HOOOOMMMMMEEE

Well, despite the gale raging outside, it is GOOD to be home.

Last night in Taunton Swimming Pool we were counting backwards to the last time we swam - in Kowloon Pool in Hong Kong.  Travel is a funny thing.  One 13 hour flight and I feel like we've gone through time and space to another world.  Like finishing one book and starting another.  A whole new outlook, new characters, new story.  At least with a train journey the scenery of life changes slowly.

Our story is certainly picking up pace.  Technically this blog should stop here as the 'Bridgwater to Beijing' adventure is at an end. But perhaps I should keep going..... so many thoughts..... hmmm

Hong Kong Phooey

Mirador Mansions, Kowloon 2nd Nov

You could be forgiven for thinking we'd decided to end our trip with a couple of nights luxury in 'Mirador Mansions'..... this however is not the case. I mistakenly booked this particular slum because it claimed to have an outdoor pool on its website - how wrong can you be? It is bringing images of Jackie Pullinger's Walled City to mind - dingy corridors, tiny windowless rooms, broken pipework, jammed lifts, grey washing lines, dodgy characters hanging around..... actually it's not THAT bad. This and its neighbour Chungking Mansions are rising like a pair of phoenixes from the proverbial ashes of downtown Kowloon and the bamboo scaffolding is our landmark for finding our way home. Anyway it's only a base from which to explore this famous city.

I had no idea Hong Kong was made up of so many little islands, or that it was so mountainous. Our first nights exploring revealed an amazing skyline of highrise blocks across the water, backed by The Peak on Hong Kong Island. The differences from China are quickly apparent in the contents of the shops - we feel like we are back in Europe already (apart from the humidity). Down the road from us is the YMCA with its Christian bookshop - we certainly didn't see any of them in China. It's quite refreshing to be able to buy breakfast cereal again....and use facebook! Hong Kong may be part of China but it's still very much its own person.

Having got the idea of going for a swim to cool down we found our way to Kowloon Park Public Swimming Pool. Unfortunately we were two days late for the open air one which closed at the end of October. The indoor pool was just like Taunton pool - but about twice the size and four times the people. Interestingly we only saw Chinese people there - do all the expats belong to health clubs? (perhaps the Ladies Fitness Club we walked past this morning). It was very serious swimming - lots of goggles and swimming caps, so my head-up breast stroke was a little out of place. Still good exercise before the 13 hour flight tomorrow though.

Zhuang and Yeow

Ping'an village, Guangxi province 31st Oct
Our last day in China! Whilst we are excited about seeing everyone
again, the prospect of the long winter months is not enticing at the
moment. We are eating pancakes on the terrace of the Liquing Hotel in
the mountain village of Ping'an. A pig is squealing down below as it
becomes someones dinner for tonight, and we are basking in some rare
rays as today we have a blue sky. I want to soak them into my skin and
bring them home to England.
This is the home of the Zhuang and Yeow minority groups. The hills are
covered in rice terraces created 700 years ago and still today provide
the daily food for the 170 homes in the village. They grow mainly rice
but also ginger, sweet potatoes, chillies, pumpkin, and other veg and
also keep a few pigs and chickens. They plough with buffalo though the
hills are so steep some of the terraces are only one or two rice rows
wide.
We have arrived just after the rice harvest so the terraces are
mainly brown and stubbly and the water has been drained. It is
nonetheless stunningly beautiful. Our trek yesterday - about 15k -
took us through villages and terraced mountains on narrow stony tracks
that people must have walked for hundreds of years. The sense of peace
and stability is tangible.
We realise the tourists are a very important source of income to the
people - probably the only income in terms of money as they have
sufficient land to grow their own food but not enough to sell. They
work as hotel operators, guides, cooks etc and once a week these tiny
women take turns at carrying our heavy bags in big baskets on their
backs up the steep mountain tracks to the village. There is no
vehicular access anywhere near. They even offer a ride in a sedan
chair for those unable to make the walk. This is a bamboo chair
CARRIED on the shoulders of two or four men. Rather undignified and
certainly damaging to the pride of any self respecting backpacker!
Our lovely guide from yesterday, Dian, gave some insight into family
life here. While most of China has the one child policy, in rural
areas a woman having a girl first can have a second child in the hopes
of having a boy. They can marry after 22 yrs and have their chid/ren
after 24. There is a taboo against becoming an 'old' mother after 30.
She told us she has a little girl, looked after by her grandmother -
most young children we see are being cared for by grand or great
grandparents as their parents are working. She was happy to become a
guide 4 months ago as it means she can earn money and also improve her
English - a big goal for many Chinese.

