31 May 2008

Xi'an and Hua Shan - a walk in the park

The city of Xi'an has a population of 3.5 million. It used to be a key trade city on China's end of the silk road during its heydays. Consequently, there are a lot of historical sites to visit. Being a silk road buff, it is obvious that I had to explore this place during my China visit.

Upon arriving in this city, it became obvious to me that there are other silk road fans as well. My hostel is packed with a lot of people - a harsh change from Pingyao where I finally had a dormitory room on my own. Also, I am sharing the dorm - among other people - for the first time with some Chinese travelers. This is quite an experience in terms of noise levels, snoring, various sounds from different body holes - and last but not least - unusual smells.

Since I was still a bit lazy from the resting days back in Pingyao, I decided to jump on the first occasion to visit the "Terracotta Army" right on the first day. Together with Joe, Evan and Peer (all of whom I met in Pingyao) we went for a package tour provided by the hostel. As it turned out, our backpacker place runs the same kind of tour which you would expect from an average posh five star hotel: Essentially it was a 7 hour sales show featuring a two hour stop at the archaeological site of the Terracotta Army.

The first stop on that tour would bring us to a souvenir factory, where we were introduced into the making of terracotta statues. After that ten minute crash-course providing us with "insights" into what the guide called "traditional terracotta statue making" (cough, cough, the Terracotta Army was discovered in 1974, cough, cough), our tour group had a lot of time to learn about how to bargain when shopping. However, I discovered that the toilets were pretty clean, and since the one next to my dorm is of a squat-type and not too clean, I decided to spend some time next to the sales facility simply dumping in style.

During the afternoon, we had the chance to learn about silk making. This was the perfect opportunity to take a couple of pictures, because the silk sales show was just next to a tourist spot featuring clones of Egyptian monuments, such as the Pyramids. And the "dumping" facilities at the silk sales show were absolutely superb,too. Looking back, I feel like the "day one" consisted of going to the loo and a bit of sightseeing at the Terracotta Army site.

Day two was much more interesting. Probably because we had a plan and organized the trip ourselves: Go up the Hua Shan mountain. There is some backpacker legends surrounding this climb. It is supposed to be very dangerous. So, we were scared (woo hoo). The Chinese guy in our dorm was just coming back from there, confirming to us that the trail was very dangerous indeed - and that we should not underestimate the trip. Among other - helpful - hints, he strongly suggested to us to use gloves. Sure, the mountain top was on 2105m of altitude - but would it really be that cold up there?

Nevertheless, we set off next day with the intention to stay overnight at the "East Peak" on top of the Hua Shan mountain - without gloves. The start at the mountain base was at an altitude of 400m and the first half of the 6km journey to the "North Peak" was literally a walk in the park. Lots of hawkers were positioned along the route selling - among other things - gloves. There were also loads of kiosks along the route, where we stacked up on food and drinks whenever needed. People coming into our direction were all wearing gloves and we started to question our keen ambition to do this trip without wearing them.

The second half of the "North Peak" climb - at an altitude of about 800m - was indeed becoming quite steep. It essentially consisted of stairs with chains on each side to cling on. Some of the stairs were literally vertical and having an additional chain in the middle. But this was far from being dangerous. But there we discovered why the locals were wearing gloves: They were climbing the mountain by walking up "on all four" (with their hands on the stairs instead of using the chains). Once arrived on "North Peak" (about 1600m), we were expecting the trip to become a bit less strenuous. But we were mistaken. Yet another stretch of endless stairs would finally bring us to our destination, "East Peak" (2105m), where we booked into a hostel dormitory for the night.

It wasn't really peer pressure (an inside joke) forcing us to climb yet another set of stairs to watch the sunset at the "South Peak" (2160m). Once there, we discovered, that China is - even at this altitude - still covered in a smog and dust cloud. The sun simply sets in a grey, foggy soup. Nevertheless, we (Peer, Joe and I) enjoyed that part of the day a lot and we went back to catch some food at the hostel on "our peak". Since prices seem to be regulated on the mountain, the dinner and the beer were quite cheap. In fact, it was cheaper than most places downtown Xi'an, although everything is being hauled by foot on top of the mountain. This puts things back home a bit in perspective: Paying twice the price on a Swiss mountain for a "Snickers" bar, just because they had to drive it up the mountain, is quite upsetting.

