Siberian Trek

From Ulaan Baatar we board another train in the late evening for a 2 night, 1 day journey on the train.  In comparison to our last train, this train is a lot less modern and looks at least 20 years older.  But fortunately, we are still bunking with our new Aussie travel companions who make the ride enjoyable.

The scenery and climate while going through Siberia in early spring is actually somewhat similar to what you would see in Canada except instead of maple trees, the forests are filled with giant birch trees.   When we get into Irkutsk in the early morning, the landscape is hilly with the largest lake in the world looming in the background.

Listvanka

A local guide meets us at the Irkutsk railway station from where we take a one hour journey to a wonderful wooden lodge for our stay in Lake Baikal.  Lake Baikal is a wonderfully tranquil place, set amongst steep forested hills and dotted with small Russian villages around the lake.  For our first day, we do a little self-exploration of the village we are staying in, Listvanka, before heading out to the local market and picking up the local specialty, smoked omul (a type of fish only found at Lake Baikal), for dinner.  We also get our first taste of Russia’s “white night” (or what other countries call midnight sun), with the daylight lasting way past 10 pm.  In late june, it is almost daylight in Russia for twenty four hours a day.

On the second day, we go on a guided trek through the Siberian forest with a local guide who points out all the local fauna as well as pick up various leaves and plants to use for our lunch along the way.  The views on the trek are absolutely spectacular as we transverse up steep paths to get a bird’s eye view of the lake and surrounding area.

 We stop for lunch at a small enclosed beached area by the lake where our guide whips up our lunch of mash potato, sausage and vegetables, using a large pot over an open fire.  And over lunch, our guide tells us a little about life in Russia, before and after the break-up of the Soviet Union.  Apparently, after the break-up of the USSR in the early 1990’s, the Russian economy completely collapsed and remained broken for the next 5 years as the country did not know how to deal with the changing political climate.  Food stores were completely empty, people were literally starving and alcoholism started to become a major problem (which is incidentally, still a problem today with a bottle of vodka costing the same as two apples).  Our guide, who was a teacher, stopped getting paid (along with all other government workers) and his wife left him because of their financial circumstances. 

After our lunch, we take a narrow path (if you could even call it a path) along steep cliffs overlooking the water.  The views are amazing but the walk is dangerous as a misstep would send us tumbling at least forty feet down into the water.  We enjoy our last night in Lake Baikal before stocking up food supplies the next day for a four night, three day Trans-Siberian train ride.

The Great Wall and Nomadic Life

We get to Beijing at 6 am and quickly check into our rooms before spending the morning and afternoon checking out Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.  In the evening we are in absolute awe as we are entertained with a Chinese Acrobatics show performed by the Chinese national team. From one amazing act to the next, we watch the team demonstrating awesome feats surprising us with their agility, strength and flexibility. 

The next day, we wake up bright and early and make the 2 hour drive to witness the highlight of the China portion of our trip, the Great Wall of China.  It is a beautiful spring day as we walk the wall from the 10^th to 23^rd tower before walking back.  There are parts of the climb that are extremely steep but the sight of the Great Wall snaking along the beautiful backdrop of mountains is a sight to behold.  The history of the wall is fascinating.  Unlike what people think, you cannot see the wall from space and there isn’t just one great wall, but a series of 4 walls that were built by different dynasties over the span of over a thousand years.

We have a farewell dinner of Peking duck that evening with our tour group, all who have been a great bunch to hang out with for the course of 16 days.     

The next three nights are spent with Vic’s cousin and hubby, Virginia and Kelvin, who go the full 9 yards in making us feel at home in Beijing.  Among many other places, they take us to Ming Tombs, Suniten, a market street where they sell funky food items (can’t remember the name) and introduce us to the best meals we’ve had in China, including a Michelen rated restaurant in the Hutong.  Thank you Virginia and Kelvin for all of your hospitality!

On our seventh morning in Beijing, we get up at 5 am and head to the Beijing Railway Station to catch the Trans Mongolian Express en route to Ulaan Baatar.   The train is extremely comfortable and remarkably clean as we get into our 4 person train compartment.  At midnight, we enter Mongolia, and custom officials come onto our train and take away our custom forms and passports.  We then disembark the train for a stop at the supermarket and then wait for 3 hours as they change the wheels on our train as the train tracks in Mongolia and Russia are different from the tracks in China. 

