Homeward bound

Homeward bound, originally uploaded by ericdues.

Now I know the fun part if this trip is over... The pilots just
arrived, my phones clock is set to Ohio time (Beijing time -13
hours... it just became yesterday night when I did that), and I had
the "American Breakfast" at the hostel... the only American food on
this trip except a New York pizza joint in Siberia.

I guess one more accomplishment can be made, I have never been on a
747, although I am quite sure it will be like all other planes;
crammed and uncomfortable... Tylenol PM anyone? I now have about 2.5
days, counting in-air time, to adjust to the time difference before
leaving my fantasy world and getting back to thinking about bridges
and walls and other such exciting topics.

It will be good to land on American soil and then be able to figure
things out simply by reading instructions... but that is much less
exciting. After going through customs here and checking in for the
flight, I was reminded how horrible and annoying and self-centered
that travelling Americans can be (in general).

I know I am not the perfect traveller, but I think we as a travelling
nation would be a bit more respected if we realized that by travelling
you must be willing to accept some level of discomfort... if you
can't, just don't travel... Please! I actually saw an American prick
hassling security because he wanted to talk to the airport manager
because some Chinese man and wife skipped some spots in the line to
meet a friend and because they appeared to be late for their flight...
come on people, have some damn understanding.

Another thing that a trip like this does is put into perspective the
small portion of the world that I have seen. Nick, for example, has
been going for something like 7 months and started in the Middle East,
and we ended up meeting at the Mongolian border... quite some distance
and time away from his beginning. I am also constantly running into
those who are at various stages of 1-2 year trips around the world...
my dream trip.

I am, of course, next to an old Chinese couple that speaks no English
and does not seem so keen to move, I am sure they will love me when I
get up after my hopefully long sleep.

Takeoff time is here, and I can't send this from the airport here, so
it will get sent when I land in NYC... USA and Thanksgiving food here
I come!

- The Dues

Goodbye Beijing

Goodbye Beijing, originally uploaded by ericdues.

It is that time... I have seen all I am going to see, done all I am
going to do, and bought all of the stuff I am going to buy... and I
loved every minute of it! The picture above is of the courtyard in
the hostel I am staying at, the Peking International Youth Hostel
(which I highly recommend). I am beginning writing this after going on
my last shopping spree at the Yashow market.

I have loved this city and would love to spend more time here; I will
be back in the future.

Last night, Nicks friend (Dom) from Australia brought us into some
back alley resturaunt that was the best food that I have had while
here (Chinese duck in Beijing with three Aussies, how much more
authentic thanksgiving can you get). Tonight we are participating in a
dumpling party at the hostel then going out to some bars recommended
by Dom.

Beijing:
-It is huge
-The sights are great (although I did not even get close to seeing it
all)
-The people are generally nice and helpful
-The traffic is nuts (I am writing this because I need to kill some
time to key the traffic die down so that the taxi isn't so expensive)
-The food is great... The best of the trip
-It is pretty cheap

After spending 5 days here in this city, and realizing that I really
need 15 days here and another 90 in the country, I have no doubt that
the upcoming Olympics will be amazing. There is construction
everywhere right now, and today we went to see the Olympic stadium
park and site... It is huge and progressing nicely.

I do think, that in about 2-3 years I will likely hop on a cheap
flight here and stock up on clothes, the savings (especially if you
buy good stuff like suites) is enough to pay for the flight and hotel
(if you were going to buy that stuff anyway)... if you bargain hard!
I did the final fitting of my suites today, and they are awesome, and
worth 10x what I paid.

The people I meet, even in the countryside, were nice and helpful to
me, the dumb white hairy guy.

I am now sending this after the dumpling party, and in 12 hours I jump
on an Air China flight home... I wish I had more time.

In short, good food, nice people, and cheap stuff makes for great place.

Beijing: I'll be back!

- The Dues

The wall

The wall, originally uploaded by ericdues.

I just got back from a 10k hike of the Great Wall. I do not think I
will be upload any pictures tonight. I hope I can get some pictures
uploaded tommorow night while packing everything up for the trip home.

The walk was tough, but we made it in three hours. I rode a 500 foot
long zip line about 180 feet in the air over a gourge along the rout.

We will be meeting up with a friend of Nicks tonight and he is going
to show us a good place to eat.

- The Dues

Fwd: Beijing update

I will try to produce a larger update tonight as I am leaving in a bit for a pretty busy day.

Summary:

Arrived and shared a cab to hostel.

Walked around and ate the following:
A wrap of mystery meat
A bowl of noodles
Liver soup
Scorpions on a stick
Silk worms in a stick
Grasshopperon a stick
Seahorse on a stick

Then beer and bed

Yesterday was forbidden city, the square and an acrobat show and Peking duck

Today I hope to see the olympic park and go to a black market.

I will try to do some pictures tonight.

