BILL'S AND BUCK'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURES
TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILROAD
7-29 SEPT, 2014
(please mouse click the thumbnails for larger photos)
SUNDAY SEPT 7, 2014
Buck and I started our around-the-world-adventure at New York's JFK airport with a 7PM departure via Aeroflot Airlines direct to Moscow, Russia.
Buck flew down from Boston that morning and I had just completed 3 days of visiting with Hunter, Jin and baby Lee in Brooklyn. I had arrived from San Diego on Sept 4th.
Bill and Buck grew up together on the same street in Danville, Virginia , played and made mischief together, attended elementary school and high school together and were college roommates. After graduation we eventually went our separate ways, Buck to Boston and Bill to California. Then in 2010 we met again for our 50th high school reunion and decided we should do some things together again. We did! In 2012 we did a Patagonia trekking adventure with our wives and now this trip for the two of us (wives did not want to go).
A FEW DETAILS ABOUT THE TRIP
I have included below some maps of the Trans-Siberian Rail lines. The classic Trans-Siberian Railroad (TSR) stretches 5800 miles between Moscow and Vladivostok on the Pacific coast. However, the traveler has many rail options and Buck and I chose to depart TSR and connect with the Trans-Mongolian line to finish our 4900 mile rail journey at Beijing, China. Of course, there are countless travel options available with various splinter rail lines connecting some of the cities along the way.
After considerable deliberation we decided to use a British travel agency, The Russia Experience (TRE), to arrange the trip details. TRE specializes in individual travel. All we did was specify the dates we desired and places we wished to stop along the way. TRE then arranged all the train tickets, ground transportation, hotels and English speaking guides at each city we visited. We also selected some "optional" trekking tours at each stopping place. In addition to visiting Moscow and Beijing we stopped at three locations along the way- Yekaterinburg, Irkutsk and Ulan Bataar . The total costs for the two of us excluding air travel and personal shopping stuff were about $11,000 USD. We were very satisfied with TRE.
This was NOT a third world discovery adventure. All our hotels were very comfortable with private baths, hot showers and some WiFi. All the hotels included a good buffet breakfast and neither of us had serious digestive issues despite our sampling some new and hard to identify foods at the local restaurants.
The Russian, Mongolian and Chinese trains were definitely NOT fast but they were on time! I will describe the living conditions on the trains in the narratives below. We had selected first class accommodations which meant we always had our own private berth. Sometimes there were no first class cars available and, in that case, we owned all 4 seats in a 4 passenger berth.
There are many books describing the history and details of the Trans-Siberian Railroad. One of the most popular guide books is "Trans-Siberian Handbook" by Bryan Thomas and we used this book along with the Lonely Planet guide "Trans-Siberian Railway". Briefly, the TSR was built over a period of decades and completed in early 1900s under Tsar Nicholas II. Just as the Trans-continental railroad helped to settle America's wild, wild west the TSR helped to settle Russia's wild, wild east. For many of us our only knowledge of the TSR is from those chilling scenes in the movie "Dr. Shivago" as the good doctor's family moved to Siberia from Moscow. A more recent movie which highlights the railroad is "TransSiberian" with Woody Harrelson.
Here are the approximate currency exchange rates for our trip:
1$US=37 rubles Russia
1$US=1800 tugrik Monglia
1$US=6.2 yuan China
MONDAY-WEDNESDAY 8, 9, 10 SEPT 2014 MOSCOW
Monday we arrived at Moscow's Scheremetyevo Airport at 1230 local time after our 9 hour non-stop flight from JFK. As promised by TRE our driver was waiting to take us to the hotel. The driver spoke very little English, apparently took very few baths but drove at amazing speeds. After a white knuckle 1.5 hour drive we arrived at the Maxima Panorama Hotel. The hotel was in an unattractive industrial area but near the metro and train stations for our next journey. We did a money exchange for rubles and ventured out on the metro to Red Square area for dinner.
