Beautiful Mongolia experience

Coming to Mongolia is one of the destination that I am most excited about. Cos, I find Mongolia to be a mysterious, wide green grassland and a country full of natural discoveries.
We went on a 3 days trip to the outskirt of UB - Tereji, got the opportunity to stay in a Ger (traditional mongglian house), horse ridding and hiking. The journey to Tereji only took us 2 hrs from UB, but along the way, we witnessed many beautiful scenery, wide pasture and hills and coloured stone mount. Up in Tereji, we met 4 oversea Singaporean student from UK. They are Mark, Chris, Cat and Xern Xin, we were immediately connected (probably, we speak the same lingo and terms) They actually travelled via the Trans-Seberian railway from Moscow to Mongolia (a five days train ride - actually is also one of the thing I would like to do sometime). There is a small Naddam fair on the other side of the pasture, so we decide to go and have a look as our horse riding schedule is not till later.

There were many German tourist at the fair, we get to taste the mare drink and Mark being the extrovert and sociable, immediately got a group of German tourist interest in having converstaion with him. Since it is a small fair, we only mangage to see a simple wrestler and archery competition - not as grand as the actual event.
After the fair, we had our 2 hrs of horse riding - I was scared when I first ride on the horse cos, it has been so many year since I last rode on horses, so I was very cautious about falling of the horse and get myself injure cos I don't need another wound. But it was a fun and refreshing experience though.
The day was long and it did not get dark till about 12am, we had our own little "makan" party at the 4 Singaporean Ger and chatted till quite late with another dutch couple (who were sleeping in our tent)

Next day 7/7/05, the 4 Singaporeans and Shaz left for UB, while I stayed over for one more night at Tereji. This time round I had more confident riding on my horse, infact I mangage to gallop and it was exciting to do it. When for a hiking up in the hill, sat down somewhere shady - to overlook the whole pasture land to enjoy the beautiful scenery of God's creation. Sometime I do enjoy solitary moment but most of the time I prefer to be with people.

Next day, the dirver came at about 12pm, same time we first arrived (to bring in a new batch of tourist). In the evening,we met up with the Singaporean to have Russian BBQ dinner before they leave for Beijing the very night. The dinner was great, I am not a mutton meat person, but I must say that the meat and rice was really tasty and we had a great meal.
After dinner and we parted, as usual, Shaz and I went for a walk around town and we chanced upon a beauty saloon, so we decided to have a facial. It was a real good deal, we felt so clean and fresh after the 2 hrs of facial massage and cleansing.

There is a Black Market in UB, and I always love to go to such places to get good bargains and see things. I was forewarned about the place have many pickpocket and how dangerous the place is. The Black Market is a very interesting place, full of things from daily items, to antique and to costumes.

The LG Guest house we stayed is is great, we got free breakfast, and free access to cook or meal. Also we gotta meet many interesting and great people at the guest house. The first person we met is Toro, he is a fresh Japanese graduate from university, he is a very interesting chap, he told us that he wants to travel round the world, so he has to be very thrifty in his spending (infact he will often boil potatoe to eat with salt and butter or boil plain pasta to cook with garlic and salt) most of the time he will spend going to the Moscow embassy to check on his visa approval to enter Russia.In fact he has been staying in Mongolia, with the intention to get the visa to enter Moscow. I really want to see him succeed in his travel world dream someday.
I also got the chance to meet Rudi and Jean Nagele from Germany, they are an interesting elder couple, and a real world traveller. They have been travel round the world with a vovlo car for 2 years and been to many parts of the world. A fun and adventourous couple, and very open in sharing their experiences.
I got to meet Marleen from Holland too, she is a exciting and very friendly woman. She had been traveling for about 3 months and we got connected very fast as we each shares our interest and traveling experiences. Would love to meet her again someday.
Also there are people like Will and Ashley and Katie Stuenkel, Will and Ashley have been living in a small town in ALaska for 4 years working as an elementary teacher, and Katie is Will sister, she have been living in Thailand working as volunteers and she is also travel places, we had great time chatting and sharing experiences together with Christian Newton from UK and Angela Liu from Sdyney. We went to the local pub to have a drink and join in the fun with the local at the square on the 1st night of the Naddam festival (to see firworks - it was exciting to see the fireworks come from 3 different spots - and also to see so many people at the square, enjoying the once a year important national festive event).
We gotta meet with a Israelis couple Zoharby and Efratbt, they are very nice an dhelpful people, infact they were very kind to me, offering to me their well equip medication to me when I fell sick with food poisoning and needed extra bandage for my knee wound.
One thing that I really enjoyed in traveling is really to meet people and share our experiences and culture.

