Lhasa, Tibet (finally)

Hey now!! I finally made it to Tibet after a couple of years of planning. Its really good to be out of foggy Chengdu as the weather here in Lhasa is perfect. It was actually hot today! Lhasa is amazing, of course. I arrived about 10 AM this morning (Saturday, 30 September) and easily caught the bus for the 1-hour ride to Lhasa. The first hostel we checked, which was recommended to us, was full, so we went down the street to apparently the next best hostel. I checked in there and then found out the hostel is complete crap but I can't do much about that now. I'm going to try to switch tomorrow.

I went from an altitude of 1,600 feet (500 meters) in Chengdu to 12,200 feet (3,700 meters) in Lhasa in 2 hours this morning so I'm sitting here wondering how I'm going to not get altitude sickness from ascending so fast? There is no way to 'descend' if I do! I saw someone that I met in Chengdu in Lhasa this morning and he was just getting over altitude sickness (AMS). It didn't hit him until he had been here 2 days. So I get to hang around Lhasa for several days acclimating and hopefully I don't get sick. I feel fine right now though.

I've been having problems with my contacts since shortly after I arrived in Chengdu so I have been wearing my glasses (which I hate). It wasn't really a problem in Chengdu because it was cloudy and I didn't need my sunglasses. But here in Lhasa the sun is really intense so I had to find some clip on shades for my glasses today. I really, really hate wearing glasses! Even with the clip-on's the sun still hurts my eyes. Hopefully my eyes with get better and I can switch back to my contacts full time. It doesn't help that it seems fairly impossible to find any thing other than standard eye drops here, which I already have and don't seem to be helping much. It wouldn't be traveling with out some constant bodily aliment..... I sure hope this one gets better quickly.

Chengdu - last day

Today (Friday, 29 September) was my last day in Chengdu, thankfully. I've seen about everything I need or want to see in this town which isn't a whole hell of a lot. Today I tried to find this rock climbing gym. With great effort (and with the help of some Chinese university english students) I found it. Although it was only $1.25 to climb there, they didn't have rock shoes and the climbing area itself left something to be desired. So I passed on that. Later in the afternoon I finally got to pick up my passport with my visa extension fully intacted. This evening the hostel had a BBQ. It was cheap and really freaking tasty. Good times in Sim's Cozy guesthouse this week!! Surprise, surprise, it was foggy here again today....

I leave for the airport at 5:30 am tomorrow (Saturday, 30 September) morning and my 2-hour flight to Lhasa departs at 7:40 am. I'm really, really pumped to be finally heading to Tibet after all this time! Next blog from Tibet......

Chengdu - update

Before I can go to Tibet I have to get my visa extended because you can't do it in Tibet and my current visa expires on 10 October. Visa extensions usually take 5 business days so you are pretty much stuck in a town while you do this. I heard from a Swedish guy that he got his visa extended in just a couple hours in this small town called Leshan a 2-hour bus ride from Chengdu. Small towns can typically do extensions quicker for some unknow reason. I could get my visa extended in Chengdu, but it would take the full/standard 5 days. To add to this, you can only get 30-day extensions and the extension starts on the day you apply, so you really only get a 25-day extension by the time you get your passport back. This Swedish guy had actually gotten a 45-day extension in Leshan (in 2 hours) so I was willing to try out this quicker option.

On Monday (25 September) morning, Julia (from CA and in a similar situation to me) and I took the bus to Leshan. When we got to the visa office there we were immediately denied and told it was impossible -- which obviously its not. It was a total shock and major let down to us. I'm convinced its because we had US passports (and I later found out another guy - not American - also got his visa extended in a couple hours in Leshan). We were flat out lied to and told we could not apply for a visa extension until we had less than a week on our current visa. So we spent about an hour wondering around Leshan -- walked through a cool market -- before catching the bus back to Chengdu. Once back in Chengdu we headed straight to the visa office in hopes of getting there before they closed, which would mean 8 more days in Chengdu! Julia and I went to two different clerks. Julia was helped first but her clerk again said she could not get an extension. I was bummed but then my clerk said I could! We asked for the exact same thing and were told two completely different things by two different clerks at the same time! Such as China; no rules, its just up to the mood of the person helping you. Its very, very frustrating. So I jumped through all the hoops and filled out all the paper work. But I can't pick up my passport until Friday afternoon, which means I can't fly out to Lhasa, Tibet until Saturday morning. I was really not looking forward to spending 5 more days in Chengdu as there really isn't anything to do. To make matters worse I will only have 25 days in Tibet, down from my planned 2 months... Bummer!!!!! I didn't do anything else that afternoon other than hang around the very cool hostel.

Tuesday (26 September) was one of the low days of my trip. I did absolutely nothing. It was raining and I just didn't feel like doing anything. I managed to get out of the 'compound' for a few minutes to go to the grocery store but that was the extent of my activity that day. A lot of the people I had met at the hostel had left that morning so the hostel had a different feel. I spent the day hanging out, reading, watching movies, playing cards and just feeling like I really wanted out of this town. I planned to do something, anything, the next day to get me out of the hostel.

