Friday, 22 July 2011
Thursday, 21 July 2011
Week one
We've been here almost a week and I think I should jot some things down before they become less memorable or novel.
- ever since SARS they seem to have got very excited here about contagious diseases. Almost every lift we have been into reassures us that the buttons are sanitised every two hours - phew.
- if you come over to visit, cocktails on the 34th floor of The Excelsior are a must.
- summer is a mix of heat, humidity and heavy rain - although we've not had too much of the latter. In fact, every time I've taken out the umbrella we haven't seen a drop. The day I didn't take it out of course it rained very heavily. I'm looking forward to what is officially described as "black rain".
- apartment sizes are nowhere near what they seem. Having read the square footage before looking at some flats, we were surprised just how small some of them are. It turns that the square footage includes (for example) a bit of the common parts (e.g. a section of the landing, swimming pool etc) and the bit outside the flat where the air conditioner is sitting!
- gazumping is a phenomenon in the rental market here. We found a great place earlier on today and the landlord pulled out just as we were handing over the cash deposit!
- some of the flats we have looked at have a maid's room - most of which are literally no bigger than a single bed (which pulls down from the wall) - looked hugely inadequate to me.
- we met a lovely Swiss couple at church on Sunday who invited us around for dinner - when he first arrived in HK he couldn't speak a word of English or Cantonese. Very brave - he can now translate quite happily between the two.
- we met the nicest immigration officer ever this morning as we went to get our ID cards - we had a lovely chat. All very welcoming.
- Eve has us on a diet of 20 Chinese characters a day. If we can keep it up for about 150 days, we may even be able to read a newspaper.
- ever since SARS they seem to have got very excited here about contagious diseases. Almost every lift we have been into reassures us that the buttons are sanitised every two hours - phew.
- if you come over to visit, cocktails on the 34th floor of The Excelsior are a must.
- summer is a mix of heat, humidity and heavy rain - although we've not had too much of the latter. In fact, every time I've taken out the umbrella we haven't seen a drop. The day I didn't take it out of course it rained very heavily. I'm looking forward to what is officially described as "black rain".
- apartment sizes are nowhere near what they seem. Having read the square footage before looking at some flats, we were surprised just how small some of them are. It turns that the square footage includes (for example) a bit of the common parts (e.g. a section of the landing, swimming pool etc) and the bit outside the flat where the air conditioner is sitting!
- gazumping is a phenomenon in the rental market here. We found a great place earlier on today and the landlord pulled out just as we were handing over the cash deposit!
- some of the flats we have looked at have a maid's room - most of which are literally no bigger than a single bed (which pulls down from the wall) - looked hugely inadequate to me.
- we met a lovely Swiss couple at church on Sunday who invited us around for dinner - when he first arrived in HK he couldn't speak a word of English or Cantonese. Very brave - he can now translate quite happily between the two.
- we met the nicest immigration officer ever this morning as we went to get our ID cards - we had a lovely chat. All very welcoming.
- Eve has us on a diet of 20 Chinese characters a day. If we can keep it up for about 150 days, we may even be able to read a newspaper.
Tuesday, 19 July 2011
Nadaam
Nadaam, the so-called Nomad Olympics, takes place in mid July in Mongolia. The three main pursuits are wrestling, horse racing (25km) and archery. We thought we would miss it as it tends to take place around the country on 11 and 12 July. Lucky for us the Nadaam in a town close to where we were staying was happening early and we saw some of the action. The usually reserved Mongolians came to life as the horse racing reached its conclusion - after 25km two boys came in neck and a neck and it was literally won by a nose.
The wrestling is a highly tactical affair and bouts can go on for half an hour - although, given that there are no weight categories, some bouts can be over very quickly. The participants wear open chested outfits - apparently because a woman won a few centuries back and this outfit is a sure way of flushing them out of a men-only sport. Our driver was hooked on the action - not surprising as a former regional champion himself.
The wrestling is a highly tactical affair and bouts can go on for half an hour - although, given that there are no weight categories, some bouts can be over very quickly. The participants wear open chested outfits - apparently because a woman won a few centuries back and this outfit is a sure way of flushing them out of a men-only sport. Our driver was hooked on the action - not surprising as a former regional champion himself.
posted from Bloggeroid
Spa
With the roads getting increasingly more challenging (that may actually be a misuse of the word "road" - bridleway might be a bit closer), we headed off on a trek in the mountains. It was unseasonably cold - there was fresh snow on the ground as we got higher. There were great views over the surrounding (again, completely unspoilt and uninhabited) tree covered countryside.
