2toAsia

Through the border from Mongolia to China we got a ride with a Mongolian family, going for some cheap shopping in China. They guided us through the border queues. Luckily no problems, yay we are in China!!

Datong is our first stop (after another 8 hours on a couple of different local buses...) in China to visit the Yungang caves.

And we got our first meeting with a Chinese city and some weird ice-creams, egg & pudding and soya! (Yuck!)

BEIJING

From Datong we took a train to Beijing, hard seats are really called hard for a reason! Great wall here we come!!

In the city we stayed in a hostel in Hutong (hutongs are alleys formed by lines of siheyuan, traditional courtyard residences) and for sightseeing we rented bicycles, a great way to see the city center!

The Forbidden city and the Tiananmen square were under heavy surveillance, with cameras and police. (And of course packed with Chinese tourists..)

We took a day trip from Beijing to the Great Wall and had a really nice hike with much less tourists than we had expected. After the walk on top we took the toboggan down which unfortunately ended up in a queue behind a Chinese tourist.. still fun though.

Beijing is a really great city and the food is amazing! We really enjoyed the stay!

The really cute hostel we stayed in.

XIAN

The main reason for the stop in Xian was to see the terracotta army.

The amazing thing with the army (over 8000, still counting) is that no man is identical.

Apart from the terracotta army we were positively surprised by the city's Muslim quarter where we snacked all sorts of goodies every evening!

CHENGDU

One of the highlights on the trip to China, was Chengdu with the panda's and the Szechuan food!! (veeeeeeeeeeeery spicy!!) UNESCO declared the city of Chengdu a city of Gastronomy in 2011.

Immediately after arrival we went for the specialty, hotpot. We were unsure how spicy this would be so when the lady showed us a pot with one side red and the other not we decided that this was maybe a good start.

Soon we found out that the red one was really spicy but the non red was very fishy (yuck) so we stick with the spicy!

In the cooling room we selected our own sticks to cook.

In this place you pay per stick, we had over 50!:D

PANDA's, they are so cute!

They also have a nursery for the babies. A panda mom gives birth to two babies, however normally only the strongest survive, by having the nursery both babies survive.

From Chengdu we took a one day tour to visit an ancient town, Pingle and a tea plantation. In a little local, family run, noodle soup shop we ate the best noodle soup we've had so far in China, with seven spices giving the basic flavors of sour, pungent, hot, sweet, bitter, aromatic, and salty!

This ancient town has over 2000 years of history and was part of the South Silk Road, some of the trees still standing were as old as the town's history.

A nice town to wander around!

One of the smallest restaurants we have seen so far and fully equipped!

At the tea plantation we were offered the traditional Szechuan dining with 10 different dishes, mmmmmmmm!

After lunch we wandered around the tea plantation and tried to learn all the secrets of a good green tea.

The plantation also had some cute animals.

The best green tea is the one that stands up in the bottom of the glass when poured with hot water.

After the visit to the tea plantation we went to the bamboo forest where we climbed the mountain with the guide to pick tiny wild plums. They were really sour and also stringy, gluey and slimy inside, really weird!

Since we are now experts on tea, we headed for the tea market for some tasting.

To learn more about the Chinese cuisine we joined a cooking class where we cooked and sampled for hours

Before we started on this trip we had seen a documentary (Bizarre foods - Chengdu) where the guy was eating "heart attack noodles", we decided to look it up and give it a try, in a nearby town 20km out of Chengdu. The town is famous for its snack street.

Woohoo we found the heart attack noodles place and ordered the dish with the same name. Basically it should be so spicy that it gives a heart attack :D we proved it wrong, it was indeed spicy but delicious.

Again we were really lucky with our hostel, Saturday night was a movie night with bbq and they had cute pets running around everywhere!

Some 10 hours drive north of Chengdu are the two most amazing parks. (Jiuzhaigou and Huanglong) Millions of Chinese tourists flock here to see the natural wonders of the lakes and ponds and it can get crowded, but its well worth the visit, its absolutely stunning.