Wednesday (27 September) morning I went to Wenshu Temple near my hostel. It was a nice small monastery but it was foggy again. It had been foggy and/or raining since I arrived in Chengdu. After the temple, I went for a walk around the city. It doesn't feel like a city of 4.5 million people (the size of Houston!). strange. I got back to the hostel in the early afternoon and decided that there isn't a shit load to do in this city and spent the rest of the day in the compound. Sometimes laz-ing around for several days feels good, but I'm being forced to do it here and I don't like it. I officially booked my flight to Lhasa, Tibet that afternoon. Although I was set on traveling strictly by train, or at the very least, over-land, it this case I had to put my morals ahead of my desires. The new train to Lhasa is going to be devasting to Tibet and Tibetians for reasons that I won't go into and the Dalai Lama has been verbally against it from the beginning. So I decided flying, will all the pollution planes give off, was the right thing to do, even though its significantly more expensive. I keep hearing about everyone taking the train and how beautiful it is and it irrates me.

Thursday (28 September) morning I took the bus (fare: $.12) across town and walked through a couple of parks. It was the first day that the sun actually tried to come out. There was still a slight haze or fog lower down but it was definitely the best weather so far in Chengdu. And it felt warm too.

Tomorrow (Friday, 29 September) afternoon I can finally pick up my passport so I have just one more day to waste in Chengdu. Saturday morning I will fly out to Lhasa and I'm really looking forward to it. I am regretting not spending more time in China and only seeing 3 big cities while I was here but that is just the way it worked out. Its so crowded here that I really couldn't bring myself to go to any national parks or 'climb' any mountains (all of which have stairs from bottom to top along with gondolas!). Its such a change from the emptiness of Mongolia and I really miss that.

Chengdu, China

Its really foggy and smoggy here in Chengdu which didn't inspire me to do anything yesterday (Saturday, 23 September) afternoon once I arrived. The hostel (Sim's Cozy guesthouse) is fantastic so I just hung around the guesthouse all afternoon and evening. The guesthouse (and I think Chengdu in general) is really cheap. My dorm bed cost less than $2 per night, internet is around $.35/hour, and the cafe at the hostel is also really cheap and has good food. Its great!

On Sunday (24 September) morning I went to the panda reserve near Chengdu with several people from the hostel. It was really cool, but also really touristy. But I guess all the tourists are good for the center because it means more money for the pandas. It was basically a zoo though - albeit a very nice and spacious zoo without any bars - which I wasn't expecting. They take really good care of the pandas there and we got to see the super tiny new borns that were kept in a very human like nursery. Over all it was a neat experience.

We got back to the hostel around noon and then a bunch of us went for a lunch of Chinese hot-pot. Hot-pot is where they have some big bowls of boiling soups/oils over flames at the table. You take skewers with raw meat (all kinds.....) and vegetables on them and cook them in the oil. It was a good time.

Tomorrow I'm going to take the bus to a town a couple hours away from Chengdu to try to extend my visa. Apparently you can get visa extensions very quickly at this place and I need to extend my visa before I enter Tibet.

Train ride from Shanghai to Chengdu

For some reason I kind of expected to see some other travelers on my train or at least some English speaking Chinese. That was not the case though so all the attention of the carriage was focused on the sole foreigner; that would be me. When I boarded the train on Thursday (21 September) night I discovered that I was on the top bunk (of 3 levels) and as luck would have it, the top bunk has the least space. Yippie! At least I could fully stretch out, even if my feet did hang in the walkway, although well above any passing heads. The train was laid out as expected; 6 bunk beds in each open compartment, 11 open compartments per carriage. The train ride could have been a pleasant experience had the smoke not continually drifted in from the smoking area and had they not blared Chinese music from 7 am (no joke) in the morning until 10 pm at night.

Since the train departed at 9 pm that night I didn't linger below for long -- the main reason being that there wasn't much space for lingering in -- before crawling up into my very cramped and window-less bunk. There was nothing spoken between me and my other 65 compartment-mates other than the occasional 'ni hao' (Chinese for 'hello').

I'm not sure who to blame for the blaring Chinese music that started at 7 am on Friday (22 September) morning. I guess I can only blame myself for not taking a soft sleeper (2nd class bed). But who wants to sleep in on a 2-night, 40-hour train ride? I, for one, certainly did not! I spent the morning reading before making my way to the restaurant car, catching nearly everyone's stare on the way there, for lunch. I must have been the only foreigner on board. In the afternoon it was more reading and then a long nap. At some point in the afternoon the sole Chinese english speaker on the train found me and we chatted for an hour or so. He wanted me to teach him some english so I tried. Then it was another early night. I find it really easy to sleep lots - but not continously - on long train rides which is good for passing time.

Saturday (23 September) morning we were seranaded again at 7 am to China's best pop music. Since we all went to sleep so early the night before, I guess they figured we would probably want to wake up early too, even if we didn't arrive at our destination until 11 am.

So if I ever take hard sleeper again I'm going to make sure I get a lower bed in the middle of the carriage.

I took a taxi from the Chengdu train station to my hostel not wanting to deal with the buses and route finding in a new city in the rain.

