Bactrian camels in the Gobi desert
One of the first houses we saw after crossing the border
Timber power poles are attached to concrete bases. To protect from snow or animals?
Looking back at my photos, I’m surprised by the diversity of Mongolian photos I took from the train. Our complete train journey will be just over 8000 kilometres (from Beijing in China to St Petersburg in Russia) and about 1000 of that was in Mongolia.
The landscape changes from the moment we moved from China into Mongolia—the earth is the same (still in the Gobi desert), but the housing and animals are different. The Mongols have girs (yurts) and many sturdy timber and brick buildings with colourful exteriors.
Mongolia (population 3 million) has more livestock than people, and we saw Bactrian camels, sheep, goats, cattle, horses and yaks.
We’ve been told that people (and their herds) often spend theirs summer in the countryside and then move their gir into town for winter. Sometimes a gir sits next to a house. I’m not sure about toilet facilities in town.
Nasaa, the guide for our Mongolian excursions, said she and her husband are building a new two-storey house. The process will take a couple of years and plumbing will be one of the last things to go in. When we travelled across Mongolia (west to east) in 2014, we stopped in a town with a bathhouse.
Industry is scattered across the parts of Mongolia we travelled through, and I was surprised to see the amount of coal around.
Anyway, here are glimpses of life as seen from our train window. I’ve added captions where necessary. Plus I have plenty of other pics from our sightseeing excursions in Mongolia.
Girs in the countryside
Girs on the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar
Mongolia has more livestock than people. Herds have horses, sheep, goats, yaks, cattle and camels
Fishing port at Olkhon Island
Waiting for a paint job
My last post was full of grey and dreary landscapes in China, so I thought I needed to brighten things up with a look at the creative canvasses on Olkhon Island in Lake Baikal in Russia.
We spent a glorious two nights/three days on the remote island, enjoying the sights, hospitality and food.
He-Who-Walks-Everywhere (aka Poor John) suggested we stroll down to the fishing port and what a wonderful find. Not only are there floating and ancient boats galore, but there is artwork everywhere too.
I have no idea whether all the paintings have been done by the same artist or set of artists, but the creators have had a wonderful time bringing colour, vibrancy, whimsy and dignity to a collection of old, rusty boats stranded on the sand.
The last time I saw boats marooned like this was in Uzbekistan beside the dried up Aral Sea. It was a tremendously sad and moving experience that I wrote about here. At least this sight brought some joy and smiles.
Lake Baikal, which I’ll write more about later, is the largest and deepest fresh water lake in the world. We had a day-long tour of the island and some of it’s important sights.
By the way, do you have a favourite painting? I think I’ll go for the jungle and the girl with the dog on the boat. Also very partial to the skeleton fish in the last image. The colours work so well with the rusted out boat, and the blue sky is the perfect backdrop.
P.S. Once again there aren’t many captions, but you’ll notice that one painting (of a man–fish) is on the side of a building rather than on a boat. Also, you can click on the smaller images to see a larger version.
We’ve just arrived in Moscow, Russia after six nights (almost seven if you count the fact we boarded at 3:37am) on three different trains. We actually left Beijing, China 10 days ago and have had overnight stays in hostels in Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia and Irkutsk and Olkhon Island in Russia.
I’ll write more about all those stops (especially Olkhon Island which is on Lake Baikal, but I thought you might like to see some of the views we had from our classy compartment on the express train out of Beijing.
You can see that the weather was quite gloomy, but it wasn’t raining. In Beijing, it’s possible some of the grey skies are caused by pollution, but China is making a big push to cut back on the use of coal. We found the air quality was vastly improved compared to the last time we were in Beijing in 2014.
We passed plenty of farm land and transport systems, and huge towns I’d never heard of, but with countless apartment blocks. It’s important to mention that the crops had been harvested. I was pleased to see a lot of solar hot water systems (almost every roof) and wind farms, but never managed to get a half decent shot.
I couldn’t resist showing you the black rice soda crackers we bought. The packaging was too intriguing so we had to buy some. In fact we took a lot of food with us because we were told that food on the train was variable or not available at all.