Sent from my iPhone

Chinese Picasso

Yangshuo, Guangxi 28th Oct
We've been on cloud 9 today - loads of fun things and a great time
together. Ian had his cooking lesson this morning while I relaxed and
read a brilliant book, The Russian Concubine by Kate Furnivall (I must
recommend it to the bk grp). Then the bamboo boat ride back down the
Li River to the hotel, watching river life on the way - fishermen,
junks, buffalo. This afternoon we had a fantastic meandering bike ride
through little villages and farms over bumpy tracks and along the edge
of fishponds, getting lost but somehow finding our way back home.
Everywhere people shout 'hello' or 'nihao' and it's great being able
to see them living their lives farming, cooking, playing with
children. Again, the feeling of community is so strong, and the
'ordinariness' of people here. I think life must be simpler here,
looking after your 3.2mu (half an acre) allocated to you, and growing
most of the food you need. Why do we add so much stress to our lives
by owning so much?
Ian then went out on a boat to watch the cormorant fishing close up -
each fisherman has several cormorants he has trained to dive into the
river for fish and then regurgitate them intact (not sure I'd want to
eat fish that had been spat out of a birds gizzard but it saves the
fisherman a lot of bother). Ian enjoyed chatting to someone from
Devon and someone else from Canberra who knows his cousin. To round
off the day we were delighted to bump into Adam & Laura, our friends
from the long train ride, and we then had our portraits painted by a
street artist known as 'Forest', or the Chinese Picasso. He paints
directly onto rice paper with a Chinese calligraphy brush using first
black ink and then watercolour. Very good though Ian thinks he looks
old and I look too serious. Vanity!

Sent from my iPhone

Karst mountains

Yangshuo, Guangxi Province, SW China 27th Oct

A few snapshots of some of todays sights....
...5 people on one scooter.....cormorant fishing.....limestone 'karst' mountains......pomelo's - a huge pear shaped citrus fruit like a grapefruit.....dog-meat in the market :-( .....peanuts and cotton growing......rice being harvested......orange groves....bananas growing on trees......bamboo boats......Ian wearing a chef's hat and apron at his cookery class! ......amazing light show with the Li River and surrounding mountains as the backdrop. This was stunning. Created by Zhang Yi Mou the film maker and choreographer of the Olympic opening show, it involves 600 people in each show which runs twice each night. Apparently some 15% of the population of Yangshuo take part in it, a celebration of local culture and customs. Most of the show takes place on the river itself, with the use of lights and dry ice creating an atmosphere against which the local fishermen 'dance' in their bamboo raft boats to music backing. Very dramatic.
This morning Ian has learnt how to cook deep-fried stuffed egg-plant with pork, gong bao chicken and braised string beans with garlic and chilli sauce. So look out anyone who thinks they're coming round for cheese on toast!!
We rounded off the morning with a bamboo boat trip back to our hotel, nicely negotiated down to 70 yuan. Perhaps we'll summon up the energy later to brave the humidity and take a bike ride through the mountains, before going off to the rice terraces tomorrow morning.

MobileMe Gallery - B2B12 - Chengdu pandas

Not sure if this will work, but the link below should take you to our photos of China so far...... If it doesn't work I'm sure we'll bore you to tears when we come back!

The link should go to the pandas, but click on the gallery button top left and it should go back to a list of albums,

http://gallery.me.com/rgtremain#100136

Tiger Leaping Gorge

Lijiang, Yunnan Province, South West China 25th October

Sight of the day: Yangtze River
Food of the day: Naxi sandwich
Emotional moment: Lifting my eyes up from my latte coffee to see a mountaintop soaring above me

We have at last escaped from the city and been immersed in one of the most stunning sights of rural China - the huge Yangtze River ferocious and coffee-coloured in its path through one of the deepest canyons in the world, Tiger Leaping Gorge. We took the high path, 3900m above the river, and did we know it! The climb up was literally breath-taking, and even in late October the heat was almost stifling. I pitied the poor souls trudging up those paths in mid-August and stuck firmly to Dad's advice 'you can do anything if you do it slowly enough'. Our lovely guide, Ali of Ali-Baba's bike hire, had planned a punishing 14km uphill for the first day and about 2km downhill for the second day - we had no idea why the 'Halfway House' accommodation was definitely not half way and with his miniscule English and our non-existent mandarin it was impossible to find out. We just knew it would be 'two hours, then two hours, then three hours' before we would be allowed the luxury of stopping for the night. This was scary as I was still suffering from what I had decided from wikipedia was giardia and had a moments panic wondering if I would make it. Thankfully there were a few drink and lunch stops along the way which turned out to be overnight inns for trekkers and we managed to convince Ali to let us stop after 5hrs instead of 7. The inns were delightful - old Chinese wooden carved buildings surrounding a central courtyard, maize cobs drying in the sun and lovely people waiting to pour our green tea and serve rice and vegetables to keep our energy up. They also had verandas and roof terraces, and the occasional 'loo with a view', so you could soak up the views of snow-capped Jade Mountain at every opportunity.

The views, the countryside, the villages, and not to mention the roar of the huge river down below was definitely worth the pain of getting there and as always we wished we had longer to enjoy it. The bus trip back was an experience not to be missed too! The low road through the gorge is only partly surfaced and at one point passes through a giant tumbling scree slope. We and our fellow backpackers were ordered off the bus to pick our way quickly between the stones constantly jumping down the mountainside while the bus driver waited for a clear moment. He had just started to drive through when he was shouted to stop as a small boulder had been spotted on its way down - enough to certainly damage the bus if not destabilise it on the slope. He eventually made it through to everyones jubilation (we didn't fancy the prospect of the driver and all our worldly goods plunging into the Yangtze).

This area of Yunnan is the home of a minority group, the Naxi, lovely friendly people always smiling and closer in looks and allegiance to Tibetans than Han Chinese (the majority of Chinese people are Han). We followed (unintentionally) in Michael Palins footsteps and visited several Naxi villages - very industrious farming communties, where each family can make a living from about half an acre of land. We loved the Naxi sandwich - a sort of warm soft pitta bread/pancake sandwich of beef, tomatoes and herbs - absolutely delicious after a trek in the mountains. Not to mention the yak yogurt.