Shanghai - day 4 (last day)

On my last day in Shanghai (Thursday, 21 September) I went to the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall. It was pretty cool and had a huge scale model of what city planners want Shanghai to look like in 10 years. You can't tell from the downtown area, but Shanghai is a huge city! I didn't realize it until I saw the model of the city. Their 'urban plan' is pretty ambitious, especially the environmental aspect of the plan considering how polluted the city is and how little the Chinese (and/or the Chinese government?) care about the environment. The exhibition hall took a while to walk through as it had many different exhibitions on different aspects of Shanghai's future. There was also (somewhat randomly) a Russian art exhibition temporarily on display on one of the floors. On my way back to the hostel I took one more stroll along the Bund (river front walkway). I got back to the hostel early in the afternoon and didn't really do much else that day. I think 4 days was the perfect amount of time for Shanghai. I would have been bored if I had spent a 5th day there.

That evening I bordered my train for the 38-hour trip to Chengdu, China. I had booked a 'hard sleeper', which is a third class sleeping bed. It was my first time taking 3rd class this trip because all the 3rd class trains up until know have been sold out.

Shanghai update

On Monday (18 September) afternoon I took the metro across (well, technically 'under') the Huangpu River that bisects Shanghai to the area known as the Pudong New Area. Apparently 20 years ago there was nothing here, but now it is packed with the buildings and sky scrapers that make up the world famous Shanghai skyline. It was crazy to see all the new buildings being built as well as the existing buildings. The fourth tallest building in the world, and the tallest building in China, called Jinmao Tower was really impressive to see. As was the very unique Oriental Pearl Tower. You can go up in both for views over Shanghai, but both seemed overpriced for China so I didn't. I hung out in a park there for a while and generally just walked around in awe. Then at sunset I walked along the water front on that side of the river and watched the sun set over the Bund on the opposite bank. I took the metro back to the hostel and went for dinner (did I mention food is substainally more expensive in Shanghai?). Then I read in the hostel lobby for a while, as that is the closest thing the hostel had to a commen area, before going to sleep pretty early. I guess I was tired from the sightseeing that started at 8 in the morning but I seem to be over my 'mystery fatigue' that hit me several days in a row in Beijing.

On Thursday (19 September) morning the first thing I did was change hostels. I couldn't stand the one I stayed in that first night in Shanghai. It was called Captain's Hostel and was really overpriced and not that great. The 10-bed dorm room was noisy from road traffic and from the lobby. I was also really unimpressed with the showers and toilets. So I checked into Mingtown Hiker Youth Hostel not to far away which was cheaper and had a much better hostel feel.

Then I walked up the pedestrain-only shopping street of Nanjing Donglu to Renmin Square. As I discovered on my walk down this street the previous day, this street is packed with tourists and with touts (i.e. people selling stuff). The touts come up to you, quite literally, every minute trying to get you to buy "rolex, sunglass, shoes, cd, dvd?" (and towards evening "lady, massage?") It gets annoying very quickly and they definitely target westerners. But what is even more annoying are the english speaking 'student scammers'. These are typically young, english speaking, 'art students' who want you to come and look, and of course buy, their artwork. They are very slick because they will come up and start talking to you in english asking you where you are from and saying they want to practice english with you. Then it eventually comes back to them inviting you to see their artwork. There are a number of other scammers you have to look out for too including the people who ask you to a 'tea ceremony' or the pretty Chinese girls that ask you to coffee so they can practice their english with you. All these scenerios - if you fall for them - end with you being separated from your money. But I am always suspicious, even when the people are geniune, so it would be pretty tough to scam me.

When I was walking around Renmin Park and Square I must have had at least 3 or 4 different groups of young people come up wanting to practice their english with me. I was happy to do so once I was able to tell they weren't scammers. Then I went to the amazing Shanghai Museum. The museum was great and it felt like a museum in New York or Paris (neither city of which I have been too, by the way....). You really forgot that you were in China. That pretty much goes for Shanghai in general though as it feels like a modern, western metropolis. Then I went for a sunset walk along the Bund (which also contains its fair share of touts, but few scammers) before returning to my hostel.

After cleaning up I went for dinner and then for an night-time stroll along the Bund to see the city all lit up. And what an amazing sight it was to see. Shanghai at night looks incredible!! My pictures won't do it justice. Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks so as the Bund was packed with tourists; perhaps more tourists than during the day! When I returned to the hostel there were lots of travelers there hanging out, so I made some friends (which was impossible to do at the other hostel) and stayed up late chatting.

On Wednesday (20 September) morning, after much internal debate the previous 2 days, I decided on my next destination: Chengdu, China. On a map it looks only slightly further away than Beijing so I figured I should just hop on an overnight train to Chengdu, which is a city I really want to see but didn't think I was going to be able to squeeze in right now. So I went to a train ticket office annex right around the corner from my hostel and booked a 'hard sleeper' departing tomorrow (Thursday, 21 September) evening. It was just as expensive as my 'soft sleeper' ticket from Beijing to Shanghai and I knew not why. When I got back to the hostel I asked the girls there and they informed me that it was a 2-night train ride!! Oops, I wasn't expecting that! So I won't arrive into Chengdu until Saturday (23 September) morning at 11 am. Still it was only $60 for a 40-hour train ride. I'll have a few days in Chengdu before I need to head back up to Xi'an to meet Sui. I hope that is only a 1-night train ride from Chengdu to Xi'an!

