It's time to head south. Time to escape the cold. I've been wanting warmer weather since I left Norway more than two months ago. But Siberia was cold, Mongolia even colder, and now it's snowing in Beijing. Apparently I am not doing a great job in escaping the cold.
But I've loved every second of my trip so far, even though it's been pretty cold. And Beijing, wow, I don't even know where to start. What a mesmerizing city!
There are loads of things to see and do here, things that are sort of mandatory when you are in Beijing. But to be honest, I haven't done much of that during the three weeks I've been hanging around the city. I never really felt like it. Too many Chinese tourist groups with flags and matching hats for me to feel comfortable entering the Forbidden City. Too many people, too crowded, a bit claustrophobic.
What I have done a lot of is wandering around in random hutongs, small cobble stoned streets and stone houses with small and beautiful carvings on the roof. Looking at life, taking in the colors, the smell og street food, the people bustling about with their lives, old men sitting on the stairs playing Chinese chess and people hurrying by on their bicycles and looking at me as a stranger that had gotten lost in their neighborhood. And sometimes that was the case, but I couldn't care less. I enjoyed it!
The parks in Beijing are also amazing. So well organized, with loads of weeping willows, flowers, bamboo and rivers peacefully floating through the maze of green. It's a wonderful hide out to get away from the noise of the city. The parks are alive in Beijing. In any park you will find groups of people practicing tai tchi, or doing ball room dances or aerobics. People are singing, not for money, but just for the fun of it. Others might be practicing an instrument or preforming a play for anyone to watch and enjoy.
All in all, Beijing is a wonderful place to spend a few weeks. Even after 3 weeks here I'm not tired of it. I know that the city is a place I will always remember with joy and it's a place that my heart will always want to come back to.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
A hike into history
The Great Wall of China. The mother of all walls. And yes, it is as amazing as people claim it to be!
I left Beijing early one morning and headed north towards the Wall, to a part of the wall that is very little restored, but that has some of the most amazing views you get on The Great Wall. After a few hours of driving I arrived at Jinshanling. It was cold outside, but the sky was as clear as it can get, and I was lucky to escape the never ending fog and pollution one finds in Beijing. Getting up on the wall was a 2 km hike straight up. The Wall is built on mountain tops and stretched from peak to peak as far as I could see in both directions. On the top a stunning view met me, but it would only get better and better the further I went.
My destination was 10 km away, and it is not easy to hike The Great Wall. It is constantly up and down from peak to peak so steep that you sometimes need to use both hands and feet to get up the remains if the stairs that once used to be there. But oh, it's worth it!
As I reached the highest point of the hike, my legs were like jelly and layer after layer of clothes had come of becaus all of a sudden I wasn't that cold anymore. I stopped for a few minutes to catch my breath and to take in the beauty of what surrounded me, still finding it hard to believe that I was actually walking on a wall constructed more than 2000 years ago I ask myself how they got all the stones on top of the mountains to construct the wall.
Unfortunately I can't stand like that, admiring the wall, forever so I start the descent towards Simatai and the zippline that is going to take me down the wall, across the lake and back to the buss that awaits to bring me back to Beijing.
I left Beijing early one morning and headed north towards the Wall, to a part of the wall that is very little restored, but that has some of the most amazing views you get on The Great Wall. After a few hours of driving I arrived at Jinshanling. It was cold outside, but the sky was as clear as it can get, and I was lucky to escape the never ending fog and pollution one finds in Beijing. Getting up on the wall was a 2 km hike straight up. The Wall is built on mountain tops and stretched from peak to peak as far as I could see in both directions. On the top a stunning view met me, but it would only get better and better the further I went.
My destination was 10 km away, and it is not easy to hike The Great Wall. It is constantly up and down from peak to peak so steep that you sometimes need to use both hands and feet to get up the remains if the stairs that once used to be there. But oh, it's worth it!