We slept in a ger by some springs and had steaming hot baths which were a nice contrast to the cold weather. It was odd having a rustic spa experience (bath tub in a shed) in the middle of nowhere - but very welcome!
We slept in a ger by some springs and had steaming hot baths which were a nice contrast to the cold weather. It was odd having a rustic spa experience (bath tub in a shed) in the middle of nowhere - but very welcome!
posted from Bloggeroid
Kharkhorun
Having had a lovely night's sleep, we headed for Kharkhorun - a Buddhist monastery built on the ruins of the capital built by Chinggis Khan's son. The communists laid waste to a lot of it, but what remains is an interesting insight into past and present life and culture (Buddhism has made a comeback since the early 90s). The Buddhist equivalent of a service goes on for four hours and a full meal is served to the chanting monks.
Kharkhorun delivered our first sampling of proper local food - something akin to a fried meat pasty - although who knows what the meat was. Tasted good though.
From there we headed to a waterfall - rain and cold kyboshed the thought of camping and we headed for another ger. Our driver took up cooking duties, which initially involved collecting some smooth stones and putting them in the wood burning stove. Once they were white hot, they went in a stock pot with some water (it looked like a big metal thermos flask) and they were joined by some veg and a very fresh rack of lamb. Wait for half an hour - delicious.
Kharkhorun delivered our first sampling of proper local food - something akin to a fried meat pasty - although who knows what the meat was. Tasted good though.
From there we headed to a waterfall - rain and cold kyboshed the thought of camping and we headed for another ger. Our driver took up cooking duties, which initially involved collecting some smooth stones and putting them in the wood burning stove. Once they were white hot, they went in a stock pot with some water (it looked like a big metal thermos flask) and they were joined by some veg and a very fresh rack of lamb. Wait for half an hour - delicious.
posted from Bloggeroid
Heading west
After the odd hiccup (completely my fault) finding the hotel we had booked for a brief post-train snooze, we were picked up and headed to Chinghis Khan International Airport (his name is on everything in Mongolia) to pick up Victoria. From there we headed west with our 4x4 (complete with driver and guide). It wasn't long after leaving UB that you got a sense of how sparsely populated Mongolia is (the world's most sparsely populated country we're told) - vast swathes of beautiful, uninhabited (or only sporadically inhabited) countryside.
We slept the first night at a ger (essentially a good-sized wood framed tent clad with sheep's wool - which keeps it warm and dry). There was one family in particular the driver wanted us to stay with, but what with them being nomadic, he had to ask around to find out where they were this season. The occupants of other local gers gladly pointed us in the right direction. After striping in, we wandered along the sand dunes whilst Tina (our guide) cooked up dinner. As the sun was heading for the horizon, Victoria and I had a bit of a ride on our host's camels. Mine was a little feisty and had a bloody noise - which he delightfully wiped on my trousers.
We slept the first night at a ger (essentially a good-sized wood framed tent clad with sheep's wool - which keeps it warm and dry). There was one family in particular the driver wanted us to stay with, but what with them being nomadic, he had to ask around to find out where they were this season. The occupants of other local gers gladly pointed us in the right direction. After striping in, we wandered along the sand dunes whilst Tina (our guide) cooked up dinner. As the sun was heading for the horizon, Victoria and I had a bit of a ride on our host's camels. Mine was a little feisty and had a bloody noise - which he delightfully wiped on my trousers.
posted from Bloggeroid
The long train to Ulaanbaatar
We shared our cabin to Mongolia with two older ladies from Brighton. Having not met a single non-Russian on our trains over the previous four weeks, we felt like we'd stepped onto the tourist express (admittedly, a very slow moving express - the 260km to the border took about five hours). We saw more non-Russians on that train than we had done since leaving Moscow. Apart from the time it took, the border crossing was happily uneventful for us (an American chap had more difficulty after apparently having some pages ripped out of his passport at immigration).
