Beijing

Arriving in Beijing as our final stop of the Vodka Train, back in June, it was both exciting to be in this much dreamed about city, and sad to be near the end of this totally incredible trip. The 7 of us, Belinda, Jess, Jonesy, Mark, Karl, Harris and I, had had such an amazing and enriching trip....and had such fun doing it!

Taken to our hostel by our Honcho, we discussed and plotted our last couple of days, before going our for dinner and the most delicious Peking duck ever. That night we met another Vodka Train group, preparing to head back the way we had just come, and we all trekked out to the bars along Lake Hou Hai.

The next morning was our Great Wall of China experience, before continuing the day with a tired, but awe-struck walk through the Forbidden City and then Tienanmen Square. Climbing to the top of the temple at the north of the City, we took in the smoggy view of Beijing, and the vast City complex of palaces, before walking through it. Arriving at the front of the City, and the Square, we took in this much famed space in the middle of the bustling city.

Heading our for our final big night together as a group, we found a bar strip in Old Street, where we could watch the second of Australia's World Cup matches. Soon ditching the over-priced beers on the main strip, and seeing another loss, Harris found us a little club where our night really kicked off.



After farewelling the Irish lads, who flew home the next morning, Belinda, Jess and I trekked out to see the Summer Palace. Although given the state of us, we are each lucky for camera-memories captured! We were out in the outskirts of the city, and thus, got to see blue sky for the first time in a couple of days, and take things very easy wondering around these grounds.

Back into town, and a final glimpse of Tienanmen Square, we met up with Harris at the hostel, and walked down to take in the weird and wonderful smells and sights of the Night Market.




We had a final dinner with Harris, to include Peking duck, before Belinda, Jess and I had a thwarted attempt to get the train to visit the Terracotta Warriors. Alas, missing the train by 3 minutes, we encountered our only real hiccup of the trip - and as experienced travellers, coped with it exceptionally well!

Having an overnight train booked, and then a flight from Xian, with the missing link we needed to investigate the options - but finding no trains for the rest of the night, and the offer of a standing train the next day, we returned to our original hostel, to the shock of Harris, to figure it all out the next day.

The Great Wall of China

So back to my massive trip this year, with my last related post seeing us getting into Beijing on the train. One of the biggest highlights happened the next day, being our visit to The Great Wall of China.

A minibus took the 7 of us (Belinda, Jess, Harris, Jonesy, Mark, Karl and myself) outside of Beijing in the morning, to the Mutianyu section, promised to be one of the most scenic by our China Vodka Train Honcho. The anticipation was building in the group, despite a couple of the crew having visited the Wall before on other travels.

We were dropped off at the carpark at the bottom of the section, and directed to the entrance where a choice of stairs or the Cable Car was quickly made. The ride up in our little glass bubble to the top gave us a tiny glimpses of the structure marked as one of the Wonders of the World.


Starting our walk of the section, we took in the awe of the expanse in front of us, being the tree-covered mountains, ribboned with this amazing man-made structure all along, winding over each rise.

One of the better preserved and intact sections, Mutianyu is also reportedly remarkable for it's watchtower structures, which we walked through on the several kilometers of Wall we covered. It was also reportedly not as crowded as some of the other sections, so whilst we didn't have the Wall to ourselves, we had the opportunity to take in in our stride, and experience it fully. So overwhelming, really!

Negotiating uneven steps, and then slope sections, passing through the watchtowers - this day was such an amazing experience. Something I've always wanted to see, and it was awe inspiring to actually be walking along the Wall.

Now, of course, the Chinese have thought of everything, and so rather than walking down to the bottom of the section to finish our visit, we took the Slideway! Yes, a toboggan each had us sliding all the way back down to the little markets and carpark. This was just the morning of a pretty special day in Beijing....