When we arrive at Ulaan Baatar, we meet our wonderful Australian tour companions and are greeted by our Mongolian tour guide who takes us to visit a giant steel statue of Chinggis (Gengis) Khan before taking us 70 km out into the countryside for a 2 night stay in a traditional Mongolian ger.  The ger is a large circular tent that is widely used by Mongolians and can easily be dismantled and moved from location to location.  Mongolians has a strong nomadic culture as a result of severe weather fluctuations where temperatures go as high as 50 degrees Celsius in the summer and minus 50 degrees Celsius in the winter.  In order to survive, the people migrate with the animals so that they can avoid the massive swings in temperature in certain regions.  Today, there are many people who live in the cities but 30% of the population still live as nomads. 

Inside the Ger

Our huge ger is heated by a small furnace heated by coal and firewood which is replenished every couple of hours.  We spend the next morning riding Mongolian horses, which are a lot smaller than horses back at home and spend the afternoon visiting the ger of a local couple.

We then spend 2 days sightseeing in the capital city of Mongolia, Ulaan Baatar, before boarding our next train for the onwards journey to Siberia!

China's Best Kept Secret

Finger/Shadow Puppets

Being on a tour is busy!  Unlike travelling on our own, when on tour, every minute is accounted for, squeezing as much in as possible.  The days are spent running around to different sites and the evenings are spent hanging out with the group or watching some sort of show.  And since China is such a large country, the travel time to get from one place to another is extensive. Gone are the days of reading, working on my blog, watching movies on our laptop or playing chess.  

Changing of the Masks

At the end of our Yangtze River boat cruise, we take 4 hour bus ride to Cheng Du, where we get take a city tour of the city, walk around People’s Park and catch a tea ceremony/shadow puppet/changing of the mask show in the evening.  The next morning, we wake up bright and early to go to the Panda Reserve Research Centre and watch the delightful giant pandas, lazily grazing on their bamboo all day.   Apparently, 60% of male pandas have no libido which is pretty strange for a species that has been around for over 8 million years.  Thus, in an effort to preserve this dwindling endangered species (less than 2000 left in the world), most of the female pandas at the reserve are artificially inseminated and their offspring are zealously protected.

Tang Dynasty Show

From Cheng Du, we take another overnight train to Xi’an, the historical and cultural centre of China.  We spend the afternoon in the Muslim Quarter before catching the Tang Dynasty Dumpling Banquet and Show.  The next morning, we spend the morning seeing the famed Terra Cotta Warriors and spend some time at the City Wall before catching our last overnight train to Beijing.

Terra Cotta Warriors

Overnight train travel has been an integral mode of transport for our time in China.  Vic and I find the sleeper trains to be extremely comfortable, with each compartment housing 6 berths.  Our train rides tend to be fairly uneventful, with the group chatting, reading or playing cards with each other but but this particular ride has a bit of a surprise. 

On our last ride, we have a group of young female Chinese elementary school students and 2 of their teachers sleeping in the compartment next to us.  A couple of our group members go over to chat with the teachers and students who are also going back to Beijing to visit their families.  Unbeknownst to myself on how it came about, one of the teachers starts to sing a series of Chinese songs out loud as entertainment for our group and shortly thereafter, we soon get one our karaoke singing specialist to belt out his rendition of “You Ain’t Nothin but a Hound Dog”.  Curious local onlookers are soon peeking from their compartments at the ruckus we are causing as random singing out loud on a Chinese train is definitely not the norm.  One of our other group members then busts out his speakers and starts playing and dancing to loud rave techno disco beats.  And from there, things get a little out of hand. 

Not to be out done, the other Chinese teacher jumps up suddenly starts belly dancing and actually lifts up her shirt so that we can get a close up glance of her doing some funky moves with her abdomen.  When she is done with the belly dancing, she starts doing what appears to be a cross between a “Beyonce on E” and pole dancing routine, shaking every body part like she is on mad steroids before grinding to the ground.  By the time she is finally done, there is an entire audience looking at our end of the train and our tour leader is blushing red and shaking his head.  “That was the weirdest thing I have ever seen on a train” he says.  That definitely isn’t hard to believe.

With teachers like that, it’s no wonder the kids in China study so hard.