Thinking we had 12 minutes at the Mongolian side of the border, we rushed around like mad men to get some food - only to return to the train just in time and find out that Mongolia is an hour behind Russia, so we could sit down in a cafe and enjoy some local fast food (of the stir fry variety - the menu was incomprehensible to us, so we relied on the lovely waitress to just pick two dishes) and a beer before heading off to Ulaanbaatar (UB to its friends). We caught sight of or first gers within a few minutes of setting off - outside of UB, almost the whole population is nomadic, moving every 3 or 4 months. Although they don't have running water, modernity has not passed them by: solar panels and satellite dishes abound.
We were woken by an over enthusiastic carriage attendant about an hour and a half before our 6am arrival, but at least we got to see some nice scenery before we got to UB and its communist architectural charms (with a few modern glass high rises in evidence). UB means Red Hero in Mongolian - not the original name you'll understand - it got that name when the Russians helped "liberate" it from the Chinese. They liked the country so much, they set up a puppet government. UB's had a few names over the years, the first simply meaning Camp.
Thinking we had 12 minutes at the Mongolian side of the border, we rushed around like mad men to get some food - only to return to the train just in time and find out that Mongolia is an hour behind Russia, so we could sit down in a cafe and enjoy some local fast food (of the stir fry variety - the menu was incomprehensible to us, so we relied on the lovely waitress to just pick two dishes) and a beer before heading off to Ulaanbaatar (UB to its friends). We caught sight of or first gers within a few minutes of setting off - outside of UB, almost the whole population is nomadic, moving every 3 or 4 months. Although they don't have running water, modernity has not passed them by: solar panels and satellite dishes abound.
We were woken by an over enthusiastic carriage attendant about an hour and a half before our 6am arrival, but at least we got to see some nice scenery before we got to UB and its communist architectural charms (with a few modern glass high rises in evidence). UB means Red Hero in Mongolian - not the original name you'll understand - it got that name when the Russians helped "liberate" it from the Chinese. They liked the country so much, they set up a puppet government. UB's had a few names over the years, the first simply meaning Camp.
posted from Bloggeroid
Ulan Ude
From Irkutsk we took a lovely long train journey along the shore of Lake Baikal up to Ulan Ude. The weather was stunning and the views of the Lake were awesome. Had we not needed to get to Mongolia, we would have been tempted to jump off and look around for a couple of days. It looks like the hills would serve up some lovely hiking.
Ulan Ude itself is pleasant without loads to see and do - the world's biggest Lenin head is its main claim to fame - it is absolutely enormous. After our last hearty Russian meal and having stocked up for our early train to Mongolia the next day, we headed to bed.
Ulan Ude itself is pleasant without loads to see and do - the world's biggest Lenin head is its main claim to fame - it is absolutely enormous. After our last hearty Russian meal and having stocked up for our early train to Mongolia the next day, we headed to bed.
posted from Bloggeroid
Friday, 15 July 2011
Ulan Ude
From Irkutsk we took a lovely long train journey along the shore of Lake Baikal up to Ulan Ude. The weather was stunning and the views of the Lake were awesome. Had we not needed to get to Mongolia, we would have been tempted to jump off and look around for a couple of days. It looks like the hills would serve up some lovely hiking.
Ulan Ude itself is pleasant without loads to see and do - the world's biggest Lenin head is its main claim to fame - it is absolutely enormous. After our last hearty Russian meal and having stocked up for our early train to Mongolia the next day, we headed to bed.
Ulan Ude itself is pleasant without loads to see and do - the world's biggest Lenin head is its main claim to fame - it is absolutely enormous. After our last hearty Russian meal and having stocked up for our early train to Mongolia the next day, we headed to bed.
posted from Bloggeroid
Saturday, 2 July 2011
Musings
Come tomorrow we'll be on our way out of Russia, so I must jot down some things while they occur to me.
Fashion is perplexing here. Women tend to be very well dressed (Eve fits in famously). They also wear stilettos for any occasion - including just wandering around town. On the other hand, men's fashion is limited to three things: camo gear, jeans and adidas. In fact, it seems obligatory to wear at least one item of adidas at any given moment. If you can wear a full adidas tracksuit, that's the pinnacle.
May be life is literally too short for most blokes to think more about fashion. Life expectancy for a Russian male hovers around 60 (women get about 15 more years on average). The thinking seems to be that alcohol, smoking and a poor diet really don't help (being drunk also causes accidents). Fags cost about 50p a packet and it's been more common in our experience to see people drink beer on the street than anything soft (even women can be seen drinking a bottle of beer mid afternoon). On our bus back from the island yesterday, two guys in their late teens got through two big cans of 7% "alcohol and energy" drink each in about an hour between half eleven and half twelve - they also got the bus to stop for a fag break.
