Trans-Mongolian Beauty

At the beginning of our journey we both marked countries that we anticipated to be highlights of our year on the road. We both noted the entire continent of Africa and were not disappointed. Colleen achieved a dream and visited Borneo. I marked Nepal, a place which I was anxious to return to and also noted Mongolia, more out of curiosity and intrigue than anything.

We were slightly anxious to get out of Beijing. Kudos to their blossoming economy but the resulting tradeoff including neglect of the environment and a spotty human rights record left us hoping for more changes in the future.

Our long road out of Beijing was actually a train track, most commonly known as the Trans-Mongolian Railway and ends in the Mongolian capital city of Ulaanbaatar. The journey took us 31 hours and oddly we were the only two souls (plus one guard) on our train carriage. Nearly the whole rest of the train was completely empty. The scenery was amazing; some of the best of our trip thus far. We passed vast open fields, desolate desert, mountains ranges and small villages with their tidy train stations proudly proclaiming their names. We watched as foxes, wild horses, hawks, wild dogs, geep (goats/sheep), herders and cattle passed outside our window appearing almost as some sort of film reel for our constant entertainment.

The border crossing took place in the middle of the night. First the Chinese officials came on the train, searched our cabin and left wordless with our passports. Polite but very brisk and directed. They eventually returned with our passports and the train moved for 15 minutes. The train then sat idle another 2 hours while they changed the track gauges as the Mongolian tracks run on Russian gauge, which is slightly larger (I remember that they had to do this when crossing from Sweden to Finland as well). Next the Mongolian officials entered. They were friendly, smiled, spoke English and when they returned our passports to turned our lights off, shut the door and told us “sleepy, bye-bye”. We knew we were going to love this country.

China Revisited

*China loves blocking websites, including this one, so we were unable to post while we were there. We put up 2 posts in the last day and lots of new pictures, so be sure to check them out!

The last time I had visited Beijing was over 5 years ago. At that time, I had just come overland on a series of buses and trains from Tibet and had mixed feelings on the country as a whole. I had encountered great hospitality on the part of the people in restaurants, shops and hotels but had quite a large amount of discontent for the government and what seemed to be a suppressed Tibet and Chinese society as a whole. At the time, Beijing seemed to be lifeless to me, somewhat dirty and in need of a good jolt of emotion and some freshening up. Evidently the recent success of Chinese markets, and likely the Olympics, had done a good deal to turn things around.

Surprisingly, we received our Chinese visas painlessly, aside from parting with $130 each, and arrived to a newly revamped Beijing airport. I was quite impressed with the new structure but again was met with the odd silence and expressionless faces as hundreds of people queued up to pass immigration. Again, no hassles with immigration and we grabbed our packs and boarded a local bus for the trip into town. Immediately I could sense a change in scenery from what I had experienced only a handful of years ago. The highways and overpasses were new construction, bright flowers decorated the medians and intersections, new high-rise condos towered overhead and hardly any trash was to be seen along the sidewalks and roadways. Again Colleen had searched out a great accommodation deal online and we checked into a corporate apartment for our 4 night stay.

Our agenda for Beijing was quite straightforward. We wanted to see the Forbidden City and the adjacent Tiananmen Square, tour a section of the Great Wall and hopefully catch some of the Iowa football game (a Saturday night game at home meant an early Sunday morning game in Beijing!). We headed out on foot, making a stop to pick up train tickets to Mongolia before heading to view the Forbidden City. Nearing the city center we began to encounter large crowds. By the time we reached the Forbidden City we had to stay within a few feet of each other in fear of getting lost in the congestion. It was quite the scene to behold. Everyone was holding waving miniature Chinese flags, children were adorned with beads and necklaces with large plastic medallions, huge megatron TVs were setup at intersections displaying speeches recently given by governmental leaders, bright banners hung overhead and Tiananmen Square looked somewhat like a carnival packed with decorations and tens of thousand of people. We knew that the Peoples Republic of China had celebrated it’s 60th anniversary the week prior and the hugely popular Autumn Festival was taking place the week of our stay. It seems the government had decided to combine the two into one big two week long celebration. We were not prepared.