Shanghai, China

The train ride last night (Sunday, 17 September) was fantastic. The train was probably the nicest I've been on (including in Europe) and had it not had 4 beds in the compartment it would have been first class. And it was really fast! I don't think we made a single stop. It also didn't move around as much or make as much noise as the other trains I've been on. My only complaint was the lumberjack beneath me snoring loudly. When he was sitting across from me when we first got on the train I could hear him breathly (his normal breathing was audible) and I knew he would be a heavy snorer. I was right. But I still got enough sleep to feel completely rested when my train arrived, which is always my goal when taking overnight trains.

So I arrived in Shanghai, China this morning (Monday, 18 September) at 7 am and took the metro from the train station to near my hostel. I love cities with metros because it is so easy to get around. My hostel is really expensive by Chinese standards at $8 and I think that is going to be the rule in Shanghai. Then I went for a walk to get a feel for the town. Immediately I could tell that Shanghai is a much different city than Beijing. It is very modern with lots of cool architecture and lots of tall buildings. The view from the riverfront, aka The Bund, is amazing. Of course there are lots of people around too. But it just feels so different from Beijing, like being in another country.

There seems to be a shortage of internet cafes in China for some reason, and in Shanghai in particular. My hostel is charging criminal prices for the internet so I won't be using it there.

I also have a problem with breakfast in China as I just can't make myself eat rice or noddles first thing in the morning. In Beijing I just ate a western breakfast every morning but I don't think I'm going to be able to keep that up.

Beijing - day 6, last day here

Whew. Its Sunday (17 September) and my last day in Beijing. I feel like I really haven't seen 6 days worth of sights in Beijing but I just haven't felt like dealing with the crowds, smog, traffic, large distances, etc. I have also been feeling pretty exhausted the past few days even with plenty of sleep and eating enough. Just to be sure though I treated myself to a western style buffet breakfast this morning and remembered how Americans get so fat while the Chinese are so slim! Then I met up with Sui and we went to have Chinese tea. We made plans to meet up in Xi'an (between Beijing and Tibet) in a few days and possibly travel part of the Silk Road in northwestern China before going to Tibet. We have roughly the same itenerary for the next 1+ months. She speaks Chinese which would make things much easier for me. Then we went for one final walk around Tiananmen Square. It was less smoggy and hazy today and would have been a good day to go to the Summer Palace which was my original plan. But I have to save something for next time I visit Beijing...

Now I just have about 2 hours to burn before I need to make my way to the train station to catch my sleeper train to Shanghai.

Beijing - day 5

On Saturday (16 September) it was finally time for me to suck it up and get a haircut from the neighborhood barber. It started out a little scary and I think it was the first time the guy had cut hair! It improved when the main stylist came in and took over but the damage was already done. In the end it came out a little shorter than I would have liked, but for only $2.50 I guess I can't complain... After doing some laundry and spending a while on the internet it was 2:30 in the afternoon before I got away from my little neighborhood. I went to the Temple of Heaven park which was nice but basically just another overly crowded park that you have to pay to get into and can't even sit or walk on the grass. It takes so long to walk any where in this city. It was a 45 minute walk each way from my hostel and on the map it looks damn close! Then I went back to the hostel and later on ran into Sui from my Gobi trip. She had been in Beijing when I first arrived but left for another city for a few days. She had just arrived back. We walked around the streets near our hostel and entertained the idea of going to the restaurant that apparently has the best Peking Duck in Beijing (got so far as putting on name on the waiting list). But after looking at the prices we opted to eat with the locals at a less expensive restaurant.

Beijing - day 4

On Friday (15 September) morning I woke up and headed to the Forbidden City, the 'must-see' sight in Beijing. The place is massive and rediculuously crowded. There were hordes of tour groups swarming everywhere and I couldn't escape them. Unforunately many of the temples are being renovated and the outside of several main temples are completely covered with scaffolding. And, as is so common here, it was overcast and hazy again. Still its an impressive sight and I couldn't get over the size of it. I spent the morning there walking around but also taking lots of breaks because I was feeling so tired. That happens occasionally when I'm traveling and I'm not sure why.

After the Forbidden City, I went to an interesting looking park north of the Forbidden City called Jingshan Park. The park contains a forested hill that is apparently the remains of the earth dug up to create the moat around the Forbidden City. I would have had excellent views from the top if I could have gotten there. But, as with everything else in Beijing right now, all the temples on the top of the hill are being renovated and the top was off limits. I then had plans to go to another park called Beihai Park but I lost interest once at the entrance and instead decided I needed to go to the train station to book my ticket to Shanghai.