The Train To China

Another massive night, this time after all swearing we would have an early night after the final night in the Ger, put the success of catching our train in jeopardy, but MG somehow got us there in time. Dancing to totally random Mongolian pop and techo music in the bar at the front of our hotel, after being booted out the back door from one of the many Irish bars, we all seemed to get very carried away. Such fun!

A whole lot of napping started out this leg of our train trip from Mongolia to China, before we came to darkness with the timezones and the sheer distance covered. This also meant that the true Gobi Desert passed us by in darkness, which is a shame. The border crossing this time consisted of passport checks, but also a wheel change for the whole train...while we were on it.

Quite a bit of shunting around, and waiting, our carriage was eventually rolled into a shed where we where lifted up, and the wheels below were replaced with a different size, to fit the Chinese rail lines. It was quite bizarre seeing the section of train next to us being raised, or merely being noticeably lower than us when we were raised, with travellers that we had met waving to us from that disconnected part of the train.

A few rounds of vodka shots, our last of the Chinggis batch, saw out Mongolia for us.

Not thinking we were being inconsiderately loud this night, and given the fact that we were being displaced onto a new set of wheels at midnight, and therefore everyone was still up and about for the experience, we were totally bemused by the group of French tourists in our carriage waking at some ungodly hour and singing hymns (or something) at the top of their voices, imitating our group's laughs and voices, before they got off the train a few stops before us. The French are funny buggers, aren't they!

This leg of the trip was actually the least local mingling of the train trip, with large groups around our 2 allocated cabins this time. Nevertheless, we were excited to wake in a new country, ready to explore a new city.

*This post was meant to be published yesterday for NaBloPoMo, but no chance to be anywhere near a computer! NaBloPoMo fail!

Mongolia

After our late, late night out watching the World Cup, we had all thought that the early morning hour long bus ride would be a chance to have a nap. Oh, how wrong we were - one of the bumpiest rides of all time had us leaving Ulaanbataar for the countryside, and our destination for the next couple of nights. Passing several large tourist camps almost an hour in, we were hoping that we were not in one of the over commercial.

Vodka Train proved to us, with our small, tucked away camp with just 6 ger tents, that this tour group really was made for the independent traveler with some travel experience criteria. Over the hill, but out of sight was a bigger camp, in which we could access for meals and somewhere to hang out, but our little camp was pretty genuine in that there was no electricity, no running water, and each had a little potbelly stove in the centre, used to heat the tent at night.

Out here in the Mongolian countryside, there was nothing around but vast mountain ranges, and green lush land. This was quite the experience!


One of the highlights was a visit to one of the nearby nomadic family's ger tent, and having the woman of the house serve us foods she had prepared that day, including yogurt. We got to meet her two children during the visit. We had stopped off to buy gifts when we were still in town, and Harris' water spray, which seemed ridiculous to the rest of us, was such a hit with the young boy. Of course, jumping around and playing games with Harris would also be a delight for any 4 year old! He had meet his match!

The morning of the second day, our group went horse riding, out there on the Mongolian plane. Scary, as I don't remember when I had ridden a horse last, these horses kinda know the drill with taking groups, but would still take off at the slightest encouragement. On the race back to the starting point, when each horse just seems to take off independent of anything the rider may do, Jess took a tumble off, and whilst ok, scored some ripper bruising!

Here at the camp, our group got to hang out with the group going the other way, and here we each tried the famed mare's milk. Like fizzy yogurt...ew. This night proved to be quite a big night inside one of the gers, with beers and vodka shots all round. Such fun.

These couple of days out at the ger camp was one of the most amazing, and real experiences I have ever had.

The Trans-Mongolian Railway

Back on the train for a couple of days, we rode through more of the Siberian countryside, with villages and towns passing the carriage windows. More vodka, more hanging out in the cabins, more meeting fellow travelers, and catching up with the Spaniards we had meet on the last train. The toughest part of this couple of days was the 8 hour wait at the border between Russia and Mongolia...where nothing happened for 7.5 hours. Then there was train shunting with some of us on the train, and a couple of us watching from the platform.....and then the searches and passport checks by the very serious officials, and we were on our way. We then traveled the 30kms to the next town, inside the border of Mongolia....and waited, and then went through the same checks.

