3Nations: Off to Mongolia

Previous 3Nations entries can be found on the Expedition page

Sunday 19th July 2009
The Chinese believe in the whole good/bad balance, they call it yin yang. This morning, at least was... well... balanced.

Good: We were getting a flight to Mongolia today! woo hoo
Bad: We had to leave the hotel at 3am to get to the airport

Good: We were given rice cakes on the bus
Bad: That was the only food we got til the plane as everything was shut at the airport

Good: We arrived at the check out desk the designated 3 hours before departure
Bad: No one told the airline staff this, they didn't start check in til an hour and a half after we arrived.

Good: The flight was relatively short
Bad: The flight was relatively bumpy

Ulaanbaatar

But all that didn't matter... we were all successfully transported to Mongolia, the main part of the expedition experience. If only we could say the same thing for the luggage. Heather was unfortunately without a bag, a hour or so of investigation... and getting us to all line up with our bags to make sure that none of us had it by accident... revealed that it had fallen off the luggage cart on the runway in China. errr, opps

Ulaanbaatar Airport, it's really small... only two gates!

Just before setting off on the coaches, we were introduced to our Mongolian scouts, they would be paired with an aravt (group... kind of like a patrol) for the length of our stay in Mongolia. I am a part of the Lion Aravt, and Anne is our Mongolian scout

go Lions!

... we rock...

Sorry, just a little bit of Lion PRIDE coming out there...

you know it's rude to groan out loud like that!

Anyway... it wasn't that long a trip to the camp site, located just outside the Bogd Khan National Park (on the south side, near the Manzushir Monastary and Zuunmod). It was an absolutely stunning spot.

Stunning isn't it...

Absolutely unbelievable, completely untouched and incredibly fresh (well the freshness was extremely noticeable given that we had just traveled from the smog of Beijing!). The grass even had some wild thyme in it... so when walking about you would kick it up and get a lovely whiff of it.


As you can see from the photos above, not all of the gers had been built (they're the 'tents' that Mongolian Nomads use)

Ger Building 101:
First, start off with the floor

... and some confused looking Mongolian scouts

Put together the center of the roof in the middle of the floor area 

Tie together the curved trellis like walls (all 5 of them)

 

... wait for Mongolian guy to fix your work....

Get some people to hold the roof centre upright in the middle of the floor area

Attach the roof slats, slotting them into the central wheel and looping the horse hair string to the trellis

Getting there...

woo hoo!

Cover roof with layer of cotton like fabric

Cover roof and walls in thick wool

Get someone to climb onto the roof

Final top layer of cotton like material (white of course)

Strap it all in...

... and stick two posts in at the door

And Bobs your estranged sibling of one of your parents (ok uncle then- but am sticking with the estranged, fine then.... just strange then)

Notice some people digging in the background in some of those photos? Well... that's people digging out the toilets. I'll leave those details* out, am sure you'll thank me.

With the completion of the gers and the toilets it was time to officially open the camp with a little ceremony. The Scouting, Mongolian, Union and Austrian flags were all raised over the camp, and the Mongolian part of the expedition was underway. Which is when Troll decided to surprise us with a gift. Our very own Mongolian top!

That's the Mongolian scouts being presented with the expedition neckies

Each aravt had its own set of colours, the Lions were red and silver, and it had Mongolia written in Mongolian script on it. Very classy. I still wear it to some camps actually

 Random lessons learned:

• 80 people in a queue to check in at stupid o'clock in the morning can have an uncanny resemblance to human-pick-up-sticks.
• Sitting next to Stu on a plane can be hazardous to your health (number of flights so far=2, number of people beside stu throwing up=2, number of others throwing up=0... coincidence?).
• Tiny, little, sweet, innocent Beth can be a force to be reckoned with when she is trying to get the bus to sing.
• In Mongolia, large stage coaches are apparently classed as off road vehicles.
• ... either that or anything resembling a brown smudge on the ground is classed as a road.
• The in fight magazine informed us that it is actually socially acceptable to throw bricks at cars that run red lights in China! 

*Throughout the Mongolian part of the trip the conversation regularly turned to toilet matters... things like colour, consistency and even artistic impression were discussed. This is how sophisticated we were, and this is what I will spare you from in the future! (except when I publish the International Toileting Badge requirements later- and yes we came up with all the requirements while away)

Again, thanks to those that let me borrow steal their photos

3Nations: Hutongs and Towers

Well, you can't say that I didn't warn you about the last 3Nations post... and that was only the morning.

If you're wanting to start from the beginning, cause it's a very good place to start, then head to the Expedition page. It even has a map now of places featured in the posts!

... so if you have gotten your good self comfortable and a cuppa tea, or even better a glass bottle of wine, then we'll begin. Well, continue... you know what I mean!