Finding English words adopted by other languages is not unusual, but I haven't seen it adopted and transliterated before. Business is a favourite in particular - such as the бизнес ланч - business lunch.
Fashion is perplexing here. Women tend to be very well dressed (Eve fits in famously). They also wear stilettos for any occasion - including just wandering around town. On the other hand, men's fashion is limited to three things: camo gear, jeans and adidas. In fact, it seems obligatory to wear at least one item of adidas at any given moment. If you can wear a full adidas tracksuit, that's the pinnacle.
May be life is literally too short for most blokes to think more about fashion. Life expectancy for a Russian male hovers around 60 (women get about 15 more years on average). The thinking seems to be that alcohol, smoking and a poor diet really don't help (being drunk also causes accidents). Fags cost about 50p a packet and it's been more common in our experience to see people drink beer on the street than anything soft (even women can be seen drinking a bottle of beer mid afternoon). On our bus back from the island yesterday, two guys in their late teens got through two big cans of 7% "alcohol and energy" drink each in about an hour between half eleven and half twelve - they also got the bus to stop for a fag break.
Finding English words adopted by other languages is not unusual, but I haven't seen it adopted and transliterated before. Business is a favourite in particular - such as the бизнес ланч - business lunch.
posted from Bloggeroid
Racism
Writing about racism is hard because it is present everywhere to some degree and commenting on it can give the impression that it is not a problem for you or your homeland. It can also (ironically) involve making generalisations about the attitude of one group to another. However, with that in mind...
The lovely thing as we have moved further east is the apparent greater level of racial and ethnic integration - we've seen mixed race couples. We were told in Moscow that certain foreigners might get extra attention from the police there, but that we'd be fine (the undertone being that because we are white we'll slip under the radar). They were right - we've not had any interaction with the police at all, but we have seen people who look like they might hail from the Southern and Eastern parts of the old USSR being asked for their papers. We've probably seen half a dozen people in total who would be described in the UK as black. Although, my friend in Moscow told me that in Russia the people described (pejoratively) as black are the Armenians (his wife is Armenian, but he said she doesn't look that Armenian so doesn't have problems). The Russian word for people who would be described in the UK as black still begins with an "n" I'm told. Whilst we've been here there has been a news story about a Brazilian footballer having bananas thrown at him.
We've all got a long way to go before we afford each unique valuable human being the full dignity, respect and love they are due. Having read a Wilberforce biography last year and a Bonhoeffer biography on this journey, it's tragic to see how aspects of the church have on occasion managed to move from God's loving view of all humans and drop into line with those who have sought denegrate certain people groups.
The lovely thing as we have moved further east is the apparent greater level of racial and ethnic integration - we've seen mixed race couples. We were told in Moscow that certain foreigners might get extra attention from the police there, but that we'd be fine (the undertone being that because we are white we'll slip under the radar). They were right - we've not had any interaction with the police at all, but we have seen people who look like they might hail from the Southern and Eastern parts of the old USSR being asked for their papers. We've probably seen half a dozen people in total who would be described in the UK as black. Although, my friend in Moscow told me that in Russia the people described (pejoratively) as black are the Armenians (his wife is Armenian, but he said she doesn't look that Armenian so doesn't have problems). The Russian word for people who would be described in the UK as black still begins with an "n" I'm told. Whilst we've been here there has been a news story about a Brazilian footballer having bananas thrown at him.
We've all got a long way to go before we afford each unique valuable human being the full dignity, respect and love they are due. Having read a Wilberforce biography last year and a Bonhoeffer biography on this journey, it's tragic to see how aspects of the church have on occasion managed to move from God's loving view of all humans and drop into line with those who have sought denegrate certain people groups.
posted from Bloggeroid
Baikal
The real reason to travel to Irkutsk was not to see that city, but to make the 250 and odd kilometre trip up to Olkhon Island in the middle of Lake Baikal. The stats about Baikal are mind boggling: one-fifth of the world's fresh water and it's bigger than all five of the US Great Lakes combined. The reason it's not better known may have something to do with the fact that it's some 5,000 kilometres (or four nights) from Moscow by train. They've also not made it that easy to get to: the first 150km from Irkutsk are decently tarmac-ed, but after that it starts to get bumpy as it becomes a pot holed mud road. In fact, the road is so bad that an impromptu secondary mud road has grown up alongside the "real" road and most people seem to prefer the new one.