Jiuzhaigou

It is known for its many multi-level waterfalls and colorful lakes, and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992

Huanglong

This area is known for its colorful pools formed by calcite deposits. Huanglong is also home to some of the last free Giant Panda's in the world and was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1992.

On the way back to Chengdu we drove past Wenchuan, a town that was the center-point of the massive 2008 Sichuan earthquake, 8.0 Ms. Some remains were left to remind us of the power of nature..

The road was completely covered with landslides during the quake and still is, in the below photo a car can be seen squeezed from the slide. The new road was built on the other side of the river.

Kunming

From Chengdu we took a bus to Kunming then further to Jinghong before entering Laos. (Chinese Visa about to expire) In Kunming we visited a Nordic cafe and ate a waffle, mmmmmmmm! (Served with tomato and parcel which we quickly got replaced with butter and sugar! and drank Chrysanthemum tea! Then to a nature park where we found a turtle in disguise

Jackfruit!

Goodbye China, hello Laos!!

After horse riding in the east we came back to Ulaanbaatar to have a look at the city, rated to be one of the ugliest in the world... It really wasn't, actually it was quite nice except the pickpocketers that lurked on every corner.. In two days we had two incidents where they went for the jacket pockets and opened the backpack to sneak around..

Chengis Kaan is seen as a symbol of Mongolia and his picture and name is visible everywhere.

Some pretty creative traffic lights in the city though they mean nothing.. You can walk on green and all cars are still driving and honking the horn at you..

Traditional Mongolian music and dance performance which included throat singing (google it) and a very impressive contortionist (google it too).

Surrounding Ulaanbaatar are the ger neighborhoods with families that have moved from the country side to the city in hope for a better future. The sad thing is that life in the city is far harder than the country life, as the statistics claim that only 1 out of 10 gets a permanent housing within 3 years after moving there.

We didn't spend long in Ulaanbaatar, (it wasn't that pretty) and we were eager to explore some other parts of the nature that Mongolia has to offer so we arranged a tour to the Gobi desert with a Land Cruiser. (Aaaaa what an upgrade from the horses :D)

With us on the trip we had a driver, Sek and a guide Mungonuu who were both originally from the Middle Gobi province and this turned out to be quite a good luck for us as we constantly went out of the trip itinerary to go to visit relatives.

On the first day we visited Mungonuus cousin, here we were invited to play a finger game, I won but Kestutis lost and had to drink a whole bowl of airag (yep.. still the same fermented mares milk..) In this family the airag was made in the traditional way, fermenting in a horse hide.

After lunch the trip went on Baga Gazryn Uul where we stayed in a nomadic ger camp.

2nd day after lunch at Mungonuus parents house we went to Tsagaan Suvarga (White cliffs), not really white but still amazing and with a beautiful view of the Mongolian vast steppes.

After the visit to the cliffs our driver decided that it was time to visit his brother so we went there to spend the night instead of going to the planned tourist ger camp. It was a really fun visit where we got another introduction to the traditional life (and food) of the nomadic ger families.

In the evening we played the finger game with the kids and also in this case the looser drinks the alcohol. Kids drank airag but we got camel vodka (distillated camel airag, around 15% alcohol and tastes like watered vodka..)

Next day we drove through a dusty town (Capital of the South Gobi Province) for food and then to Yol canyon where we did a hike through to the canyon, an oasis in the desert with a bit of tiny wildlife. Later our Land Cruiser picked us up and drove us further through the canyon to our next overnight stay.

The South Gobi Province is a desert and has only 0.3 person per km2. We stayed two nights in a nomadic ger family herding camels.

From our ger we had a beautiful view to the Khongor Eels (Singing sand dunes) and the camels but OMG save us when a win gust comes from the camel herd:O

Protected from sun and wind we went to explore the sand dunes with the camels. They are really soft and fluffy and smell less when your not behind them.