I read that trains to the south of China depart from Beijing West Railway Station which is not near any metro line. Since I didn't feel like taking a taxi, it took me quite a while to walk to the metro from where I was, ride the metro to the nearest stop to the train station, then walk another 30 minutes to the train station. When I finally saw the Beijing West Railway Station I was amazed. It is the largest and most crowded train station I have ever seen. I was tired and in a hurry and that wasn't the place to be in a hurry. The amount of people just sitting every where is mind boggling. When it it was finally my turn at the ticket window, I found out they didn't have any 'hard sleepers' (3rd class) to Shanghai for the next several days so I had to settle with the more expensive 'soft sleeper' (2nd class) which was an extra $20, so $60 total. As I was walking away, the lady told me my train left from a different railway station. Its a good thing she told me as I couldn't read the ticket and I would have returned to the same place the night my train was suppose to leave! Fortunately the train station I leave from is connected to the metro and should be painless to get to.

Then I finally made my way back to the hostel which took at least another hour. When I got to my room I was completely knackered! But two of my room mates were going to the night market which I really wanted to go to. So I had to dig deep and find the energy to join them. But it was more than worth it! It wasn't a true 'night market' because it was really clean, spacious, and touristy, but the the food the vendors were offering was legit. They had everything from starfish, baby sharks (bad vendors!), sea urchins, sea horses, snakes, squid, large scorpions, small scorpions, large grasshoppers, small grasshoppers, millipedes, beetles, cicadas, lizards, cow stomach, chicken hearts, kidneys, livers, and numerous other bugs and strange parts of animals and stuff you would never consider eating!! I didn't have the courage to try anything exotic though. Finally I got to go back and go to sleep.

I have one more night in Beijing and then I leave at 7 pm on Sunday, 17 September for Shanghai by sleeper train. I still have several sights I wanted to see here and I don't think I have time to see them all.

The Great Wall of China (Beijing - day 3)

I booked transportation through the hostel to go to the Great Wall on Thursday so I woke up early Thursday (14 September) morning to begin the journey. There where 6 other travelers on the minibus. It was a 3-hour drive but should have taken 4 hours. The driver was a lunatic passing other cars on the inside and out and generally just driving way too fast. We asked him to slow down once on the way there and again on the way back. Each time he only obliged for a few minutes. I was glad to be off the minibus at each end of the journey.

There are many different sections of the Great Wall that you can visit. I had choosen to do a hike from Jinshanling to Simatai which was supposed to be dramatic and not to crowded. It proved to be both. It was about a 12 to 13 km hike with much ascending and descending; lots and lots of steps. I was surprised at the lack of crowds and really enjoyed the hike. I didn't eat breakfast and brought no food along so I was pretty tired by the end of the 3.5 hours. The weather was overcast and hazy so the views -- and my pictures -- were not as good as they could have been. It was great to hike through the un-restored sections of the wall too, of which probably only 10% of the hike was.

I was impressed with the wall for different reasons than I expected. The wall was not nearly as big in cross section as I expected (makes me wonder who ever made the claim that you could see the great wall from space; what a load of bollocks!). Most of the time it is only 12-15 feet across and maybe that high off the ground. But I was really impressed with the terrain the wall covered. Some sections were really steep and it was impressive to see this wall go straight up the side of a mountain, or traversing a high ridge top. Of course I was also impressed with the length of the wall. It was strange to look off into the distance and still see the wall dragging on. And the views from the wall were absolutely amazing, of course. At the end of the hike I walked the half mile down to the restaurant parking area where I met the other from the mini bus. There is also a zip line from where we got off the wall that goes half way to the parking lot. The others from the minibus chose to ride the zip line (goes across a lake) but I chose to walk. There was a hostel there at the bottom, set on the edge of a small lake. It would have been really cool to stay there and there was more of the wall I could have explored in the area.

I arrived back at the hostel early that evening. The hostel has a washer so I took the chance to wash my sleeping bag. I was concerned that some of the toxins from the poison ivy were still inside my bag as I slept for 3 or 4 nights in it during my poison ivy bout. (don't worry Ken, the washer didn't have an aggitator...)

Later that night (Thursday, 14 September) I went to a free, hour long Chinese language course that the hostel/hotel was offering. I learned that Chinese is an extremely difficult language for me to speak!! I didn't really get that much out of it, unfortunately, because I find Chinese so difficult.

Beijing - day 2

After getting caught up with my blog on Wednesday (13 September) morning, I wandered up the long, narrow side street that my hostel is on instead of taking the main road. This narrow alley way was really my first experience with true China. It was packed with strange and exotic shops, restaurants, and people. Once back on main roads, I continued by foot to the main pedestrain shopping street called Wangfujing Dajie. Its completely the opposite of the street that my hostel is on. This street was packed with fancy hotels, restaurants, and department stores. But I needed to find an english language bookstore so that I could by a guidebook for China and this place was my best bet. Unfortunately neither of the bookstores I found carried the guidebook and I was begining to get a bit annoyed about not having a guidbook as I needed to plan the next part of my trip.