It was immediately evident from the huge throng of people exiting the Forbidden City gate (think Boston Marathon but they were walking and everyone was Chinese) that entering would be difficult. Across the street Tiananmen Square was so imposing with it’s own crowds that we did not even attempt to enter. On top of this there were guards everywhere adding some uneasiness to the event. Every 20 or 30 feet there seemed to be another dozen of them, some joking with each other and wrestling while others performed some sort of marching routines for onlookers. Their presence was overwhelming and I was not sure whether to observe them in a serious manner or smile at their antics. We observed the whole circus for probably an hour, took some pictures, and then decided it was time to move on. We got a very good sense of the mindset of the Chinese people, their national pride and the constant presence of their government during this time and traded this experience for the historical significance of a tour of the Forbidden City. On a side note, there were no birds in sight. Apparently the government had been trapping all of the birds since mid-September because they did not want anything flying over Tiananmen Square during the official celebration. They said they were keeping them in cages awaiting , but I am guessing they are all pretty much dead now. Talk about controlling everything!

The next morning we awoke to an early alarm clock. It was likely our only chance to view college football this season and we had made a trip to the beer store the night before in hopes of getting an authentic feel the day of. Our hotel had promised satellite TV with ESPN but of course this was not the case. Luckily we were able to catch a live streaming of the game online and we cherished a bit of our normal Saturday fall routine back home.

An even earlier wakeup call the next morning found us heading in the dark to a hostel 2 kilometers away to meet up with a tour heading to the Great Wall. We had no idea the sun would be rising so late in the day and we were greeted by a toothless bus driver smoking cigarettes

(second side note, EVERYONE in China smokes) who directed us to board his bus in a language that we did not understand. It was odd as the bus was empty, but an hour later we had made a handful of stops to pick up other tourists as well as an English speaking guide.

We had chosen to hike a part of the wall which had only been partially rebuilt. There are rebuilt sections that are more easily toured and to some may appear more picturesque but to us

visiting these sections is kind of like saying you have seen an authentic medieval castle because you visited Disney World. Our tour actually included two sections of the wall, Jinshanling and Simatai, along with a 12 kilometer wall hike that connected the two. The wall is simply beautiful. Having visited before, I had a large amount of joy seeing Colleen’s eyes light up as the wall came into view overhead through the trees. The fist thing she commented, and I remembered thinking to myself on my first visit, was how steep the area of land was that they built the wall. They could have easily chosen a simpler route but building right up the imposing mountains and cliffs worked to further impede any would be invaders. The wall was relatively uncrowned, another reason we chose the section we did, and we spent the next 4 hours hiking the 12 kilometers. It was a lot of steps up followed by a lot of steps down over and over again with over 90 guard towers placed periodically along the way.

We left the wall pretty exhausted. It was a good thing. The following morning we had yet another early alarm to wake to (this time we ordered a taxi) in order to head to the train station and board the Trans-Mongolian train northward.

The Waiting Game

Visas are an important part of any trip and luckily we have been able to get most of our visas at border crossings and airports. We have had to get a few in advance, India in San Francisco and Vietnam in Cambodia, and knew we would need to spend a few days in a major town collecting our final 2 ‘advance’ visas, Brazil and China. Brazil is an odd visa, you have to get it within 90 days of your arrival in their country, but you are required to obtain it in your home country. Basically, this means if you are 8 months into an around the world trip, you are going to have some troubles, and that is exactly what happened to us when we arrived back in Singapore.

We were going back and forth on which visa to get in Singapore and which to get in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is said to be the easiest place in the world to get a China visa, so we opted to attempt Brazil in Singapore. We arrived at the Brazil consulate early on a Monday morning, with applications and all supporting documents that they might need. As soon as we opened our mouths we were shot down. We were not permanent residents of Singapore so we could not get a visa there we were told. The consulate worker went as far as to tell us to “thank Bush” for our problem. Clearly that did not go over well with us but we bit our tongues and asked him to reconsider. I even threw in a few tears hoping they would help the situation. Eventually the worker told us he would send a telegram(do people still use these??) to Brazil asking for special permission. At this point we even questioned wanting to go to Brazil, but our around the world ticket had us landing in Sao Paulo and we had no other options for flights. We were told to come back the next day. No updates the following day and it seemed they were just stringing us along. Frustrations mounted at this point and we decided to hit up a local microbrewery to let off some steam. We had only had one drink, bought at a corner market, in the previous three weeks of travel in Malaysia so we figured this was as good of time as any for a cold one. We were happily informed on arrival that Canadian brewer had just released his ‘Oktoberfest’ beer and we had an afternoon fest of our own while discussing our options for moving forward with the visas.