The trip continued to Bayanzag (flaming cliffs) where loads of dinosaur bones and egg fossils have been excavated (we searched and searched but didn't find any more...) and another stay at a nomadic ger family where we got our own ger cat that we named Gobi.

From Bayanzag we drove towards north, heading back to Ulaanbaatar. The best roads in Mongolia are in the Gobi area, they might not look like much but they have many lanes and we drove up to 110 kmph on them!

The last night of the trip was another night in tent, this time with a different view...

The trip was amazing though in total we spent 5-6 hours driving each day and I forgot to mention that Middle Gobi province smells wonderfully fresh, chives are growing everywhere!! After the trip we spent another night in Ulaanbaatar before heading for China the local way!

During our train trips in Russia we met Vytautas, a Lithuanian on his way to India. We had common plans to ride horses in Mongolia and therefore joined our trips together. When arriving in Ulan Bataar 7 AM we immediately got on a bus to Tsetserleg, a little village 600 km west for Ulan Bataar. After 8 hours we reached the village and hired horses, tent gear and a guide to ride out on the next day. It would be an 8 day journey to cover 180 km to Tsagaannuur (The White Lake).

A break on the bus ride to Tsetserleg on the "gravel" roads.

On the first night we stayed in the in a tourist camp, in a Mongolian ger next to the hot springs.

A man getting water from the hot springs with his yak cart.

Before the horse trip could start our guide had to catch the horses at his brothers ger camp and we had to pack our stuff into suitable bags for the pack horse to carry.

Since we were ready only late in the afternoon the first ride was only 5 km, from the guides brother to another brother. We were invited to tent in the "garden" of their ger. The brothers family lives as a traditional Mongolian nomadic family; herding cattle, yak's and horses and moving their ger's depending on the season and availability of pasture.

Spending the evening with a real nomadic family we got a chance to experience their evening duties, catching and milking the mares. The kids had a good time trying to ride on the foals.

This evening was our first meeting with the traditional Mongolian drink, airag... this is fermented mares milk and is light alcoholic. The first mug that they poured was huge and intended for one of us but seeing the fly floating on top we quickly explained with finger language that we could all three share this one..

The next 6 days we were riding on average 4-6 hours per day which was really more than enough for our beginners level. The nature was beautiful and we tented each night in a new location, close to rivers.

Our planning of the food for the entire trip was not the best and the selection of food in shops was limited.. the diet mainly consisted of pasta, vegetables and nutella. Our guide on the other hand had a standard recipe, dried yak meat cooked in water with either rice or spaghetti, once in a while we got offered a bowl of it.

A village with some kids on the "modern horse", yak baby and a sheep stomach filled with butter aging outside.

The firewood is scarce in Mongolia and for some days we had no access to wood so we learned the Mongolian way, collecting and burning dry cow/yak dung.

We covered both huge steppes, canyons and river crossings.

The Khorgo volcano erupted 20 million years ago though the lava can still be seen covering large areas of land around.

We crossed several rivers along the way and since my horse almost went swimming a couple of times the guide thought it was better to lead my horse over the widest of the rivers

On the 7th day we reached the Tsagaannuur (The White Lake) and got a beach ger. It was really nice to jump into the lake though water temperature was only around 15 degrees. After the swim we had a hot shower which was a luxury after the last days in tent.

The horses were happy to let us go, the guide rode back home with them all while we took a taxi.

From Tsetserleg back to Ulan Bataar we took a local bus, this time taking 11 hours rather than 8 because of odd breaks and an exploded tire. It was a boring trip as the view was a cracked window.

First stop after Moscow is Kazan.
Some breakfast on the walls of the Kremlin after the overnight train ride.

In Kazan we felt like we reached the wild wild west, even though its the east. Crazy traffic, dirty scruffy streets, high pollution and scary people roaming the streets. We escaped it all and took a local bus out of the city to a lake where we finally could relax a bit after all the city sightseeing's.