Watching the sunrise next morning was much more interesting from a scenic standpoint. Winds seemed to have cleared the skies and the view was quite nice. For the subsequent walk down the mountain, we did choose a different route, which runs underneath the cable car linking "North Peak" to the mountain base. This path was considered to be even more "dangerous" but to us it was simply "strenuous". After all, the whole trip was quite a walk in the park - worth doing it and certainly a highlight of the Xi'an stay.

Labels: China

posted by Reto at 09:34 4 Comments Links to this post

24 May 2008

Last train to Pingyao

Train tickets for sleeping berths between Beijing and Pingyao (a touristic city about 12 hours south of the Chinese capital) are quite hard to get. Instead of traveling on a different date - where beds would be available for that overnight ride - I did choose to go "soft seat". This means essentially a journey in third class, having just a seat.

The reality is actually much worse than that. Once on the train, my seat was taken by people without reservation. They would quickly vacate my seat, once they figured out that I had a reservation - but then they'd just would seat next to me. Means, two seats would occupy three persons. And I wasn't the only traveler in this situation - my estimate is that the train left Beijing with about 15% more passengers than seats.

During the journey, each time when I was leaving my seat to go to the toilet, to have a smoke or to get some hot water, I would find it occupied by a sleeping person upon return. So I was quite busy communicating with the Chinese - essentially by chasing away squatters.

On top of that, my seat neighbor was drunk and had eaten lots of garlic prior that day. And he was about to eat a very smelly (but probably tasty) grilled chicken right when we left Beijing. He was clearly upset by having a European-sized neighbor and made clear and angry gestures that he felt uncomfortable by me stealing "his" legroom. Probably as a revenge, he tried to wipe his oily hands under the table - after having finished his meal - by using my pants as a napkin substitute. I gave him the stare of Darth Vader and actually smacked his hand.

Since I also had little legroom left, I decided after two hours into the journey to stand instead in the smoker's compartment. This is simply the area where the car doors are located. At least I would have some space there - and smokers tend to be the friendlier persons with whom you'd enter quickly into a friendly conversation.

At first, this worked out quite fine. I picked up a few words of Chinese and some guy did let me play some kind of a "Mario brothers" clone game on his mobile phone. We had a bit of a competition in who was the better gamer (me, obviously). But then, the train stopped several times and it seemed that for each person leaving the car, at least three others were boarding. Needless to outline that the smokers area filled up very quickly, too. People were lying on newspapers on the floors. The car attendant even had to deal with people trying to use the toilets as a sleeping or baggage area.

However, the Chinese people are very eager to please tourists and I was offered more than once to have a seat when a person was leaving the train at a stop. They were clearly not comfortable seeing an European in the same situation as they were in. But I refused several times, because I simply would not want to end up with the little legroom the Chinese trains do offer. However, after five hours standing near the doors, I gave in. By that time it was 3 o'clock in the morning and I was desperate to catch some sleep. So I sat down on one of the next seats offered to me. But then again, the train would stop every hour or so and people went off and on the car with all the disturbances that come with it: Storing the luggage, shouting, stumbling over people who are sleeping on the floor, etc.

Moreover, one guy was trying to sleep standing in the aisle, by using my headrest as a kind of fixture for his arms, preventing me to lean back. The other guy next to me changed his position every two minutes, pushing my legs away. And the lady sitting at my right was not very amused being touched by a Westerners legs.

To make a long story short: I had about one hour of sleep in total, which were split in a dozen or so power napping minutes. But it was an experience and I took it with the best of the humor possible. Nevertheless, third class in China will be off-limits to me in the future (contrary to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan where 3rd class "Platzkartny" is actually quite comfortable).

About two hours before arrival in the morning, the mood of the people on the train got much more relaxed, since a lot of people were leaving at stations. It seemed that finally everyone was able so sit down somewhere. By that time, I had a very nice conversation with a Chinese student who was speaking as much English as I do speak Chinese. But the conversation was nevertheless very entertaining and friendly. That moment compensated for the painful night.

Consequently, the first thing upon arrival in Pingyao was to catch some sleep in the hostel. The hostel is quite nice, located in a former governor's house, with several large courtyards, surrounded by the dormitories. I ended up in a dormitory on the first floor of the main building. Waking up every morning feels like being back in time somewhere in the 18th century in rural China. Adding to this illusion is the fact that the core of this touristy place is closed to traffic. Walking down the stairs to the shared shower in the courtyard, the birds, trees and the sunrise are the perfect start for a nice day. This is the ideal place to get some rest, do laundry, plan for the trips ahead and read that book which I never bothered to open since the start of my journey.

