Where Is Jess......?: The Trans-Mongolian Part I

After an emotional and sad goodbye to our friends in Beijing, Sophie, Ben and myself set off on the first leg of our Trans Mongolian journey with Intrepid Travel (http://www.intrepidtravel.com/).

Before we set off, we are all introduced to the group we would be travelling with...all up there was 12 travellers and our group leader, Efrat. When the three of us first saw the group, it was quite amusing. I was the youngest member of the group by about 10 years! In fact, the first thing Ben said to us was "Maybe we should have choosen Vodka Train instead??" (Vodka train being a tour group that appeals to most people our age, but I choose against due to the cost and the fact I did not want to be surrounded by ten 20 somethings who would be durnk 24/7!). However, our impression of the group quickly changed as we got to know everyone....!

We boarded the first train at around 9am on the 4th of June, due to arrive in Ulan Baator at around 1pm the following day. This train was a chinese train, each cabin had four beds (one up one down on either side of the cabin). It was quite comfertable and we were given tickets for 2 meals throughout the journey. In my cabin, there was myself Sophie Ben and Nat, who was from Sydney.

It was amazing to watch the scenary change as we left Beijing. After about 2 hours of travelling through the out skirts of Beijing we eventually ended up in some greener areas, quite similar to those I had seen travelling through Southern China. Lots of forests, lakes and rivers which were a welcome change from the bright smog covered neon lights of Beijing!

As the journey went on, we slowly got to know each of our fellow tour members. There was Phil and Janine from Geelong, Mark and Marie from Brunswick, Angela and Marg from New Zealand, Penny from Melbourne and Phil, who at around 70 years of age had seen almost all of the world and quickly became the hero of the trip (and also an inspiration to me, knowing that even at that age I can keep travelling the world!). Our Tour Leader Efrat, from Israel, was quickly renamed "The F Rat" as none of us could pronounce her name properly...

At around 5pm we cracked open our first bottle of Vodka, thinking that by the time we arrive at the mongolian border we will be sober enough. Unfortunately not the case...because once the three of us plus Nat had finished that, we moved onto beer from the dining cart, and then onto some extremely cheap chinese red wine, which for some reason we mixed with coke as someone in the group thought that would be a good idea to take the taste away.

Lesson one about taking the trans mongolian, or any train crossing the border, don't be drunk when crossing! As the conductor came around with our mongolian immigration cards, Sophie and I proceeded to write our birthdays instead of out entry and exit dates within Mongolia. It was amusing to us, but not so amusing to our beloved F Rat who then had to fill out our third immigration form....!

Prior to arriving at the border, the train stopped for around 3 hours to have the bogies changed. The reason for this is the rail gages between China and Mongolia and Russia are different. Someone at one point told me this was to prevent invation into China...wether there is any truth to this I am unsure.

Basically, the way these are changed is by a machine lifting each individual carriage around 3 meters off the ground. The wheels are then taken off by some big machines, put back on the track and wizzed away. Around 20 minutes later, the new wheels and gages come wizzing under the lifted train, and the same machine lifts them up and places them on the train. Lucky for us, another train pulled up along side ours so we were able to see the whole thing take place. It was quite bizarre to watch.

So after those three hours were up, we moved onto the Mongolian border, where quite possibly the scariest looking and biggest Mongolian lady in the world came into our carriage and checked our passports and visas. Considering we were half asleep when she knocked on the cabin door, it really was quite a fright to see her....! After a furthur two hours of waiting, our passports were handed back and we were on our way.

At around 4am, I woke up needing to use the lovely train toilet. When I came out, I decided to have a look out the window and see where we were....and the strangest sight I had ever seen was before me. We were nowhere. Literally! Although it was still slightly dark, I could see the sun rising over absolutely nothing but desert. When we went into our alcohol induced sleep, we were at the border, and before that in a forest region. Now, there was nothing! Once the sun had risen fully you could see just how far into the Gobi Desert we were. There was absolutely nothing for miles, nothing infront, nothing behind and nothing either side. Just sand, and the odd Mongolian Ger Camp. What was truly strange about going through the desert, is the train kept turning corners. We couldn't really understand why considering there was nothing to dodge...but you would be sitting there eating your noodle soup, and all of the sudden the train would turn quite sharply to the left or right. Very bizarre!

We arrived in Ulan Baator at around 1.30pm, and were greeted by our guides for the three days, Nemo and Mia. We went and changed some money, jumped on the bus and headed to our hotel.

The following morning we headed out to Terlj National Park, around an hour outside of the capital, to stay at Mongolian Ger Camp. A ger camp, for those of who are un aware, are basically big felt tents with loads of layers, perfect for any kind of weather. A good majority of Mongolian people live in the Ger's in the Gobi Desert and in the parks. They really were quite amazing, and quite comfertable aswell! The surroundings of the park were stunning and created a very surreal contrast between UB and the rest of Mongolia.

Myself and Ben headed out horse riding on proper Mongolian horses that after noon, which was really quite amazing. The horse were so small! As we pulled up to one of the stops, we watched as a few mongolian kids were racing there horses at full speed around Turtle Rock. The kids were only about 10. We were informed after we came back that most mongolian children out in the desert and the national parks learn to ride not long after they are able to walk. Pretty amazing stuff.

That night we had dinner with the group at the camp, and finished the evening with Ben, Soph, Nat and myself polishing off 2 bottles of Mongolian Vodka....under the watchful eye of our fearless leader F-RAT of course! We decided to sit up on one of the hills for a while so we didn't keep everyone awake...at around 12 midnight I decided I should probably carry myself off to bed. So I said goodnight, went for a bit of a tumble down the hill and headed into my ger tent. Or so I thought. It turns out that in my vodka filled state I walked strait past my ger tent and right into the one next door....which was housing a whole german family!!! Lucky they were fast asleep so once I realised I had made a rather large mistake, a shut the door and ran into my tent instead!

The following morning we headed back into UB for an afternoon sightseeing tour around the city and some of the monastries. The majority of Mongolian people are buddhists, and all the temples were very traditional. They were very simlar to that I had seen in Laos and Cambodia. After the tour, a few of us headed out to see some tradition mongolian wrestling, a big national sport in Mongolia. The monglians are hoping to win gold this year at the Beijing Olympics. It was quite strange to watch however, as these big giant masculine wrestlers would come out to the ring, wave to the audience, and then do this quite feminine bird like dance around a flag. Very odd, but still amazing to watch.

In the evening we headed out to a traditional monglian folk show, where I got to see the one thing I was dying to see (or hear rather!) in mongolia....THROAT SINGING! This was quite possibly the strangest thing I had ever seen or heard. This guy comes out with a guitar like intrument, starts playing, looking very mundane as he plays. Then all of the sudden he opens his mouth and its like satan is singing from the back of his throat in a foreign language...! Throat singing is only heard of in Mongolia, and if you get a chance to download some from the internet, give it a shot, I personally gurantee it will be the WEIRDEST thing you will ever hear! As well as throat singing there was also traditional Mongolian dancing and opera singing aswell.

The following morning we were up bright and early to get the second leg of our Train into Russia....

(PICTURES TO BE UPLOADED SOON! TO SEE PICTURES FROM THIS PART OF THE TRIP PLEASE CLICK THE LINKS TO THE RIGHT OF YOUR SCREEN)