Saturday 18th July 2009: part two
We were taken back into the city for lunch, where we were treated to a dance while we ate. We were also given a red bit of wool that was tied round our wrist, for good luck. I still have that bit of wool actually, its tied to one of the inside zips of my bags

By the by, they served some glorious fried golden dumpling thingys that we were to dip in condensed milk. If anyone happens to know what they are called I would be eternally grateful although my waistline may eternally suffer... but that is a risk I am willing to take.

Now, I should warn you about a particular game that we played for the vast majority of the trip. I will admit it is rather childish... and kind of sets the tone of the group really... the game was to say "badger" when you fart. I have since been told it is badger cause its supposed to smell like a badger climbed up there and died... lovely eh? I am dragging this conversation into the blog purely because it was during lunch that we tried to find out what the Chinese word for badger was. Serena, our guide, had never heard of a badger before in her life, which prompted some interesting descriptions:

... it's like a black marmot, but a bit bigger... o'h and with white go faster stripes

... or think of a rat-panda.

Somehow Serena didn't manage to understand what on earth we were talking about. Go figure!

It was off to the Hutongs next. They're the ancient residential areas of Beijing, which are still in use today. The best way to get round the Hutongs is on a riskshaw, and man can those guys get round/over/through obstacles, be it roadworks, piles of rubble, anything... they would care not a jot.

*rumble rumble rumble*

...

Ooo look at that!

...

how cool is thi... wait, is that a hole in the road?...

argh!

*holds on for dear life*

*prays to God, Allah, Buddha... anyone that will listen*

During our tour of the Hutongs we paused by the gateway to one house so that one of the guides could describe some of its features.

• The number of beams above the door was a status symbol, so much so that marriages would be arranged on the basis of how many beams were above the door. hastily nails beams above my door at home
• The doors are flanks by either guardian animals or drums. The different animals or drum shapes would signify the military rank of the man of the house.
• Now this one is the weird one... all the traditional gateways has a raised ledge along the bottom. This is to stop the evil spirits entering the house. How it stops them I hear you ask... well, apparently those evil spirits don't have knees and are therefore unable to step over the threshold. Is it bad that I am currently imagining a pile of evil spirits, flat on the floor, unable to get up? hehehe

It wasn't until after the rest of the rickshaw ride that we actually got to explore behind one of these gateways. We were taken into a families home so that we could see how a traditional Chinese house is laid out.

The traditional style of house is courtyards with surrounding rooms/buildings.

I will admit that I wasn't entirely comfortable with this part of the Hutongs tour, even though the family were very welcoming, it still felt like the whole... look at the poor Chinese people type of tourism.


But at least it wasn't for long, we had a tower to climb!

The Bell Tower

Traditionally the Bell Tower, along with the Drum Tower, told the time to the commoners, one for the day time and one for the night time. To my surprise we were ushered into the Bell Tower.

The Drum Tower- but we didn't go in it

Now, a lot of people have this stereotypical image of a Chinese person being short, either that or we are just overly tall, but it came as a shock to realise that even if they are short or not, they are certainly fans of steep stairs! Some of the steps came a good way up my shin (in fact, when coming back down them later several people sat down and descended with posterior aid- and before you ask this wasn't the only steep stair case on the trip, but that's getting WAY ahead of myself).

You can see them struggling with the steps way at the back?

At the top we were greeted by some fantastic views of the city... and a HUGE bell. Well, I suppose that was to be expected really given that it's called the Bell Tower, but it really is rather huge. (The internet reliably tells me that it is in fact 23 feet tall... that's just over 7meters... that, you have to admit, is huge)

Ding Dong...

And that's all there just to hold it up!

In fact it is so huge that they had trouble casting it! The story goes that the Emperor had wanted to bell made from a single casting. The casting kept failing and the Emperor, who was used to getting what he wanted when he wanted it, set a dead line. A literal dead line. It was the day of the deadline, and if it didn't work today then the caster would be executed, when the casters daughter prayed to the gods... right before jumping into the vat of molten bronze! The caster, realising his daughters self sacrifice, cast the Bell. this time it worked... as her soul helped keep it sound.

... so bell makers remember, if nothing is working right for you today, then you're probably just missing the secret ingredient... dead daughter.

We were then given the choice of getting the coach back to the hotel, or making our own way there. Needless to say, most of us opted to make our own way. While walking back to the hotel we found a gorgeous little area of Beijing. It was what we all had in mind when they said that we would be going to the Silk Road Market the day before.

It was only unfortunate that this touristy style of china was also accompanied by tourists prices! £3 (yes pounds!) for a can of Sprite... and you thought that the vending machine at work was bad

Things I learned today:

• Hailing a taxi is difficult in China, they just think that you are waving, wave back at you and keep on driving

• They are rather curious about white people, and will stare... even in the public toilets... which have no doors

• You can get viennetta ON A STICK! why don't we have this in the UK?! lets get with the program people...

• Beijing has its own version of the I (heart) NY t-shirts... Beijing can be shortened to BJ. I'll give you a minute to fully appreciate that

• A stair master would be a pointless present for an evil spirit

• If in doubt, chuck your daughter into a vat of molten metal

• Beths shoes can fit entirely inside Eds...