Recovering in Chengdu

Sim's Cozy Guesthouse, Chengdu 21st Oct

I have just read an earlier blog about the beautiful sunny Chinese
countryside and now we are in our fourth Chinese mega-city I am
missing it. Our days are ruled by cloudy smoggy skies and I have
sympathy for the people who live out their lives so far from the green
countryside. We have seen countless people living and working
practically on the street. Little shop fronts with a bed and TV at
the back or even a lightweight fruit & veg gazebo with a bed in. We
as tourists are charmed by the Hutongs - back street districts - as
opposed to the multitudinous high-rise apartment blocks, but living
without plumbing or other basic necessities must be difficult. There
is an upside to street living though - community. In early evening in
particular people are everywhere cooking and eating together on the
pavements, playing chess or cards in groups, and children are
playing. Exercise groups take place on the pavements and music
practise for the Sichuan opera happens in all the parks.

We particularly enjoyed the Muslim Quarter in Xi'an which is a network
of alleys buzzing with traders, food and drink, shops of all kinds,
and crumbling old mosques. It would be easy to get run over by the
numerous bicycles, electric scooters and trishaws here as they come
zooming up behind you silently so we were constantly jumping out of
our skins - and the gutter - with much hooting of horns. We take our
lives in our hands to cross the bigger roads too. To cross a 5 or 6
lane highway you just have to step off the kerb and walk in between
all the moving buses, cars and bikes. Red lights seem to be more of a
suggestion than a rule. Before we got here, I thought it might be fun
to hire a bike in China but the only place i've had the nerve has been
on top of the city walls of Xi'an where there's no traffic at all!
Ian however is more courageous - he is currently out on the streets of
Chengdu on a bike while I'm at 'home' recovering from a bout of d&v -
not pleasant. I've been feeling rather sorry for myself but Ian as
always has been the perfect nurse and bag-carrier. What would I do
without him?!

A gastronomic reprieve

After the sea-cucumber (a giant slimy sea slug), oysters, deep fried ice-cream and abalone soup among other unidentifiable foodstuffs last night we are settling into our new hostel in Xi'an with a lasagne and spaghetti bolognese eaten off a fork - thank goodness for backpackers.
Having said that I think our ordering of food is improving. We've had a few interesting meals turn up courtesy of the English translation of Chinese menus - tripe instead of 'sausage', fruit salad instead of 'cake', and green ice cream when I thought I'd ordered pink. And our handling of chopsticks is getting there too. This is great for the laundry situation as you get fed up with washing those greasy spots off your clothes when you flick the noodles by mistake or drop a scoop of rice in your lap, not that it would be a big scoop from a pair of chopsticks. Can you believe China gets through 45 billion every year.
In Xi'an we have rejoined the tourist trail. Harbin wasn't exactly the most popular tourist destination - we enjoyed being in a definite minority and only saw a total of about 10 non-Asian people all week and they were probably Russians. We have discovered here in North-east China that Russia appears to be considered part of 'Europe'. We even visited a Russian coffee house just to feel 'at home'...... We loved Harbin though for all its fumes and traffic. The markets were incredible. Yesterday we explored our local market areas - a wonderful mixture of the most delicious fruit and veg, clothes, hot street food (30p for a large rice and veg takeaway wrapped in a lettuce leaf), plastics, bicycle repairs, carpets, bedding. At one point we strayed into a 'mall' - not the upmarket type - about the size of the big Asda in Taunton but on 2 floors - and it was filled with groups of women making duvets and pillows and all sorts of bedding. Not just selling them, but layering the fleece and stitching the covers on. You could choose whatever size and thickness you wanted. The next 'mall' was divided into hundreds of tiny units - each one containing a workbench, a dressmaker and an old treadle sewing machine - just like my grandmothers antique one I used once to make some curtains. And they are producing the quality of clothes we would buy in M&S. We are filled with admiration for these hardworking people.
Lasagne finished, and we are fortified to explore Xi'an and the terracotta warriors...

'Paris of the East'

Tues 13th October 09 Hostel, Harbin
Just enjoying my breakfast of porridge made in Ian's flask (this is another kitchen i wouldn't dare risk using) and catching up on some emails and facebook comments while Ian is now meeting with his contacts at British Sugar across town. Thankfully today we have water - the city is building a metro system which is why we think it was cut off yesterday. It's amazing what you get used to - loos included - after a few weeks. As long as we've still got the internet.
Harbin, a city of 3-4million, for me is viewed in two halves - the smelly, traffic-dominated half where I feel hot, stressed, tired and challenged (grumpy). I have been wearing my face mask to try and block some of the fumes. The other half is the river front where there is a view across the water and a long pedestrianised street with nice shops and trees, relaxed people (probably all visitors though we seem to be the only non-Asians around) and I have to admit - a rather 'European' flavour. I will be heading for this area today on the number 11 bus for a spot of shopping. I think this area is what qualifies Harbin for its reputation as 'the Paris of the East'. Strangely the architecture is mainly Russian, which is not surprising considering its location in the northeast of China only a few hours train-ride from Vladivostok, but I suppose 'St Petersburg of the East' is a bit of a mouthful. They even sell Russian dolls and furry hats here - I feel rather nostalgic. Harbin is a winter destination too - for skiing in the hills, ice-skating on the frozen Songhua River, and ice and snow sculpture exhibitions.
Hmmm, shopping - this could be the lasting impression we bring home with us from China. Everywhere you go are shops and malls. Yesterday we innocently tried to cross a road through a subway and emerged 40mins later with a new coat for me and a leather belt and smart trousers for Ian. How are we going to carry all this stuff we wonder? Perhaps a visit to the post office might be a good idea. The trouble is it's like a magnet. Our consumerist souls come alive at the prospect of good stuff got cheap. I want to buy for my family and friends and ship it back by the container-load.
Of course we from the UK are still in a privileged position when it comes to buying. Our newly made English speaking Harbin friend, 'Jack', tells us that the average wage is about 1,800RMB a month - about £165. Housing costs are high enough that Jack, at 28, lives with his parents and grandparents in a shared apartment. Food however is another story. You can get a good meal with several dishes for a couple of pounds. We bought lovely hot rolls on the street yesterday for 9p each. A bus ride anywhere in either Harbin or Beijing costs 10p.
The other good thing about Harbin is the sunshine. Although it's colder here than Beijing, we can feel the suns rays - in Beijing it was blocked out the whole week by the smog.

