Duck? What duck?

Day 16 - Today we took a walk around Lotus lane which had a string of bars and restaurants (for tourists) alongside the lake. Got accosted by lots of rickshaw pullers for rides around the nearby hutongs. We continued to the Drum Tower (very steep climb up the tower) and watched a brief show of drum beating at the top. Nothing special really so we decide to give the Bell Tower situated opposite, a miss.
Bell Tower

Inside Drum Tower

Me with terracotta warrior outside Drum Tower

An hours' walk later, we reach the Yonghe Gong Lama temple. You can tell this one was a real money earner from their ultra sophisticated ticketing system (the 40 yuan ticket is a mini-cd which gets scanned at the entrance). The temple apparently used to be a palace converted to a temple by one of the Qing dynasty emperors. Some buildings are now living quarters for resident monks. This is by far the most expensive temple we've visited...religion does not come cheap these days.

Yonghe Gong Lama temple...


We watch people light joss sticks and pray. The cleaner throws a heap of old joss sticks into the bronze joss stick holder (I forget what these huge bronze vat things are called) causing a mini bonfire. We sit on some steps and watch people attempt to stand their joss sticks in the blaze (chuckle).

After that we walk from one temple to the other via various courtyards and walkways. The buildings are beautiful, very intricate and rich in reds, blues and golds. There are quite a few apparently valuable buddhist artifacts and thangkas housed here as well. The place seems to be quite significant to buddhists and we notice many Tibetan monks visiting. There is also a large statue of Matreya in the main temple (quite impressive). Everywhere there are suited 'men-in-black' watching the visitors' every move and there are cctv cameras in every temple building.


After the lamasery, we decide to give the subway a try - it's very good! Very easy to use (the AA guide however has coloured the various tube lines differently thus causing us a little confusion at first. It cost us 3 yuan per person per single. The trains are clean and there are holographic adverts in the tunnels as the train moves(very cool). Each stop is announced in mandarin and in english. We get off at YongAn'li to go to the Friendship Store. This is equivalent to the state department store - everything is fixed price and it's a fairly good way to get an idea of prices before one tackles the famous silk market (that's where everyone goes to get fake stuff, cashmere and gore-tex). After a Baskin Robbins (same price after conversion), we look for the Silk Market next but cannot find it. We decide to go to the nearby Roast King duck restaurant to try the famous Peking duck. Half a duck cost 98 yuan and comes with pancakes, spring onions, cucumber (you know the drill) and some mashed garlic. The menu stated three ways to eat the duck - the chef first cut a few measely slices of the duck (they do this in front of you) and you eat this the typical way i.e. rolled in a pancake. Then they wheel the duck away in the trolley and a few minutes later a plate of what I can only describe as bits of duck meat in a heap of rice crispies (like the ones in bhel puris) is served with two sesame buns. JD is asking me where the duck is. Finally a bowl of duck soup (with no duck) is served. We had also ordered a dish of pak choy (cooked with meaty mushrooms - v tasty), skewered pork and rice. We didn't realise the duck dishes were sufficient portion-wise and so had to 'ta pau' (doggy bag) these. For the price we paid, we could have had proper roast duck in Queensway, London. Roast King, you have been named and shamed. On our way out, a little street urchin approaches us for money. We give him our ta pau .. at least he got to eat the better dishes from Roast King. Tomorrow we walk the Great Wall...

Our lovely hutong

Day 15 - We decide to stay in today as we had done quite a lot yesterday. Ordered a lunch from the hostel (60 yuan) .. the hostel orders from a nearby restaurant (I have yet to find out which..) which delivers. Food is very good.

The hostel (Templeside hostel, we booked ours from hostelworld.com) looks and feels more like a B&B. It's a beautiful, privately owned house (apparently one would typically set you back USD 500k), lovingly restored (it is immaculate) in traditional chinese style and very well run. Bobby the manager rents and manages the place with his wife. He is (or rather has been) the quintessential student traveller and so has made sure every detail from clean sheets to bus route information is there. The place is near an old buddhist temple and is really for the slightly more 'discerning' traveller (late 20s and above, we also had a couple with a young son), there's no bar or anything like that on the premises, so if you're looking for wild parties, go somewhere else.