On Tuesday after a breakfast of rice porridge, eggs, fruit, rolls, cold cuts and coffee we were ready for our first guided tour. Promptly at 1000 our guide, Valentina, showed up to lead us on a 3 hour walking and metro riding tour. She was justifiably proud of the Moscow metro system with very impressive underground stations and fast trains. You never have to wait more than a few minutes for the next train to arrive. We spent some time at Russia's main orthodox church, The Church of Christ the Savior, took photos of the outside of the Kremlin walls, stopped by the tomb of the unknown soldier and quickly walked through the Lenin mausoleum (he looked pretty good for a guy who has been dead for 100 years!). Valentina was not too happy about having her photo made but she did feel OK after receiving our 2000 ruble tip.
Later that afternoon we ate lunch at the GUM department store and paid 350 rubles each to enter the Kremlin and walk around using our own guide book. I always felt that the Kremlin (fortress in Russian) was a sinister place but was surprised to find it to be a very pleasant area. We were impressed with the tsars' cannon and massive bell.
We had an expensive Japanese dinner (2240 ruble for two) and got some night photos of Red Square, the GUM building, Lenin's marble tomb, and the ornate St Basil's Cathedral. Unfortunately, there were a lot of construction scaffoldings present and it spoiled the photos. We also learned that Red Square (outside the Kremlin walls) received its name long before the communist revolution and just refers to a red color of the original grounds?
Wednesday we checked out of the Paragon to be ready for our 1650 departure on the Trans Siberian! We had some time for more explorations since our pick up from the hotel to Kazansky Train Station was not until 1530. We took a long metro ride to the Kiev Station, paid 500 rubles each and soon boarded a boat for a 1.5 hour tour down the Moscow River. There were nice forest along the shore (could have been Gorky Park?), some river mansions, great shots of us outside the Kremlin walls, views of a bizarre Peter the Great statue where he looks like a ship captain and some huge Stalin-era apartment buildings.
Finally, the one way boat tour ended. We had expected to quickly jump on the metro and head back to the hotel (our guide Valentina had assured us this was the case!) Alas, there was no metro station in sight and no English speakers to tell us where to go! We headed in a way indicated by folks at the boat but did not see a metro station. Then we encountered a nice elderly lady (well, maybe our age) and tried to ask her directions. She finally understood us and commenced to lead us to a metro station. We thought! Along the way she kept chatting in Russian hoping we would finally understand the language. We did not! She asked a man standing by the road to help but he was clueless. We finally realized that not all Muscovites ride the metro. Anyway, we finally found the station, figured out the directions (all signs are in Russian) and returned to our hotel barely in time for the scheduled pick up.
At 4:50PM we departed Moscow on the first leg of our Trans-Siberian Rail adventure!
LEG 1 MOSCOW TO YEKATERINBURG 10, 11 SEPT 2014
For this leg we were in a two person, first class berth with limited storage space, toilets at both ends of the carriage, the standard carriage attendant (named Irina and, of course, female as are all the car attendants) and the samovar at the end of the car with very hot water. (All these trains have samovars with hot water for tea, coffee, noodles, soup or what ever).
All the TSR schedules and stations are on Moscow Time (MT) despite the fact that by the time one reaches Vladivostok the local time is 7 hours ahead of MT. In the following narratives I will try to use local times unless indicated by MT.
We eventually got our stuff squared away and were comfortable after a dinner of chicken, peas, corn, rice, bread and tea which was included in our first class fares. Irina brought us sheets and towels and the sleeping was OK. There were very few passengers, the dining car was mostly empty and the attendants did not want us to walk through the other cars so there was not much to do except read, sleep and look out the windows.
We tried to figure out where we were by following the route descriptions in our guide books and soon figured out we were not even on the main TSR line! We were on the "Ural" route which is south of and parallel to the main TSR. Anyway, after 11 hours we stopped at the town of Kazan which is half way to Yekaterinburg and about 500 miles from Moscow at a breathtaking average speed of 45 MPH.
During our first full day on the train we enjoyed the views of endless forest (mostly birch trees), rolling hills which stretch north all the way to the Arctic Ocean (I suppose) and some small villages. Fall colors showed up as we approached the Ural Mountains. Finally, at about 9PM local time and a bit over 24 hours on the train we got off at Yekaterinburg.