Beijing is a huge city so walking takes up a lot of time. It was later in the afternoon and I was a bit tired, so I decided to start heading back to the hostel. But this took longer than expected as I decided to walk though some small back alley neighborhoods, called 'hutongs', near my hostel. What a trip! I can't believe nearly one quarter of Beijingers live in these neighborhoods. When I arrived at the hostel my luck had changed for the better as someone had responded to the flyer I posted about needing a guidebook and I promptly found them and got a guidebook! That was a big relief. Later that evening me and a few other people from the hostel went to a Chinese restaurant down the street. They had a menu in english, but the translations were so bad it may as well have been in Chinese. The Chinese have the funniest english translations on signs, menus, food labels, etc. and you just have to wonder who the translator for these things is.

Beijing, China

I woke up a few hours later on Tuesday (12 September) morning feeling more refreshed after some "full length" sleeping. I had a much needed shower, breakfast in the hostel cafe, and checked email on the hostel's free computers. Then I ran into Sui from my Gobi trip and she helped me find a cash machine and I got some much needed Chinese Yuan. I must have tried 6 to 8 cash machines before I found one that worked. Then I caught the incredibly-easy-to-navigate Beijing metro to the place where I thought I could extend my visa. The place was packed! After talking to someone there I found out I could only extend my visa when I was near the end of my current visa. And the one place in China where I can't extend my visa is Tibet and of course that is where I was planning to be at the end of my current visa. So now I have to decide whether to go down to Hong Kong to get a new, longer visa or to cut my time in Tibet to shorter than I planned. The problem is if I go down to Hong Kong that takes time and will also make me loose time in Tibet. So I need to figure out what to do about this situation!

After leaving the visa place I took the metro to the Forbidden City and wandered around Zhongshan Park which is just outside the Forbidden City as it was too late in the day to see the Forbidden City. The park was huge and only cost me $.20 to get in. I haven't mentioned it yet, but China is even cheaper than Mongolia! I had a good, filling meal in a clean restaurant with service at the border town for $1.25!! A .5-L cold, Chinese beer in the hostel is only $.25!!!! After visiting Zhongshan park I walked through the massive Tian'anmen Square and went back to the hostel.

Tomorrow I think I will visit the Great Wall. The hostel arranges transport there and back so I won't have to figure out how to get there on public transport. I'm planning to do a 10-12 km hike along the wall and I'm really looking forward to it. The day after I think I will see the Forbidden City. As for today (Wednesday, 13 September), I need to do a few more errands like getting a haircut (which is going to be interesting seeing as how they don't speak english) and finding a Chinese guidebook. I was surprised to see so many signs in english (on the metro for example) and so many people that speak english (alas not the barbers). Its definitely much easier to travel here than in Russia.

Trans-Siberian Railway – Part 4, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia to Beijing, China

I left Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia on Sunday (10 September) evening for the Mongolian-Chinese border where I would switch to a sleeping bus for the rest of the journey to Beijing. The train ride was great. We even got served a light dinner and tea; a first for 2nd class. And for the first time my compartment wasn't full. It was just me and a Mongolian girl named Bayarmaa. She was 27 and from Mongolia but going to school in Beijing. She spoke english well enough to have a conversation so we talked for a while.

Around noon the next day (Monday, 11 September) we arrived at the border town, Erleen??, which was remarkably clean with tons of new buildings, streets, sidewalks, etc. Maybe this was in preparation for the Olympics?? I was really surprised as border towns are usually quite unappealling. Here I got my first view of the sleeper bus I would take. From the outside it looked great. The bus didn't leave for a few hours though so me and Bayarmaa ate lunch and wandered around the town. A few hours later we boarded the bus and I found my seat/bed. "Crap!" was my first thought and "Shit!" was my next. The 'beds' are made for someone that is about 5 feet tall. The way they maximize beds and space is that you are sleep on a slight incline from the waist up with someone's feet in a box beneath your head and shoulders. So your feet and lower legs go into a small box. This box, and the narrowness of the bed, keeps you from curling your legs or otherwise sleeping any way other than flat on your back. Of course my feet bottomed out way too soon and I couldn't move back any. So to make a long story short I didn't get much sleep and I would have rather been sitting up in a regular bus for that journey.

We arrived in Beijing (unexpectedly) early Tuesday (12 September) morning. When I say early I mean it was 3:30 am! The bus station was tiny and dark and in the back of a building well off any main streets. There were only a couple taxis there that wanted way too much to take me to my hostel, like easily 4 or 5 times the fair price. Luckily I found 3 other people going to my hostel and we walked out to a main road and caught a regular taxi for a fair price. So I arrived at my hostel (Far East International Youth Hostel) around 5 am and was surprised that we could check in and get some descent sleep.

Last lazy day in UB

Last night (Saturday, 9 September) I went out to dinner with a person from the hostel and when we returned the hostel slowly evolved into quite the party. It was a fun night hanging out with lots of travelers. A good last night in UB.

Today (Sunday, 10 September) I again didn't have much of a plan. I went down to buy my bus ticket from the Mongolian-Chinese border to Beijing which I will take tomorrow morning once I arrive at the border. It is a 'sleeper bus' (i.e. with beds) which I have never ridden on before so I'm not sure what to expect. The weather has changed back to being nice again and I'm in a tee shirt today. What a change from a few days ago.

UB and the hostel are really growing on me so I'm a bit sad to be leaving but also very excited about China.