There are 2 dorm rooms with bunk beds and the rest are double rooms. Toilets and bathrooms (1 toilet/bathroom, second bathroom with 2 showers and a second toilet) are however shared. As this is not a large house, it is rarely a problem.

They are very easy going and the manager doesn't try and sell you anything, rather we seem to go to him for help which he is extremely accommodating. Very straightforward, honest man (he helped us get our tickets to Xian and showed me the booking fee to have them delivered or us taking the subway to get the tickets ourselves directly from the train station would have come to nearly the same amount anyway). There are also other nice touches such as laundry (diy, but washing machine and detergent provided, 4 yuan per wash) and internet (4 yuan per hour) which you pay into a piggy bank set nearby (please don't shortchange the guy... he's such a nice man).

We spend the rest of the day playing with the 2 white cats, updating my blog (up till Mongolia at this point) and watching a chinese soap on tv which one of the girls taking care of us tries with exasperation to explain to me :>

Our hostel...






Street outside hostel

Parks, scorpions and (no) ducks

Day 14 - We take a walk to Jianshan Park which is located opposite the Forbidden City. I would recommend you do this first before visiting the Forbidden City as the park gives you good views of the rooftops of the Forbiddden City and a good idea of its layout and size.

Rooftops of the Forbidden City

The sky is foggy from pollution and you can barely make out the sun. Jianshan park (unlike Beihai park which is also nearby) is admission-free and seems the more interesting as all the locals flock there. Everywhere in the park people gather to sing (chinese songs, 70s western songs), dance (aerobics, ballroom, line-dancing), play instruments and games. They all have their little cliques which makes for very interesting people watching.

We walk up the hill, from pavillion to pavillion (there are 3 I think) and take pictures of the Forbidden City's yellow rooftops from the highest one. JD and I pant all the way, completely demoralised by all these old people overtaking us along the way.

Lots of food on sticks for sale, so we buy and try some (sweet sausage is very good, so are the toffee crabappples).

After the park, we walk to Tianmen Square and then look for the Underground City - apparently China had built a maze of interconnecting tunnels underneath Beijing leading to neighbouring cities in case the Soviets attacked. We walk and walk and cannot find the damn place. Finally, whilst sitting by the road (looking very much like the locals in doing so), JD happens to spot the road name on a sign. We walk down an unassumming hutong alleyway and voila find it!! Admission is 20 Yuan for a rather quick tour around several tunnels (some lead to the shopping district we are about to visit next). Our 'english-speaking' guide, a youngish, modern looking girl dressed in combats takes us and several other tourists around. After going through various tunnels, we come to a brightly lit room which has been converted into a silk shop (no surprise there)... prolly the only part of the underground system that has been removated. The others in our group have obviously been taken to one too many shops in their so-called tours, tell our guide we're not interested in shopping and ask her to continue with the tour. We're all straining our ears trying to glean what little we can from Miss GI Jane here whilst she chatters about asking JD where he's from and other small talk (he is still being reminded of "Miss undergerr-round" mind you... ;P) .

Views of Tianmen Square...


Old timer

Kites in Tianmen Square..


Views around Tianmen...


Street leading to Underground City...

Underground City entrance
Miss Undergerround! (right, in combats)
Air shaft
Silk shop inside Underground City

We continue to the famous WangFujing street (equivalent to Piccaddilly Circus) with modern shops ( I choose an ultra expensive department store to use its toilet but still find it has squat-type ones ... wail!!!) and its side streets (Donganmen Da Jie) which house rows of stalls selling scorpions, starfish and sea horses on sticks. The scorpions are still alive and are moving whilst being impaled on these sticks - extremely cruel if you ask me. I simply refuse to buy anything from these people.
Wangfujing by night
Clock tower here chimes pop songs!
Scorpions
Those are skinned rats (middle)

We hunt for JD's famous peking duck for dinner, walk the entire road but cannot find it. We found a really good Hotpot restaurant though (a bit pricey - the bill came up to 128 Yuan) but really good. I ordered orange juice for drinks, got a chuckle from the waiter and then received an entire carton of OJ ( I don't think many people order this). We even get a discount coupon for our next visit (apparently ... I have no idea what it says but I'm hoping to get it translated soon).

