Irkutsk to Ulaanbaatar to Beijing

Happy Easter weekend! I arrived in Beijing this morning, border crossing was a LOT better than the border crossing into Mongolia! First impressions of Beijing - bloody awesome! Everyone here is so friendly and the city is literally buzzing! We have only been here since 3pm (it's about 11pm now) and I've already had my first taste of proper Peking duck. The food is so good. I strolled through the night markets, for which I'll have to go back to tommorow night so I can try seahorse and live scorpian, maybe a bit of sheep's testicle - who know's?

Anyway, enough of today, I need to tell you guys about Mongolia. It is AMAZING. We arrived in Ulaan Baatar (Mongolia's capital) on the morning of the 5th April. We had a couple of hours sleep as it was practically impossible to sleep on the train over the last couple of nights and then went to get some food. I had my first taste of horse for starter and for main got a plate of meat... a massive plate of meat! We then went to the Choijin Temple Museum and learnt about Mongolia's Buddhist views of hell. The temples themselves were cool, and we had to follow Mongolia etiquette by never turning our backs to the alter's and always entering facing the alter (i.e. backwards). We then went to see the main square, which had a huge statue of Chenggis Khaan (Genhis Khan to us), his son and grandson, and his lords. After that we trekked to the Russian Memorial, which had some 600 steps to the top - you could see the entire of the city from up there.

The next morning we left for the Ger Camps. A Ger is what traditional Mongolian's live in. A sort of round tent with a fire in the middle, it's chimney sticking out of the round window at the top. I couldn't believe how hot it was. Most of us got burnt. The camp itself was in the national park about an hour and a half away from the city and once we got there we settled in instantly chatting to locals and other travellers alike. We then went for a horse ride through the mountains of Mongolia.... incredible! Had a traditional lunch and then went for a climb up the mountains. I did a couple of climbs I probably shouldn't have done without any ropes but all the same it was great fun. I took some fantastic pictures, but as the computer I'm using now doesn't have a USB slot I wont be able to put them up yet (I'll try to do so before I leave Beijing).

The next day I went for some more trekking and we invented a new strange football-tennis game across the raised flat foundations used for Ger's. We played for quite a long time. Did a load more trekking then went to see a traditional family living in a Ger. It was very surreal, especially as she had a tv antenna sticking out the side of the Ger, she was wearing Nike trainers, and she gave us some God awful homemade Mongolian sweets! I left my coat as a gift to her family as I wouldn't be needing it anymore ( I hope!). We then went to see the famous Turtle Rock (if you Google it you'll see how it gets its name - it's pretty obvious), the legend was that some great King dropped the rock shaped as a head on the original rock to kill his wife who was promiscuous and hiding there. Retarded I know, but we thought it was funny. We climbed into the rock and went through a very tight crack that our honcho, Annie, said was supposed to symbolise being reborn.... due to the fact it clearly resembled a vagina! Anyway, we went back to the camp and did a bit more trekking until it got dark. We then had a bonfire and proceded to drink lots of beer and vodka.

The next day we went back to Ulaan Baatar and visited the monestary. It was really cool to actually see a still live monestary and there were hundreds of monks of all ages, many of which chanting rituals. Got a chance to feed the pigeons (possible the closest thing to being in England I've done in a while) and then I went and got a hair cut. It was one of the strangest experiences of my life! For 5000 To-grog (about 2.50 pounds) I got my hair washed, clipped, washed again, one hand massaged and my neck massaged! The reason I didn't get my other hand massaged was because we ran out of time. I then had to run all the way back through the main square and down through the main road, in rush hour, to meet everyone to go for dinner. I'm very glad I did though because the dinner was amazing. All you can eat for about 7 pounds. You fill up a bowl of raw food including the meat, seasoning, vegetables, sauces, etc, and take them to the cooks. They are then poured over a massive round griddle and stir fried for you. The cooks tend to play around with the food and their crazy sword/spatula things, which was awesome. Not only that but it tasted great!

The next day we went through the border crossing to China. For the first time I was so bored on the train. I was disappointed to leave Mongolia so soon and although I was looking forward to Beijing, I really didn't want to spend any more time on the train. I finished reading The Road and moved onto Brief History of Time, but it's not a book you can just sit and read to pass the time and I got bored after a couple of chapters. We arrived in Beijing the next afternooon and that's where I will come to an end - finally, Jesus this post is long!

If you got this far, well done I hope you have a happy Easter. If you didn't, I hope your Easter is RUBBISH! There is no Easter here though, so eat enough chocolate for me guys! Zaijian!(Goodbye!)