When we reached Ulaanbaatar, we were met by our awesome Vodka Train Honcho, MG. She took us to check in and shower, and then led us through the city to have breakfast and visit the Megjid Janraisig temples. Here we wandered through the complex, with included a walk through one temple in action, with monks chanting and drums sounding. Was surreal!

Catching public buses through the bustling city, we then visited the Zaisan Memorial, which gave us the most amazing view of the sprawling city below us, and the vast expanse to the horizon.









MG then took us to the Mongolian BBQ restaurant for an all-you-can eat, which ended up being a physical challenge for some of the group. Speaking of being uncomfortable, we were later taken to a theatre show of some traditional Mongolian dance, and one very disturbing display by a young female contortionist. Ouch!

The evening consisted of taking in the World Cup, in a massive 'Cup Land' set up in the forecourt of an Irish pub. We managed to have a great night for the 2 matches that didn't matter to us, and met the Vodka Train group who were travelling in the other direction. Then the Aussie game was on, against Germany, and we discovered that half of Mongolia had actually completed their studies in German universities, and thus, had a very loud affinity with the nation. Belinda and I seemed to be the only pair of Aussies in the pub at the start, and as the early hours ticked over, and the score line grew more and more grim, we called it a night.

Lake Biakal and Irkutsk

Waking early in the morning on the train, in the middle of Russia, our cabin was soon made aware that Mark was in a panic in the cabin next door, looking for his bag which contained all the important things, wallet, camera, passport. Passport! In Russia! Where you practically have to show documents to go to the bathroom! A sickening feeling seeped into the group, as we searched everywhere in both cabins, with no luck.

Meeting our Honcho on the platform, Costa was about to work the hardest day hanging out with tour groups for Vodka Train ever! After Costa talked to the Provodnitsa , he helped the rest of us register our arrival in that part of the world, and it was decided we would travel by bus to our destination for the next couple of days, while he and Mark dealt with things in town.

The mini-bus took us to Listvyanka, on the banks of Lake Biakal. At the end of the journey there, we were confronted with the large in-land water mass, and snow-capped mountains on it’s far shore. Breathtaking!

Having not had a shower for 4 days, and being cooped up in the confines of the train, the rest of us agreed that whilst it probably wasn’t really (the one at the Moscow hostel may well be, for all time), the shower in our villa in the mountains was the best ever! While wondering whether Mark and Costa were having any luck, and what the options may be, the rest of us went for a wander along the shore of the lake, taking in the crisp, fresh air. Sampling the wares at the little market, we then stopped for a couple of beers along the little bars on the shore.

Initially there were talks that Mark would have to fly back to Moscow to get a replacement passport, and then the idea that he would not be able to fly without sufficient ID implied that a return trip on the train we had all just got off, was on the cards. A very tense afternoon ended with Costa and Mark arriving at our villa, with the bizarre news that his passport had been found with a bunch of others from the train, with an apprehended thief further down the train line. Mark is one lucky Irishman! Costa treated us to a Russian sauna then, and a thankful group dinner allowed the group to debrief on the day.

The following day, Costa took us for a hike up one of the lower mountains, to give us a view of the Lake. A chairlift assisted us for the top portion, where we found the Lake and the mountains creating a postcard in front of us. Some of us ventured for more climbing, and a swim in the ice-cold Lake, while the rest of us returned to the string of beer venders along the shore.

The next day we loaded the mini-bus again, and farewelled the fresh air and view, and returned to the city that we started from, being Irkutsk. Here several of us made our matroyska purchases, before walked around seeing the sights of the city, while marvelling at the cute, cute little Russian houses. This included a tour through the house of The Decembrists, young revolutionary uprisers in their day, which caught my attention in the guide book due to the American band of the same name. Costa assured us that there would be English translations in the house, but really we came out of there non-the-wiser about this infamous group of Russians.