FRIDAY 12 SEPT 2014 YEKATERINBURG
Last night, after checking into our boutique Hotel Chekhov we did a brief and chilly walk in the neighborhood. There was a huge shopping mall and supermarket near the hotel. We learned that these Russian shopping areas are just like the ones in USA and not too interesting for us. We observed that we were the only people on the street over the age of 25 because of nearby universities (we assumed?). The Hotel Chekhov also did some laundry for us but we learned they do not have clothes dryers in this part of the world. The clothes hang to dry and it took a long time!
After our buffet breakfast of sausage, cold cuts, cheese, boiled eggs and coffee we were off for a walking tour with our guide, Anastasia. We had decided to stop in Yekaterinburg because it was convenient to the TSR, the city marks the transition from Europe to Asia and Siberia, we wanted to hike in the Ural mountains and I wanted to visit the area where Tsar Nicholas II and his family were murdered by the Bolsheviks (communists) in 1918.
Yekaterinburg was founded in 1723 and honors Tsar Peter the Great's wife Yekaterina (Catherine). It is also the home town of Russian president, Boris Yeltsin. Anastasia taught us to recognize the Soviet "constructionist" architecture (very bland), showed us the city lake created by Tsar Peter as part of the mining and ore processing that was so important in this area, statues of Lenin and author Alexander Pushkin and others whose names I did not record. We visited the Church of Blood which was built on the site where the Romanov family was murdered. The entire family has now achieved saint-hood by the Russian Orthodox Church. We saw a war memorial built to honor Russians killed in Afghanistan and other cold war ventures and, finally, a very long lecture at the gemological museum which has displays of the many types of minerals found in the Ural mountain areas.
At noon Anastasia said goodbye and we were on our own for awhile. We took an elevator up to the observation deck of a 52 story building with great views of this city of 1.5million and then an excellent lunch (borsch for me!) at the lovely Podkova restaurant.
SATURDAY 13 SEPT 2014 TREKKING THE URALS
This morning our guide, Konstantin, picked us up for a full day of hiking in the mountains and then return to the hotel for a late check out and train departure for our next leg. Konstantin is the boss of a local tour agency , speaks fluent English and is a well informed historian.
As we headed back west on a highway that goes from Moscow to Vladivostok, Konstantin gave us a good briefing on the area and general information about Russia. The Ural mountains which run north and south divide Europe and Asia. Rivers to the west flow north and west while the rivers on the east flow north towards the Arctic Ocean. The Urals are not very high (less than 6000 feet at highest places in the north) and are about 350 million years old.
Russia has a population of about 145 million and 75% live west of the Urals. Hence, the Siberian region is, indeed, very sparsely populated. Russia is not an egalitarian society (despite communist years). About .02% of the population (the oligarchs) own 70% of the wealth. Income is taxed at a maximum of 13% but business and "social security" taxes are high. Health care is a mixture of government and private (for those who can afford it) clinics
Konstantin was the first of our guides to offer a discussion of the current political issues in the Ukraine. The government is considering raising sales taxes to compensate for revenue lost due to economic sanctions from NATO and USA. He pointed out that Ukraine has historically always been closely tied to Russia (indeed, Kiev was once the capital city of Russia). Since the fall of the USSR, Russians have felt betrayed by western powers because of the expansion of NATO towards the east. Hence, when factions within Ukraine (right wing thugs, according to Konstantin) started pushing for aligning with the west and not with Moscow President Putin decided to make a stand. Despite this reasoning, Konstantin does not believe in settling issues violently and he planned to participate in peace marches scheduled for Moscow and Yekaterinburg for 21 Sept.
Along the way he stopped for photos of a monument marking the boundary between Europe and Asia. In the photo below I have one foot in Asia and the other in Europe.
We endured a major traffic jam due to some construction and, finally, arrived at the very popular "Wild Deer and Something Else(?) Park". We (including two young ladies touring from Denmark) commenced our 9 mile (?) hike through the forest of birch, larch, aspen, spruce, laurel with some nice Fall colors. There are huge ant mounds in these forest and he showed us how to take a piece of grass, lick it, place it on the mound so ants crawl on it and leave chemical deposits (ant pee?). You can then shake the ants off and taste the bitter formic acid stuff on the grass! We got photos of replicas of ancient pagan shrines, a witch's (Babayega?) house, a nice picnic lunch, views from above and later crossing the Serga River and finally back to our hotel to shower and get ready to board the train.