The Yangtze River

The Three Gorges

We depart Yangshao by bus back to Guilin where we have dinner and then a quick walk around town before waiting at a hotel until 1 am to catch a 1:30 am overnight train to Wichang, our next destination.  We get to Wichang at 3:20 pm the following day and then take a private bus for a 4 hour bus ride to the ferry port to catch our cruise ship to go down the Yangtze River past the Three Gorges.  It’s a long travel day. 

We board our cruise ship late at night and I wake up the next morning to find our ship gently cruising down the river past gigantic sheer cliff faces towering hundreds of meters above the ground.  We spend the next 3 nights on the ship. On the first day on the ship, we take a day trip out to get a tour of the Three Gorges Dam, a 100 billion dollar project to put a dam across the Yangtze River.  On the second day, we transfer to a smaller boat to do a 3 hour cruise down one of the smaller canals.  And in the evening, the group heads to the karaoke lounge to do our best at belting out some English tunes.

One thing that is becoming apparent on this trip is how quickly China is developing.  Along the Yangtze River, what was once deserted land only 10 years ago is now bustling city.  Our local guide gives a personal account of how, only 5 years ago, she was living in a 30 square meter apartment that didn’t even have a bathroom (her and her family had to use a shared public washroom) and now, due to job growth and development, she is living in an apartment 4 times the size of her previous unit with all the modern day comforts.

Another thing that is apparent, though it is very easy to forget, is that we are still in a communist country.  Though China is moving towards a capitalistic market, the communist regime is still present as tv is censored and I am unable to access Facebook, my blog or a number of news sites on the internet.        

It's China Tour Time!

Yangshao - Dragon Bridge

From the Maldives, we take a 9 hour flight to Hong Kong via Kuala Lumpur where we spend a busy 4 days catching up with family and friends (quick shout out to Phil for surrendering his bed for 3 nights, thank you so much!   To Uncle Steven, Ross, Eva, Ulric, DD, Bet, Jack, Jeff, Anita, Ken, Glor – it was great to see all of you and thank you again for all of your generosity.  And Gin, I am sure I will see you soon!).

And then on our last night in Hong Kong, we commence Part 2 of our excellent adventure which I will deem the “tour” portion of our trip.  During this tour portion, we are taking a 17 day tour from Hong Kong to Beijing, staying in Beijing for a few days and then taking an 18 day tour from Beijing to St. Petersburg. 

We meet up with our tour group and it’s a great bunch – 8 Aussies, 5 people from the U.K. and us 2 Canadians.  We are all around the same age and surprisingly enough, 4 out of the 5 couples are newlyweds like Vic and I.  Our Chinese born guide is English speaking, and also happens to be named Victor as well. 

It feels strange being on a tour.  After nearly 2 months of planning all the logistics of where to go, how to get there, finding accommodations and then planning out what we’re going to do each day, it’s a big change to sit back, relax and follow a set itinerary.  Gone are the days of pouring over our travel books, trying to figure out how to get from point A to B and running around to different guest houses once we get to our destination in order to find the best place to stay.  I ask Vic, what is the best part about being on a tour and his response is “we don’t have to plan anything”, and when I ask him what’s the worst part, his response is again, “we don’t get to plan anything”.  I have to agree.

From Hong Kong, we board a 3 hour hydrofoil (big boat) to Guangzhou, and then after a quick lunch and a little bit of exploring, we board an overnight train to Guilin.  What is our first impression of China?  First off, it is a lot cleaner than what we expected.  Many of the streets in the towns and cities are lined with trees and there are a lot of pretty Asian inspired gardens scattered all over the country.  Secondly, the country is a lot more developed than we expected.  And lastly, English is not hardly used or spoken at all in China except in very touristy areas.

When we get to Guilin, we take a 1 ½ hour bus ride to Yangshao, a small little town where we will be staying for the next 2 nights.  The scenery in this area is spectacular.  Hundreds of green hills forming a beautiful backdrop against the town we are staying in with a sort of romantic haze forever looming in the background.  In between the hills are hundreds of rice paddies and little villages and the occasional temple set high on one of the hills.  We spend the next two days exploring the beautiful countryside by bicycle, taking a sunset ride on a bamboo raft along the Wulong River on one night and watching locals catch fish with cormorants on the other.  

               

Bamboo Rafting

Cormorant Fishing