Forbidden City

Day 13 - First day proper in Beijing. We have breakfast at the hostel before exploring the city. We always walk on the first day to get our bearings (I'd also brought along my trusty AA Guide city map - AA Guides are excellent for cities btw.. they really do do roads well).

We visit the Forbidden City - it is as big as it looks in the pictures. There is some scaffolding in some Pavilions (I forget which.. they're all called Pavilion of Harmony, or Peace or something..).
Words would be insufficient so I'll have to post the pictures here when I get to Singapore (it takes forever to upload the photos onto the net, even after we managed to install the driver for our camera.. in chinese). JD thinks it is impressive but for me, Mongolia's natural landscape was by far the most awe inspiring.

Forbidden City...


Isn't she cute?
We have lunch in the Forbidden City (there are little canteens selling rice and dishes, nothing special though, looked a bit dirty..) and then take more pictures of the ancient city (I get told off for trying to take a picture of Starbucks.. hello??)
Starbucks

Beijing

Day 12 - We check out of our hotel, leave our bags there and check into an Internet cafe for a couple of hours (prices are same everywhere: 650-700 Tugriks an hour) before returning to the hotel for our ride to the airport. The internet cafes remind you of those you find in Asia .. usually a small setup with terminals, manned by a speccy student-looking tech support type. The locals can be found playing warcraft, viewing music videos, chatting and emailling here. UB airport is a small building about 30 minutes from the city itself. There are about 2 flights displayed on the LED board (the information displayed is flashed periodically on the board, not left on). Checking in is easy as there doesn't seem to be any other outbound flights apart from ours. The others in our group had resumed their journey on the Trans Siberian train to Beijing (we flew as when we booked the trip, the train had been fully booked already). Below are what we would have seen had we taken the train, albeit at the cost of having to endure a day and a half's travel...
Descent past the Great Wall (Tim's pic)
Changing of wheels (Tim's pic)

Day 12 (PM) - We land at Beijing airport at about 8pm and take a shuttle bus from the airport to Xidan where we get a taxi (10 yuan) to our hostel.
Beijing
Beijing is massive. Our shuttle bus takes quite a while to get out of the airport expressway (it's quite a distance) and into the city. The roads are a complete opposite to Mongolia's bumpy ones about a thousand times over. Even at night, they are still building roads and crossovers. Even now, they already look ready for the Olympics.

We soon drive down the main road towards Ti'anmen Square. With ultra modern huge hotels on either side, the place looks like Las Vegas (without the neon striplights though). Wide, well-lit promenades line the road. It seems a lot of money has been pumped into this place and it certainly looks it.

We reach what we think is the correct place at about 11pm and walk down a dark hutong alleyway. I get the house number mixed up and shining my keyring light down a narrow and dark corridor, walk into someone's backyard. A lady is taking her washing in. I stare at her and she stares at me before I ask her if this was the Templeside Hostel. Apparently it's next door. We apologise profusely and after making a racket knocking on the door (it was dark and I didn't notice the doorbell...) finally find our hostel.

A Date

Day 11 - I have a date with my Mongolian policeman. After breakfast at the hotel (they also serve rice and kimchi for breakfast... there are a lot of Korean businesses here), we look for the police station. After an hour and a half's walk, we find it. Fortunately, we are on a first name basis (ahem!) as no one speaks English, so the officer in front points us to our policeman's office.

After much sign language, I get him to call up our travel agent who translates the details of the incident to him. He carefully writes this down on a piece of paper and even corrects what I think is grammar (not sure why since our Insurance would not be able to read Mongolian anyway, but I do commend his conscientiousness). Sigh, I now feel like a connoisseur of police stations having seen quite a few by now. The place resembles a bank more than a police station. As we sit at the desk, officer after officer comes in with cash notes, which our dear policeman records and adds to his neat pile of notes and papers. There must be a lot of parking fines in Ulaan Baatar ;P Two hours later, I get my report, all nicely typed up in Mongolian. If I had my choice, between the russkies and the mongolians, I'd take my chances with the mongolians anyday.

We spend the rest of the day in the city, buy a North Face jacket (with detacheable fleece) for 40000 Tugriks (approx 20 quid).