LEG 2 14-16 SEPT 2014 YEKATERINBURG TO IRKUTSK
After our Urals hike Konstantin and his wife Olga delivered us to the train station for our 10:20pm departure and longest ride on the entire trip. There were no first class cars on this train so we had a 2nd class 4 person berth. We "owned" all 4 seats. At first we were pretty shocked at the differences in services between 1st and 2nd class but soon we were OK with it. On leg 2 we had 3 nights and two full days of riding on the classic TSR line. We decide that if one really desires to ride first class then you can specify only "fermeny" class trains. Otherwise, you take the train that fits your schedule.
Anyway, for all day on Sunday and Monday we had nothing much to do except read, nap, look out the windows and figure out where we were. There were few English speakers around so we had limited socializing and the restaurant car was generally empty.
By 1330 local time on Sunday we had a brief stop at Omsk (1630 miles from Moscow) and at 1800 hours had reached the town of Barabinsk (1820 miles) where the vendors were selling smoked fish. We did not buy any fish but we did sample our Russian Standard vodka which we bought in Yekaterinburg. The lunches were delivered to our berth and were included in our fares but we ate dinner in the dining car (dumpling soup, potato pancakes and gross wine)
On Monday at 1115 we departed Krasnoyorsk having purchased 1.5 liter water at 65 rubles and crossed the Yenisey River which bisects east and west Siberia and is a bit more than half way to Beijing. By 1600 (MT+2) we had a stop at Ilanskaya for photos and a brief chat with a young Australian man. He said the 3rd class cars are really fun with lots of socializing and sharing of vodka, etc. We were OK with our more mature class of travel! Finally, before retiring for the night we packed our stuff to be ready for an early unloading at Irkutsk on Tuesday morning.
TUESDAY 16 SEPT 2014 IRKUTSK AND LAKE BAIKAL
At 0800 local time (MT+5 hours) we were met by our new guide, Yelana, in Irkutsk and by 1000 we arrived at our destination, Listvyanka, which is a small tourist town on the shores of Lake Baikal. The first stop on our walking tour was at the Limnological Museum where we learned about the lake and its inhabitants. Below is a photo of a map of the lake showing its banana shape running roughly north to south. The lake is about 360 miles long and 50 miles at widest places. It is also very deep (1700 meters), very old (25 million years), very clear and very cold. There are 370 rivers that run into the lake but only one, the Angara, running out and eventually to the Arctic. The Angara is shown on the map at bottom left side and Listvyanka is close to the place where the river departs from the main lake. One of the lake's inhabitants is the cute and chubby fresh water seal and there were a few on them in an aquarium in the museum.
We did a quick walking tour of the village, Buck touched the cold water which entitles him to an extra year of life (you get 5 years if you swim in the water) and we headed back to our hotel, Oo Ozera, which means "on the lake". (photos of our room below) That evening we sampled a new vodka, Baikal, and we remembered that Yelana told us the Buryat natives of the area always make an offering to the nature gods with each meal. We decided to offer the lake god some vodka to ask for clear weather. Buck made a nice speech to the lake but we decided the lake god did not need very much vodka and saved most of it for ourselves.
WEDNESDAY 17 SEPT 2014 OUR SIBERIAN TREK
The lake god must have liked our vodka offering because we woke up to beautiful blue skies and crisp Autumn weather. Today was a highlight for the entire trip-a guided hike through the mountains above the lake. Promptly at 1030 our new guide, Sasha, showed up at the hotel and we were off. Sasha is a very soft spoken gentleman of about 60 years with a very friendly smile. From Sasha we learned what became one of our favorite sayings, "In Soviet times----". For example, "in Soviet times" Sasha had a good teaching job with regular pay and benefits but when "perestroika" came along he lost his job and started depending on other work such as being a guide.
He led us up some steep hills and then we meandered through the forest along seldom used trails known only to Sasha. Sasha told us about some of the plant life and expressed his displeasure at the decision in 1956 (in Soviet times) to dam up the Angara River; hence, raising the level of lake water about 5 feet to its present 1500 feet above sea level. We dropped back down to the lake shore for a delightful picnic lunch of rice, sausage, cheese, bread, sweet rolls, cucumbers, tomatoes and, of course, hot tea. At 1600 we completed our hike by returning to the village. Sasha collected his 1000 ruble tip and bid farewell to his new "dear friends". We enjoyed his company very much.
