Tomorrow I fly back to Whitehorse. Barney is staying in Vancouver for a few more days.
We're being asked what were the highlights of the last 20 weeks, what place did we like best? I can’t tell you yet. So much of what we saw and did was so great. Every county had its good points (like its food) and its challenges (like the public toilets). Time will tell which memories become the richest and which places call us back.
On August 22, I turn 60. Whew! So I’m going home to celebrate and start thinking about the next trips.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Peking duck
(Aug 8 and 9)
What do you do if you have two days in Beijing in August? Two days of 30+ degree temperatures, high humidity and thick smog?
The first of our days was a Sunday and we decided to head to the Forbidden City. But so did at least a quarter of a million Chinese tourists. We emerged from the subway - which we found very easy and orderly to use - into Tiananmen Square. It’s a BIG place and it was filled with LOTS of people, all taking souvenir pictures of each other. We followed the flow of colourful umbrellas raised against the sun, passing under the benevolent smile of Chairman Mao and through the gates into the Forbidden City. The City which was founded almost 600 years ago consists of 9999 buildings. We went into about 7 of them and walked for hours through the extensive grounds. The smog was outrageous and obscured the view of all but the closest buildings. But overall it was an amazing place to explore.
The second day we began at the Temple of Heaven which was also built almost 600 years ago by the same Emperor as the Forbidden City. The smog and humidity was worse but it didn’t seem to deter the number of Chinese tourists.
For lunch we headed to the Beijing Quanjude Hepingmen Roast Duck Restaurant. (Barney decided that as we were in Peking we should be eating some Peking duck.) The restaurant seats over 4000 people and we were directed to the fourth floor where we were able to watch the chefs roast whole ducks in brick ovens. The menu was illustrated with large glossy pictures of the duck dishes on offer. To name just a few, we could choose from...
Mustard duck webs
Spicy duck gizzards
Duck livers cooked in salt water
Spicy duck wing shreds
Duck meat rolls with duck egg yolks
Stewed and seasoned three flavours of duck
Duck treasures in birds’ nests
Braised duck meat with sea cucumbers
Fried duck meat with scorpions (for only $25)
Flame-touched duck hearts in mautai liquor
Braised duck tongue and asparagus
or
Boiled dumplings with duck tongue filling
We settled on a half a roast duck served with wafer thin pancakes. It was excellent!
Later in the afternoon we wandered through several hutongs (the old parts of Beijing) and found some fun shops. We decided that we were glad that we made a short stop in Beijing. There is so much more to see but that will have to wait till we’re next in the neighbourhood.
Photos from Beijing...
What do you do if you have two days in Beijing in August? Two days of 30+ degree temperatures, high humidity and thick smog?
The first of our days was a Sunday and we decided to head to the Forbidden City. But so did at least a quarter of a million Chinese tourists. We emerged from the subway - which we found very easy and orderly to use - into Tiananmen Square. It’s a BIG place and it was filled with LOTS of people, all taking souvenir pictures of each other. We followed the flow of colourful umbrellas raised against the sun, passing under the benevolent smile of Chairman Mao and through the gates into the Forbidden City. The City which was founded almost 600 years ago consists of 9999 buildings. We went into about 7 of them and walked for hours through the extensive grounds. The smog was outrageous and obscured the view of all but the closest buildings. But overall it was an amazing place to explore.
The second day we began at the Temple of Heaven which was also built almost 600 years ago by the same Emperor as the Forbidden City. The smog and humidity was worse but it didn’t seem to deter the number of Chinese tourists.
For lunch we headed to the Beijing Quanjude Hepingmen Roast Duck Restaurant. (Barney decided that as we were in Peking we should be eating some Peking duck.) The restaurant seats over 4000 people and we were directed to the fourth floor where we were able to watch the chefs roast whole ducks in brick ovens. The menu was illustrated with large glossy pictures of the duck dishes on offer. To name just a few, we could choose from...
Mustard duck webs
Spicy duck gizzards
Duck livers cooked in salt water
Spicy duck wing shreds
Duck meat rolls with duck egg yolks
Stewed and seasoned three flavours of duck
Duck treasures in birds’ nests
Braised duck meat with sea cucumbers
Fried duck meat with scorpions (for only $25)
Flame-touched duck hearts in mautai liquor
Braised duck tongue and asparagus
or
Boiled dumplings with duck tongue filling
We settled on a half a roast duck served with wafer thin pancakes. It was excellent!
Later in the afternoon we wandered through several hutongs (the old parts of Beijing) and found some fun shops. We decided that we were glad that we made a short stop in Beijing. There is so much more to see but that will have to wait till we’re next in the neighbourhood.
Photos from Beijing...
 |
| Beijing |
Northern Mongolia
As we moved further north, it began to get noticeably colder. By the time we reached Lake Khovsgol, near the Russian border, the nights were close to freezing and the days only about 10 or 12 degrees C. We had two nights by the lake which gave us a full day to enjoy the area. We started out in the morning with a boat ride - most of it in the pouring rain and cold wind. By the afternoon the sun was out and several of us went for a fabulous horseback ride along the lake and up into the mountains.
