Happy Birthday!

It's 2 years since I started this little blogging project of mine!

*Party streamers falling from the ceiling, villagers rejoicing and cake getting cut*

I can hardly believe it, can you?

To celebrate I'm going to post some of my favourite photos from the Jamboree for you all to enjoy

Look, everyone is all shiny and clean

Tivoli Gardens was so much fun! (even tho not all the rides were open)

One of the acts from the UK Party in Copenhagen (my Alphabeat photos turned out blurry *sniff*)

One of my favourite shots this one!

It was so peaceful on camp-in-camp...

... despite the warnings

Communal cooking area in camp-in-camp. Whatever you had left over you shared with everyone else. We ate like kings that night!

... and slept in some pretty nifty tents

The kids out canoeing

Heading for the Carnival day party

The 360degree stage for the closing ceremony

Our tiny tin can plane for the trip to Lithuania

Now... where's my present?

Note: Obviously Hobbes is copyrighted by Bill Watterson, and if you don't recognise him... first, SHAME ON YOU; secondly, go google it now!

3Nations: Ulaanbaatar

Have a look at previous 3Nations posts on the Expedition Page. Go on, you know you want to!


Saturday 25th July 2009


Today was rather different from most of the days here in Mongolia. Instead of the Aravts pairing off and going to do activities separately, we were all going to be heading out as one big happy family!


The plan... taking in some of the sites of Ulaanbaatar! woo hoo, touristy fun! I'm always a fan of touristy fun.


First stop was the Gandan Buddhist Monastery. Which was packed with tourists, or at least it felt like it after the quiet of camp.

Ok... doesn't look as busy as I remember it...

We'd waited about a bit, waiting to find out exactly what was happening. I think someone was supposed to show us around, but that didn't turn out, so we eventually just started wandering round like the rest of the tourists. Right round the back of those buildings was a load of prayer wheels, which led us round to a prayer room, where there was a load of monks chanting. Unfortunately there was also a load of tourists surrounding and blocking the entrance, so I didn't really get to see anything.


But turns out, this was only a small part of the monastery. We found a temple nearby with possibly the biggest Buddha I have seen (and I've seen some big Buddhas in my time)

I didn't take the photo, cause of all the signs saying not too. But one of the others was naughty and snapped this quick one. Yes, it is a Buddha statue. Looks rather Hindu in style I thought; what with the 4 arms, breasts and the spot on its forehead.


Actually, check this out. It's a 360 view from inside the temple itself!

Megjid Janraisig in Ulaanbaatar

How cool is that!! Anyway, I asked Dawn, one of the leaders on the trip who is Buddhist, about the statues form and she said different statues were aimed at getting different aspects of the Buddha across symbolically.


After exploring the temple we were then taken to our next location, a sauna. A chance to get properly clean was a very welcome prospect at this stage, since we left China we'd been washing in buckets from water you had to heat over the fire. The showers were nice and strong, the green tea bath was very refreshing and the freezing plunge pool took your breath away. The fact that all the guys were in together and we were all completely naked.... *shudder*... I saw FAR TO MUCH of some people. and before any of you ask, NO there are no photos, and if there was any they would be hunted down and destroyed for the sake of humanity.


Moving on, after lunch we went to the National Museum of Mongolia, where we got to learn a bit about the history and culture of the country. I say a bit because only the first so many displays had english translations. We still enjoyed it tho, and I did get this:

It's my name in Mongolian

We were then given some free time around the main square area of the city before heading off for another meal. Myself and a couple of the others went in search of somewhere to post our postcards and I attempted to phone home (it was a stupid number of digits to use, like 20-30ish).


Dinner was followed by a visit to the Cashmere Market on our way to our final destination, Zaisan Hill. It's a huge memorial for Soviet Soldiers killed in World War 2 on the top of a hill just south of Ulaanbaatar.

Photo from travelblog.org

The inside of the ring is covered in a mural.

Zaisan Hill Inside View in Ulaanbaatar

This panorama is just perfect actually, it looked exactly like this when we were there. Have a look round at the mural and see if you can find the woman breast feeding!