Lazy days in Ulaanbaatar

I really haven't just veged out on my trip yet so I guess its about time. I am proud to say I haven't really done anything the past 3 days! The hostel (Golden Gobi) is awesome and makes being lazy really easy with big comfortable couches and a nice selection of dvds. Yesterday (Friday, 8 September) I did manage to get out and book my train ticket to China. The next train that I could have taken all the way to Beijing departed 1 week from now and that just wouldn't do. So I'm doing what most travelers are doing and taking the daily train to the Mongolian-Chinese border and then I'll take a bus from the border to Beijing. I'm a little annoyed about this as I wanted to go all the way by train, but i'm not going to sit around in UB an extra 5 days just on principal. So I leave UB tomorrow (Sunday, 10 September) evening and arrive at the border the next morning. Then I arrive in Beijing the following morning. My train ticket for an overnight trip in a second class sleeping berth was around $20! In Europe it would have been easily 10x that. I went out to dinner at a great Indian food restaurant Friday (8 September) night with some people from the hostel, and then procededd to get kept up all night by some drunk snorers! This actually hasn't happened to me that much despite sleeping in dorm rooms for the last 3 months.

I'm also pleased to say that my poison ivy is in remission and I didn't have to visit the doctor. Apparantly the hospitals here are totally worthless anyways so I wanted to avoid them if at all possible. I did get prescribed a goat yogurt wrap and a green tea bath in the last ger I stayed in, both of which i turned down only because I was leaving the next day.

Back in UB

On Thursday (7 August) I woke up to snow for the second day in a row. My poison ivy was better so I decided not to go to the doctor. But I didn't feel like doing anything so I laid around the hostel all day watching movies and reading. I also got my laundry done including some pants that hadn't been washed in about 5 weeks. They nearly walked to the washer by themselves! I managed to get out of the hostel only long enough to go to the store. Poison ivy has a way of really depressing me and making me lazy. It was a long day.

On Friday (8 August) I woke up to snow again in UB. Wow. I'm really digging this colder weather. My poison ivy is better today and I think it is in remission. My arm is still a little swollen but its noticiably better especially on my face and fingers.

Soon I will need to go on to Beijing. It sounds like I probably won't be able to take a train all the way there because some tour operator apparently books out all the train tickets weeks in advance. That is pretty shitty. So what every one has been doing is taking a train to the Mongolian-Chinese border and taking a bus the rest of the way. This is really a bummer for me as I wanted to take only trains.

Gobi Trip

On the morning of Tuesday, 29 August we set off from Ulaanbaatar on our 10-day trip to the Gobi (desert) in southern Mongolia and then onto central Mongolia. Our group consisted of Marc and Chantal from Switzerland, Sui from California, Sylvia from Taiwan, our driver, Jigmai (M), and our guide/translator/cook, Hogie (F). 95% of the roads in Mongolia are not paved and are actually quite horrible. It takes a long time to cover short distances and 90% of cars break down on trips like this. Fortunately our driver was quite a good mechanic and was able to fix the Russian 4x4 van without any problem. The total length of our trip was 2300 km. I should also mention that were basically no toilets the entire trip which is actually quite liberating.

Day 1 (Tuesday, 29 August) - I saw more eagles on this drive than I've ever seen in my life. They were just sitting on the ground as we drove by and then they would fly off. In some places we would see one every hunderd meters. They were huge and extremely numerous. I couldn't get use to it. We stopped for lunch at the base of a beautiful mountain and hiked around there for a bit. Then we stopped by the ruins of old monestery situated in a tiny valley oasis. It was a really special spot in the middle of the desert. It was fairly hot this day. We stayed in a ger (Mongolian nomadic yurt) that evening. Most of the gers we stayed in were not 'family gers' but gers made for tourists and locals alike to spend the night. It was this night that we got our first taste of Hogie's cooking.... delicious!!

Day 2 (Wednesday, 30 August) - We drove to the provincial capital town of Mandalgovi (I think) this day and stayed in a ger that were part of a hotel. We didn't stop to see anything in particalur on the drive there but of course the scenery continued to be extremely beautiful. In fact the scenery was so beautiful the entire trip that I didn't crack open my book once despite 6-8 hours of driving per day! We had hot showers and checked out a little market that afternoon.

Day 3 (Thursday, 31 August) - This day we actually got into the heart of the Gobi. We first stopped at the 'ice canyon' which is quite sadly the remains of a glacier that is now not much larger than a bus in total mass. The ice canyon is actually a neat, deep, narrow canyon in its own right though. Then that evening on the drive to our ger camp we got our first glimpse of the famous Gobi sand dunes. Sand dunes only cover 3% of the Gobi so its not a desert of infinite sand dunes like say the Sahara. It was so beautiful. That evening we hiked up to the top of the dunes (~600 feet, the base of which was quite a ways from our ger) to watch a spectacular sunset. Hiking up sand dunes is about the hardest form of ascending a 'mountain' on your feet that I can think of!! The dunes were quite steep, pushing 45° in the last stretch. Its strange the dunes can be so steep. The dunes were made of the silkiest, purest, softest sand I've ever seen.