We left Mongolia on 14/7/05 to bound for the train (30hrs) to Beijing, and we gotta meet with another Dutch couple Ilse and Kamiel, they were both going travel places and coincidentally, they are also going to go to Guatemala sometime in early Nov. And great we plan to meet and travel together when in Gautemala. Ilse is an Applied Mathematic graduate and Kamiel is into product design, infact he has a very lucative offer, from his ex company when he travels to places, that is he gets to take photos of the public chairs and sell to his client for euro$1 each. So far he has been taking over 600 pictures. What a deal!




joydive@gmail.com

Our "exciting" bus traveling experience to Mongolia

Traveling up to Mongolia was a rather "exciting" experience. On 3/7/05, we met up our Beijing agent Terelog while on the way to find a hospital to get my dressing. As we were walking on the street when he asked if we are from Singapore, immediately Shaz asked if he was the agent arranged by our guesthouse manager Byamba in Mongolia to meet up with us. He said yes, and as it was still very early also I need to get new dressings for my wound, he decided to follow me to the hospital (the policy at Beijing is really tedious - first you got to go to register your name and get a member card afterwhich, to find your way to a doctor - you got to roam around the hosiptal to find your way, then have him examine, afterwhich to go to cashier to queue up to pay for the prescription, then with the receipt to see a nurse to attend to your dressing - mind you the hospital is big and if one is limping - it's going to be difficult) and waited for us to buy our grocery for the trip.

Reason for Byamba to arrange him to guide us to take a long distance bus to Mongolia border - Erlain was becos most of the train tickets to Mongolia have long been wiped off, since 4-6 months ago. As the period we were traveling in was a peak season for the Mongolian - Naddam Festival (their 3 days of national holiday) So we had the only option, that is to take a 12 hrs long distance sleeper bus to Erlain and then to bound for the train to Ulan Batar.

We almost could not make it to Mongolia as stipulated time. After Terelog left us with the van driver (who appearently have the sleeper bus ticket to Erlain), and we also paid him for our sleeper bus ticket. He told us that there isn't enough space for us in the sleeper bus and that we will have to top up another Y70 to take the car to the Erlian. I refused to budge as I want to sleep for the 12 hrs ride flat down and not to compromise for a seating position and moverover, we have to top up money becos of his over booking. After much reasoning, he decided to drive us with his overpacked van meant for 12 person but is overpacked with 20 people to the bus station. And over at the bus station, we were like chicken and hen, following this man for quite a while, who happen to have our bus ticket but refused to distribute. Finally, when he gave us our ticket, it was meant for extra bedding (means we will have to sleep on the floor and not space for a bedding (what is this - I reasoned with him - that this is not fair - but he simply ignore me -sigh)

Coincidentally, we met with 3 french backpacker who were on their way to Mongolia and they had no idea where to get the bus tickets as they had already paid a commission fee of Y40 each to ask to come to the bus station to get their confirmed seat to Erlain. But when at the bus station - there isn't any counter that sells tickets nor any dressed officer to make enquiry. Me being the "helpful" type (while having my own problem to slove) decide to check and ask around the people for them (cos they could not speak Mandarin). We mangage to ask a group of guys seating down by a shade chatting, about way to get the bus ticket as they were told to come here to get it. One the guy told me to look out for a bald headed man dressed in black. We finally manage to find him and he issued his final 3 bus tickets to the French. They were lucky, as they almost could not get the ticket if we did not locate this man in time.

Well, back to our sleeper bed issue, we finally had to sucrumb to sleep at the far end in a narrow cramp space (to me is better than sleeping on the floor - dirty mattress). The bus was not only packed with people but also goods, boxes of goods and items were all lying on the asile of the walkway, we will have to climb and walk over the boxes to get thru. Well, later we realise that this is very common in Mongolia, the taxi van is often packed with people to the over max capacity.

We arrived arly in the morning 4/7/05 at 6am, we were supposed to meet up with another agent Tereji to arrange for us to get the train ticket to Ulan Batar. But he did not turn up until we called him. What is interesting to see is that when we arrived at Erlian Station, there were a group of about 20-30 men yelling and shouting behind a iron bar gate in Mongolian language, intially, I thought they were workers, but later realised that they were acutally taxi driver trying to get customer. When the gate opened they rushed to where the bus was and shouting for their customer. Most passenger did not come down (maybe they were afraid), we the ignorance one were the first to come down cos, we thought we do not want to be caught in the jam of the boxes and luggages in the bus.