Big Beijing

One week in Beijing and I'm starting to get used to it. The smog
levels - apparently the equivalent of 70 cigarettes a day - made me
feel stifled for the first couple of days but now I can breathe
again. The crowds and crowds of people that we encountered around
Tiananmen Square will hopefully get less as this weeks public holiday
is coming to an end. The country has been celebrating the 60th
anniversary of the Peoples Republic of China. People seem excited and
happy - a lot of flag-waving and national enthusiasm. It certainly
looks good to the eye of a new visitor - everything smart and clean,
very little litter, no potholes, no homeless people, and lots of keen
volunteers looking after the public. One of our guides however told
us they are not allowed to discuss politics with us and explained that
everything's been cleaned up for the celebrations. It's hard to get a
true picture.

But we are just tourists - and we have thoroughly enjoyed walking
along the great wall (a short section of it), visiting the ancient
sites like the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace,
and the food!!!!! If you avoid the scorpion or seahorse (:(() kebabs,
the food on offer is absolutely delicious. There is so much variety
in Chinese food and our ordering is a bit pot luck, so we have eaten
loads of different things. Thankfully our stomachs our holding out at
the moment.....

Tomorrow we will attempt to find a church, and then take the night
train to Harbin in north east China.

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This trip gets better and better… Mon 5th Oct 09 Train 4 - Saynshand - Beijing

I feel like we have jumped from the filmset of Indiana Jones or Mad Max in the Gobi Desert to Murder on the Orient Express!  This is our only first class journey – one night and one day with a bit of luxury.  The passengers are noticeably different…..not the backpackers of 2^nd or 3^rd class but the slightly more mature traveller with proper luggage and tidy clothes!  And we all eat very politely in the restaurant car.  Very Agatha Christie.

We crossed the Chinese border last night at about 8pm, and woke up this morning to China in all its glorious beautiful sunny technicolour.  It's all real!  All those pictures, films, photos seen – all those stories heard and read – and it really looks like it! This is one of the emotional moments of our trip.  Looking out of the window at tumbled down villages, people working by hand in the fields, donkey and ox carts, remnants of the Great Wall meandering over the mountains, piles of bright yellow maize cobs, little haystacks…..  It's so lush and green after wild Mongolia.  Every available piece of land seems to be cultivated with terraces climbing as high as possible up the mountainsides.  On both sides of the train the landscape meets a skyline of craggy purple peaks. 

Around the cities we pass through there is also a lot of industry – chimneys pumping out smoke and stacks and stacks of coal lining the track.  I remember this is the greatest manufacturing hub in the world.  I am in the middle of reading Wild Swans by Jung Chan about three generations of Chinese women.  To look up from reading about Mao's reforms and tyranny, and about life as a communist party member to see everywhere people working and building is like 3-dimensional literature.  But I have to remember that things have changed again and we are seeing China in the present tense.

How to use a Mongolian Desert Loo (not to be attempted after dark). 4th Oct 09

1.   1. Hand rucksack, camera, wallet, coat, phone and every other potentially loose object to friend

2.    2. Hold breath and keep mouth closed

3.    3. Quickly drop trousers and squat purposefully

4.    4. Hold on to something as toppling would be disastrous

5.    5. Aim well

6.    6. Keep eyes up – looking down the hole could be fatal

7.    7. Leave quickly and try to forget trauma

8.    8. Immediately locate alcohol handwash and clean thoroughly

9.    9. Recommence breathing

Camels!

Once again we are back into relative civilisation from the desert before getting on the train to China in an hour - just time for a quick blog. We are filthy dirty, dusty, have had no sleep but we are happy! The Gobi is quite wild - bleak, barren, stony, freezing at night, and HUGE. We've been quite monglian the last few days - not another westerner in sight. Our guide took us to a desert ger camp where many mongolians go to practise their Buddhism. We watched respectfully as she burned incense and did all the other things she wanted to do there, but also saw the site where dinosaurs have been discovered, watched the sunrise, drove in a 4x4 over dusty bumpy desert roads - and most importantly we fell in love with some camels! They belong to the monastery and were being looked after just over the hill from us, by a Lama's (priest) mother and 4 grandchildren. We visited them just as they were being herded back to the little ger at sunset - Ian helped with the milking, we shovelled up camel dung for the Lama's fire (they burn it for cooking on), and then the best bit - they offered us a ride! Mine was a big furry cream coloured camel with two humps - very pretty, and Ians was an old brown one with one hump flopped over (depleted fat reserves). They were so big and gentle - our guide says they are emotional creatures which respond to the mongolian fiddle by crying big wet tears! Hmmmm not sure about that one, but they were a hit.