Final drinks at a bar, and then preparations for our next train journey, were our final tasks of this stop in the middle of Siberia, before Costa deposited us into another set of cabins on the Trans-Mongolian Railway.

The Trans-Siberian Railway

Amazingly, we all made the train the following morning after our big night out. Marina got us and all our gear to the station in time for our early morning departure - ready for 4 days on the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Armed with dehydrated foods, other random snacks, some very expensive packets of pistachios, and bottles of vodka, we had no real idea what this journey would be like. Allocated 2 cabins for the 7 of us on our Vodka Train tour, we settled into some patterns fairly easily - a lot of chatter, banter, sharing of stories within our group. Games, tunes, some reading (not much, I think only one of us actually finished a book!), and then, by mid-afternoons....vodka!

Our group, and a group of Spaniards, and another group of Portuguese, were the only non-locals on our carriage. This train carries the Russians from town to town as part of their everyday - and thus, this was real life. Walking from the front of the train where the open space carriages were, I saw families, couples, settling in for the journey to their destinations.

Back on our carriage, Jonesey introduced us to the locals, after initially thinking his attempt at a Russian good morning went unheard. He was invited into a cabin for drinks with a group of Russian strangers next door, including a Russian solider traveling days to see his family in the middle of Russia during his break.

The pace of vodka, beer, vodka, beer soon made this second afternoon on the train turn into one of the best times of the whole trip. The non-verbal/attempted verbal exchanges, the food exchanges, and the general humanity of having drinks with locals and our group in a shared space, was amazing and one of the most unique experiences I can imagine. This night, our little party on our carriage and in our cabins, and the interactions with the locals, was the very essence of this long dreamed trip across Russia.

Jonesy had become an expert in figuring out the timetable, in terms of stops and how long they would be. This allowed us to jump off and wander the platform, and usually buy some random food morsels from the local sellers. Saved us from the options of noodles, or instant mash. Needless to say, I don't think any of us will eat 2-minute noodles again for sometime! The first discovery of the 5 litre, cold bottles of beer sold at some stops was a hit!

With Russian countryside, towns and cities, farm land, and village life passing by our windows, we took it in, we got to know each other in these small living spaces, and figured out how to pass such extended travel time.

We definitely shocked our Provodnitsa on the final night, when she investigated the noise coming from our cabin, only to find 11 people in there. We were playing an international version of celebrity head, sharing around several bottles of the 5lt Bag Bier...and weren't anywhere near as loud as the previous nights!

Our lowest point on the train was probably when the group had studied the timetable, and put together that we were not in fact getting off at our next destination the next day as we had thought, but actually the following morning. But regardless of the no showers, no space, and the random encounters along these 4 days, this experience was one of the best things I have done.

Moscow

Waking in Moscow after the night journey, we were greeted by the beautiful Marina at the train station. Taken back to our best hostel of the trip, Godzillas, we freshened up, before heading out to have breakfast, and then taking to this new city.

We wandered around the city on foot, making our way to the much anticipated Red Square. Was pretty exciting to be walking through the arch of Voskresensky Gate to this iconic sight, not fully knowing what to expect. The resplendent St Basil's, the wall of the Kremlin, and the vast space in front of them creating the square, were so amazing to take in.

The group of us explored the inside of St Basil's, with it's tiny towers and alter spaces, before we wandered past the river to get a look at the Square from the other end. We had lunch in back in the building on the east of the Square, which used to be the Upper Trading Rows, now the over-abundant GUM Department Store.

Marina then took us on the metro, through the crazily ornate and over-the-top stations, to Moscow State University on the Vorobyovy Gory. This building is massive, and is one of Stalin's Seven Sisters of the city - but it is also atop a hill overlooking the city sprawl.