Eventually, our "kangho" bus driver shouted at the taxi driver to move away and asked all the passenger up in the bus to get out as he needed to get moving (it was funny to see this sight). Maybe there is some deals problem, a small fight occurred between the taxi drivers
When our agent finally turned up, he brought us to the nearby guest house to get rest, while he arranged to get the train ticket for us. He asked for our passport as he cliamed he needed it to buy tickets. We gave it to him after some questioning (not my usual self to have someone hold my passport - but since he is recommemed by the Guest house manager in Mongolia - we trusted him). As we were extremly wore out by the long tiring journey, we soon fell asleep but were woke up when we hear voices ( the 3 french backpackers) their bus arrived late and they happen to meet Terehji when he flashed the Sinagporean passport to them (saying he can help them in the train ticket to UB).
Wow, this really annoyed me, I later question Terehji when he came by to give us the train ticket.(The 3 French did not give their passport - but they too got their train ticket) he simply smile and try to change to another topic. I simply told him off that, what he did is not right and should not be repeated (I was kinda stern - like a school teacher)
He drove us to the train station and finally we got on board the train to UB at 6pm and on the train we bunk with 2 Christian Mongolian woman, and had a good smiling, gesture, mandarin/english conversation.

Finally, we reached Ulan Batar on 5/7/05 (after the 2 days journey) Byamba came to meet us at the train station. We complaint to her about our journey, how it was being flopped up all the way from Beijing to Erlian, and that we will not want to pay any service fee cos, we did not get the proper service required. As she had engaged another transport agent to help her make all the arrangment and had already paid the fee to this agent. We went to meet with the agent and reason and complaint to him, but all he could say with sorry and that he will not engaged these people anymore, but he will not refund the fee. We felt bad about Byamba paying for us in advance it and so decided to pay her. But she is smart this time round, as she had other guests coming into Mongolia by the same route, she decided not to pay in advance until her guest arrived safely (true enough - we had an Israelis couple friend we met at Lijiang, who came in via the same route as us, faced almost or worst situation than us)

So much about the chaotic bus ride, next will share about our time in Mongolia.


my email: joydive@gmail.com

My Travel Experience and Itinery in Western Part of Si Chuan

Well, here is my long waited travel journal for Si Chuan:

We left Zhong Dian on 25/6/05, early in the morning by bus (16 hrs journery) to Dao Cheng (an old Tibetan province). The journery was truly an adventure one. Not only was it tiring but our bus actually got strucked in the mud couple of times, so much so that all the men in the bus were called to go down to help push the bus. As we are traveling through the mountain and some parts of the mountain is actually quite steep and narrow, and being seated by the window seat looking down, it can be quite a fearful experience. The bus was also overpacked to it's over maximum capacity, and many of the passenger smoke, much more we had a dirty old man in the bus, who keep trying to create conversation and flirted with us and at a point actually used his feet to stroke on Shaz's leg - yucks! We had a kid on board and he was traveling alone sitting near the driver (not a good seat for him cos most of the people around him smoked) he vomitted couple of times. I offered him my life saver - medicated oil, instead of him using it, the people around him started using it, too. I asked those smoker if they can stop smoking or blow their smoke out of the window, to have a consideration for us non-smoker, as well as the boy who is suffering (that's Joy speak out whenever you have to - well to some extent it works for me - they actually do as I said - at least for a while). Well, despite the tiresome and eventful journey, I enjoyed the beautiful scenery along the way.

Better still, I got to meet up with a young newly wed Chinese couple from Xian (Bin Bin and Cheng Xin), who are on their honeymoon, and they were actually on their way to Yading (a natural national park - where the 3 holy mountain of Tibet locate). I thanked God for another opportunity to meet the right people in my journey. This was because I wanted to go the Yading but Shaz wasn't interested - she not into hiking. I was quite apprehensive, not sure if I should go alone instead, but God is good, he sent this couple to accompany me for a 2 days hike up to the mountain, priase God.
Cheng was very excited about Yading, as he is a photo enthusiat, and he really wanted to capture the sunset and sunrise of the famous mountian. He is also a pro camper, and was very equipped all his camping stove etc for the journey.