Ps. The toilet situation reached new lows in the Gobi - not just the holes in the ground we saw in northern mongolia, but a big stinking pit complete with flies and the contents dragged over the desert by packs of dogs - a wild place indeed.

On route to the Gobi Desert. 2/10/09

It’s good to be back on the train – this time a local train, 8 hours south to the Gobi Desert – to a place called Saynshand. Our guide Daka is with us – so no gazing out the window today – she is a mine of information about Mongolia, its history, religion, and politics. She herself grew up under communist rule and was 12 years old when the government was overthrown by a mini-revolution in 1990.

She has described some of her life in that era – how everything was owned by the government – all the nomads’ livestock and all the land – and all food, education and healthcare was provided by the government. There was no unemployment, homelessness or differentiation in lifestyle – no street children or beggars – but there was some hunger and food rationing. She remembers the discipline of her school and the communist youth organisation she was in, how they had to conform in every little detail. Hair had to be worn in two plaits with white pompoms on each one, the exact uniform had to be worn, and even the white collar had to be taken off every few days, washed and sewn back on to avoid ridicule and punishment – being called a pig and humiliated in front of classmates. All the schoolwork had to be precisely written in blue ink and blotted with blotting paper in exactly the right way. Only very few would be chosen for higher education and these ended up in government positions. Daka believes the discipline and structure was good for society.

Some people look back to communist times with nostalgia saying there was no stress and food and education were better, but only last year people were killed in UB demonstrating against the corrupt election of a new communist party. So freedom remains, and each Mongolian now owns their livestock, vehicles etc. Each person, man, woman and child is also entitled to enclose 0.7ha of land as their own. Although the majority continue to live the nomadic lifestyle many are now doing this and place a yurt on this land for living in the summer, whilst continuing to have apartments in UB – a sort of holiday home. There is always a downside though – unemployment is very high, as is alcoholism – hence the beggars and street children. A lot of NGO’s are working in the country, and on our travels we have met probably more westerners who are working here than just tourists. Some gap year students teaching English, and a group counting the wild gobi sheep among others. An Australian lady, ‘Didi’, has been working for 16 years with street children and currently has 200 children in her orphanage, and the Christina Noble foundation doing similar work. Christina Noble is an Irish lady who was homeless in Dublin at a young age, had a terrible life, but had a dream that she was rescuing children in Ulan Bator – so she put it into action.

In terms of religion, 90% are buddhists though most monasteries were tragically destroyed and the monks killed by the communist government in the 1920’s and 30’s, leaving a spiritual vacuum and a lot of searching people. Approx 5% now are apparently christian with a lot of overseas input – to the disapproval of our guide!

It’s interesting to talk to our various contacts as they each have their own view and opinions. Zaya (our guesthouse host) says it’s the tourists that cause the street children. By giving food and money it encourages parents to push their children out into the streets….our canoeing guide – and the LP - however said quite plainly that they have children living in the pipes under the city (all hot water is centrally provided and therefore piped underground creating warmth), many of which will have alcoholic parents. It is undoubtedly a complex issue – very upsetting for us seeing it for the first time – even babies and toddlers out on the pavements with older siblings begging for money. We gave them bananas but I wanted to pick them up and take them somewhere safe, especially the bigger boys. The little ones don’t really know, but the big ones have that haunted longing look in their eyes – unbearable to see a human being so unloved. It certainly puts our few days without a loo or a decent cup of coffee into perspective.

Mongolia is a wonderful place and the people generous, kind and full of life. But their traditional way of living has been bruised and battered over the centuries and I can’t help thinking that it will be overtaken by change as the modern world encroaches more and more – maybe this would be good in some ways, but so much could be lost. I’m glad we’re seeing it now.

How to describe the last 7 days…that is a challenge! 1/10/09

The city of Ulaan Bataar, capital of Mongolia, is a hotchpotch of highrise apartments (Soviet era), ultra modern business buildings and miles of ger camps and basic housing spreading like some giant Glastonbury festival into the surrounding hills. In the countryside dust roads and brown rolling hills stretch for miles – Mongolia is three times the size of France with a population of only 2.7m mostly nomadic people – no fences, walls, hedges…just open grassland – green in summer, brown in autumn and snowy in winter. Big skies. Small herds of sheep, goats, cattle and horses roam the hills and a few gers (yurts) are dotted around, smoke rising from stove pipes.

We stayed in a couple of gers for 5 days/4 nights – way off the beaten track in a river valley only accessible by horse and cart (to cross the rivers). The beds had a bit of old felt for a mattress, the toilet was a hole in the ground with a couple of bits of wood around for privacy, and washing was in water collected in a bucket from the river and heated on the stove. It was just like camping – but in an insulated felt tent with a woodburner! (My type of camping…..except for the loo ….) The people are lovely – very gentle and hospitable. Such simple living. They are firmly in the 21^st century however – with no phone lines or roads everyone carries a mobile phone (even the older people) and they love the telly – for those near enough to an electricity line to connect up. The last ger we stayed in had a twintub, two TV’s, a karaoke machine, music system, and freezer all squeezed in around the two beds and some cupboards – but no fridge…..all those milk products in the summer (up to +40C) doesn’t bear thinking about! Their children mostly go to school in UB in the winter and live in the ger in the summer helping their parents and grandparents with the livestock.