Our six hour journey was delayed - turning into an eleven hour journey. We met some nice people while we were waiting (and a slightly quirky German "traveller" from the school of "let's just talk about me and my experiences") - a couple of Norwegian students and a French couple who had hitch hiked their way through a lot of Southern and Eastern Europe and Turkey, before getting a boat over the Black Sea to Russia.
Anyway, the journey was definitely worth it when we made it to the island - wonderfully undeveloped (although I always think it a little strange when there's electricity, mobile phone reception, satellite TV and plasma TVs, but no running water and flush toilets) and beautiful open spaces. We did a lovely hike up the coast and the weather was great too. We stayed at Olga's and she delivered some fine food in generous quantities (I should mention that the spaghetti with cheese for breakfast on our second day was a little odd - more than made up for by the lovely cake which was also on offer).
Our six hour journey was delayed - turning into an eleven hour journey. We met some nice people while we were waiting (and a slightly quirky German "traveller" from the school of "let's just talk about me and my experiences") - a couple of Norwegian students and a French couple who had hitch hiked their way through a lot of Southern and Eastern Europe and Turkey, before getting a boat over the Black Sea to Russia.
Anyway, the journey was definitely worth it when we made it to the island - wonderfully undeveloped (although I always think it a little strange when there's electricity, mobile phone reception, satellite TV and plasma TVs, but no running water and flush toilets) and beautiful open spaces. We did a lovely hike up the coast and the weather was great too. We stayed at Olga's and she delivered some fine food in generous quantities (I should mention that the spaghetti with cheese for breakfast on our second day was a little odd - more than made up for by the lovely cake which was also on offer).
posted from Bloggeroid
Baikal
The real reason to travel to Irkutsk was not to see that city, but to make the 250 and odd kilometre trip up to Olkhon Island in the middle of Lake Baikal. The stats about Baikal are mind boggling: one-fifth of the world's fresh water and it's bigger than all five of the US Great Lakes combined. The reason it's not better known may have something to do with the fact that it's some 5,000 kilometres (or four nights) from Moscow by train. They've also not made it that easy to get to: the first 150km from Irkutsk are decently tarmac-ed, but after that it starts to get bumpy as it becomes a pot holed mud road. In fact, the road is so bad that an impromptu secondary mud road has grown up alongside the "real" road and most people seem to prefer the new one.
Our six hour journey was delayed - turning into an eleven hour journey. We met some nice people while we were waiting (and a slightly quirky German "traveller" from the school of "let's just talk about me and my experiences") - a couple of Norwegian students and a French couple who had hitch hiked their way through a lot of Southern and Eastern Europe and Turkey, before getting a boat over the Black Sea to Russia.
Anyway, the journey was definitely worth it when we made it to the island - wonderfully undeveloped (although I always think it a little strange when there's electricity, mobile phone reception, satellite TV and plasma TVs, but no running water and flush toilets) and beautiful open spaces. We did a lovely hike up the coast and the weather was great too. We stayed at Olga's and she delivered some fine food in generous quantities (I should mention that the spaghetti with cheese for breakfast on our second day was a little odd - more than made up for by the lovely cake which was also on offer).
Our six hour journey was delayed - turning into an eleven hour journey. We met some nice people while we were waiting (and a slightly quirky German "traveller" from the school of "let's just talk about me and my experiences") - a couple of Norwegian students and a French couple who had hitch hiked their way through a lot of Southern and Eastern Europe and Turkey, before getting a boat over the Black Sea to Russia.
Anyway, the journey was definitely worth it when we made it to the island - wonderfully undeveloped (although I always think it a little strange when there's electricity, mobile phone reception, satellite TV and plasma TVs, but no running water and flush toilets) and beautiful open spaces. We did a lovely hike up the coast and the weather was great too. We stayed at Olga's and she delivered some fine food in generous quantities (I should mention that the spaghetti with cheese for breakfast on our second day was a little odd - more than made up for by the lovely cake which was also on offer).
posted from Bloggeroid
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)