, what I assume were rice paddy fields, completely frozen over. As we approached Beijing, however, there was more and more unfrozen water, evidence that it was getting warmer. Two sad things were the amount of coal; hundreds of railway wagons full and large heaps right next to residential districts. You could actually see the coal dust blowing in places. And the amount of rubbish, we passed one large tip from which you could see plastic bags have been blown across fields for at least the next mile L
Beijing
An interesting city of 22 million people, two and a half times that of London! On the whole quite modern nowadays, some things nice, some not so nice. We had a wonderful meal of sweet and sour pork, the nicest I have tasted and too much for even Steve to eat, cost £4 each! There is a pedestrianised street leading up to Tiananam Square which is quite tastefully done with a mixture of traditional and top line western stores. We couldn't get into the Square however, there were security gates which were closed when we arrived at around 6pm - no chance of any more protests!!
Everyone seems very friendly, this was especially apparent on the metro which equaled Moscow for packing people in like sardines, but they packed in a much more friendly way.
More on Beijing in my final instalment.