Well, we’re off to the Gobi desert tomorrow with our guide, Daka. So much to see and so little time! I could definitely come back to Mongolia if there was ever another chance.

Leaving Russia

Well, it’s harder to leave Russia than it is to get in! We have now been parked at a small out of the way railway station called Naushky (or something similar), in Buryatia, for over 5 hours while various uniformed people swarm over our carriage checking passports and customs forms and shining torches into dark corners. There was a bit of drama when we arrived as some people were pulled off the train by guards with guns and handcuffed and thrown into a van. Illegal immigrants …. a prison van? No idea but quite exciting at the time. Needless to say we kept our distance as images of the cold war flashed through our minds. Couldn't help feeling sorry for the people though.

This train trip is a two-nighter from Irkutsk to Ulan Bator in Mongolia. It’s good to get moving again though it’s hard to shake off the tiredness of the last two nights uncomfortable accommodation at Lake Baikal. The lake was stunning, the air clear and fresh, the local smoked fish ‘omul’ delicious….but the beds!!! If Ian and I had been house-hunting at Lake Baikal and walked into this one we would have thought it had great potential if you first stripped it bare, dumped the furniture and did a renovation job. Our host was however lovely and a very good cook – Valerii – a marine biologist who dives in the lake to study the algae (over 1000 species) and teaches at the university. Lake Baikal is a Unesco world heritage site, in that it is the largest body of fresh water in the world (you can dip your bottle in and drink straight from the banks), and 80% of its species can only be found in this lake. Valerii also arranged a banya for us and our train-friends – this is a Russian sauna in a cedarwood cabin – complete with twig massage! I could just imagine coming out into the deep snow and -30 degrees in winter. Luurvely.

Our previous homestay host in Irkutsk was also lovely – very beautiful and sparkly Helen, or Elena, in what we think was a fairly typical, and very small, apartment in a large block. She says “the English always surround themselves with parks and beautiful gardens, but the Russians, they don’t care about such things”. This about sums up the initial appearance of most Russian towns – but if you scratch the surface it’s not much different to Europe in what is available. There is definitely a feeling of hardship though – having now seen inside some homes I wonder who is actually able to shop in the well stocked malls at such high prices.

So, if I had to sum up one lingering impression of Russia – it would be the warmth! Both on the trains and in the houses, with all the heating and hot water provided by the government in copious quantities. So, we can now forget our Russian, spend our last roubles and prepare for Mongolia – help!

Day 3 on the Baikal train.

We are over the moon. We absolutely love this trip. Last night I slept like a log on my little shelf and woke up happy. We now have only 20 hours left before we get off in Irkutsk and feel sad it is almost over – still, we can look forward to a few more train days on the way to Beijing.

On waking this morning, the first thing we noticed was the change in landscape. It has gone from more or less flat with continual green silver birch trees, to rolling hills and a mixture of birch, fir and some other trees. But they are ORANGE. We have travelled overnight from late summer into Autumn. The mixture of golds, oranges and a few reds with the white bark of the trees is stunning. The sunshine has also given way to cloud for the first time, and a rumour has been passed down the train that there is deep snow in Irkutsk. This is very exciting news for us Brits though I may need to invest in some snow boots as my footwear is inadequate. How great to experience snow in Siberia.

The settlements have also changed. Not so much the edge of city ‘favelas’ as they would be called in South America – now we can see proper villages. Beautiful wooden houses, some painted, with large well-tended vegetable plots, smoke rising from chimneys, a few people here and there. There’s no doubt that life is very hard here though as the houses are small and probably un-insulated. Temperatures drop as low as -30 c in Jan and Feb. Some have satellite dishes though not many. We’ve seen very few surfaced roads, just muddy tracks. And very few cars. I suspect the railway is a very important link for these communities.

One of the best things about this trip is that it is completely un-touristy. Although we have met a few Europeans, the train is mostly filled with Russian people, some with young children or dogs, making domestic trips. I can’t imagine bringing Barney on such a long train journey! The train itself is very big compared to European trains, the fittings all good quality, the service fantastic in terms of cleanliness, though a bit of Russian language would help a lot. I had imagined the samovar to be a smoking brassy antique, however it looks like a 1970’s boiler and works very efficiently, providing water at 100 c. We also have drinking water on tap, and the loo rolls only run out at the end of the day. The providnitzas are clearly in charge! The beds are comfortable and the linen all spotlessly clean. Small towels (like tea towels) are provided, and there’s a spacious shower in first class that we can use for 93 roubles – about £2. The loos have been a pleasant surprise. The promised ‘hole in the floor’ has not materialized – we are lucky enough to have a proper toilet with seat, that opens directly onto the track. This could just be our train – the ‘Baikal’ no.10. Perhaps others are not so good.

A train day – day 2 on the train.

6.45am wake up from not sleeping. Doze for couple of hours.

8.45 Ian makes tea and porridge from the samovar and we eat in our cabin.

9.30 Wash up bowls and cups using shower gel, a toothbrush, and mixture of hot water from samovar and cold water from loo basin. Samovar water is 100 degrees c – can’t help thinking that pouring boiling water from the tap into a narrow cup on a wobbly train wouldn’t get past the HSE in England. Great to have hot water on tap.