- The Dues

Beijing update 2

I did forget about three other things that forgot that I ate on the
first night... an egg wrap with random things in it, eggs hard boiled
in soy sauce in a pot on the street, and a sweet potatoe steamed over
coals on the street... but those are not to weird, so who cares.
Tonight after we ate some normal hot-pot food, Nick and I walked
around the street markets again and had some banana doughnuts, deep
fried lotus root, whole squid on a stick, and fruit on a stick coated
in caramelized sugar on it. I love the food in place!

The big dissapointment thus far has been the prices on most of the
electronics that that I am after. Certain things like memory and the
like are cheap, but I have been dissapointed with the camera and
mobile phone prices. I think I actually offended one of the
saleswomen with the price u offered her for a camera. I did like the
DVD prices though.

Clothes, however, make the whole trip seem like a financial success. 2
custom suits (for less than the cost of one poor quality suits in the
states) and a lot of other clothes later I will bit need to buy much
for quite some time. I need to go for a touch-up fitting on Friday
then pick them up before I fly home on Saturday.

Well, after another failed attempt to post some pictures tonight (due
to the computers being occupied and then drinking with other random
travellers from England, Switzerland, and Germany) I will go to bed to
prepare for my 10k hike of the Great Wall tommorow.

- The Dues

Goodbye Mongolia

Goodbye Mongolia, originally uploaded by ericdues.

> The above photo was taken by a strange but cool old Itallian guy
> that was playing with my phone while me and the Brazillian (Gustavo)
> ate our hangover meal in the very nice dining car. I had some
> mystery soup that was very good.
>
> Well, the last hours in Mongolia were eventful to say the least.
> After starting the night at a decent (by Mongolian standards)
> Italian place with done Gengis Khan beer and scotch and tequilla, we
> proceeded to go to several other bars. Then it was a strange taxi
> ride around to several different clubs that were closed.
>
> Finally we arrived, with the help of some Mongolian UNESCO worker,
> at a bar/disco/freak show place in some back alley... the kind of
> place you could only find if you had local knowledge of the place.
> That place had everything one could want, and after several bottles
> of vodka we took a "taxi" (some random guys car... this is common
> here) back to the hostel and packed our bags for the train. Gustavo
> and Nick then passed out, while me and his dad (Steve) went and
> found a 24 hour diner and got some mystery breakfast.
>
> We then returned to the hostel, woke up the other two, and the UB
> Guesthouse van took our inebriated group to the train station. Upon
> boarding the train I slept for some time until the Gustavo awoke (in
> a different carriage) and we proceeded to the dining car after
> finding and waking the Aussie crew.
>
> Now, as I write this I am in the middle of the Chinese customs and
> wheel changing, which I guess means I am in China. It is amazing to
> me that thus process of wheel changing and arrival/departure customs
> is quicker than just the departure process in Russia.
>
> I am sharing a kupe with all Mongolians, and they once again are
> pretty nice, especially the younger lady that speaks English. In
> another 15 hours I will be in Beijing, and the while crew I have
> been with lately is staying at the same hostel as me, so we then
> will have several pairs of eyes to help us get lost while trying to
> find the hostel. After check-in is when I hope to post this and many
> other (6) backlogged updates.
>
>

UB Guesthouse

UB Guesthouse, originally uploaded by ericdues.

As I sit here watching Star Wars and getting ready to go out for some
pool and beer, I thought I should write something specifically for
this place. They are the most helpfull hostel that I have ever stayed
at, and made what would have been a good stay in Mongolia even better.

Just the free transport to/from the train station is good enough, but
the ease and cheapness of setting up a stay in the national park makes
it even better. The hosts are the most helpful I have come across.

A couple of the Swedes and French guys are taking a 12 day Gobi tour,
and I am extremely jealous.

Now we are watching the new Simpsons movie, which goes to show the
range of free entertainement here.

Ok, I am going to watch this movie now... since I have not seen it yet.

But, I can not stress enough how great this place is, also as
evidenced by its reviews on Hostel World.

- The Dues

Mongolia

Mongolia, originally uploaded by ericdues.

Well, the Mongolian border crossing was relatively straight forward.
After our train moved about 35 kilometers, we cleared customs and went
through the inspections in a matter of an hour. Then all of the
Mongolians that got on at the border, got back off and moved to other
cars. Although the one we were talking to came back to our kupe and
played with my phone for a bit and shared a hard-earned beer with us.

The Aussie son, Nick, fell into a concrete drainage trench about 5-6
feet deep while running back to our train in the dark after buying
some beers at a small shop near the train station. I was essentially
just wearing long underwear and sandles during this time, which I am
sure looked a bit odd. Nick ended up breaking one bottle and cutting
his hand and bruising his heel in the process, but is lucky bit to
have really hurt himself worse.

So, I thought the train arrived at noon, but the Russian timetable
switched to local Mongolian time at the border, so my ride was not
there, although the fantastic UB Guesthouse (who I was staying with on
my last night in UB) was there to pick up other guests. After being
dropped off by them at the office of the company (Tiara Resort) that I
booked my train ticket and national park stay with, it soon became
apparent that I would be waiting for quite some time until they
opened... so I decided to try to make alternate plans.