In the evening we walked down to a nearby restaurant for great (2000 ruble for both) dinner. I had the Omul fish (from the lake), potatoes, pancakes and salad.
THURSDAY 18 SEPT 2014 KICKING BACK AT LAKE BAIKAL
We woke up to rain and clouds and regretted not having offered any vodka to lake god last night. However, it cleared up nicely later in the day. This was our only complete leisure day of the trip. We walked back to the museum forgetting that all the signs are in Russian and we had no guide for translations. We did some souvenir shopping and walked up to the Lake Baikal Hotel with great views of the lake. We considered taking a short ferry ride across the Angara River entrance to a tiny village called Port Baikal. At this village one can start a sightseeing train ride along the lake shores or do a short hike along the tracks. We decided not to go across the waters. We had dinner at the same restaurant from last night and I had the omul fish again but cooked differently.
FRIDAY 19 SEPT 2014 RETURN TO IRKUTSK
After breakfast we waited at the hotel for our driver to take us back to Irkutsk for one night's stay. One thing we did not like about the village of Listvyanka is the 2 lane highway along the lake shore. Although the highway terminates at the end of the village the local folks seem to think it is a race track. One must exercise great caution in crossing the road!
Before departure we picked up our laundry from a hotel employee, Lena. She spoke a few words of English and I even fewer words of Russian so we had great conversations. I think she said she does not like President Obama and she definitely said "no war!!". I guess she was referring to the Ukraine issues. I totally agreed with her on that last statement.
At 1215 we were checked into the Angara Hotel in Irkutsk and were surprised that our agency, TRE, had sent an English speaking man, Alexander, to briefly great us at the hotel and to recommend some restaurants and places to go. After a light lunch of tomatoes, cucumbers, beets, potatoes and, of course, cabbage we were off to explore the town. Reading the street signs was challenging but we made it to our destination to see some original Siberian-style wooden buildings and then to the edge of the Angara River. There is a "Royal Arch" at river's edge commemorating the 1891 visit to Irkutsk of Tsar Nicholas II.
We also were amused to see another collection of "love locks" attached to the rails above the water. Apparently, young couples seal their eternal love for each other by attaching their engraved locks to the rails. I suppose if they get a divorce then someone must return with bolt cutters to remove the locks. We were also curious to see a whole collection of bridal parties getting ready for an "assembly line" of weddings at the church.
SATURDAY 20 SEPT 2014 "THE DECEMBRIST" AND DEPARTING ON THE TRANS MONGOLIAN
After breakfast we checked out of the Angara Hotel, put our luggage in hold and headed off for another day of walking tours. Our train departure was not until 9:30pm.
Our main destination today was Maria Volkonskaya's House and to learn about "the Decembrist" history. On 16 December, 1825 a group of liberal, wealthy aristocrats attempted to overthrow Tsar Nicholas I because they were appalled at the vast inequalities among Russia's elite and the rest of society. They were spectacularly unsuccessful and the tsar sent them into exile in Siberia (near Irkutsk). Some of the aristocrats' wives chose to follow their husbands into exile and one of these wives was Maria who did hard labor with husband, Sergei, and stayed for 30 years in Siberia. These exiles became romantic heroes and the wives are credited with bringing culture, education and civilization to the wild, wild east. Somehow, Maria got money from her rich relatives in St Petersburg and built the house we visited. Maria's story can be found in the book, "The Princess of Siberia" by Catherine Sutherland.
On the way back to the hotel we stopped to do some grocery shopping and encountered our first bad weather of the trip-pouring rain and 45 degree F temperatures. By 10pm we were settled on our Trans Mongolian train and ready for another leg of the journey.
SUNDAY 21 SEPT 2014 LEG 3 INTO MONGOLIA
Again we had a 2nd class train and 4 passenger berth. The toilets flushed directly to the tracks below and, for this reason, were always locked at major station stops! This train had a lot of English speaking tourists so we got to meet some fellow travelers. One lady was going around the world with no air travel! She rode container ships as necessary and said that is really a nice way to do sea voyages. The train was soon headed south towards Mongolia and despite some interesting scenery we were soon to learn some unpleasant stuff about this leg. The photos below are views along the way and also taken at some stops. The attendants feed left-over food scraps to the stray dogs at some of these stations. The symbol for the Trans Mongolia train line is the running horse shown in the photos.