From Kazan we took the train further for 23 hours to Tobolsk. The train ride was interesting, we shared coupe with a Russian general (expert on explosives) who gladly shared stories and video clips from his missions with the Russian military. We got more than one good laugh! Since Kestas speaks Russian our cabin soon became the hotspot for the Russians and foreigners that needed a translator :D The girl in the photo (and both of her military parents) are from Mayak where the third worst nuclear accident happened in 1957, the area where they live is still closed for any visitors without special military permission.

We offered our Russian travel companions a taste of Norwegian liquorish and enjoyed the surprised looks when they tasted it. The Russian general thought the taste was so awful that he decided to pack one for his wife to taste when he got home.

Tobolsk was a little town with a scruffy old city on the bottom of a cliff and a beautiful kremlin on top but we enjoyed the two day rest from the train rides.

This is the most famous bell i Tobolsk history and a copy can be viewed in the museum or you can bribe a local worker to allow you to climb the bell tower to take a look at the real one

On the first day we could not find any place to eat so we got supermarket chicken, really tasty!

The houses in Tobolsk were even more skew than in Amsterdam!

On the second day we still could not find any place to eat so we got a supermarket chicken... really tasty......

From Tobolsk we did another 24 hours on the train to Novosibirsk. Typical train ride food; instant noodles. A kettle is located in each carriage with access to boiling water, when train is not moving the kettle is heated with firewood.

From Novosibirsk we took a local van for 3 hours to reach Tomsk. Also a bit of a scruffy city but with some very charming Tartaric wooden houses, some are beautifully renovated.

But some are not and they are sinking as they have no proper foundation, sometimes the ground floor windows are half below the ground!

On the city bridge couples lock up their love and throw the key in the river.

After weeks with sunny weather we got our first rainy day in Tomsk, it got us by surprise and poured down for hours.

From Tomsk we took the train for 29 hours to Irkutsk.

On this train ride we met more foreigners than Russians and the guy in the yellow t-shirt is Vytautas, a Lithuanian that also got the "job" as translator in the train.

On this train we had no choice but to buy tickets that included "service". This meal (that we didn't dare to eat) cost us 10 Euro.

Finally in Irkutsk Kestas enjoyed the Buryat meat dumplings with chili sauce a lot but after days upon days with only meat dishes I was really happy to find a vegetarian restaurant with super good food. Our stay in Irkutsk was short, waiting for our Mongolian visa.

Lake Baikal was our main attraction on the Transsiberian trip. After 6 hours on local bus from Irkutsk we reached the ferry that took us to Okhlon island. After the ferry ride we did another two bumpy hours on gravel roads to the main village, Khuzhir. We stayed in a small room rented out by a family and the man of the house explained that the timber house had been built by Lithuanians when they were deported to Siberia some 70 years ago.

We joined a tour with a Russian van that took us around the coastline of the island. The island has some really impressive scenery.

The tour included a traditional lunch, cooked by our driver... it was as tasty as it looks.. The plate in the picture was mine, I exchanged it with Kestas who was a bit luckier and got a headless dish.

The Lake Baikal delicacy is the freshly smoked Omul, which was actually really tasty.

After a couple of days on the island we took the bus back to Irkutsk and a direct train (of 30 hours) to Ulan Bataar, capital of Mongolia. The views from the train, of the Mongolian nature, were stunning.

Moscow was waaaaaaaarm, walking around for days in plus 35 is really hard work! (I know our friends in Amstelveen office would not agree on that one, but its truuuuuuuuuue! Holidays are exhausting :D We really enjoyed the Moscow visit admiring the Kremlin and other famous sites in the city.

Botanic garden with a lot of rules and not much else to see except some really friendly squirrels.

Moscows most impressive supermarket!

Solyanka, still the best lunch in Russia!

Leaving Moscow with train, Kestas arranged an upgrade from seats to sleeper by bribing a train attendant :D In 14 hours we are in Kazan!