9.45 Make effort to get dressed, washed etc. Ian has discovered a shower in first class so goes to use that – I’ll wait till later. Take turns with other passengers and plug camera charger into socket in passageway.

10.00 Go for walk – to front of train past first class (we prefer our 2^nd class), restaurant car, spot driver no.2 having a smoke in back of engine, then walk to far end of train through 3^rd class – ‘kupe’ – smoking and snoozing Russians everywhere! Again, grateful for 2^nd class compartment. Interrupted by a Provodnitza (carriage attendant) whilst doing exercises in gap between carriages. Embarrassed.

10.30 Coffee time! And chocolate cake from food bag, shared with Adam, Laura, Edita and Hendrick, neighbours in carriage 6. Russian neighbours say no to cake. More chat about where we’re going and where we’ve been, how we booked, what we do at home.

11.20 Action! 20 min stop at Omsk station – a chance to get off, get some fresh air, stretch our legs – but make sure we don’t miss the train leaving!

11.45 Resume chocolate cake eating and chat. Swap guide books.

12.30 Lie down to doze and start listening to War and Peace audio book

1.30 Discussion about what to have for lunch. Noodles, cupasoup or cheese sandwiches? We decide on the latter and find some tomatoes and cucumbers we bought in Moscow.

2.05 Spot loose hay piled on wooden cart being led by horse along track

2.15 Continue napping and listening to War and Peace – can’t make head or tail of it as keep dozing

3.20 Woken up by everyone getting off train for 20 mins at a station. We love the cool fresh air as the train is overheated and the windows don’t open, except in the loo. We purchase blinis – like crepes – from a platform vendor and chat to Andrei, an English speaking, clearly very educated but poor Russian vendor. He collects coins so we give him our English ones. He tells us the only employment in his village is either the railway, or the police.

3.40 Return to compartment, watch birch trees and flat dry landscape passing by – so few people, animals or crops. A few wooden houses here and there. Continual lovely sunshine. About 10 degrees outside, 25 deg in.

3.45 Download photos onto laptop, write brief blog ready for next time we have internet. Ian dozes on bunk.

4.15 Frank and Carolina stop by for chat on way back to carriage 5

4.30 Can’t decide whether to sketch something, sleep, or sew up my trousers. This is too much choice so I put if off and go to loo instead.

4.45 Carriage provodnitza comes in to vacuum our carpet. There are two attendants per carriage – that’s 26 on a single train plus the buffet car staff!

5.00 Sew trousers with needle and cotton managed to buy in Moscow market

6.30 Discuss further food options – eat beef stroganoff and chicken in restaurant car with Alexander (from Belgium). Followed by a card game of ‘Sloppy’ with Adam & Laura (our favourite travel companions).

9.30 Bed time – we try to adjust our body clock or we’ll end up with 5 hours jet lag in Irkutsk as all trains run on Moscow time.

Waiting for the Night Train to Siberia

16^th Sept – waiting for the night train – a burst of poetic creativity!

Sitting on Yaroslavsky Station platform watching Russia go by.

I suspect those we’ve met in Moscow, Red Square and around, were not truly representative. Here, the women are ‘normal’ – not the pencil-thin, stiletto-shod, Paris Hilton lookalikes toting pink-clad puppy dogs in handbags and baby slings. Not the hordes of tourists posing and clicking, nor the wealthy office-dwellers profiting from the beaurocracy of the rest of Russia.

These are soldiers with kit bags, bedrolls and bottles of vodka, chubby children yawning in pushchairs as they wait for the night train to Siberia. These are stumpy women and hard-featured men, fag in mouth and luggage of cardboard boxes and cheap plastic bags. Bleached blonde thirty-somethings with pompom-pigtailed girls in tow, and older women with patterned headscarfs, patterned skirts and patterned jumpers.

Everywhere smokers. Everywhere Russians.

The night train to Siberia.

Platform-waiting with crowds of eager be-luggaged Russians. Light spills out of the open train door with the promise of ‘home’ for the next four nights. Samovar smoke wafts over the heads of the waiters like London fog. Time warps gently with the leather seats, Bakelite door handles and the orange glow of a hundred lamps.

We’re moving! The gentle thunder and clacking of wheels on tracks to be the background music of our journey. Train 10, heavy, ponderous, hot, the fug of human bodies all pervasive – what will it be like in 3 days? Somebody open the windows!

Moscow 2

I take it back - Moscow is no longer incomprehensible - we are starting to read the language with the help of a cyrillic alphabet and some common sense, as a lot of the words sound like the english equivalent. We have seen Red Square, walked around the Kremlin, loved St Basils cathedral (multi-coloured disneyesque), and even managed to find the International Christian Fellowship on sunday morning.

Evangelical churches as we know them are apparently few and far between and the city seems to be swamped in materialism (there are a lot of millionaires here, and the city is allegedly controlled by mafia) though the Russian Orthodox Church is still very popular and seems very warm hearted and worshipful.

We were invited out for lunch with a lovely american family from the international fellowship - a couple who run the school for missionary kids, and their daughter and son-in-law who both work for the US government. The amazing thing was, we checked out of our hostel that morning, and intended to find the next hostel after church. We accepted their offer of lunch, picked up our bags and followed them down this street, round a corner, up another road etc until we got to the restaurant they had chosen - looked up, and there right next to it was our hostel! They had led us right to the door.