At 1400 (MT+5 hours) we stopped at the Russian departure station, Naushki. The weather was nice and most passengers departed the train to hang out at the closed station while the customs folks did the passports. We did not resume our journey until 5 HOURS later! Below is a photo of the monument marking the Russia/Mongolia border. After a one hour ride we reached the Mongolian border crossing town of Suhbaatar and enjoyed another 2.5 hour wait! Some of us departed the train at this stop to use the station toilets. While we were in the toilets another train came along and blocked our way back to our train! Yikes! What to do? Buck and I and an English lady decided to walk around the blocking train, jump across the tracks and make our way back to our car. It worked OK.
Eventually, we were underway and off to Ulan Baatar and a very early arrival time. Just before bed time I noticed outside our cabin door two pigs' heads in bags on the floor! Our Asian carriage attendants were taking them home for cooking, I suppose.
MONDAY 22 SEPT, 2014 IN MONGOLIA
Our new guide, Ulziimaa, was waiting for us at the Ulan Bataar (UB) station.
The train arrived at about 0520 local time and we were in for a very long day! Ulziimaa also picked up three more passengers who joined Buck and I for the rest of our journeys. It was our good fortune to meet an English family group-Robert (father), Isabel (his daughter) and grandson, Nathan. Nathan and Isabel are nephew and aunt. They had just traveled all the way from Moscow also using TRE as travel agency and were also bound for Beijing and the same hotel as the two of us. They are in the photo below along with a Mongolian lady we visited.
We started our UB tour with a hot shower at a communal bath facility and then were off for about 6 miles of walking around town while Ulziimaa proudly told us about "my city". We learned that "in Soviet times" the city got its name of UB which means "Red hero" but since independence the Mongolians are asserting their freedoms and now have a democracy. We were told that Mongolia has a total population of about 3 million and half the population lives in UB. That means this vast country of many natural resources is very thinly populated. Buddhism is the dominant religion in Mongolia and we visited the Gandan Monastery to see a very tall goddess of compassion statue, monks doing their morning prayer chants, big incense pots and thousands of pigeons. We also learned that shamanism is a popular religion and we stopped at a nearby tent (ger) but no photos allowed inside. I did take photos of the ger, a horned totem and statue of somebody.
After lunch we finally departed UB and headed for the country to our lodgings at the Estei Ger Lodge which is owned by Ulziimaa's employer, Shuren Travel.
On the way to the ger lodge we stopped at Mongolia's most unique and impressive site! It is a 10 story tall, stainless steel statue of their national hero, Genghis Khan. "In Soviet times" any discussion of this hero was suppressed since the communist rulers feared a nationalist uprising. However, today the Mongolian's pride in their history is fully expressed. This statue was built in 2006 to honor the 800 year anniversary of the establishment of the great Mongol empire.
The electricity inside the monument was broken but we all walked up to the top of the statue via a very steep and dark set of stairs. At the top there is a viewing platform on the horse's head. Here we encountered an 86 year old woman and her son who had also walked up. The son wanted to know how old I am so I told him 39. He did not believe me. The next folks to arrive were a group of several Mongolian men in suits and a Russian man. The Russian man was Sergei Bubkha who is famous as the 1990s pole vault Olympic champion of the world! Ulziimaa had a photo made while standing with him.
At the end of the day Buck and I were settled in our own ger at the lodge. It was quite comfortable and spacious and chilly at night. Fortunately, Ulziimaa arranged for the camp staff to maintain a fire in our stove with wood and coal. The dining area, toilets and showers were a short walk from our ger. I also got a photo of me with a lodge employee who dresses in the traditional Mongolian outfits.
TUESDAY 23 SEPT 2014 ESTEI GER LODGE
During this day our English friends went horse back riding while Buck and I hung out around the camp. At the lodge all meals were included and food was good. Dogs, horses and cows wander around the camp and there were sentry dogs chained up nearby to warn against intruders such as wolves. The dogs also made sure everyone woke up early because they like to bark!
