What's for diner tonight?

the picture is not very clear.. but you should get the point!..

Chinese privacy!

I almost forgot to tell you about the chinese toilets.. no door for more intimacy!
These are actually pretty good; they have a wall to separate each one, and a flush.. pretty fancy trust me!

Erratum

Well.. it took me a while to fully realise it, but Mongolia and Tibet are actually much closer than the political borders let us think and aside for these 10 days in Beijing, i feel like i just went straight from Mongolia to Tibet!
Anywhere west/north west of the Great Wall, people would tell me "I'm not Chinese, i'm Mongolian; this is Mongolia!".. Even their features would be different.. especially the girls being -in my opinion- generally much prettier.
And since i moved south west of Beijing (Xiahe and down), people tell me with yet greater pride "I'm not Chinese, I'm Tibetan, and this is Tibet! You think that place was called Xiahe but it actually called Labran; Xiahe is the Chinese name, it means nothing to us".. indeed, people speak tibetan and everything is written in tibetan.. And not only do people feel different -to not say colonised- but they really look so too, and the numerous chinese tourists look just as foreign as you and me..

Therefore, Langmusi, my favorite chinese town so far, is actually tibetan and is called Dardzan Lha Mu! It's built in a beautiful valley with a red rock cliff up on one side and sharp peeks and grasslands on the other side.. Quite a different scenery from anywhere around.. Too bad that the weather sucked..

Hard day today!

Woke up at 5 to check out one big buddhist get together at the Xiahe monastery, that only happens once every three years.. and by chance, just when i was here! The crowd movements were pretty hectic and we even started to dismantle a piece of the temple.. but always smiling! These tibetains are incredible!

After that, we (Silvia, Frank and i) went hiking in a mountain nearby to have a picnic by a sacred tibetain lake.. the lake itself wasn't all that special, but the hike was cool!

Yack head..

Before..

After..

... and how about this funky dude?.. (i just didn't know where to put it!)

Bank note..

I almost forgot that one, in Beijing..
When you go to the bank, you can choose your 5 star cashier!
And according to the level of service you got, you just note him on the spot with the electronic device provided! Talk of direct customer feedback!

The Raft of the Medusa

That's the closest i can think of to compare the 22 hours of "hard seat" train from Beijing to Lanzhou!
In every wagon there were enough people to fill one more! People everywhere.. on the floor, on the sink, in the bathroom, standing, sitting, laying, sleeping, from kids to grand mothers.. no way to move or sleep.. bit hardcore if you ask me!..
Hopped straight from the train to 6 hours by bus.. but i made it to Xiahe!.. and the dorm room gives on the beautiful tibetain monastery.. can't complain!

The Great Mall.. and the Wall.

Let's be honest.. the two main reasons that brought me back to China where

1- because it's on the way from Mongolia to Tibet (which is a separate country for everyone in the world expect for chinese!)

2- for shopping in Beijing!!
Just like in Shanghai, the photo mall in Beijing drives me insane! I replaced at least the essentials of what i got stolen in Moscow and I'm buying film by the truck load and now i can't close my bag anymore!

Amongst the "essentials" i also bought a super tiny super high-tech camera phone that does everything from mp3 player/recorder to movie player to karaoke to alarm clock to calculator to.. you name it.. i'm not even sure i can use it as a phone but at this point who cares??

So here's me as pictured with my phone:

film anyone?...

And then of course, aside from the Great Photo Mall of China.. i had to go check out the Wall as well..

That's actually not disapointing at all.. I can't compare with any other "great wall experience", but the treck from Jishanling to Simatai -although a bit tough under this sun- is really worth it.. great scenery..

My tourist pic on the wall.. got to have that one, right?

and that's me suffering and hard walking in the sun (can you feel the pain??)

and well.. that's my ass.. up some pretty steep stairs..

I also walked around the forbidden city and the temple of heaven parks.. nice walks.. didn't enter any though.. bit too much of a tourist trap, it felt.. and tomorrow, the summer palace.. that's supposed to be neat..

I also managed to figure out some kind of itinerary to make my way through China:

Taking a train on monday to Xining (south west of Beijing) to then reach Xiahe, by bus.. Xiahe is supposed to be tibetain like town, the main temple being the second place of worship after Lhassa.. from there make my way south to some remote moutain towns that noone here seems to have heard of (Serxu, Manigango, Ganzi, Kangding..) and down to Lijiang.. then back up and west inside Tibet, accross another bunch of remote places and to Lhassa...

Sorry but that's as precise as my sense of organisation allows.. what do you think??

I think it's gonna be nice.. and now i'm more excited about my trip to China..

ps: i would have loved to throw a couple of exclamation marks here and there but my keyboard doesn't allow... so you get to choose where you want them..

Back to the most capitalist communist country!

I took the long backpacker's way but i made it to China!

A first train to Sainchand, in the Gobi, where i spent two days pretty much sleeping, just crushed by the heat!
Sainchand is a typical countryside town.. with its wide dirt streets and 2 stories buildings scattered around.. the colors, the dust and the heat give it a typical Vim Vanders movies feeling.. almost Tarentino even..

