Day#1 on my “rebound bike”. And after the Tiger, she just doesn’t compare. But, the best I can do for now.
Late start to the day… sheer laziness on my part, then a delay in getting a taxi, who then got lost – not listening to me telling him exactly where to go, then a distraught lady managing the bike rental place. Had no record of my “booking”, but found all my emails – and evidently decided I’d obviously tried to book, just nothing official. She then gave me a big rant about people hiring the bikes, bringing them back dented/broken… all claiming “nothing’s their fault… they say Mongolia has bad roads, that our suggested itinerary put them on dirt roads, blah blah…”. I think she was a little flustered by the fact she had 2 brand new (0 km on clock) bikes sitting there, and she was going to have to give one to me. I tried to namedrop “London to Beijing”, but couldn’t get a word in edge-wise.
But, eventually, did the paperwork, got my brand spanking new Shineray 150, packed up some dodgy looking cheap panniers bags (all the good ones being out-and-about), and headed off.
My camel, and free-range camelsA ger, home to more bugs than I care to remember
National History Museum… interesting, partly in that Chinggis Khan was hardly mentioned. A relatively small place, laid out mostly as a History Museum, so walking through the major periods of Mongolia history. The section involving being a Soviet puppet was odd… some displays not-so-subtly showing that Soviet Russia pretty much tricked them, and then were bastards… alongside displays obviously showing pride in Mongolias achievements during that period.
Central Museum of Dinosaurs… Dinosaurs!
State Shopping Mall… reminded me of a giant “Farmers” from 1980s NewZealand. Bought a gas cooking stove, and some overpriced shorts… preparing for the upcoming 3 weeks.
Mongolia craft beers… haven’t found any that taste good yet. There seems to be a large German influence here, including beers, so “craft breweries” are just making classic bland German varieties. Boo.
Some Temple/Museum – reminding me how nasty/violent the imaginations of Buddhists are. Whoever did the painting of the “8 Hot Hells” (there are also 8 cold ones) – did it after the firearm/rifle was invented. And had a fascination with demons firing rifles at (/into)… the “rear end” of victims on all fours. Nobody had espoused any theories as to any subtle Freudian revelations from such artwork. The throne of the local Lama also had paper-mache bodies of tortured sinners adorning the ceiling, and strung out around the walls.
Every 1st of the month is “dry” in Mongolia. So, I went to the “pub” I’d visited on first night, looking to just eat. They poured me a beer, which was great, until I looked up a few minutes later to see a policeman changing a lightbulb for them right in front of me. Nobody seemed to worry, and nobody was arrested, but the management did suggest I eat my dinner in the “VIP” room if I was to have more beers.
But first – some final token sight-seeing in Beijing… including such wonders as the “Customs Museum”, and the “Ancient Beijing Observatory”. As they were both in easy walking distance from the hotel I booked right next to train station. Customs Museum – mostly boring, but had some interesting insight into the massive feeling of disjustice China had/has over foreigners effectively owning/running their borders for quite some time. And, some amusing exhibits on how hard China is trying to stop counterfeit products. The “Intellectual Property” exhibit, which I was very much intrigued by – was closed. Ancient Beijing Observatory – actually quite cool… if only for some of the very, very old nerd-instruments they’ve still got, intricately carved/decorated with dragons and the such. First official observatory in the world? And again – a little display reminding everybody that the dirty foreigners stole most of this stuff, and didn’t give it back for many years. Ze Germans – were apparently the worst… nicked about 5 of these ancient telescopes (or whatever), and used them as garden ornaments for over 20 years.
And then – the train. Early start, Beijing station (large), got on – realised the vast majority of passengers are laowei/foreigners. I’d booked the cheapest berth available – a bunk in a 4-berth “hard sleeper” – but turned out I had the whole thing to myself. Which kinda made the best part of a train journey a little harder – the making friends and chatting with your random “roomies”. But – made the most of it, by mostly sitting alone and reading. Around 11pm – got into Erlian, the Chinese border town… where we all got off, sat around for an hour – not really sure what’s going on, but assumed at the time they’re changing the train over to the new wheelbase/bogies (China/Mongolia train tracks have different track gauges) – then got back on. Only to sit around for another hour or so – while I think the bogies did finally get changed… not really sure when that happened, but I could see a train/carriage parallel to us being done out my window. Then – onto the Mongolian border town, where we sat around for another hour or so, while they did their paperwork. During this time – I did chat quite a bit with my neighbour, a young chap from Wellington, travelling with his girlfriend to London. I didn’t pull out any anecdotes or statistics of how well that typically goes, sticking to travel stories.
Finally got into UlaanBaatar – in enough time to check in to the hotel, get cleaned up, catch up on other people’s facebook updates and my gmail emails, and have a very cursory stroll around immediate surroundings. (Including, of course, finding a local craft beer brewery/pub… terrible).
Ancient Beijing Observatory. Old/pretty nerd-toys.K23 – Beijing-Erlian-UlaanBaatarWheel-changeTail of the trainGovernment building – they seem to quite like Genghis(Chinggis) Khan here
Two weeks in Beijing – just trying to recover my senses, get organised for the next stage of travel, and then… hopefully, regain some momentum.
Finally got some stuff organised, to force myself back into action… primarily Train ticket to Mongolia, Visa for Mongolia (3rd attempt – success).