Later Ulziimaa took us to visit an authentic nomad's ger and family. The lady of the ger served us Mongolian tea (boiling water, fresh cow's milk, salt and tea leaves), candy, bread and some kind of hard yogurt "bread". Her husband is well known as a good wolf hunter and their daughter is off to Beijing studying to be a doctor while their son will follow his father as a horse and cattle rancher. This was their Fall camp and they were soon going to move to a winter camp down by the river somewhere. Even though they follow the ancient nomad's way of life they did have a modern TV, solar electricity panels, satellite dish, truck and, of course, a mobile phone.
The dinner this last night was great! Real Mongolian BBQ (lamb roasted on a hot rock?), potatoes, carrots, cabbage salad, tea and cake. The ambient temperatures were definitely getting colder and the coal fired stove was most welcome.
WEDNESDAY 24 SEPT 2014 RETURN TO ULAN BATAAR
We woke to a cold and clear day. After breakfast we said goodbye to all the staff and headed back to UB for one night and then an early morning departure to China. We checked into the nice Bayangol Hotel and then Buck and I did another long walk through the city and back to the Gandan Monastery for more photos. We learned that Russian president, Mr. Putin, has recently visited UB. Both Russia and China have a keen interest in this country. In the evening the 5 of us went to a wonderful performance of traditional Mongolian music and dance. It included an amazing guy who did "throat singing", a lady who demonstrated her multi-octave singing skills, musicians with 2 stringed instruments and a contornsionist who could fold her body into extraordinary shapes.
THURSDAY 25 SEPT 2014 GOING TO CHINA AND CHANGING THE "BOGEYS"
Ulziimaa and her driver delivered us to the train station for an early 0700 departure to China. Ulziimaa had been with us for the entire Mongolian visit and she was an excellent and responsible guide.
We had a 1st class cabin for the ride to Beijing, China. Although, we shared a semi-private bathroom and had a nice chair we decided that 2nd class was better because here we had no room for storage in our berth! Some of the folks from our last train were also on this one so we did some more visiting with travelers. Also, the dining car was very busy and meals quite expensive. We also spotted the only wild life of the entire trip as we headed south. I saw a fox, a big hawk, antelope and several herds of two hump camels. Mostly, there was nothing to see but vast and barren landscape. We did a short stop at the Choyr station with a statue recognizing Mongolia's very own cosmonaut. Beyond Choyr we entered the famous Gobi Desert and it was raining! This part of the Gobi is not sandy but very similar in appearance to the deserts of the southwestern USA.
Twelve hours later, at about 6:50pm we finally arrived at the Mongolian border crossing for another 2 hour wait for passport inspections, etc. Shortly after we arrived at the Chinese border station of Er Lian for yet another 3 hours plus of waiting. Yikes! The train toilets were locked shut for all that time from Mongolia to China and we were not allowed off the train!
The long toilet wait at Er Lian was compensated by watching the "bogey" changing procedure. The Chinese use a track width different from those of Russia and Mongolia. Hence, they change the wheels on the train (also called "bogeys"). Our entire train was driven into a huge shed and each car was disconnected on parallel tracks inside the shed. Huge hydraulic jacks then lift each car, the wheels are rolled out and new ones rolled in for the Chinese train tracks. Unfortunately, I did not get good photos through the train windows but these out of focus images will give readers an idea of the process.
After the 3 hour bogey change we went back to Er Lian for a very welcome toilet break at the station. At some point after midnight the train got underway but we were asleep and unaware.
FRIDAY 26 SEPT 2014 BEIJING AT LAST!