Labels: China

posted by Reto at 06:16 1 Comments Links to this post

22 May 2008

Party city Beijing

The train between Ulan-Bator in Mongolia and Beijing in China contains possibly the most scenic leg on the whole Trans-Mongolian train journey. Two hours before arriving into Beijing, the landscape changed from a flat desert into a green valley. Alongside the hill, our train was squeezing through tunnels and numerous bends. Jason, Ania (from my Gobi desert trip) and Adrien (a French bloke from the hostel in Ulan-Bator) were busy taking pictures through the windows.

Right after arriving in Beijing we were greeted by a minute of silence for the victims of the Sechuan earthquake, while getting our first money from the local ATM. Actually, the minute of silence was a very noisy one, since all the cars turned on their horns. But people were standing in silence and respect - so did we.

Jason and Ania during breakfast

The hostel in Beijing is actually a party place ("Leo's hostel" - for the interested), next to Tienanmen square. This is quite a change to all the (quiet) places which I have been to on this trip and it reminds me a bit of the hostels back in Australia.

The city of Beijing itself has changed over the past ten years - the last time I've been here. Back then, the people were mostly not interested in entering conversations with foreigners, the buses were shabby and queueing was an alien concept to the Chinese. Now guess what, Beijing has turned out to be a very friendly place and people everywhere try to help you, try to speak in English, are outgoing and warm - always with a smile on their face. The buses are - without exceptions - clean, and brand new. In the subway, people queue (!!!). I am amazed at the change that has happened here and I am certain that the Chinese are ready to be a great hosting nation for the upcoming Olympic games.

Yes, there is still the problem of pollution and the obviously shrinking number of bicycles in the city. But this was not really a surprise to me. Nevertheless, I set out - on the second day here - to visit the Great Wall. I went by bus to Miyun, then by Minibus to Jinshanling. From there it was a 10km hike to Simatai. About 500m of each end points of the walk are somewhat touristic sites with a lot of people and hawkers - but I've spent the rest of the walk on top of that stretch of the Great Wall in a breathtaking solitude.

Returning from Simatai to Beijing in the evening proved to be quite a challenge. For whatever reason, during my stay the Tienanmen square became closed - which meant that the three subway stations nearest to the hostel were closed as well. Distances in Beijing are big (ask Madame Flip Flop about her blisterful experience) and therefore it took over two hours to return back to the hostel, where I arrived at around 9pm - completely knocked out.

Jason, Ania and I spent our last day in the Summer Palace, to where we went by boat. I enjoyed this part of Beijing and being with Jason and Ania a lot. Since the ferry company had no ferry boat for the ride back, they improvised somewhat with a speedboat. That was massively awesomo... :) At one instance, our boat created a mini-tsunami wave behind it, which went then over the shoreline wetting most of the fishermen sitting along the canal. But who cares in fifty years, since for us this was the perfect icing on the day's cake.

It is a bit sad to leave so fast - but I feel that I have seen many of the sights during my past trips to this city. Also, I am very eager to discover countryside China. Yet again, I have to say Goodbye to people to whom I grew accustomed. Next to Jason and Ania were a bunch of French guys at the hostel whom I'll be certainly missing as well. All that fun at the hostel with Tourists and in the streets with the Chinese were making Beijing a very memorable stay for me.

Labels: China

posted by Reto at 08:01 1 Comments Links to this post

16 May 2008

No desert for old men: The Gobi

Many backpackers do choose the same route (hey, they all read the same guide book...). Therefore, it is no wonder that I kept bumping into the same few people more than once. And it's always nice to see a friendly and familiar face when arriving in a new hostel. Ulan-Bator was no exception to this experience. During the train ride to this city I bumped into two couples sitting in the compartment next to me. Since I knew them from back in Irkutsk, I decided to go to the same hostel as they were. This was a perfect decision, since I met there yet another couple I knew from back when I was in Siberia.

The hostel we stayed in Ulan-Bator is a perfectly streamlined and organized backpacker place. Their staff picked us up at the train station, checked us in, served breakfast and then provided us with some in-depth information about tours available. Getting this info was actually done by having to sit as a small random group of four to six people in the manager's office. Some of these backpackers did require special amendments to their trip: Two Frenchmen wanted an extra day in the desert for hiking, an American guy required a tour guide - and a bunch of Dutch (or Belgium) guys were very eager to complain even before their trip started.