Our bag of goodies included peanut butter, two kinds of crackers, many packets of instant noodles, chilli peanuts, dried garlic peas, dried broad beans (crab roe flavour?), sunflower seeds, tangerines, apples, boiled lollies, coffee, a few beers and water. Seems like our diet over the last days has mainly been made up of salt and sugar. A detox may be required.
I haven’t added captions to the photos—I didn’t always know what I was looking at. If you roll over an image a short description should show up. The very last image is from the Gobi desert. You can click on the smaller images to see a larger version.
P.S. I got quite a few pics of Chinese at work beside the railway and will do a separate post on that. Will also do posts on views from the train in Mongolia and Russia. Clearly I need more access to the internet! Which leads me to apologise if I missed any of your blog posts. 🙂
Chefs on a break
We’re in Irkutsk Siberia and in a few hours we board a train that will whisk us to Moscow more than 5200 kilometres to the west. Whisk is probably the wrong word—the train ride will take four days.
It started snowing earlier today, but the flakes have only recently started sticking to the ground. I wonder how blanketed it will be when we head to the train at 2:30am.
Obviously I won’t be posting during the journey. Given that I’m almost always behind on reporting my travels, I thought I’d share some pics from our recent days in China—the fourth time we have visited this vast country.
There are so many people in China that the country never sleeps. Everywhere you look, people are working, playing or eating, and I caught one gal sleeping.
So I thought you might enjoy some photos from our whirlwind week in China. The pics are from Shanghai, Xian and Beijing.
Shanghai’s main shopping street
A few comments about a couple of pics. The dancer, the saxophonist, the child posing and the ribbon twirler are all from Jingshan Park in Beijing. The road works are in Shanghai and we had one of our nicest meals in a hole-in-the-wall on that street. I’ll post about food soon.
The scorpions were for sale as food—a delicacy. Some were live and others cooked. We didn’t try any of them. The fellow cooking at night had an enormous queue of people waiting outside for the savoury buns he was making. The table tennis player was fierce, as you might tell from his stance.
I could have listened to the guitar player all night. He played well and had a beautiful singing voice—never mind that we didn’t understand a single word.
See you when we surface in Moscow sometime on Monday.
Twirling ribbons
Catching a snooze
Hallway in the hotel
Looking towards reception
Now for the extremes. The yesterday I posted about our overnight in a gir (yurt) with a Kazakh family in the wilds of Mongolia, and today it’s a look at a famous art deco hotel in Shanghai.
Now let me make it clear that we did not stay in this hotel. We stayed in a down-market hostel, and merely passed through this hotel wearing our daggy camping clothes. Poor John needed a pit stop and we were quite relieved the doorman didn’t stop us from entering.
This is the Fairmont Peace Hotel. It’s the north building of two that make up the Peace Hotel on Shanghai’s Bund. This building is known as Sassoon House (built by Sir Victor Sassoon). The fourth to ninth floors once housed the Cathay Hotel. Sir Victor lived in the 10th floor penthouse.
Entry to the bar
In 2007, the hotel closed for a three-year renovation of both the exterior and interior, including the guest rooms, the lobby, and the dining and entertainment venues. It reopened in 2010, as the Fairmont Peace Hotel Shanghai with 270 rooms and 39 suites.
We never saw a guest room, but we admired the art deco decor in the lobby and hallways.
The other thing we admired was all the promotional material for the hotel’s Old Jazz Band that plays nightly. According to the signs—they aren’t the best jazz band in the world, but they are certainly the oldest, which has been confirmed by the Guinness Book of World Records.
In fact, this season, the oldest member—96-year-old Zhou Wan Rong—has returned to the band for their nightly performances in the hotel bar. Not long ago, the band was the basis for a film, As Time Goes By.
We went along to listen on our last night in Shanghai, but decided against going in because the surcharge/minimum spend was about A$40 a person. Good grief, Poor John doesn’t drink and I’d be hard pressed to consume $80 worth of drinks.
It was probably just as well. We sat outside the bar and listened to a few numbers. The promotional material is right—they aren’t the best jazz band in the world.
Anyway, hope you enjoy the photos.
And here’s another extreme
Our daughter, Petra, who is living in Vietnam and who recently shared a post about a famous Vietnamese musician, shared another video on Facebook today.