The Train to Sainchand was quite an experience in itself.. As we were approching the desert, the air filled with sand dust to the point where it was barely breathable.. all the beds and the people, everything was covered with sand.. it was surreal!

After Sainchand, another train took me to Zamiin Uud, just at the border to China, were i took a cab to pass the border.. (needless to mention the doors were packed with "stuff" to get to the other side!)

From there i caught a sleeper bus to Beijing.. and after 12 hours of bathing in my own sweat, here i am in giant Beijing!

Quite a change after the Gobi!!

Mongolian fight club!

Ulaan Baatar clubbing

Believe it or not but last night i was having a beer on the white leather sofa of a super trendy lounge in UB (yeah.. we -locals- just call it UB here!)

And then as we walked out i see these super cool kids with... a skateboard! My legs were just cotton and i was in slippers and the road was the roughest pavement, but i just had to skate UB!!
So i did! scratching my bare feet on the brand new grip tape, but it felt awesome!

Accross the street from the bar was the Silence; UB's hypest night club.. so off we are to experience some of UB's night life.. mmh.. on a tuesday night, but you don't always choose!
From what we experienced, at least on tuesday nights, the Silence should actually be renamed the Gobi! The place was pretty much desert! Not to mention that the sound of Silence (i had to use that one!) really sucked!
But hey you don't get to go clubbing in UB every other day, right? So, you know me, i just had to go burn the dance floor!
Well let's be honest.. i only ignited it!.. Gave them my -now worldwide famous- engineer's dance.. but then Terry really burned the place down!
Beside being a very funny dude, coming straight out of a korean TV show to discover the world, Terry is a DJ in Seoul and a very good dancer (something like the korean son of Mikael Jackson!)

... and some of you thought i wouldn't find an internet connection in Mongolia??!

Now just wait till Terry sends me last night's pictures!


Anyway.. after this great experience it's time to hit the road again.. I'm taking a train this afternoon to Sainchand, east of the country to get closer to the chinese border and enter China sometime this week end.. i probably won't have an internet connection again for a while, so everybody keep cool.. i'll keep you posted when i can!

Mongolian food..

The questions are starting to come.. i forgot to mention food!

Well.. first, you wouldn't go to Mongolia for the culinary experience! Basically it's just a lot of mutton! and some yak butter and some greasy milky salted tea...

The 3 main dishes we found were the "Thoon" (or whatever you want to call it) which is some kind of home made pasta, with bits of (overcooked) goat or mutton meat and some potatoes and carrots.. the "Khurshir", a mutton stuffed fried bread (a bit like stuffed indian "puris" for those who know that).. that was my favorite.. and "Buzz" wich are mutton filled dumplings..

The "Airag" is fermented milk that turns to some kind of "milk beer"!

Some bread and yak butter or cheese for breakfast and you're ready to hit the road again!

(oh and watch for these crispy bits of yak cheese skin.. they're bitter as hell!!)

Ulaan Baatar

Ulaan Baatar is a city you discover twice.

The first time you get here, it looks like a pretty big dusty village.. but returning from a trip throughout the country, you really get the true dimension of this great capital city!
Everything is relative as they say!

The atmosphere has changed quite a lot as well in 20 days.. when we left it was a bit cold and grey and rainy.. but now it gets pretty hot and all the young mongolian girls hang out half naked in tiny shorts and t-shirts!..
In my complete ignorance of this country, i guess the last thing i was expecting from this place were highly fashionable half naked chicks hanging out in the streets and going to disco clubs at night!

...i know.. cliches again.. but hey, that's what i'm traveling for, right?

life 2

the other day it was raining pretty hard and i was starting to be really tired, but then i see this scene and i just have to take a shot! so i jump off the van and in the process i drop my camera into the mud! not the crappy camera of course, the expensive one! and there's a big dent in the body and i'm mad! and of course the scene is gone and the shot sucks! and then i hop back into the van and bang my head on the door frame!

sometimes life sucks so bad you think you don't deserve!

life 1

the other day i got hungry!.. so i get myself a banana at a street shop.. i eat it and there i am with my peel thinking i would need a trash can... and bam! right there next to me: a trash can!

sometimes life is so easy, you think you don't deserve!

Hell o'clock!

"It's beer o'clock!" she'd say
everyone: ha ha.. funny..
- Oulala.. now it's pee o'clock now!
- ...
- Ok guys it's dinner o'clock!
- ... hum.. yeah, we got it now.. :-)
- Terry, is it vodka o'clock already??!
- actually it's just about "Give us a break o'clock" if you'd just be so kind!!

This is the typical kind of expression that makes you smile the first time, but that poison your everyday life with an annoying routine tuned with swiss clock precision! Inappropriately used, i'm sure it could turn a tibetan monk into a mass murderer! So after 15 days of solid o'clocking we were about ready to die o'clock!

Anyway it's over o'clock now.... AAAAAaaaaaahhhhhh!!! stop it now!!