On the third day we headed back to the consulate, hoping to get some answers. By this time we had already spent a total of 6 nights in Singapore and we were becoming impatient. We had planned to head up to Malaysia to a tiny little island off the coast for the week, but the visa was more important, so we had to cancel our reservations. After being given no update and sitting in the waiting room for over an hour, they finally decided to give us visas. Victory! Did we mention the visa few for Americans is $142? Reciprocity fee.

We had four nights remaining before our flight to Hong Kong and we knew we needed a break from Singapore. The easiest option was an hour ferry ride off the coast to the small Indonesian island of Bintan. We had not expected to visit Indonesia on the trip but the opportunity presented itself and we hopped on the ferry with no reservations or real knowledge of the place we were heading. Unaware to us, while on the ferry a large earthquake hit Indonesia. The news was broadcast worldwide and we had no idea anything had happened. We were on the ferry and felt nothing and the island sustained no damage. We had no email connection during our four day stay and unfortunately this lead to a storm of worried emails from friends and family. The island turned out to be relaxing and rather quiet. Our resort was rural and rather simple but had an authentic feel and was run by local townspeople. We stayed in a wood bungalow, perched on stilts over the water and spent the days and nights reading, playing cards, and enjoying some great local beer.

Our flight to Hong Kong was uneventful. For once we were not questioned at check-in as we had converted our paper tickets to electronic tickets at the American Airlines office in Singapore. Due to high accommodation costs in HK we spend our first night in the YWCA before transferring to one of our nicer hotels of the trip. We had caught a web special for multi-night stays and we were actually upgraded at check-in. Once again, bright and early we found ourselves waiting in a massive line outside the Chinese consulate. We were extremely worried about this visa. We had a flight 5 days later and Chad already had a cancelled Chinese visa in his passport from his trip to Tibet 5 years ago. We waited patiently in line and when we finally made it upstairs handed our application in with no issues. They didn’t even want any of the supporting documents that we had spent a few hours putting together the night before. They told us to come back on Thursday and off we went. No drama or problems, what a difference from Brazil. We now had another 4 days stretching ahead of us while we waited to pick up our passports.

Hong Kong is a pretty amazing city. High-rises control the skyline and fancy malls line the streets. All this working on passports in already expensive cities was starting to take a beating on our wallets, so we spent hours wandering around the city. We found free internet at the local library, browsed some high end malls, rode the historic tram to the peak overlooking the city, hopped the low cost ferry and subway system around town, and put together meals from the local supermarket. On our third night in town we met up with a friend from college, Brian, and his wife Elodie for drinks. The couple had moved to HK on a 2 year commitment with work and were now entering their second year in the city. They really had enjoyed their time in the city, had started a family and were actually looking into extending their stay. They played great hosts to us treating us to a night at a local brewery, inviting us to the historic horse tracks the following evening and allowing us to crash at their apartment our final night in town. Once again, friends on the other side of the world have shown us such great hospitality and we are truly grateful.

Elephants and Rhinos

We are supposed to be in Tibet right now, but we're not. After arriving in Kathmandu from Pokhara we knew that we had to set up our Tibet trip before doing anything else in Nepal. China now requires everyone who travels to Tibet to be part of an organized group and there is no individual traveling allowed. What does this mean for China? Lots of extra money in their pockets. For an American citizen to visit Tibet the visa is a whopping $142 for a visitors permit (all other countries pay $45), plus you must buy another Chinese visa ($130 more) as well if you plan to visit China, which we are doing in the future to get to Mongolia. The planned group itineraries now run nearly $900 per person for a week long tour; just 5 years ago I had paid less than $300 for the same tour. Essentially the tour fee has only went up slightly but the grand total has increased with the new visa fees and a new requirement that all persons who drive in must fly out back to Kathmandu. Of course the flight is on the China government owned airlines (the one hour one way flight makes up $370 of the package). So after shopping around and realizing we were basically making a large donation to the Chinese government exploiting Tibet we decided to pass and thus move our flights up one week early to leave for SE Asia.