I walked back to the train station so that I could orient myself
correctly, but I did happen to run back into the van dropping off
other people from the UB Guesthouse that were bound for Bejing on the
Thursday version of the same train I am taking on Sunday. I asked the
driver and he took me back to the UB Guesthouse and I decided to book
my camping trip through them and with the Aussies and the
Brazillian... which would mean that I would not be alone the whole time.

The picture above is taken at sunset on the last night. The first day
and night the group of Swedes from Russia were staying with the same
family and we had a pretty sizeable vodka party with all of the random
backpackers that were staying there (about 9 in total). The ger was
so damn hot because the oompa-loompa lookalike guy that stoked the
fire filled it with coal to a level that made the entire stove glow
red-hot. This then essentially made the place a sauna and in the cold
ass weather there sat about 8 guys in their shorts sweating and
drinking vodka... only to occasionly run outside in the cold to cool
down and stop sweating.

The two days were spent playing soccer with the kids, horseback
riding, eating real Mongolian barbecue, taking photos, drinking vodka
and solving the worlds problems, and hiking some mountains.

The scenery was absolutely amazing, and the picture above definately
does not do it justice. I am glad I got out and did this now, because
while going around the Terelj National Park, it was clear that more
upscale resorts will be going in the future and the very desolate
landscape and nomadic lifestyle that people come to see will be
infringed upon and the experience will be lessened a bit. The
completely black starry sky alone is worth the trip, and the larger
resorts will take away some if that too.

Well, after having a huge Korean meal for $5 it is off for a bit if
drinking tonight, then time to catch my last train in the morning.

- The Dues

Borat

Borat, originally uploaded by ericdues.

Well, the train ride fleeing Russia was everything that it should have
been. I shared a car with two assholes from Kazakhstan... that's
right, as seen in the movie Borat. These dicks wouldn't even let me
use the small table at all, and so I kept pretty confined to the top
bunk. That went on for about the first hour until things took a turn
for the (much) better.

I found two British girls, one Brazillian, and an Australian father/
son team doing the Trans-Siberian trip. As fate would have it, they
were the only two in their kupe as well, so I spent most of the trip
drinking and chatting with them and the Brazillian.

The exit process from Russia started out with them disconnecting our
car from all of the others and leaving it alone on the platform die
three hours of no activity. Then, about 30 Mongolians got onto the
train and then the customs procedure and baggage inspections and no
smiles except for from us and the Mongolians... this was already the
beginning of me liking Mongolia and her people.

I will say I am happy to be out of Russia and around some more
friendly people.

- The Dues

Self Portrait

Self Portrait, originally uploaded by ericdues.

I took this shortly before the most time consuming border checkpoint I
have ever encountered. That will be detailed more in what I expect to
be one of the next posts. When I woke up in the morning we had
dropped all of the cars behind mine, so I was able to take photos from
the back of the train.

- The Dues

View from the back

View from the back, originally uploaded by ericdues.

After they disconnected the cars behind mine, this is 2 hours before
customs.

- The Dues

The FINAL Russian train station!

The FINAL Russian train station!, originally uploaded by ericdues.

Well, assuming that they let me leave the country, this is how I will
spend my last few hours outside a train in Russia, waiting in this
room in the train station in Irkutsk. I am sure it is hard to
decipher, but my train is the last one on the timetable in the
picture... the very slow daily #362 to Ulan-Bator. As usual, the
timetable is all based on Moscow time, which is 5 hours behind local
time. My train leaves about 2.5 hours from the time I am writing this.

This daily train stops for about 1 minute every 15-20 minutes at some
small station for the first 16 hours... That is a lot of stopping that
is sure to get annoying while trying to sleep, especially if people
are constantly getting in and out of my kupe.

I did manage to wander around the crowded central market, backpack and
all, and procure some provisions for this 36 hour trip to Ulan-Bator.
I have the following: 1 liter of OJ, 1 small loaf of fresh (now)
bread, 2 small "just add hot water" instant mashed potatoe cups, about
6" of 1" diameter hard sausage (commence making jokes now), and about
15 bite-sized pastries. My only concern is that I don't have enough
liquid or any booze, but that stuff is heavy and I did not feel like
carrying any extra weight on my 5 mile journey around town today...
since they thoughtfully put the bus station on the opposite side of
town from the train station. I have around 200 rubles left, which
should be enough for me to buy any supplemental booze and/or drinks
that I need en-route. This will also allow me to avoid the hassle of
exchanging my excess rubles for tugrigs, the Mongolian currency.

I will definately say that I hate old Russian women. I expect old
ladies, in general, to be nice. I am currently sitting between two of
them that just angerilly told a Mongolian dude that he could not sit
in the one empty seat in our group of 4. They have done this
repeatedly over the past hour, insinuating that the seat is taken
when, in fact, the damn old lady is just a greedy old bitch. The other
old hag just randomly starts complaining about something... I would
assume me... the bastard foreigner who took a seat because it was
open. If I have to share a kupe with either of these ladies that will
turn into an interesting power struggle! I keep getting the feeling
that the random complainer is about to hit me over the head with her
bag! As I look around the room, I don't see any old women that I
would dare approach and ask to sit by.