As I reached the highest point of the hike, my legs were like jelly and layer after layer of clothes had come of becaus all of a sudden I wasn't that cold anymore. I stopped for a few minutes to catch my breath and to take in the beauty of what surrounded me, still finding it hard to believe that I was actually walking on a wall constructed more than 2000 years ago I ask myself how they got all the stones on top of the mountains to construct the wall.
Unfortunately I can't stand like that, admiring the wall, forever so I start the descent towards Simatai and the zippline that is going to take me down the wall, across the lake and back to the buss that awaits to bring me back to Beijing.
Monday, November 09, 2009
Imagine
Imagine waking up to a sunny day in Mongolia. You have a day of horse riding ahead of you on the shoe of a lake in the northern parts of the country. Even though it is a clear day and you can't see a cloud anywhere on the sky, you put on all you have of warm clothes and makes sure that your jacket is properly zipped up so that the freezing wind won't sneak in under you scarf.
You help your guides load the pack horses before you climb up on your own horse and the group sets out into the nature. It doesn't go fast, you have all the time in the world to enjoy the nature around you, the colors and the quietness. The wind blowing in the threes, the birds that sings and flies away as you pass by. It is a wonderful change to the Russian minivan you have just spent three days in.
After a few hours you stop for lunch. You all enter into a ger where you are served home made bread with cream and sugar and a salty milk tea with butter. According to Mongolian hospitality, travelers can enter any ger on the country side and they will be served whatever the family has to offer. It is great!
As the day comes to an end you arrive at the ger where you will spend the night. It's already pretty cold and you hurry inside the warm ger, help yourself to s cup of tea and relaxes a little bit before dinner. You have to keep the fire alive at all times, if not all the heat will go out through the big hole in the roof that they have to get light in the ger at day time.
Going to bed you put on your thermo underwear, scarf, glows and a beanie before you climb into your sleeping bag and pull the blanket over you ready for a good night sleep. In the middle of the night you wake up and can't really feel your toes anymore. It's dark, the fire has gone out, you really want to get up and start it again, but you can't get your self to get out into the cold ger so you try to fall asleep again. And eventually you do.
Morning comes and the ger gets brighter and brighter as the sun rises and slowly you wake up in minus 2 degrees Celsius to yet another day on the horse back in he Mongolian country side.
You help your guides load the pack horses before you climb up on your own horse and the group sets out into the nature. It doesn't go fast, you have all the time in the world to enjoy the nature around you, the colors and the quietness. The wind blowing in the threes, the birds that sings and flies away as you pass by. It is a wonderful change to the Russian minivan you have just spent three days in.
After a few hours you stop for lunch. You all enter into a ger where you are served home made bread with cream and sugar and a salty milk tea with butter. According to Mongolian hospitality, travelers can enter any ger on the country side and they will be served whatever the family has to offer. It is great!
As the day comes to an end you arrive at the ger where you will spend the night. It's already pretty cold and you hurry inside the warm ger, help yourself to s cup of tea and relaxes a little bit before dinner. You have to keep the fire alive at all times, if not all the heat will go out through the big hole in the roof that they have to get light in the ger at day time.
Going to bed you put on your thermo underwear, scarf, glows and a beanie before you climb into your sleeping bag and pull the blanket over you ready for a good night sleep. In the middle of the night you wake up and can't really feel your toes anymore. It's dark, the fire has gone out, you really want to get up and start it again, but you can't get your self to get out into the cold ger so you try to fall asleep again. And eventually you do.
Morning comes and the ger gets brighter and brighter as the sun rises and slowly you wake up in minus 2 degrees Celsius to yet another day on the horse back in he Mongolian country side.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
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
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
It started snowing in the mountains
Bataar, our Mongolian Superman!
A Mongolian Ger
White LakeGandan Monastery, Ulaan Baatar
The temple
beautiful old lady
Children and dhows at the temple
Praying wheelsTuesday, October 06, 2009
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!"
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!"
Thursday, October 01, 2009
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
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