All our meals on the trip were prepared by our cook and her helper. We had a mixture of what they called ‘western’ and Mongolian food, but whatever dish they served up it invariably contained lots of meat (mostly mutton) and was fried. Most of the food supplies were brought with us from UB and supplemented with some fresh stuff as we went along. We didn’t have a meal tent. If the weather was bad we sat in the bus and our juggled plates and bowls. Otherwise we sat outside on silly little camp chairs where we could enjoy the view which was always spectacular. As a group we all got along very well.
Our last major stop on the trip was to see the Amarbatasgalant Monastery which was built between 1727 and 1737. During Stalin’s purge in 1937, only 10 of the 37 temples were destroyed. UNESCO funded an extensive reconstruction between 1975 and 1990 but funds continue to be raised to do more. There are now about 30 monks living here (many of them very young) compared to the over 2000 that were there in 1936.
After 2 days and nights dealing with pouring rain and cool temperatures we all opted to spend the night in a ger camp near the monastery. The warm dry bed and hot showers (the first since leaving UB two weeks before) were quite the treat. But on our last night we were once again camped in the rain and wind. As we wearily tried to set up the tent in a small forest, I noticed that the plants we were stomping on were wild peonies. The wild flowers all over Mongolia were outstanding – many familiar, many completely unknown.
Barney and I had three days back in UB at the end of our tour before flying out to Beijing. We scrubbed ourselves and our clothes, visited several museums and wandered for hours through the large city market. The silk fabrics in the market kept us captivated with their variety of patterns and colours.
Photos from northern Mongolia and back in UB...
Videos...
Milking the yaks...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d4TBwsy1VY
Monks at Amarbatasgalant Monastery...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdBgEoAAKUM
All our meals on the trip were prepared by our cook and her helper. We had a mixture of what they called ‘western’ and Mongolian food, but whatever dish they served up it invariably contained lots of meat (mostly mutton) and was fried. Most of the food supplies were brought with us from UB and supplemented with some fresh stuff as we went along. We didn’t have a meal tent. If the weather was bad we sat in the bus and our juggled plates and bowls. Otherwise we sat outside on silly little camp chairs where we could enjoy the view which was always spectacular. As a group we all got along very well.
Our last major stop on the trip was to see the Amarbatasgalant Monastery which was built between 1727 and 1737. During Stalin’s purge in 1937, only 10 of the 37 temples were destroyed. UNESCO funded an extensive reconstruction between 1975 and 1990 but funds continue to be raised to do more. There are now about 30 monks living here (many of them very young) compared to the over 2000 that were there in 1936.
After 2 days and nights dealing with pouring rain and cool temperatures we all opted to spend the night in a ger camp near the monastery. The warm dry bed and hot showers (the first since leaving UB two weeks before) were quite the treat. But on our last night we were once again camped in the rain and wind. As we wearily tried to set up the tent in a small forest, I noticed that the plants we were stomping on were wild peonies. The wild flowers all over Mongolia were outstanding – many familiar, many completely unknown.
Barney and I had three days back in UB at the end of our tour before flying out to Beijing. We scrubbed ourselves and our clothes, visited several museums and wandered for hours through the large city market. The silk fabrics in the market kept us captivated with their variety of patterns and colours.
Photos from northern Mongolia and back in UB...
 |
| Northern Mongolia |
Videos...
Milking the yaks...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d4TBwsy1VY
Monks at Amarbatasgalant Monastery...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdBgEoAAKUM
Central Mongolia
After a taste of the Gobi, we turned west and began our trip into Central Mongolia. Travelling through the mountains we saw three ibex perched on a ridge and later an unusually large herd of gazelles. One night we camped high up on a hill where we had to maintain a respectable distance from the site of several ancient graves marked by piles of stones and slanted slabs decorated with petroglyphs.
In Karakorum, the site of Genghis Khan’s capital for a brief 20 years, we visited the Erdene Zuu Monastery. Founded in 1586, it is the oldest Buddhist monastery in Mongolia. It once consisted of 60 to 100 temples and had up to 1000 monks in residence. Stalin’s purges in 1937 saw all but three temples destroyed and many monks killed or shipped off to Siberia. Only after the collapse of communism and the return of religious freedom was the monastery able to be restored and become active again.
Still heading north and west we drove through miles of rolling steppe widely speckled with gers and herds of livestock – goats, sheep, horses, and yaks. (Baby yaks are irresistible and I took a ridiculous number of photos whenever I got near them. They have bushy tails which the stick straight up when they are alarmed.)
One day we were lucky to drive through a small village where they were holding their Naadam Festival. We arrived in time to see the finish of a horse race. The jockeys were again boys under 10 (as is the tradition and as we had seen at UB’s Naadam) but the horses were only yearlings. As they approached the finish line they began to whinny for their mothers. We also got a chance to see some of the traditional Naadam wrestling.