Other than that, just spent some very lazy days trying to reclaim some bad habits – eg: over-sleeping, day-drinking, and spending way too much money on over-priced over-hopped craft beers. I’m nearly there now… I’ve got the drinking parts down, but the over-sleeping – I’m still waking up ridiculously early, but then just pretending to sleep until silly hours, and then with some midday naps thrown in to top it up. The absolutely stupid heat has helped with a lot of those ambitions(/anti-ambitions?). Walking out the hotel door into a furnace face-punch… leads one to quickly narrow down the options for the day to “where’s the nearest beer” and “perhaps I should just go back to the air-conditioned hotel room and lie down for a bit… perhaps with a beer”.
Did do a bit of walking around though, found a couple of parks, spent hours walking around dripping sweat while trying to find ATMs, restaurants, bars, etc. And – finally ticked off one to-do item I had left surprisingly late – getting invited to drink with a table full of drunken locals – mostly older chaps – with the massive language barrier not being any impediment to plenty of “gan-bei”… or rather “gan-bei” being the default fallback option when attempts at communicating break down.
I should be in Mongolia on Wednesday, where I can perhaps finally do an update on that more commonly-used “social media” also. And – finally catch up on some youtube videos, I’ll probably spend the first night in UlaanBaatar just watching “Squidge Rugby” clips.
So, a few days in Beijing – to tick off all the other touristy things it has to offer, and get the bikes packaged up in containers. For myself, it was mostly spent with Angela’s family. Tried to get a Mongolia Visa organised – first attempt, found the application centre – closed for the Naadam Festival. Second attempt, waited in queue for two hours, until noon, where they just shut their application windows. It’s open until 12, and at 12 – the shutters came down. So – my flight for Saturday(today) – can be forgotten. Also went out to the Great Wall again (Mutianyu section this time), which was as awesome as ever, but with very low-hanging cloud – so we could never really see my favourite view of the wall stretching away over the horizon. Instead, it was a view of the wall disappearing into the mist, with glimpses of it in the distance through that same mist. Still pretty cool. Intended to visit Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City on the morning Angela’n’co flew out – but the queue for Forbidden City looked like it would take several hours (even with tickets pre-bought)… so it was just a (relatively) quick wander around Tiananmen Square instead. Although we came in via the corner with the Museum of China on it – and there were still queues, to go through a security checkpoint. If we’d come in from the South – no checkpoints, no hassle. Tiananmen Square – didn’t have the same feel as the last time I visited. I’d just gotten off a bus last time, very very tired, and perhaps more suggestible… but I recall it having a lot more gravitas, while also being more “fun”, if that’s not contradictory. I just remember walking in, thinking “this place has been here since before New Zealand was on any maps”, but also there were people flying/selling kites everywhere. The other day – a lot more fences up, a couple of sizable sections completely fenced off for restoration, crowd-control everywhere, security – and no kites. The crowds were much larger than normal due to Chinese summer holidays – so perhaps the extra numbers contributed to the extra crowd-control measures and therefore general soul-less-ness.
Angela flew back to New Zealand, I said farewell to the final riders left, and checked out of the hotel – moving to a cheaper one, near the Mongolian Embassy – to regroup, and try to start organising my next stage of the trip. I think I have a plan, but currently – after 3 months of having every day pre-planned, being told where to go, and early starts… I feel like I’ve hit a wall – and just want to sleep for a week.
Some kids in front of Forbidden City, one more patriotic than the others
Placeholder post: busy day already, much more to do. But in short – made it to Beijing, safe/sound. Absolutely amazing to ride into Ace Cafe and see my sister there with her family.
A more gushing/raving post of details to come tomorrow, with a hangover to help – presumably.
Edit: an attempt at a more complete post. Although – not really sure what else there is to say… Had a sleep-in, a few final gazes at The Wall, a couple of extra photos, and then a very late-morning group-ride into Beijing. Stinkin’ hot, riding in “formation” – bullying our way through the expressway traffic… to arrive at Ace Cafe Beijing. A little bit misty-eyed, must have been some dust on that expressway, turned in – and saw Angela standing on a grassy knoll, which just made a rather special moment even more so. Parked up, bottles of “champagne” were handed out… and I couldn’t even get mine open. Bubbly spraying everywhere, and after about 5 minutes of fumbling, with shaky hands, the cork broke off, and I gave up – grabbing a couple of beers instead – letting others spray champagne all over me, us, and the bikes. Some rather sticky/aromatic bike kit at the moment. Eventually things calmed down, and there were the photos, speeches, presentations, photos, speeches, a birthday cake (??? I believe for the Ace Cafe Beijing itself?), and some food. And some beers.
Then – packing up all our stuff – and goodbye to the bikes. For me – the final goodbye – giving my lovely white lady a few parting hugs. And there was some more dust in the air. Weird. Bus back to the hotel – a bit of rest, and organising a taxi for Angela’n’co to get to their hotel (after a bit of a typical chinese mix-up with their taxi from Ace Cafe), a quick shower, and then off to Ace Cafe Beijing central-city-edition. For… beers, photos, speeches, food, cigars, and some beers.
Most people had a relatively early night, but a couple of us dedicated ourselves, and continued onwards, to… some beers. And eventually, in the wee hours of the morning, ignoring a taxi drivers shaking head that he couldn’t take a fare, inserted ourselves into his taxi, and after some false starts, back to the hotel. (Poor fellow thought he could get rid of us by just pulling up to some random other hotel… no such luck. You’re taking us home, laddie, and these 3 laowei ain’t getting out until they recognise the hotel.)
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