I thought it was especially funny and asked if I could share it here. She’s playing on a women’s football team and a recent game got washed out.
The video shows Petra’s team members wading through the water on the field. It also shows the other players stepping from stool to stool to avoid getting their feet wet. Petra was pretty sure someone would lose their footing and fall in, but that didn’t happen.
Poor John and Sherry watch as Sharon and Little Miss dance in front of our gir
Poor John waits as our mattresses are rolled out. Note the stove in the foreground
We’ve had homestays in quite a few different countries, with mixed success.
A few years back there were about 40 people sharing a homestay in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Some were sleeping in bunks in dorm rooms and others were camping in tents in a sodden backyard. I still remember a gal washing her clothes in a sink under a sign that said ‘Don’t do laundry in the sink!’
The Bolivians in a village on the shores of Lake Titicaca tried so hard to entertain 21 of us overlanders for an evening. They arranged a soccer game and a dance, and had us dress up in local outfits. It was fun but with no common language, there wasn’t much conversation. I remember sitting and watching as our hosts prepared dinner. I tried to help but was shooed away.
Our hosts in seaside villages in Papua New Guinea were so shy that except when they served us meals, we hardly saw them.
The TV is under the cloth on the timber chest and child’s cot is on the right
Kitchen is on the right and the sofa folds out to a bed. People also sleep on mats on the floor
So Poor John was a little wary when we learned that, in Mongolia, we had a choice of staying with a local Muslim Kazakh family or in a tourist camp. Either way, we’d be sleeping in a gir (the Mongolian word for yurt).
In the end, we opted for a family and what a rewarding choice it was.
I suppose the family option can be a mixed bag anywhere, because usually families take it in turn to host. In this instance and from the minute we arrived, we were made to feel at home and part of the family.
We started off with gift-giving, which is the custom when lobbing in on a family. We went shopping before heading out of Ulaanbaatar (had to visit two supermarkets to get the right things), and brought orange juice, applesauce, two pairs of kiddie socks and a 5-litre kettle.
Our gifts were received with great smiles and thank yous, and a certain two-year-old was quick to ask to have both pairs of socks (pink and purple) put on.
Snacks of fried bread, dried yoghurt and milk tea appeared almost immediately, and soon we were shown to the neighbouring gir they had for guests.
They rolled out thin mattresses for us, and the tour organiser had supplied us with sleeping bags.
Welcomed with fried bread, dried yoghurt and milk tea
Two versions of dinner
Dinner came soon after and our hostess kindly made two versions of a similar dish—one vegetarian and one for meat eaters. Both dishes included homemade noodles that were delicious.
Lack of language didn’t seem to be much of a deterrent to conversation. Our guide spoke English so could translate as needed, but it’s amazing how much you can communicate with hand signals and simple words (oh, and YouTube).
Dad had his phone out and was keen to have us search for videos of sheep dogs at work. I guess that’s not surprising, given that he herds sheep, cattle and horses. He’d even heard of the video done by LED engineers of sheep wearing lights on their backs. I found it for him and we watched it on his phone. Here’s a link.
Dad strums some tunes
Then he played a few tunes on his stringed instrument.
We were surprised to learn that their son (who is 18) was going off to the army the next day. He was to begin his year of compulsory service. Apparently he could have done it this year or the next. His dad wanted him to wait, but mum was keen for him to get it out of the way.
But the son was still happy to do his morning chores the next morning. He led the cattle to pasture and fed the sheep before having his breakfast and preparing to go.
I think a certain Little Miss will miss her big brother desperately. It was obvious how much they love one another and how well he helped to entertain and mind her. Even as he was about to get in the car, she made it clear she wasn’t going to let him go to off the army without her going along for the ride. Oh, the tears!
The son hopes to serve on the border between Mongolia and China or Mongolia and Russia. That’s where the army patrols to keep rustlers from crossing the border and stealing livestock that belongs to Mongolians. In fact, most Mongolian farmers round-up their animals at night to reduce the chance of them being stolen.
Mum cooks breakfast while our driver watches
After the car left, mum set about making a breakfast of eggs, toast, jam, homemade butter and fried lunch meat. I think the photos are a good indication of how the family gir is set out. The family has electricity thanks to solar panels (they even have a TV), and mum cooks on a small gas camp stove. The toilet is an outdoor affair about 20 metres from the main gir. It has a great view across to the hills.