We spent two nights camped in Khorgo-Terkhiin Tsagaan Nuur National Park (Great White Lake in English). As we had been moving everyday for a week, it was a welcome chance to do some washing and some hiking – except that it poured for hours on end. It was a lovely spot, never-the-less, with lots of wild flowers and yaks to photograph. Several members of our group took the initiative to buy a sheep from one of the local families in order to roast it up for dinner. The sheep arrived live on a motorcycle with two men who slaughtered it on site. (I was reading in the tent and missed all the drama.) Two of our group were sheep farmers from New Zealand so they knew a thing or two about preparing mutton on an open fire. The meal was fabulous and included lots and lots of vodka to celebrate the occasion.
Photos from central Mongolia...
In Karakorum, the site of Genghis Khan’s capital for a brief 20 years, we visited the Erdene Zuu Monastery. Founded in 1586, it is the oldest Buddhist monastery in Mongolia. It once consisted of 60 to 100 temples and had up to 1000 monks in residence. Stalin’s purges in 1937 saw all but three temples destroyed and many monks killed or shipped off to Siberia. Only after the collapse of communism and the return of religious freedom was the monastery able to be restored and become active again.
Still heading north and west we drove through miles of rolling steppe widely speckled with gers and herds of livestock – goats, sheep, horses, and yaks. (Baby yaks are irresistible and I took a ridiculous number of photos whenever I got near them. They have bushy tails which the stick straight up when they are alarmed.)
One day we were lucky to drive through a small village where they were holding their Naadam Festival. We arrived in time to see the finish of a horse race. The jockeys were again boys under 10 (as is the tradition and as we had seen at UB’s Naadam) but the horses were only yearlings. As they approached the finish line they began to whinny for their mothers. We also got a chance to see some of the traditional Naadam wrestling.
We spent two nights camped in Khorgo-Terkhiin Tsagaan Nuur National Park (Great White Lake in English). As we had been moving everyday for a week, it was a welcome chance to do some washing and some hiking – except that it poured for hours on end. It was a lovely spot, never-the-less, with lots of wild flowers and yaks to photograph. Several members of our group took the initiative to buy a sheep from one of the local families in order to roast it up for dinner. The sheep arrived live on a motorcycle with two men who slaughtered it on site. (I was reading in the tent and missed all the drama.) Two of our group were sheep farmers from New Zealand so they knew a thing or two about preparing mutton on an open fire. The meal was fabulous and included lots and lots of vodka to celebrate the occasion.
Photos from central Mongolia...
 |
| Central Mongolia |
Friday, August 6, 2010
A short taste of the Gobi
(July 19 - 22)
The first destination on our 17-day road trip was a ger camp in the northern Gobi where we stayed for two nights – the only ones on the trip not scheduled to be spent in tents. The camp situated on the edge of an area of smallish sand dunes – just enough, when combined with the 34 degree heat, to give us a taste of conditions in the Gobi.
Our group consisted of two Norwegian women, a Danish guy, an older couple from New Zealand, a young Scottish (woman who teaches in Bangkok), two young English women, an Australian university student, a couple from Switzerland, as well as an English couple and their 18 year old daughter. Sixteen of us altogether travelling in a small but comfortable bus, plus the guide and driver. We were accompanied by a smaller van that transported the cook, her helper, a second driver/ camp helper and all the supplies/ camping equipment.
Barney and I went for a walk in the dunes but didn’t venture too far because of the heat. I ended the day by going on a sunset camel ride which was peaceful and beautiful. I felt quite secure nestled between the two humps as my camel quietly glided over the sand.
Here are a few pictures...
The first destination on our 17-day road trip was a ger camp in the northern Gobi where we stayed for two nights – the only ones on the trip not scheduled to be spent in tents. The camp situated on the edge of an area of smallish sand dunes – just enough, when combined with the 34 degree heat, to give us a taste of conditions in the Gobi.
Our group consisted of two Norwegian women, a Danish guy, an older couple from New Zealand, a young Scottish (woman who teaches in Bangkok), two young English women, an Australian university student, a couple from Switzerland, as well as an English couple and their 18 year old daughter. Sixteen of us altogether travelling in a small but comfortable bus, plus the guide and driver. We were accompanied by a smaller van that transported the cook, her helper, a second driver/ camp helper and all the supplies/ camping equipment.
Barney and I went for a walk in the dunes but didn’t venture too far because of the heat. I ended the day by going on a sunset camel ride which was peaceful and beautiful. I felt quite secure nestled between the two humps as my camel quietly glided over the sand.
Here are a few pictures...
 |
| North Gobi |
Real time update - 9
We made it safely back to UB after a great 17 day trip to the north Gobi, as well as central and northern Mongolia. We've been really busy since getting back to town 3 days ago and I've had trouble getting wireless access so I'm not able to post much information right now.
We leave tonight for Beijing where we will stay for 3 nights. Behind the "great firewall of China" I won't have access to the blog or to FB. So silly.
We fly to Vancouver on Aug 10 so stay tuned for the final stories and pictures of our trip.
We leave tonight for Beijing where we will stay for 3 nights. Behind the "great firewall of China" I won't have access to the blog or to FB. So silly.
We fly to Vancouver on Aug 10 so stay tuned for the final stories and pictures of our trip.
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