More photos of the Gobi Desert trip are here:
my pics,
Anja's pics
Jason's pics,
Jo's pics,
Jon's pics.

Fortunately I was sitting next to Jo, Jon, Jason and Ania (from Wales, England, New Zealand and Poland respectively) when the nine day tour through the Gobi desert was outlined to us. From all the people in the hostel these were the perfect mates to spend nine days. So the decision to book this tour was made very quickly and the five of us set off later that day to stock up food and water for the tour.

View Larger Map Of Our Gobi Desert Trip

Through the tour briefing, we had been given the advice to shop for fruit, chocolate, cheese, water and toilet paper. This was good advice, since the food during the trip consisted mostly of mutton in any variety and shape. We had mutton milk for breakfast, mutton dumplings for lunch ("make sure you suck the dumplings first to get all of the juice"), mutton ragout for dinner - being served with tea and a big splash of mutton milk. One of the notable alternative drinks was Airag, which is fermented horse milk which I found to be tasting a bit like very liquid Tsatsiki. Therefore, getting supplemental food from our stocked items became an essential survival exercise after most meals.

We stayed overnight in mongolian gers provided from local families. These round tents were quite comfortable, albeit having usually a very small door frame into which I bumped my head more than once. On the second night, when we were arriving in our ger, we found a pot of soup boiling on the stove. We discovered to our shock that the soup contained an entire sheep head. First, we were told that this was foreseen as our dinner. A Mongolian girl (she wanted to be called "Nature", because her Mongolian name was too complicated to pronounce for foreigners) started to enumerate various parts of the head - for example the eyes - which are allegedly delicacies that we were supposed to try and taste. Luckily, we later found out that she made a practical joke - this was the dog's food cooking on the stove in our ger.

Another notable experience during this trip would be the routine of needing to go to the toilet. On the first day out in the desert we spotted - in some village - local men walking on the street, then suddenly stopping for a pee - continuing to walk their way casually after having finished. We were partly amazed and partly disgusted by looking at these events unfolding next to us.

However, after a couple of days out in the desert we did exactly as the Mongolians do: Pee whenever you need to, no matter where you are - as long as you know the direction of the wind. "Big business" was an entirely different matter. All gers had a kind of a makeshift squat toilet and by the end of the trip, we were all quite skilled in kneeling down, holding our pants in one hand while the other hand held the toilet paper. At night, some of us would light the squat toilet by using a torch lamp held in the mouth. But bending down on top of two squeaky wooden logs while trying to keep a balance and target the hole "six feet under" is definitely not an exercise for old men. I found myself constantly holding to the door to avoid falling backwards in the sewage - while squeezing the roll of toilet paper in between my knees. Therefore, the words "pee" and "poo" were a constant subject at any time throughout the day, where we exchanged the best strategies for happy pooing.

Each day during our 2000km trip, we would discover different landscapes. This was definitely unexpected to me, since the definition of desert meant to me sandy landscape. This is not the case for the Gobi Desert, where we would spot various rock formations, sand dunes, pine tree forests, swamp areas and canyons. This was absolutely "stunning" (pronounce this with a Nottingham accent) and I ended up taking a monthly load of pictures during this trip. At night, a walk around the ger proved to be spectactular, since the desert sky is very clear and heeps of stars were visible. Actually, I felt like I have never been able to see this many stars in a night sky.

Our driver was a very nice chap called "the doctor". Other tour drivers would wait for him when they have a car problem, since they trust his skills. Moreover, he navigates as good as a GPS device. We actually had to wait for another (posh Australian) tour group which was lost in the desert and for which the doctor had to provide directions to the next point of interest. Unfortunately, "the doctor" didn't speak much English, but we figured out that after nine days with us in the desert, he would return home to his wife and four kids for just one night. We spotted him this morning, picking up another group of people leaving on a tour for 14 days.

Sadly, the trip is over as I am writing this. We all arrived back in Ulan-Bator, quite hungry for "real" food (aka: Burgers, Pizzas and Coca Cola). And we were also looking forward for a much needed shower to wash out the sand which we've got during our trip. I had loads of fun with Jo, Jon, Ania and Jason during the past nine days. We've spent evenings sitting on hills watching sunsets and drinking screwdriver, playing cards, emptying a weeks stock of beer in one night only and listening to some weird music (Jo's O.C. soundtrack was actually quite acceptable). I truly hope that we'll meet again.