Thanks to those that I borrowed photos from, thanks also to 360cities.net for the awesome panorama views!

3Nations: Scout Project and Ulaanbaatar

Right, I realise that it has been an age since my last 3Nations post, so please go to the expedition page to remind yourself what happened.... go on.... go on, go on, go on...

sorry about that, was channeling Mrs Doyle there!

I've made it a New Years resolution to get these done, it will happen!

Thursday 23rd July 2009

Given that the whole program has been thrown a bit off kilter; what with the storm, evacuation and moving the entire site; today was trying to get it back on track. So our plan was to head into Ulaanbaatar, for a bit of community service and culture.


All aboard the minibus! woo hoo


First stop on our magical mystery tour is the scout service project. This service project actually began before we had even left the UK. Money from the project and our fundraising was being used to build an official scout hall in Ulaanbaatar (and if I remember correctly it would be the first purpose built scout hall in Mongolia). The builders had been busy building the hall, our job during the trip was to paint the inside.


Our instructions were, well... basic to say the least.


"Blue, blue, purple, white"


... that and being handed the pot of paint and some brushes. Well, we say paint. It was more like blue water, but hey, you work with what you have!

The blank patch in the corner is damp from the storm two days before (the one from evacuation day)

 

Right into all those cracks!

You can see how thin the paint was... we had to do quite a number of coats

That little hut outside isn't storage... it's the toilet. We had been warned by previous aravts about this little hut of horrors and its preilous drop of doom.

After numerous hours of this we were taken to a shopping center food court. Food! And it's NOT mutton! It's even in the shape of pizza *mmmmm pizza* (scarily this was the one type of food that I missed the most during the trip)

After our meal that me, if not anyone else, happy we set off on our next stop on the magical mystery tour of Ulaanbaatar... the black market. Now don't worry, this is actually nothing illegal and doesn't hold any of the negative connotations that it does in the UK.

Aside from looking for some traditional mongolian stuff for souveniers, we had a rather bizarre shopping list:

• Lino (for the floor of our ger, as our last lot got damaged)
• a flat cap for Dan (because he decided that he would rather look a bit more dapper)
• a hard hat for Pete (as he keeps hitting his head on the low ger doors... even knocking himself out cold one time!)
• SWEETS!!! (just because... I don't need a reason for sweets)

 And given that it had started to rain just as we were about to leave the black market the lino doubles as a handy group umbrella!

...we didn't get random looks from the locals, so siree

We'd asked Annie and Tempka (the Mongolian Scouts who acted as our guides for our time in Mongolia) where we could get some souveniers, something traditional, so an extra shop at the imaginatively named 'Souvenier Shop' was squeezed in. And I really do mean that it was squeezed in, we pretty much had to run from it to our next stop, the theatre!

I got this traditional horse brush

Us Networkers can actually be cultured at times.... honest.

We were there to see a performance by a Mongolian orchestra. It was quite stunning actually, all the musical instruments were traditional Mongolian (including the flute and the horse head fiddle I tried on our day on site) and it also featured throat singing. I doubt that I would ever be able to sing like that (and given that your throat can bleed if you do it wrong I'm not exactly lining up to learn if I am honest).

ok, the horse head fiddle is funky... but check out the really cool Mongolian Clarinet in the background!

They also featured some dancers and gymnastics to give the musicians a bit of a break.

All very bright and colourful and impressive... educational as well given that they had a LED display at the side translating and explaining stuff in english (how thoughtful)

Given this rather busy day, we were starting to get hungry again so were taken to a small local restaurant for our dinner where we were taught the Mongolian method of drinking vodka (ie. vodka and mixer in seperate glasses, neck the vodka and then the mixer)

From there... well, let's just say that a drunken return trip to the campsite is even more fun when the music is pumped up, you are literally bounced off your seats at the back of the minibus and its after midnight when you return.


Thanks for those I borrowed pictures from, pictures of the show are from http://www.astronomicaltours.net/

3Nations: Relocation Day

If you would like to follow the 3Nations posts from the beginning then head to the expedition page

Wednesday 22nd July 2009

Well, yesterday certainly threw the plan out the window!