Back to the City

Day 9 - It's our final day at the ger camp. Woke up early to take panaromic shots of our surroundings. The vastness of the landscape still takes my breath away. I am not the only one trying to capture a little of this to take back with me. We are all a little sad to go.

We wait by the van whilst a man pulls what looks like an ox cart laden with our luggage. The horses have been let out of their enclosure and are spread out, some milling around us. The man whose family we visited yesterday came over and we greet him. Finally with all the bags in the van, we head off to the capital, Ulaan Baatar. As we drive off, the two mongolian boys mount their horses and ride beside us. We all shout "Chuuuuuuu!!" as they gallop beside us and we wave goodbye at each other. What a wonderful end to our stay!

Chuu!!

We reach Ulaan Baatar by lunch time and check into a 4-star hotel. The city is bustling and filled with exhaust fumes from cars and buses. There is yellow dust everywhere (ironically, the sky is clear blue, unlike China - we've been in China a week now and I have yet to see the sun, never mind blue skies) . There is construction everywhere. The hotel typifies the standard of construction in the city - it generally looks as one expects but on closer inspection the workmanship is shoddy - the finish is bad (my bathroom ceiling tile fell down in the middle of the night.. and I thought some mongolian was trying to get into my room) and one runs a slight risk of getting electrocuted via certain light switches (fyi avoid room 212 in the Bayangol hotel...). We have dinner at the Grand Khaan Irish Pub (www. gk-irishpub.mn) - we order the Grand Khaan spare ribs with chips. Yum! The food isn't very expensive - about 8000 - 11000 Tugriks (~ 2000 Tugriks to a quid) and they seem honest with credit cards. There is also free internet (wifi) so a lot of people bring their laptops in.
Lunch at the Grand Khaan!

Ulaan Baatar...




Day 10 - We walk around the city. Roadworks everywhere. No one seems to know how a pedestrian crossing should work. JD seems to get the hang of it though and so drags me across oncoming traffic. Mongolian women are very well dressed (they dress like russians, skinny jeans and knee high black boots). Vendors selling fruits, cigarettes (in singles) and old ladies sitting on stools by the roadside with satellite phones which people pay to make calls. Landlines are not yet fully developed (their telephone numbers are also only 6 digits long), so everyone uses cellphones. Apart from the area where our hotel is, the city is not very pretty. They try to plant grass and saplings to beautify the pavements but the climate is too harsh for these to thrive. We visit the State Department Store (like Russia's GUM store, Mongolia too has a state department store). Cashmere here pretty reasonable (about 20-30 quid for a sweater). We meet up with Tim and Sam and have dinner in an Italian restaurant called Della Casa (Mongolian food didn't look very appetizing). We bump into Lisa at the restaurant ;)
State Dept Store

Heaven on Earth

Day 8 - We awake in our beautiful Ger tent to a glorious golden morning and a 'backyard' view to die for. I have to say, every single day in Mongolia had blue skies (it really is true, even in Ulaan Baatar as we later find out). After a good breakfast of mongolian rice porridge, lamb fried dumplings and various breads with butter and fresh cranberry jam (very nice), JD and I take a walk and watch the local boys herd the horses over the hill and into the corral. We stop and listen to perfect silence. After a while we slowly walk back to the camp. There is a lot of horse shit all over (not just around where the horses are kept but everywhere for miles and miles) but after a while you get use to it (they are rather dry clumps and not really offputting) and only avoid the 'fresh' ones.
Our camp!