All too soon it was time for us to go.
This homestay will always rank as the best for us.
A quick aside. I forgot to mention that there was an option to ride a horse. I said I wanted to ride, but Poor John, Sherry and Sharon no. The guide said that was fine. She’d call ahead and have the family go catch a horse. It might be kind of wild, is that okay?
Having wrecked my shoulder in Belgium in June, I decided to pass on the horse. Sometimes my common sense kicks in.
Feeding time in the morning
Leading cattle to pasture at sunrise
Our carriage is the first one. Our attendant kindly let me take his picture
Looking at Beijing Station from the train
The prospect of 11 days on a train was enough to prompt Poor John and me to upgrade our tickets on the Trans Mongolian Railway.
A couple of days ago, we started in Beijing, China, and we are now in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. To be honest, while we have 11 days on the train, we only have seven nights because we are also stopping in Irkutsk and Moscow in Russia.
I’m using the word ‘luxury’ rather loosely.
Poor John settling into his easy chair
Down the corridor outside our compartment
Our first compartment was defined as a ‘luxury soft sleeper’. As the photos show, it was a bit cushy with just two beds (one up and one down) and an easy chair (we took turns). We also had our own toilet and shower (with hot water).
The Chinese dining car was a disaster. Plastic seats and laminated tables. The tablecloths were filthy and the food was mediocre, although the prices were very cheap. Seven or eight staff members were ensconced there—enjoying meals, chats, cigarettes and general laziness. The chef brought out his own meal (not something on the menu) and it looked fantastic! Wish we could have ordered it.
In the middle of the night, we crossed the border into Mongolia. That’s an exercise. The rail gauge changes between the two countries, so the bogies had to be changed. In all, we spent about five hours at the two borders, with all sorts of banging and crashing and thumping and bumping going on. We were finally on our way about 2:30am.
The elegant dining car added in Mongolia
Later that morning we were surprised to discover four or five carriages had been added, including a Mongolian dining car.
Now this was the luxury we were expecting. Frankly, we were gobsmacked when we entered the carriage and saw its elaborate carvings, fabrics, decorations and smartly dressed waiter.
There was only one option for breakfast—an omelet with toast, butter and jam, plus tea or coffee—so four of us ordered that.
We lingered in the dining car for quite sometime, enjoying the atmosphere. Then the bill came. Yikes! It was US$20 or about A$25 for an ordinary one-egg omelet and instant coffee. Not impressed. Especially because the menu said US$15.
We are following the pink line, then join the red line tonight (all heading west)
Sadly we were there long enough to see the waiter pinch the waitress on the bum. She didn’t smack him, but she should have.
We board the train to Irkutsk tonight and there’s not much promise of luxury. Even though we upgraded, our tickets imply that we have all four beds in a second class cabin. Also we’ve read there is no dining car, so we’ve stocked up on instant noodles, apples, mandarins, sesame treats and nuts. Oh and some beer!
This next ride is about 36 hours with a border crossing into Russia that may last as long as eight hours. It wouldn’t be so bad, but they lock all the toilets for that entire time (same thing happened last border crossing).
So like I said—luxury sort of. I guess we should hope there isn’t a murder on this ‘express’!
The elaborate carving and decorations
More decorations
Oriental Pearl Tower (purple) on Lujiazui and Swatch Art Peace Hotel on the Bund
Who knew a peninsula formed by a bend in a river could bring fame and fortune to a city? But that’s exactly what has happened in Shanghai.
Lujiazui is located in Shanghai’s Pudong New District. It’s a peninsula on the eastern bank of the Huangpu River and directly opposite the Bund, the city’s old financial and business district.
Since the early 1990s, Lujiazui has been being developed as the city’s new financial and business centre. Today, the area has more than 30 high-rise buildings (25 stories or more) with commerce as their leading function, and more than 504 domestic and overseas financial and insurance corporations.
We had the good fortune to visit Lujiazui and the Bund both at night and during the day.
View from the Fairmont Peace Hotel with Bund on the right and Bund and Lujiazui on the left
Lujiazui by day
I have to say that the night skylines are among the most beautiful and impressive we have seen anywhere in the world.