We awoke to a different world of green vegetation, lots of agriculture, impoverished looking Chinese villages and hazy skies. The Chinese train was a faster and smoother ride than those of Russia and Mongolia. By 11:30am we had walked to and checked into our Howard Johnson Paragon Hotel which is directly across the street from the main international train station. Buck and I decided we would make a short walk down to Tiananmen Square in order to pay our respects to Chairman Mao in his mausoleum. However, we found the walk was much longer than expected and it was beginning to rain so we abandoned the plan. The station area is well lit at night and the massive crowds continue to pour from the station
SATURDAY 27 SEPT 2014 SIGHTSEEING IN BEIJING
In the morning we were picked up by our guide, Angel, for a sightseeing tour of some well know Beijing spots. We were 2 of the 10 tourists in Angel's van and I was very disappointed with this tour. This was largely a shopping trip with more time spent at the pearl, silk and tea stores than at the sights. Anyway, we did a quick walk through the Forbidden City, had lunch and short visit to the Summer Palace and then to the Temple of Heaven. The silk factory was of interest to me. They showed us how some of the large silk worm cocoons can be stretched out to the size of a king size quilt! By stacking many such cocoons a complete quilt is built. I bought one. By contrast, the smaller cocoons are unraveled to make threads many meters long which can then be woven to become sheets, shirts, skirts, scarves, etc.
SUNDAY 28 SEPT 2014 HIKING THE GREAT WALL
Yesterday's bogus journey was compensated by today's excellent adventure to the Great Wall. Our guide, Tony, picked us up at 0830 and this time it was just Buck and me along with Tony and his driver in a new Hyundai sedan. We had chosen one of TRE's optional tours-a Jinshanling Great Wall hiking trip.
Jinshanling is a two hour's drive north east of Beijing passing through countless new high rise buildings, new highways, new cars and even new power transmission lines.
We finally passed from the flat Beijing area into the mountainous area at Jinshanling and were ready to hike the wall. Tony said the name Jinshanling was the home town of some of the workers who had built the wall. Many workers died and are said to be buried inside the walls. The history of the Wall is a bit vague to me with construction taking place over several thousand years in many places. However, most of the Wall that we visit today was built during the Ming dynasty of 1368-1644.
On this day we had the area mostly for ourselves. There is a lot of construction underway to build a very large parking area and shopping buildings so the Chinese government is expecting the tourist business here to increase in the near future. We chose to ride a tram (40 yuan each) up to the top in order to maximize our time on the Wall. We noticed that two ladies who were selling souvenirs quickly walked up arriving at the top the same time as us! They accompanied us for the whole hike and we rewarded them by buying some of their items although not nearly as much as they had hoped for.
It was nice enjoying the Wall and outdoors without any crowds, unlike yesterday's visits. Hiking the Wall was quite strenuous with very steep climbs and many stairs to negotiate. Tony pointed out that south of the Wall lay Beijing and to the north was Mongolia wherein lived the people the Wall was built to keep out. At one point we encountered a gentleman wearing a Chairman Mao hat and smoking his pipe and selling soft drinks. Of course, he wanted to know our ages and said that he was 77 years old.
According to our guide books, one attraction of the Jinshanling is to do a one way hike along the Wall to a place called Simatal. However, that was not possible because part of the Wall is closed and, besides, that was much more Wall hiking than we cared to do. In fact, we did not go quite all the way on this part of the wall and decided to head back down for lunch. The walk down was very easy along a good path and Buck and I enjoyed the lunch. We were the only customers. Lunch was included with our tour.
After lunch we headed back for a two hour drive to Beijing and into the smog and heavy traffic. Tony said most people are working on this Sunday in anticipation of having a holiday on Oct 1 to celebrate independence day when Chairman Mao and the communist took control of China in 1949.
I am not sure how much English our guide, Tony, actually could understand. He seemed to have gained most of his knowledge about USA from watching American movies and TV shows. He expressed a particular interest in the mafia which he learned about from watching "Sopranos". I guess that is how he got the English name, Tony.
We had only two full days to visit Beijing so we had only a glimpse of this mighty city of 22 million people! (Beijing has 7 times as many people as the entire country of Mongolia!) But after almost 5000 miles of travel across Europe and Asia including 5 nights on the train we were ready to head home.
MONDAY 29 SEPT 2014 COMPLETING THE CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE
It seemed hard to believe but after two years of planning and the long trip we were ready to conclude our adventure!
Tony and his driver came to take me to the airport at 0800 and then returned to the hotel for Buck who had a later flight to Seattle and then Boston. The flights were brutally long as expected but we both arrived home on schedule and both with bad colds or maybe effects from the Beijing polluted air.
Anyway, we both had a great time and part of the satisfaction was renewing our friendship and picking up where we left off about 50 years ago! Once best friends, always best friends!!
This excellent adventure was concluded.
THE END