The Mongolian country side

After a few days in Ulaan Baatar, we left the capital to spend 11 days on the country side. There were 5 of us and our wonderful driver Bataar. He became our Mongolian superman fixing everything from the car to making sure us vegetarians didn't get meat. "2 meet, 3 no-meat, I fix!"

Amarbayasgalant monastry

Horse riding at Khovsgol Lake

Moron city

Mother and child

It started snowing in the mountains

Bataar, our Mongolian Superman!

A Mongolian Ger

White Lake

Gandan Monastery, Ulaan Baatar

The temple

beautiful old lady

Children and dhows at the temple

Praying wheels

About Mongolia and broken passports

First thing first, I'm having a great time and Mongolia is exactly how I imagined it to be. Driving through the country on bus, looking through the window all you see is endless steppes and hills with the occasionally grouping of trees. Every now and then we passed a ger or two and hurdles of hundred horses or goat and cheeps. And as the sun was setting in the late afternoon the landscape got a golden glow before the moon and the stars appeared on the sky.

I've always heard that Ulaan Baatar is the ugliest city in the world. It's definitely not beautiful, it is big, noisy and polluted, but it has it's charm. Compared to the Siberian cities, Ulaan Baatar is a lot more vibrant and I can feel that I'm getting further south. Ulaan Baatar is strange in a cool way and I really like it!

When it comes to the broken passport, that's a different story. Ever since I entered Russia, the front page has been getting looser and looser. And as I arrived at the border between Russia and Mongolia it was barely hanging together and I was pretty close to not beeing allowed to enter Mongolia. Luckily a Norwegian consulat consulat was opened a month ago here in Ulaan Baatar and they were optimistic about getting me a new travel document to get to China where I can get a new passport. And as they said " worst case scenario, we'll just have to smuggle you out of the country!"

Lake Baikal and the Olkhon Island

Walking into the Big Empty Nothin

Erik and Vegard are the two dots on the top of the cliff

The Village

Julianne and Lake Baikal

The Trans-Siberian Railway

I've always dreamt about the Trans-Siberian railway. Taking the train for days, living on board and travelling across Russia's grass lands and forests It's also one of those things I can't really explain why I've wanted to do. To me it has seemed as something magical.

And in fact, it is something really special about it. You feel the train transform into a small community of its own and you feel that you and the people around you belong there.

We didn't get our own compartment because that was too expensive, so we shared a sleeping wagon with around 50 others. I was of course lucky enough to end up next to 4 drunken guys. They were drunk from the moment they entered the train until they left it. 9 in the morning they started breakfast with a 2 and a half liter bottle of beer and the evening was ended with vodka. Bottle after bottle. Oh yes, those Russians knows how to drink! They were noisy, nasty and played really loud music when the rest of the train wanted to sleep. Wonderful!

Luckily the lady sleeping below me was very nice. She shared her grapes, her tea and a little bit of everything she had. That is the spirit on the train, people share! My friend Julianne ended up next to some great people. They took good care of us, were really eager to teach us some Russian. We played cards, drank tea and laughed a lot since we didn't really understand much of what was going on all the time.

All in all the train was a good experience.Reading a book or listening to music while looking out the window seeing the landscape fly by, the old ladies selling food and beverages on almost every station, playing cards and drinking tea. It's magic in it's own special way.

The train

Ladies on the stations selling a bit of everything

River cruise in Siberia

We are sitting by the river in Tomsk, watching the people passing by, the fishermen that doesn't seem to be getting any fish and talking about how warm it is here in Siberia, almost 20 degrees today. There is a big, blue and rusty boat next to us playing really loud music. As we sit there, people start to get on the boat and I say: "Let's get on!" My friends get up and we run towartds the boat. Getting on we realise that we have no idea where the boat is going and how we are going to get back. Pretending we are on a river cruise we enjoy a bottle of beer and sing along to "Winds of changes". After about half an hour, the boat makes a huge turn and head back in the direction we came from.

It was in fact a river cruise.

Long live impulisve actions!

Autumn colours in SIberia

It's strange how important the weather is. At least it is to me.
When we came to Tomsk, a city in Siberia, two days ago it was grey and cold weather. I immediately didn't like it very much.

The second day here I woke up to a marvelling sun and a bright blue sky. The autumn colours got a golden glow from the sun and Tomsk changed for me. Tomsk is not a very big city, but as the guide book says, it is one of Siberia's most likable cities. It is packed with wooden houses with the most incredible carvings.

Street in Tomsk

I felt I stepped back 200 years in time as I took the bus with to French guys to a village outside Tomsk. It is a gorgeous little place situated next to the river. The landscape is as flat as you imagine Siberia to be and it is completely quiet except for a few dogs barking as we pass and the old woman and men harvesting vegetables from their gardens. Next to the bus stop some old ladies sit with buckets filled with onions, cabbage, potatoes and carrots, along with milk and dried fish that they sell to people passing by. The people in the village are farmers. The woman are wearing skarfs on their heads, long colorful skirts covered in dirt from the feelds and the men have old hats, big muddy boots and always a cigarett in their mouth. It's been long since I've seen a more idyllic place than that!Kolarovo

Siberia is beautiful in autumn, especially when the sun is shining!