This made us aware of Gods presence, which was a good thing in view of the discovery that the hostel was an absolute pit, filthy kitchen etc and i immediately wanted to check out. God got involved again however as (after a fruitless search for somewhere better to stay) we met in the hostel a great couple from Darlington who turned out to be christians (from a Baptist church no less) - Rachel and Doug. We managed to swap our dive of a room for theirs when they checked out (huge comfy bed instead of sharp springs and something dodgy stuck to the floor) and our hostel is therefore transformed into 'bohemian' rather than some sort of squat……. particularly now our underwear is strung up on a washing line over the bed. It is also the best location to be as everything is on our doorstep.

Anyway, i'm running out of battery so must finish this rambling story and go to bed. Tomorrow we get on our long-distance russian train to Siberia so no more blogging for a few days.

Love the emails and facebook messages – thank you J I’ve put a few photos on facebook now as it’s not so easy on the blogsite.

Moscow!

We're here!!! Can't believe how easy it is to get to Russia! Everyone says that Moscow is like any other capital city..........I'm not sure that's what we felt last night getting off the train at Moscow Pavaletsky Station. My first feeling was of complete incomprehension and therefore helplessness. Don't let anyone tell you 'they all speak English in Moscow' - it's not true!!! We have been doing a lot of sign language, pointing, snorting like a pig (that was Ian trying to clarify he was eating a bacon crepe), and are very proud of our three Russian words we have now learnt:- Yes (da), no (nyet) and thankyou (spaseebah). These seem to be doing the trick with most people - i just need 'I'm sorry' and then i can apologise to everyone for being a complete idiot who didn't do her russian homework properly.

We have been recovering from the ordeal of navigating our way on foot through Moscow rush hour with too much luggage (it only weighed 11kg but even that feels like too much in a busy metro) and reading signs that were all in code and a very poor map....plus a bit of help from some lovely Russians....in Godzillas Hostel. We even have our own room which if you look past the dodgy electrics and doubtful decor is our little haven of English speaking tranquility.

Off to do battle with the city now and find our way to Red Square.

Berlin

Well the first night on a train was great - we even slept for some of it despite being wedged on a shelf with a stretchy thing to stop you falling out when the train goes round a bend! Particularly impressed by our friendly guard who brought us breakfast in the morning..... who says you need to go on a cruise to get a bit of luxury!

One thing that is very different from last time i 'travelled' anywhere - nearly everyone has a laptop, a netbook or a phone and accommodation has free wi-fi. Great for keeping in touch.

Now enjoying the sights of Berlin. Berlin is a place with a past.....you can't help but be conscious of all the new buildings replacing the old. Key Sites:- The Reichstag building, the iconic Brandenburg Gate, Ian with a cold pint of German beer. We loved our boat trip on the River Spree, and got very hot trailing through the multiple security points in the Reichstag building ("what's that long metal object in your rucksack?" ....just a buttery picnic knife actually but the xray machine didn't know that) up to the amazing glass dome on the roof (designed by Sir Norman Foster). Today we're planning to do the walking tour recommended by Helen ;-)

It's so exciting to be here, see new things, absorb a bit of history and culture. I so wish we had managed to book trains through Poland and the Baltics.......tomorrow we cheat and fly to Moscow. I've been reading an old book 'God's smuggler' about Brother Andrew, a Dutchman who's life was filled with miracles as he obeyed Gods call to support the church in Eastern Europe (during the cold war). Over and over again he took a car load of Bibles through the checkpoints while God blinded the eyes of the guards. What an amazing God.

Day 1!

This feels so normal! No pre-flight nerves, popping ears or sudden time zone changes. We said farewell to Bridgwater (and mum & dad) at 09.48, and have been enjoying the last familiarity of the English countryside, the debris of the Reading festival and the train-jams into London (sadly causedby a fatality on the line somewhere).

On a happier note we are now speeding our way on eurostar to Paris to meet the sleeper (or in my case, probable non-sleeper) to Berlin.

GOODBYE BRITAIN!

Sent from my iPhone

Okay, so here goes.....my first blog....public revelations of the soul.  I can't imagine anyone will want to read this but let's treat it as a sort of sanitised travel diary.  A sort of extra long facebook status update.

Well, this blog is really meant to be all about our big trip to China (rather than my soul) which will be starting at Bridgwater Railway Station next Tuesday morning at 09.49 when we depart for Paddington London.  I can't wait for that moment when we set off and leave everything behind - with some sadness at saying goodbye but also excitement at being 'footloose and fancy free' (where did that saying come from?).  Within 24 hours we will arrive, via Eurostar and Paris, in Berlin.  I think the sleeper train is called the Perseus.  For some reason, trains on the trans-Siberian route are given names as well as numbers - well not all of them - the un-named ones are apparently the ones to avoid!

The tasks for today include doing a bit more work on China ie. where to go, what to do...  After a week in Beijing and a week in Harbin for Ian to work on his Nuffield, we have 2 weeks in one of the most exciting countries in the world - and I don't just want to be another tourist seeing the sights.  The challenge of reading Safely Home by Randy Alcorn, and The Heavenly Man about Brother Yun, make me want to see another side of China, and perhaps contribute something, however small, to the life of Christians in this vast and confusing country.  The public face of China is very much success and optimism, but reports about Christianity and the house-church movement today indicate there is still very much a darker side.  Probably not the right subject for a blog but thoughts to mull over and more importantly talk to God about.  Whichever country we are in, we want to be listening to Him and others.