With that decision behind us we had 10 days left in Nepal and after a couple days in the bustling backpacker neighborhood of Thamel in Kathmandu we headed 6 hours south by bus to Chitwan National Park. The park sits nestled in Southern Nepal on the Indian border and contains the largest remaining refuge for the great one horned rhino. The rhino had eluded us in Africa and we were enthused by the opportunity to safari yet again in a new part of the world. We arrived to the city of Sauraha on the edge of the park (of course the bus stand was 1 mile outside of town and we had to hike in) and found our way to a guest house that I had previously visited. We were welcomed by the owner Govinda who was highly enthused to see a return customer 5 years later.

First things first, Colleen had to bathe an elephant. The town of Sauraha is bustling with elephant traffic, around 200 elephants call the area home. Most elephants are government owned while others are owned by the many parkside lodges. Every morning the elephants hike down to the (croc infested) river for their morning baths. As a visitor you can pay a $1.25 and help dumbo get the dirt out from behind his ears. If you know Colleen then you know this is reason for excitement. We followed the train of elephants to the banks of the river and Colleen selected her elephant based off of who had the smallest stick/pick used to control their elephant. His name was Muti and we were told he was the second largest elephant in the village. Muti had already anxiously entered the edge of the water and his handler now had him back up to the shore and kneel down so Colleen could hop aboard. I had enjoyed the same ritual on my previous visit to the park but I had to admit that seeing Colleen aboard a much larger elephant wading out into the murky river waters struck a little nerve in me but all was well. Muti turned out to be quite the showman as he first doused her multiple times with gallons of water from his trunk and followed that up with multiple barrel roles into the water throwing her from his back in the process. 10 minutes later they emerged thoroughly soaked, and slightly cleaner, from the river and Colleen produced her payment which Muti gladly took with his trunk and delivered to the handler.

The next morning we headed out on foot into the park on a safari. Most parks in the world that have predatory animals (in this case tigers) forbid safari on foot but Chitwan is an exception. Tiger attacks on groups are not unheard of but the trained guides are very apt at preventing such encounters. That being said I was slightly uncomfortable as we departed in a wood canoe with two guides who were each carrying no more than a 4 foot stick for defense. After an hour long float sighting multiple crocodiles we exited the boat and headed into thick jungle, much thicker than we had planned. At times we felt like we were breaking trail as our shoes muddied and leaves and thorns sliced at our skin. Then about an hour in we heard it, a very deep throated grunt. It sounded like a cross between a large hog and a grizzly bear. Then the sound came again, this time from the opposite direction. Our guide informed us we were standing between two rhinos (neither we could see through the 10 ft tall grass) and likely one was a bull. We were told to be still and silent. My heart jumped and I was actually frightened for the first time on the trip. I knew rhinos had pour sight and rely heavily on smell but if there was one on each side of you then by default you were likely downwind from one of them. After pausing for about a minute, and reanalyzing in my head again how thin our guides sticks were and wondering if we could out run them, we were instructed to move forward slowly. After a few minutes we exited the grasslands into a dense forest where we were later able to spot two rhinos bathing from a safe distance.

The following day we headed out again on safari, this time by elephant. We were able to spot much wildlife, including two rhinos at close range, and we enjoyed the safety, minus comfort, of elephant travel. We also rented bikes and toured the countryside and villages surrounding the park and relaxed in the garden area of our guest house sipping on milk tea in the mornings and Nepalese lagers at night. Govinda and his wife, daughter and son were excellent hosts and a great temporary family during our stay. Colleen also made friends with the stray dogs of the village, this has become a trend on the trip. During our stay 1 dog and 1 cat met their dismal end with the river crocodiles and we dubbed our favorite stray with the name 'Crocodile Food'. We are not sure if he liked the name but he followed us for days around the village.

The past few days we have spent back in Kathmandu, taking in the sights, sounds and culture of this vibrant city. Today we have 3 flights getting us to Bangkok sometime tomorrow afternoon after a night in the Mumbai airport. Nepal has been amazing, we have learned much and highly enjoyed our time here. We had hoped to make it into Tibet but that leaves reason to return again in the future!