We stayed at ground level at night, but during the day we went to the top-floor terrace of the Fairmont Peace Hotel (I’ll do a post about that amazing art deco hotel soon).
That terrace is only about 11 floors up, but it was free to visit. We read that some hotels charge up to A$30 to ride their elevators to the top (and much higher) floors. We figured that was just a case of daylight robbery. 🙂
Hope you enjoy the pics, I’ve save the best for last.
Potsie update
Potsie goes into rehab soon. He has a long battle ahead. Please keep him in your thoughts.
A night skyline on the Bund
A night view of Lujiazui. The lights are constantly changing
Potsie (in his Dame Edna apron) and me in his old kitchen in Dallas
A little time out from travels to tell you about my very dear friend, Potsie. Pots and I met more than 10 years ago in the community boards of a food website called Recipezaar.
We hit it off instantly and spent many years running amok on the community boards and the website’s contests and adventures. We were also co-hosts (with three others—Stella Mae, Rinshinomori and Celticevergreen) on the Asian Forum there.
He calls me his Mommie Dearest (ala Joan Crawford because I ‘adopted’ him for a cooking game) and I’ve called him all sorts of ‘witty’ names, but I think he most enjoys his alter ego as Dame Edna.
Potsie lives in Dallas Texas, and Poor John and I have visited him there several times. In fact, we fly to the USA though Dallas now, instead of Los Angeles.
If you follow this blog, you will know I am in China and will soon be travelling west to St Petersburg Russia on the Trans-Mongolian Railway.
Let me tell you now that I will be worried sick for every minute of that journey—and here’s why. Facebook doesn’t work in China. In fact, no international social media outlets work here. So my network of communication is faltering.
Yep, he’s a dog lover
But Recipezaar friends have let me know that Potsie has had a stroke or something equivalent. His left side is immobile and his speech is slurred. He’s in hospital and tests are to be done. That’s about all I know for now.
Potsie’s dear friend, James, is doing his best to look after Potsie’s place and dogs, be of comfort and prepare for Potsie’s return home. His real mother, Bobbie, is on deck too.
In all honesty, Potsie isn’t religious, but I know he believes in the interconnectedness of people and the world.
So in a push to help make Pots well again as soon as possible, I’m asking everyone to make a gesture of solidarity.
Please do something that sits well with your personality and your view of the world—send good wishes, channel the vibe, say a prayer, shed a tear, smile at a stranger, open a door for someone, give a beggar a dollar, send someone a card, read a book, bake bread, buy an apron, call your mum, hug your children, kiss your spouse, count your blessings.
Seriously, I think even the list of suggestions might even bring a smile to Potsie’s face.
I’ll keep you posted when I know something.
Go on, mate, get well! We’re all cheering you on! Thanks James for being there for Pots. And I almost forgot to mention that Potsie (and my sister, Susan) were the ones to start calling my off-sider Poor John.
P.S. Our beloved Recipezaar has changed hands and names, and is no longer the community we cherished. If it still was, the members would be doing a cook-a-thon and signing up to make and review one of his recipes to cheer him up. So if you’re looking for a sensational recipe, check out Potsie’s Mexican Rice or one of his other gems.
P.P.S. I forgot to add that we board the train in about 12 hours time. I’m likely to be completely out of touch for 36 hours after that.
Potsie admires a Chihuly glass star burst at the Dallas Arboretum
Northern Lights in Alaska 2016
Poor John and I are sitting in Sydney Airport. In less than an hour we’ll be on the way to Shanghai, China.
Over the next six weeks we’ll be in Xian and Beijing, then on the Trans-Mongolian Railway. That 19-day train ride will include stays in Ulan Bator, Mongolia, as well three stays in Russia—Irkutsz, Moscow and St Petersburg.
Then we stop in Sweden before 10 days in glorious Iceland. The saying goes that Iceland is green and Greenland is ice.
We’ll be staying with special friends and hope to see the Northern Lights. We saw them a in Alaska early last year and all the pics are from that trip.
I’ll post as often as I can, but no guarantees. Internet connections are likely to be rare.
Apologies in advance if you don’t see much of me on your blogs.
Where to next? 