Later that morning, we get ready for our horse ride (5 USD each, very reasonable). We each sign a waiver and are given instructions (always mount the horse with your left foot and bring the other over and shout "chu" to get it to move). We put on our helmets and chaps, gather up a saddle each and make our way to the corral. Apart from our roomies Antony and Theresa, most of us are first timers and very nervous (these things are big). We gather round, looking at the horses and gesturing to the herdsman we all want the smallest ones. Then one by one, the herdsman indicates to us our designated horse and helps us mount it (I have a suspicion they pair horse and rider by personality). The horses are stouter and less elegant than the ones we're used to seeing but extremely tough. They are apparently left outside to fend for themselves even in winter when it gets to about minus 38 degrees. These horses are not fed but left to scratch and scrape for grass themselves (by contrast, the camp owners are building a garage for their car). My horse was milk chocolate brown with thick, short, wiry mane and extremely well behaved whilst JD's was a paler brown colour with a longer mane and as we found out later, terribly obstinate ;P
Horses
Oozing confidence, obviously
Suited up!
We all start off rather slow and cautiously, trying to keep balance. The view is breathtaking - there is miles and miles of open plains and nothing between us and the mountains in the horizon. Our horses follow a general direction. My horse having seen some of his mates in the distance (long distance .. his mates were just tiny dots) decides to head off that way before I pull him back towards our group. After the first 45 minutes, with gained confidence, even the most terrified of us start to urge our horses to go faster by shouting "chu". The horses however seem reluctant to respond. One of us, Peter, thinks it's a translation issue and we try various versions ranging from "shoe", "choo" to "shooo". Finally, he settles with "Go Tonto go!". JD's horse trots behind some of ours. He shouts "chuuu" with gusto, only to make our horses surge forward and some of us (girls) scream in the process. We finally stop at a slight hill and look back at our camp which looks like toy models in the distance. Then our guides head back towards camp and our horses (they know the drill) follow with great speed. I hang on for dear life for the first 30 seconds before finally enjoying the exhilaration of the gallop (standing on the stirrups helps correct your balance btw). My horse is moving so fast I can hear the wind rush past my ears! What a wonderful life these boys must have!

After lunch we pay a visit to a family living nearby (approx 40 minutes walk). We stop halfway to take pictures of some yaks. Very impressed as it was a real family ( they don't get paid or anything and they certainly weren't expecting us). We bring some biscuits, sweets and a notebook as gifts. Baggi our tour guide helps translate questions and answers from both family and visitors. The couple have 6 children, the eldest 28 and the youngest who was in the tent with them, 10 months. Their children are living in the city - the elder ones working, the teenage boys studying (they come home in weekends to help out with the animals.) It is custom that the youngest child takes care of his parents and carry on the tradition.
Yaks!
Family
They have 2 ger tents (1 for living and the other presumably for storage - it had some meat hanging inside) and a white car (for ferrying the children to school). A typical ger costs about USD500 and is much better self contained than a caravan I reckon. We were all give some salted milk tea to drink (smelt very sweet and milky, even though it wasn't). Our hosts also offered us some fried curd (looked like sesame paste, very rich in taste), dried curd (looked like soap, tasted awful - bitter, salty and hard) and 'freshly scooped' curd (looked the most gross but actually tasted the best - like rich cream). Apart from milk based foods, I don't think fruit and vege are hot on the menu...
Mmmm... milk curd anyone?
We talk some more and find out that 40% of Mongolia's population are still nomadic. The government encourages this way of life and provide assistance to help them in various ways - e.g. providing solar panels (which allow them to generate electricity for the occasional tv or radio) and satelite dishes (for telephone). The family we visited had about 4000 horses and several thousand sheep. Was calculating - they are really quite wealthy - with each horse worth about USD100, an average family would be sitting on a quite sizeable livestock investment of at leastUSD 400,000. The family also tell us they move about 3-4 times a year in search for pastures and water for their livestock. They would be moving in about 10 days time to winter pastures (which are closer to mountains which would provide some shelter from the winds). Water sources are kept secret as in the past foreign invaders (the chinks, again..) have poisoned their water.

We talk some more, some of us have brought postcards from the UK and show these to the family. JD offers the baby a biscuit and takes it away when the mother makes choking gestures at him. The toddler wasn't impressed. The 10-month old boy can barely walk but already goes on the saddle with his father. Baggi tells us about local customs, one of which is sweeping the broom to indicate to visitors that they are no longer welcome. As if on cue, the boy picks up the broom and we all burst out laughing.

We say our goodbyes and make our way back to camp. We have dumplings for dinner and talk about our day and some more about our Trans Mongolian misadventures (I think we needed to get it out of our system). Someone asks us what made us do the trip and we all start cussing 'bloody Michael Palin' (sorry Michael, we love you really). The nights are so cold it hurts after washing your hands. Brrrrrr!