The next day we explored the inside buildings of the Kremlin, which, for a country where religion was removed, has a bucketload of churches! The gold and silver inside these walls are gorgeous (see to the right), but excessive!

We then had Japanese for lunch, and walked through the financial, shopping mall area of the city, before reaching the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Destroyed and replaced by a swimming pool following the fall of the Soviet Union, this beautiful Russian Orthodox Church has been rebuilt since 1990 - and, in fact, as we walked through the lower levels, there were still painters there adding to the murals.

Preparing for our train trip the next day, before getting ready for a big night out, was an adventure itself in the supermarket, navigating between Russian script, random pictures on things, and some of us not paying much attention to prices. Dinner and drinks, Marina and a host of other Vodka Train Honchos joined us, and managed to include a magical walk through Red Square, before we reached an area of pubs and bars.

A massive night out, starting with vodka shots, and then endless dancing with the very enthusiastic Russians. The mainly student population in the pub Belinda and I spent the most time, were so very friendly, and such fun. Dancing to songs we haven't heard out for years, interspersed with random Russian pop, we all had such a great night!

St Petes

We left Prague, and caught a Russian flight to St Petersburg. Instantly discovering the Russian script and signs, and lack of English a challenge, we figured out a bus to get from the airport to the city...but if it wasn't for a hot Dutch man on that bus who help us find the next steps, I suspect Jess, Belinda and I would still be lost somewhere on the transport system!

After wandering around lost for a bit more from the metro station, we eventually found our hostel, tucked away in courtyard with no markings. Here we discovered that our group as part of Vodka Train had left for a cruise on the river, since of flight was later than the official tour started. We followed the map left by Lera, our Honcho in St Petersburg, but just missed the cruise the rest of the group were on. To fill time until their return, we purchased some beers and nibbles, and park along the river. And this is how our tour group with whom we would be traveling for the next 3 weeks found us - beers in hand, sitting in the gutter, taking in this new city. We set the bar high to start with!

Once the 3 Irishmen and our Pompy ranga Pom were introduced, we then found a pub and had a night of getting to know the group, and asking Lera about her city. Each stop of Vodka Train has a Honcho who is a local who has signed up to oversee the groups time, making sure all the paperwork and tickets are sorted, and pointing us, or leading us, to where we want to go. It also meant that we were taken to local places to eat, which was more affordable, and meant we got to sample the local Russian foods that Lena usually has.

The next day we took a bus out of town, to Peterhof Palace, which is the summer palace. Taking in the gardens, the grand palace buildings, and then abundance of fountains, we also walked along the sea.

Back in the city, via the metro and marveling at the ornate and breathtakingly grand stations, we walked passed the The Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood, and then went aloft the Colonnade of St Isaac's Cathedral to get a view of the city. Back at ground level, we got to stare up at the Bronze Horseman.

6 of the 7 of us then got all dressed up and went to the ballet - Swan Lake in a very old Russian theatre. Quite a special feat, going to see this in Russia!

The boys feeling like that had had enough culture that evening, convinced us to have beers at the Irish pub across from the ballet, where we each had our first shots of vodka for the trip.

Having enjoyed 2 days of sunshine, and being told that St Petersburg only actually gets 24 days of sun a year, our last day was raining and overcast. Which was the perfect day to spend inside the Hermitage, taking in a vast collection of art, spanning from Russian, to a full scope of European art, Egyptian artifacts, to sculpture. We each spent hours meandering through the 5 buildings of the Winter Palace, of world art. So impressive!

Exploring the river side of the city, we walked over to Peter and Paul's Fortress, before Jess, Belinda and I took the river cruise through the canal and river systems, out in the elements taking in the commentary, before we each graduated inside for the last portion. It was freezing!

The end of the day, Lena managed to get us all to the train station in time to board our first train of our long journey, an overnight to Moscow.