Labels: Mongolia

posted by Reto at 05:32 2 Comments Links to this post

06 May 2008

Binge drinking in Irkutsk and Lake Baikal

Irkutsk is one of the main hubs for tourists in Siberia. There's enough infrastructure to stock up on food and head either east (Vladivostok), south (Mongolia) or west (Moscow). When I arrived there, a number of administrative tasks were on my mind: Getting the visa for Mongolia, see a barber shop, post some postcards and mail a DVD containing about 4GB of pictures as backup from the camera's memory stick to Switzerland. Eventually - among all these tasks - I would have some time to visit the city and also stock up some cup noodles for the onward journey.

However, things went not as planned. The Mongolian embassy was closed on arrival day (April 30th). They would process my visa only on May 1st for pickup on May 2nd. Moreover, I neglected the fact that on May 1st, most Russian government services (such as the post office) would be closed. Actually, these institutions were also closed on May 2nd. The Internet cafe, however, would be open on these dates, but be closed on May 3rd and 4th. To complicate matters, you do need to show the original passport at the railway station when buying a ticket - but I wasn't ready to buy the onward ticket on April 30th, since I did not yet know when I would leave (given the fact that there are so many excursion possibilities in Irkutsk).

To make the above complicated story short: After all the train rides and rushes through other cities, I purposely went unprepared to Irkutsk to rest a couple of days. But I learned that being unprepared will haunt you, because there's always a public holiday which messes up some plans. Therefore, even if you just want to rest at some place, it still requires some basic planning.

Anyhow, I did what I best could: Meet people and have a few drinks. There were numerous people at "my" hostel which kept me busy and entertained. Eventually there was a group of five Estonians - one guy travelling with four girls - who were still in a vodka competition after their train ride. Needless to say that we had a lot of fun (Thomas B. from B. would probably have loved to be among that crowd).

There, I also met Peter, a dutch guy who was eager to do the "Circumbaikal Train Route" (a historic train ride on the original Siberian railway line along Lake Baikal). This was also on my shortlist and although I was about to leave on a tour alone to Sludvyanka, it made perfect sense to travel both of us and organize the trip directly instead of having to pay the markup for tour agents.

We were heading to the beautiful town of Listvyanka (about 2 hours south of Irkutsk), which by itself is worth an excursion. Many Russians head to this lakeside village in spring to walk on the breaking ice shelf. Obviously the men would do this with a bottle of vodka in their hand and the women would join them in high heels. Its a manly game of "who's afraid of falling into the icy water". Sun was shining and it was fun watching the crowd.

Peter and I took an overnight home stay with some local people there. We were experiencing life without running water and basic facilities. Therefore, without a shower we left the second day quite early Listvyanka to catch the ferry boat to Port Baikal from where we would take that historic train. Everything was working out fine, we even managed to catch a bus (unknowingly to us there was one at that time running) - sparing us to walk 4km with our backpacks to the ferry landing.

However, once we had arrived in Port Baikal, the train station agent wouldn't sell us tickets for the train scheduled to leave around 10am. Although its schedule clearly outlined there would be a train leaving at that time, there wasn't one. This is the kind of stuff which happens quite often in Russia - so it didn't really matter to me or even bother me. Peter was a bit more uptight about this - understandably - since this was supposed to be the highlight of his four week trip from Moscow to Beijing.

But there was nothing we could do as the village of Port Baikal isn't connected to any other transport network (road, train). Moreover, it doesn't feature any restaurant where we would find shelter from the constant strong and cold wind. Although there are two small shops, they would refuse to sell us some warm water with their tea bags or instant coffee. But it was a sunny day and I had GSM coverage. What else would I need to make me happy? So I kept myself busy by checking emails and browsing the latest news from websites until we would be able to leave back to Listvyanka using the next ferry at 4pm.

Two stranded backpackers in such a village must have looked pretty funny to the locals and we met quite a few people throughout our waiting time. The best chat we had actually with three young locals who were clearly binge drinking. But they were the only ones to try at least to speak English with us - and they were keen to translate most of their Russian into English using my little Oxford dictionary. To my surprise, the waiting time of about six hours passed pretty quick. In the evening Peter and I were back in Irkutsk to catch our trains. Peter went to Ulan Ude and I continued to Ulan-Bator.

Labels: Russia

posted by Reto at 06:19 1 Comments Links to this post

01 May 2008

April in Review: More Pictures

By clicking on the respective album picture, you should be taken to a small selection of exclusive pictures which I have taken during the month of April while being in Moscow and Uzbekistan.