The Cornered Washing Machine

It was only two and a half days in Mongolia, but it was quite an impressive stop. Ulan Bator (UB) is a mix out of modern city (main city square, parliament and surrounding buildings), run down communist buildings (2nd circle of the city) and shanty town (where we stayed, yes I’m cheap 😉 ). Apart from the novelty, I can’t quite find it interesting as a town. It’s was missing the “big city” feeling. We did sleep in a ten in the middle of the city at Gana’s Guest House, which was really cool. I mean a tent in the middle of the capital, that’s nifty …

The second day we got ourselves on a road trip into the nomadic part of Mongolia (which is everything outside of UB) with bunch of backpackers from the hostels. I learned two things right away. The French and the Germans love Mongolia. Our road trip was with a bunch of German students and a couple from France. Most of the hostel was actually German, including an old lady who has come to Mongolia for years (and had some interesting knowledge about literature). Germans love it here, because everybody speaks German (due to the virtue of having studied in the communist brotherland DDR). And I mean fluently and everything.

The road trip was a bit weirdly organized. They first shipped us to Hotel Mongolia, a resort hotel build by a German apparently. It looked cool, trying to imitate an ancient Mongolian capital of the Khan era. But it was still a touristic re-imagination, not historic. Afterwards they drove us far into the country side which was cool, because there were no streets once were of the main road. They would just drive the jeeps randomly though the countryside forming new ways. I guess that’s the nomadic culture. After a brief stop at an abandoned Russian military base (I was ask if I heard about communism and the end of the USSR – they must have though I was American. 😉 ), we got to a family living in a Ger serving us Mongolian food. The food in general consist mostly of milk and lamb, which is a nice contrast to China. We got butter, cheese, lamb in milk tea soup and fried noodles with lamb.

The Mongolian countryside was absolutely stunning, a combination of hills and flat land with few trees. I wish we would have stayed the whole time outside of UB, maybe sleeping in a tent, but we didn’t know better. We ate multiple other combinations of milk and lamb in Ulan Bator the following day, plus a museums and scaring of pick pockets (almost got me once). And then we were already on our way to Russia.

Alright, borders. Like real borders. I never been to a real border, only airport border controls and what counts as a land border in Europe. At the Chinese/Mongolian border we were kicked out of the train when it was already dark outside. The border was just a half renovated government building. On the other side were a bunch of random buildings with shops and restaurant for the waiting crowd. And yes, waiting we did. For about 6h. First problem was food. All restaurant menus were Chinese only. And I didn’t recognize the standard dishes (like eggs and tomatoes). The only think I recognize was the symbol for goat. So we got 3 goat dishes. 😉 Surprisingly delicious. Afterwards pretty much just waiting until the border guards let us back in. And waiting. And waiting. There is only so much things you can do at an empty border station in the middle of the night in the Gobi desert …

Finally on a train. Beijing to Ulan Bator. The train wasn’t the newest Chinese model (no A/C), but pretty comfortable. I also made my first contact with a train samovar. The train had so many Europeans, the whole 1st and 2nd class was full. 1st class btw was just 2nd class with nicer wood panels and A/C, but nothing special. All cabins have only 4 beds (2 stacked on each side) in opposite to Indian train (which had 3). I didn’t see the 3rd class, so I can’t say for sure. So yes, packed with Europeans, all bound for a vacation trip to Mongolia, in organized tours. My backpacker heart flinched a bit. 😉 Our compartment had only one quest, an older Dutch lady, traveling by herself, but not at all talkative. I mean I counted the words, she said 8.

The mountains in the Inner Mongolia were lovely, especially when you could see the Great Wall in the distance. Afterwards the Gobi Desert! I found the climate in the train rather nice, Amy on the other hand was not happy. So we were riding with open windows the whole time. Amy, the Dutch lady and me learned a valuable lesson. Train + Open Windows + Desert = Bad Idea. There was dust everywhere. Everywhere!

Walking around in Beijing today made me finally realize something I subconsciously noticed the moment I arrived: There has been enormous progress made regarding the English language.
I mean, 5 years ago, there was no way I could order a Latte in a coffee shop in English and the lady behind the counter would tell me the price in English. It was amazing. This used to be a complicated process of bad pronunciation and pointing (on my site). I mean student and business man, that was different, they always spoke some English, but waitresses and coffee shop girls? So much progress in such a short time.

We also met an interesting traveler in the hostel, a Spanish women about my age who’s been traveling for 12 years (with the odd stint in Spain to get money). She had some pretty good stories. Unfortunately she was also upset: She is forced to go back to Spain because she has no money left and her parents put there foot down. I always find the permanent travelers amazing. I guess because I got bored of non-working after two month in India or because I have no idea how that would work out money-wise.

Another interesting thing, I finally attended the Shangri-La of Beijing Duck, the famous Quanjude. Never been before (it’s rather expensive), but it was totally worth it. Not only did they have the duck quite perfectly done, there were also all those side dishes: duck in aspic, multiple variations of duck soup, etc. Need to come back to Beijing just for that.

I need to stop with the “Again” posts. 😉 So, in desperate attempt to relieve my late childhood, I tried to do the 10km hike on the wall again that I did 5 years ago. Unfortunately I didn’t remember precisely where I went for the hike. I thought it was Jinshanling to Simatai, but when we arrived (after a long bus ride with tons of tourist and McDonald’s for breakfast 🙁 ), it didn’t look at all as I remembered. There were restaurants and a lift. I had a vivid memory of hiking up a hill passed huts to reach the wall. On top of that, the tour was advertised as a hike, but when we arrived we were told Simatai is closed and cannot be reached. Great, how about saying that when we booked?

After we actually arrived at the top, I was relieved. It was the same cool section of the wall I remember. A lot of parts not restored. I guess I took the back entrance last time. No souvenir stands in sight, luckily. 😉 It is still very amazing, even the second time, to see the different sections of the wall and how it moves up and down the hills. We managed to do a small hike before we got worried that we wouldn’t make it back in time and turned around. Next time the full length! Also, during dinner afterward, we met a guy that spend several months at a Shaolin temple to train kung fu (12h a day). Not bad, which I had the condition for that…