I awoke on the floor of Ed's 'calm room' to realise that it wasn't some sort of dream... we really had been evacuated and our little bubble had not so much burst as decided that it would much rather do an impression of a snow globe.

The buzz from yesterday had started to die down a tad, everyone was safe, there were some that weren't exactly in good shape... but PJ (our medical wizard) was on the case and things were looking very positive.

A small group, made mainly of the expedition leaders and some of the Mongolians, ventured back to the site to check out what the damage was and to figure out what we should do to protect ourselves should it happen again. While we were doing that we were told that we could go explore Zuunmod.

A couple of us had decided that we should go on the hunt for a newspaper, not to get clued up on the news in Mongolia... or to enjoy the suduko or crossword (which would have been a tad difficult given the language barrier)... but so that we could stuff our boots and try to dry them out. We did manage to find plenty of shops, none of which had signs on the outside... or newspapers for that matter.

And to be honest, there didn't appear to be that much more to Zuunmod, that we saw that day anyway. Just a load of nameless shops, which you could easily walk by.

But it was time to start heading back up to the site. The kit was thrown (literally in some cases) back into the mini-buses and trailers and we hiked up to the site.


This was the storm damage to the site



It ripped right through some of the gers.



And the outside of the gers got pretty battered by the hail stones.

It had been decided that we should move the site, so that if there was another storm we would no longer be in the way of the run off water.

The way gers are supposed to be moved is to systematically de-construct them, load them onto either a vehicle or your cattle, move to new site and re-construct it. Which would be fine if you have one or two, we had 12.

If we didn't want to sleep outdoors then we were going to have to do things slightly differently.

3Nations Guide to Relocating Your Ger (the 'Quick' Method)

1. Recruit about 20 mates to help you.
2. Tie the door of the ger open.
3. All but two of you go inside the ger.
4. One person stand in the middle, two people grab the poles holding up the centre of the roof, everyone else lines the walls.
5. The ones lining the walls crouch down, grad some trellis, and lift... you are now relocating your ger!
6. The person in the middle, with the help of the people outside, are to guide you - remember you can only see out of the tiny little door at the front (so they had to be spun round first to go up the hill).
7. When lowering your ger, make sure to push out on the trellis... or the roof will fall in on your head.
8. It is also advisable to get another team to move the flooring while you are walking to ger up the hill, so that it will be ready for your arrival (good puzzle/jig saw experience may be required)

If you want to see this method is action, check out Marks video.

*waits for you to come back*

It always reminds me of the Luggage from Terry Pratchetts Discworld. But it was this method that we used to move all the gers...

One...

...by one.

Every...

... single...

... one

 Needless to say, this took up about the entire day, and we were absolutely knackered. I remember having to curl up in a corner at one point and get an hour or so sleep... I think I was still recovering from the evacuation day.

Lessons learned:

• Nowhere in Zuunmod sells newpapers.
• The Peace Corp are everywhere... including the tiny town of Zuunmod.
• Gers are designed to be transported a certain way, and it is that way for a reason.
• Apparently Coca-Cola in India make a lime fizzy drink, which cannot be exported from India... because it contains cyanide.
• Fishing for bones when preparing the groups lunch can be made even more difficult when you're trying not to loose any of the vegetables.

Thanks, again, go to those who I borrowed photos from!

Gone camping

I've set up this post to automatically on live right now... as at this very moment my scouts and I are scheduled to depart for our (or at least their) first ever international Scouting experience at the Kandersteg International Scout Centre in Switzerland

That's right folks... this very second I should be sitting on a coach with 12 others and 24hours traveling ahead of me. somehow I feel that a copious amount of sleep will be involved on my part... and those ear plugs I recently bought

Needless to say, as I will be at camp... and needing to preserve the battery life on my phone... not much blogging will be happening until after we get back (on the 22nd August). But do not fear, I have set up a couple of 3Nations posts to go live while I am away for you all.

... you can't say I'm not nice to you!

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