Yup, she is wearing her shoes inside those shoes!

  Again, thanks to those that donated photos.

3Nations: Stadiums and Palaces

WARNING: This was a particularly busy day on the trip and this will, undoubtedly, be a stupidly long post. Stretch your legs, feed the cat, go to the toilet and make yourself a cuppa just now... you have been warned!

Saturday 18th July 2009:
*posh announcers voice* Ladies and gentlemen, we apologise for yesterdays unscheduled change in programming. We are glad to inform you that service should return to normal, I repeat we have normality... anything you still can't cope with is therefore your own problem

Today is the first day of the program as it should be, unfortunately it is also the last day in China (for a while anyway), but we could tell that today was going to be a good day as breakfast had a special guest star... bacon! It's the little things that make me happy

The days schedule involves a lot of sightseeing, I'll try not to bore you with all the stories from the sites we saw... I'll just bore you with some of them

First stop of the day was at the Olympic site (as it is on the way to our main destination for the day).

T

The Birds Nest... (did you know that there was another building called the Egg?)

The Swimming Pool (which was open to the public, and was very tempting in the heat)

These two iconic buildings of the Olympics were actually directly across the street from each other!

Ok, this building wasn't so famous... it generally wasn't shown on TV cause it was the one with all the TV cameras and presenters inside it (so that they could have the birds nest stadium in the background)

 These mascots were just sat at the side. Beth went over to get her picture with them, a couple of us followed suit (including myself as you can clearly see). By the time we left them there was a small queue of Chinese people wanting to do the same. Beth, she's so cool she is setting trends.

As you can tell by the photos, the Olympic Village was not a small place by any means. And we would have happily have spent hours wandering around it. But this is a whistle-stop tour my friends.

Total time allowed at the Olympic village: 15 minutes  ... yes running was involved ... hey I can run when I need to you cheeky beggar!

And so onto the main attraction for the day, the Summer Palace. Up until now we had been wondering where all the millions of Chinese people were. The streets had been a lot quieter than we had expected (although still rather deadly). Turns out that they are all hiding out in the Summer Palace.

The place was so busy that our guide Serena had to bring out The Flag to start off the classic tourist game of Follow the Flag. (it's pretty self explanatory)

 There she is... don't let her get too far ahead!

The Summer Palace is ginormous! I mean HUGE! 2.9 square kilometers (or so wikipedia tells me, and why would it lie to me?). The Palace does feature some highly functional buildings that frankly no holiday home should be without, including: The Cloud Dispelling Hall, The Hall of Benevolence and Longevity and the Oriole Listening Hall. That last one being a building specifically for listening to singers... remember these were the days before ipods, otherwise there would probably be a building for that too.

But those buildings aren't the main attractions. In fact some of the main attractions arn't even buildings!

Heres a quick run down of them... (I'll try to keep it brief ha!)

And if you look on your left we have the Thunder Stones (roughly translated... I can't remember the actual name). Called Thunder Stones because they apparently look like thunder, these stones (which apparently bring good luck etc) actually bankrupted three Emperors before actually getting into the palace!

Next we have the Marble Boat. An ancient analogy says that the Emperor is like a boat, and his people are the sea; a sea that could potentially become turbulent and capsize (or overthrow) the Emperor. The Emperor who built this boat wasn't a particular fan of this story, so this is his version of a boat that is impossible to overturn... showing those plebs once and for all who is boss. nice eh!

While traveling between the two of them, why let this pesky thing called the sun get in your eyes. Why not build a corridor, but it's got to be pretty so lets paint all of it... with each and every beam unique... in the longest corridor in the World.

Yeah, that aught to cover it!

Now to just jump on a boat so that we can cover the huge lake in this Palace.

Boat trip= win. Mexican wave with all the passengers= epic fail

Stunning isn't it

I just want to squeeze in this other picture of that building... I don't know what exactly the building is in the Palace, or its fancy name... but I just love this picture:

Please note the blue sky: this was one of the few times in China we saw a blue sky!

The boat took us over to the 17 arch bridge (no prizes for guessing why it's called that):

 Anyone else noticing the complete lack of railings etc?!

You can see the Longevity Hill in the background

The island at the other end of this bridge was quite interesting. It was built by the order of the Empress, purely for her enjoyment, and it was designed to mirror the Longevity Hill (shown in the pictures from the boat).

But these things don't build themselves (you know what I mean) so the money had to come from somewhere, so it was craftily taken out of the Navy's budget on the proviso that they would use the island to inspect the Navy from. Not surprisingly, the Navy was crippled by the cost!

End of Part One...

It's at this point that we went to lunch, yes lunch... we're only half way through the day people (I did warn you!). I recon by now your cuppa is getting cold, so I'll leave the afternoon for another day.

Don't say I don't do anything nice for you!

Again, thanks to all those that donated photos to the cause