Day 4 (Friday, 1 September) - This morning we went camel riding. I was hesitant to ride the camels as I didn't like the way they stuck a stick through the camels nose and tied a rope to it for the reins. But the camels looked happy enough I guess so I hoped on. It was actually more fun than I thought it would be and I really enjoyed it. Camels are neat animals. As soon as we got off the camels they let them go and didn't keep them tied up or anything. That afternoon I took a nap and then went for a hike in the late afternoon. I walked alone along the base of the sand dunes. The Gobi is a really special place, so big and empty. The sand was cool to the touch despite the hot morning. After dinner the five of us hiked up to the top of the sand dunes in the dark. That was a neat experience and because of the moon we didn't really need lights. We sat on the top of the dunes for several hours watching the moon set and the stars and soaking up the atmosphere. I've never been in a place that felt so big, vast, and empty. So many stars.... That night was definitely the highlight of the trip for me. On the hike down the sand dunes 'sang' for us. This is a humming sound the dunes make as sand slides down the dunes. It was like a vibrating feeling.

Day 5 (Saturday, 2 September) - This day we sadly left the sand dunes of the Gobi and drove to the 'Flaming Cliffs'. The red sandstone (more like 'sand mud') there wasn't really 'flaming' though as it was overcast this day. We hiked around this little area where lots of dinosaur bones have been discovered. We saw some more dinosaur bones still embedded in the sandstone. And then with a bit of digging ourselves found some more dinosaur bones. It was pretty strange to be excavating dinosaurs bones by your hands in the Gobi! I don't think you'd be able to do that in any other place in the world. Then we drove further to our ger camp and we went for a short hike through the saxual trees/forest. This is just a small 'desert forest' consisting of small trees.

Day 6 (Sunday, 3 September) - This day we continued driving north out of the Gobi. We stopped at the ruins of two monasteries (Ongiin Khiid monastery) set in the middle of a shallow valley. It was beautiful and one of the temples was recently rebuilt and we briefly listened to a monk chant there before continueing our drive. It was on this day that I suspected I may have some poison ivy as the 4 places I had insect bites were now swelling, red, and itching. This afternoon was the second highlight of the trip. We stayed in a true family ger. We drove up to a set of 2 gers and Hogie asked if we could stay with them. Of course they accepted us. As this family lived in the middle of nowhere, and only had sheep and goats, they had to make the most of what they had. We were first invited into one of the gers where we would sleep and offered two forms of goat cheese. One was absolutely horrible and nearly made me throw up. We all stuck the cheese in our pockets when the hosts weren't looking to later throw it away. Then we went to the next ger where they were making vodka from fremeting goat (or sheep) yogurt. I was given a large cup of warm, weak, goat-smelling vodka that was horrible but drinkable. Then we where given a cup of the warm, goat yogurt drink. That was just about as horrible as the cheese and we couldn't finish it. Then we went outside and saw one of the men tying up some goats all in a line. I couldn't figure out why until 2 women came out with buckets and started milking the goats. The little 1.5 year old boy kept us all entertained too. Since there are no trees around they have to burn animal dung for fuel. So the stoves were all fueled with dry dung. It didn't really give off an odor though. What a special experience that evening was.

Day 7 (Monday, 4 September) - This day we drove to the old Mongolian capital city of Kharkhorin and stayed in a ger in the city. My poison ivy was getting worse so I was happy to have a hot shower here. That evening after dinner we went to a little bar. Between the five of us we had 3 beers, a half liter bottle of vodka (didn't finish), 3 cokes, and 2 energy drinks. The total bill was less than $9!!

Day 8 (Tuesday, 5 September) - This day Sui and Sylvia left to go back to UB. My poison ivy was worse now and I was debating whether to go back with them. Marc and Chantal said that if I stayed on and it got worse that we would all cut the trip short by one day, so that allowed me to continue with them. We went to the oldest monastery in Mongolia this morning called Erdene Zuu Khiid but I was so preoccupied with my swollen arm that I really couldn't fully enjoy it. Then after lunch we drove up into the mountains to a waterfall. It was a really pretty place with some proper forests on the north sides of the mountains. Aside from a short walk down to the waterfall I didn't leave the ger that whole day.

Day 9 (Wednesday, 6 September) - This morning we woke up to snow. I was happy it was colder and snowing. Our itenerary had us horseback riding this morning but my arm was more swollen and I had a little poison ivy on my face, so we decided to head back this day and cut the trip a day short. I felt bad about making the others go back early but they said it was no big deal. But I really would have wanted to stay. It was a long drive back to UB.

I got back to the guesthouse and had a proper shower that evening. I think coming back was the right choice. I decided that if my arm was worse the following morning that I would go to the hospital.

During this trip we saw the following animals (at least these are the big ones we saw): more eagles than I've ever seen in my life; tons of semi-stray dogs; an uncountable number and varitey of cows, goats, sheep, and horses; lots and lots of camels in the Gobi; yaks in the central; storks, cranes, and other smaller birds; lots of gopher-type animals. Unfortunately I didn't see any ibex or gazelles.