What you doing in Taiwan boy............

Not updated for a while as China is not the best place for freedom of speech so the blocking of blogging sites has been a bit of a problem!!

Getting back to Ulanbaator from Moron was possibly the worst journey we have experienced ever!! We thought it would be a decent size coach with a fair amount of legroom like our first bus ride into the countryside but it was a cross between a 4x4 and a small bus. Alex couldn't get his knees in between the seats and there was hardly any legroom anyway due to us being sat over the wheel arch. To top it off, they had at least 8 people sat on bags dotted down the aisles so we knew it was going to be a nightmare trip before we set off, lucky we packed some vodka!! Hardly any sleep ensued and we managed to make it back to pick up our chinese visas later that day.

We decided to leave Mongolia early in the end so our 2 week extension proved to be useless but Jo was happy at the prospect of eating something other than mutton in China after falling ill for a few days in Moron. She has not been disappointed since!!

Sleeper tickets were bought for the cheaper version of the trans-mongolian train to the Mongolian town of Zamyn Uud where we were hurried off the train into a jeep to cross the border in the most bizarre border crossing we have ever seen in our lives!! Everyone had to cross the border in licensed ex-soviet jeeps or on buses which we were informed were the slower option. It was like wacky racers, jeeps flying everywhere trying to jostle for their starting place at the border crossing where you received a number from border officials. Then the border opened and everyone was jumping off road to fight for position for the next phase of the crossing, it was so surreal. We almost didn't get through customs as Alex didn't get a tiny stamp from the London Mongolian Consulate but after a 15 minute wait and Alex blocking the window of the customs official, we were dealt with. You knew you arrived in China by the hotel like building with air-con and a military precision operation to get you through their side of the crossing!!

The next bizarre moment was getting on a sleeper bus in a town called Erleen on our way to Beijing where we were confronted by hospital type beds that felt like you were in a cocoon. The trip wasn't too bad altough you were in bed from 4 in the afternoon til 7 the next morning!! Beijing was a pretty cool city and we were excited about trying some new dishes, a lady we met who was moving to China to improve her Mandarin recommended we have the Peking Duck in a restaurant behind the well known night market. We opted out of the delicacies at the market suprisingly but they had a range of treats like sheep's testicles, scorpion, seahorse, worms, beetles and much more to test your bottle. The great wall was bypassed due to the amount of money, time and effort it would have involved, not to mention the millions of tourists. A visit to the forbidden city was the highlight along with wandering the back alleys.

A trip out of Beijing took us on the equivilent of the Japanese bullet train to a place called Taiyuan which was just an overnight stop but took the train conductor by suprise when we were going through the station onto Pingyao at our mis-pronounciation and thought we wanted to get to Taiwan!!

Next stop was Pingyao, a preserved ancient city and most of the guesthouses were in tradional style homes. We passed on most of the usual siteseeing activities and were happy wandering the town and on the second day decided to get a tandem bike which was pretty a great way to see the town. Alex was convinced to have a pedicure as Jo was missing her pampering, you should have seen the ladies face when she saw the state of his feet!! The next day we indulged (if you can call it that) in a neck and back massage where they really worked your muscles, it was bordering on pain at times.

Xi'an was a fairly quick stopover to go and see the Terracotta Army which was incredible. They have 3 pits that were excavated and some that are still being excavated, it was recommended we worked backwards from pit 3 which had the smallest amount of life size warriors upto pit 1 which was at least the size of a football pitch. If you ever get the chance to go to China you should definitely add it to your itinery.

The 28hr mammoth train journey to Guilin nearly topped the nightmare journey in Mongolia. After turning up at the station and approaching our booked carriage we noticed everybody sitting on hard seats and not laying on hard beds as we thought we had booked!! The next issue was one of the seats was double booked and we were sitting 4 to 3 seats with a very pissed off Jo & Alex. Even our translated piece of paper with 'can we get an upgrade' didn't come in handy like it did on a previous train so we resorted to sitting back down and cracking open the beers for a long night ahead. Luckily within an hour, a guard approached saying they had found 2 beds for the upgrade which was such a relief. We just felt sorry for some of them we managed to speak to who were spending 2 days on a hard seat!!

In Yangshao at present, which is absolutely beautiful but we will update you in the near future. Lets just say, a man's best friend is not a saying that some of them would agree with!!

Jo & Alex

Alexander the not so great!!

The last post was a bit delayed due to a lack of internet so this is our more recent activity.

After spending a few days in Khatgal which is a small town at the entrance to Khovsgol lake, we decided to embark on a 3 day horse trek. We were originally planning on a four day trek but after the first day soon decided that 3 days would be more than enough.

We named our horses Bob and Betty who started off quite well, then for some reason whatever we tried, the horses would barely move and on occasions we thought Bob was going to keel over! At one point Jo turned round and Alex was in the distance trying hard to command his horse to move from a stationary position and Bob was having none of it. This in turn, made Jo have a giggling fit! On the way to our camp, we stopped a few times and as soon as our feet touched the ground we could barely walk. Now we know why John Wayne walked the way he did!

After lunch, we had another few hours before we encountered a boggy stretch of land which the horses decided to try and sidestep by going across a stony section near the lake. To get there involved manouvering the horse under a fallen tree, Jo went first and managed fine but Alex had a little more trouble!! Bob attempted to clear it but due to Alex being MASSIVE he was taken out and left clinging to the tree. This scared Bob shitless and he ran as fast as he could to escape, Alex luckily got away with a few minor scratches and a bruised ego! As Anwar Nuseibeh would have said 'Tree got taken out by a fellow tree'. Thankfully, our guide Naka, managed to retrieve the horse but Alex was no longer allowed command of the horse and had to be dragged along to our lakeside ger!

Day 2 was a better riding day as we were getting used to controlling our horses and by day 3 we were able to get our horses to trot on demand for longer stretches. The lake itself was really beautiful and in the end we thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Back in Moron now, heading to the capital tomorrow where we will pick up our passport with the Chinese visa in and try not to get tasered. Hopefully we will be in China within four or five days.

When near Russia, Moscow

Alex & Jo xx

Winner of Nadaam (See end of post below)

Packed to the rafters at Nadaam