After a night stay at Dao Cheng (a very quiet and listless town - not much excitement there), Shaz took the early morning bus to go up to Litang (a old Tibetan province about 4000m high in altitude) to wait for me. While the 3 of us, met up with our van driver to bring us up to the foot of Yading (about 3 - 4 hrs journey ride). We hiked up to about 4900m high in altitude, I was getting dizzy and breathless, becos of the altitude sickness. We took it slowly and I was very determind to make it by foot up to our camp site. It was a real treat when we reached our destination, we gotta see the 3 majestic icy mountain (clear from cloud) and the spectacular view of the grassland, yaks and Tibet tent surround it. We cooked our sumptous dinner by the river in the cold windy weather. Then we checked ourself into a Tibetan camp tent (Y50 per person - extremly expensive) for a night.
I wondered how could anyone stayed up here during winter time, now in summer time was already so cold in the night and morning (I salute to them).

Next day 27/6/05 - we made our way back to Dao Cheng in the evening (a very long story to share - cos we were supposed to meet our driver 5 hrs earlier - but we were very late), whereby I intent to travel up to Litang to meet up with Shaz and both my Xian couple will make their way back to Zhong Dian and to the Tiger Leaping Gorge (what a couple, choose to have a strenous and energy exhaust trip for their honeymoon). When we reached Dao Cheng, it was very late already, so we checked ourselves into a cheap (Y10) hotel. The whole place smells, even our bedsheet, but since it's only for 4-5 hours we decided to bear with it - to save some cash.

On 28/6/05, after bidding our farewells, I was on my way to Litang and I truly enjoyed the beautiful scenery along the way, great green pasture and beautiful hills and valley. I reached Litang at about 8am (much earlier than expected), met up with Shaz near the bus station, had our morning breakfast (egg soup with green vegetable - I like it - taste nice).
After checking into the hotel, I had my Y5 bath (never feel that good about bathing) I had not been bathing for about 3 days and badly needed one - Most Tibet don't bath (maybe once a month at the most). We went out for a walk, met Mia and Catlin again while walking, we decided to meet up together for dinner later in the evening. Again feeling abit dizzy (reaction of high alitiude) decided to go back to hostel to rest for couple of hours. After dinner with our 2 Australian friends, I need to go for my knee bandage dressing. So I asked around and took a cab to the nearest almost look like deserted hospital to get my dressing done. I really prayed that my skin will grow back faster, so that I will not have to go around looking for hospital to get new dressing (it can be quite troublesome), but yet visiting the different hosiptal can be quite an experience too.

I only need to stay in Litang for 1 days to it all (cos there is nothing much to do there). Next day morning we took the long distance bus up to Kanding (8hrs) and from Kanding to Cheng Du (7hrs). when we reached Cheng Du, it was already very late 11pm and we had a friend Yang Rong came to fetch us to the YHA hostel (we met her when we were in Kunming) She is a helpful and friendly modern single chinese woman - quitted her job and has been traveling parts of China too, she met her new Dutch boyfriend while in Kunming. Hmm, we were actually supposed to put up at her place (she offered when we met in Kunming) but her boyfriend reached here first, hah...

In Chengdu, we did not do much except for window shopping and taking bus around to see the city. One very common sight was that, you will get to see men taking off their top to show off their pot belly, bicep and tricep, cos the weather was so hot and dry (rather unbearable). We managed to get our air ticket to Beijing at a 60% discount price, I am amaze at how the air ticket discount system works, but anyway we were happy that we need not have to slog for the over 30 hrs of train journey to Beijing and got to spend another day in Chengdu.

As ZhuJiaJiang past water irrigation system site is one of the toursit attraction and must see here in Chengdu, I decided to make a trip down, while Shaz decide to stay at hostel to wait for me. Over at ZJJ, I was quite impressed with the surrounding and the rapid of the the riverflows and the way the water irrigation works in the past to prevent flood into the province and yet provide water fro the people. The muesem recorded many of the political leader from various countries who have visit the site. One of them is of course our former Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong - but sadly his name was mispelled. Well, what can I say, this is China.

Next day 2/7/05, we flew to Beijing and check into ZhaoLong YHA hostel (very nice hostel) quite late in the night. Am excited about the next morning 3/7/05, cos I get to see my new Nikon 7900 camera (had it posted to Fu Zheng - friend in Beijing), meet up with our dear busy bee Fu Zheng, and to embark on our journey Mongolia (to met up with our agent Terelog).
Will share about our journey to Monoglia.

my email: joydive@gmail.com