Langtang and Gosainkunda Trek

Tsergo Ri summit group.
Back: Kul, moi, Machhendra, Jordi
Front: Marcel, Chris

Since getting back from the Annapurna, i was itching to get back out to the mountains and do some more trekking. I toyed with the idea of the Everest region, but the costs are much higher and it would be the place i would want to be with close friends (hint hint). I decided on the Langtang region which is in the north of Nepal, about 130km from Kathmandu. Even though it is so close to the capital, about a third of the people trek there compared to Annapurna and Everest. I combined 2 1/2 treks into 1.... Langtang Valley, Gosainkunda and Helambu.

An unsuccessful search later for another willing trekker, i decided to join a group with a guide. I say group, it was me and Jordi from Catalonia and our guide Machhendra. Machhendra was originally from the Everest region, a devout Buddhist and had a great sense of humour. Throughout the day he would chant and come out with quotes like "No worry, chicken curry" and "hows your head, tibetan bread". He is also a very experienced trekker and climber so was a very good pace setter. A few days before starting this trek he had summited a 6600m peak, the man is a machine.

Anyway, instead of boring everyone with every detail of the 13 day trek i'll pick out the highlights....

The bus journey

The only way to the trailhead is to take one of the infamous local buses. The bus was an old Tata bus (something like this) and my god was it busy. It was the start of the Hindu festival Dasain, so alot of people were going back to their villages. This meant that people, livestock filled the alleyway, drivers area and the roof. I was a little unfortunate and had the seat at the very back of the bus, with my bag on my lap and just about enough room to breath. Next to me was a lady from the villiage i was heading, Syrabru Besi, and her bag of live chickens, that were persumably going to be slaughtered for Dasain. It wasn't the most comfortable 11 hour journey but was very interesting to see all the villages on the journey.

The jungle

The first 2 days of trekking was through thick jungle. It was very humid and just over 25 degrees which made walking very sweaty. We soon met with a guy from Holland, Marcel, and his guide Kul, who we would walk with for the rest of the trek. The first part of the trail was littered with the most cannabis that i have ever seen. Not quite on the scale of the scene from "The Beach", but we must have walked for about 45 minutes with seeing little else! During one section of trail, Machhendra and I were a little ahead of the others so decided to rest. At that exact moment we heard a high pitched barking and a red panda shot across the path only a few meters in front. It was a great albeit brief sight, and i feel very priveliged to have seen it as there are estimated to be <10,000 left in the world.

Tsergo Ri

The highlight of the Langtand trek was to attempt the 4984m peak of Tsergo Ri (pronounced Chergo Ree). It was a climb of about 1200m from the village we were stopping, so was about a 3 hour ascent and just less coming down. For the trip we were joined by Chris from Germany who we had spent a couple of days with. We started at 06:30 and started to switchback up the first ridge at a very steady pace. This continued for about 2 hours making regular but brief stops to ensure no one was suffering from altitude sickness. The final hour was a scrambled of large boulders until the summit was insight! The last 10 minutes seem to last for ever. I was tired, very sweaty and out of breath. When i finally reached the stupa and prayer-flags of the summit i have to admit that my eyes teared up. It was one of the greatest feelings of accomplishment that i had felt for a long time. I was soon joined by the others for lots of photo's, local cheese and chapti lunch and dancing and singing from Machhendra and Kul.

Gosainkunda

It took 4 days of pretty strenuous walking to reach Gosainkunda from Tsergo Ri. We started by dropping Jordi off so he could catch the bus back to Kathmandu. The following day we had to climb 2200m, from 1300m to 3500m. This was probably the most i have ever had to push myself. The altitude was not a problem, its the heat and humidity that get me. I was also getting over a cold so breathing was much more difficult. It was the longest 7 hours of my life. 

Gosainkunda is a lake at 4600m and an important Hindu sight. There are also a number of other smaller lakes on the mountain side. They are all perfectly clear, very peaceful and surrounded by stupas, prayer flags and hindu monuments. We took some time walk around before having an early night. The following morning, we rose at 05:30 so that we could see the sunrise over the lake. It was a beautifully clear morning and seeing the mountains reflected in the lake was awe-inspiring. It was hard to get going knowing that we were leaving it behind.

Helambu

Gosainkunda at sunrise

For the final few days we joined the Helambu trail towards Kathmandu. As with the rest of the region, the local people are amazing. I have never met such friendly and interesting people. The are all buddhist and are very similar to Tibetan in their dress and culture. One family stands out in particular. It was our penultimate night and we were staying in a small village called Khutsumsang. We were joined by an english couple, Pete and Lisa, who we actually saw on the Annapurna trek in Chhromrong. Small world. We were almost immediately greeted by the family and welcomed into their kitchen / dining room. We spent the evening playing cards with the son, Neem, and talking about what we were all doing. They cooked us the most amazing Dal Bhat and we all drank Raksi (the local liquor) until the crazy time of 9pm! Machhendra told me the next morning that we were very lucky to be invited into their home, and not just kept seperate as usual. They said they liked our politness and how we talked and played with Neem. Amazing experience. I also bought a litre of Raksi from them for a special occasion.

It was a great experience, very different to the Annapurna trek, and although the mountains aren't as high (Langtang Lirung is 7200m compared to Annapurna over 8000m), the people really made it. Made some great friends along the way and been to almost 5000m above see level!

Summit of Tsergo Ri with Langtang Lirung mountain in background

"Poo with a View"

Drinking Raksi in Khutsumsang

Paragliding back to the UK...

Ms Redmond doin' a paraglide all up in the air!




Okay, so the title is misleading! No- we didn't paraglide all the way back to the UK. We did catch a plane or two (one of which upgraded us to First Class darling- get in! Fully reclining seats, mmm!) After a relatively short wait in the airport, a few too many vigorous and intimate friskings and a film or two, Kaz and I touched down in Heathrow at 6am on Saturday. We were half an hour early and after scoffing an M&S sarnie and drinking some smoothie we had Kaz and myself home and safe by 9.30am- we had a very good run! Our return was made complete later in the day when our home-coming was celebrated with sausage and mash, wine and a film with Amy, Quint, Tom and Ben. Just like we'd never left!




Before we disappear off the blog forever and leave it to El Ricardo to fill with tales of hemp, daal bhat and monkey muggings in India, I want to put up some pics of Kaz and I paragliding in Pokhara. It was our final exciting activity before we reluctantly caught another terrible bus back to Kathmandu to fly home. Through some elaborate exchange rate calculations and by paying some of our fee in dollars and the rest in rupees- we somehow managed to pay less than we should have for a half an hour flight. We caught a perilously rickety bus up to the top of the hill and to the panicky cries of "do they have shoes? They don't have shoes! Where are their shoes?" we skipped over to two diddly Nepalese men in our flip-flops. Little did they know we had shoes in our bags- panic over!





After a brief explanation of what would happen for take off- don't run, don't jump, don't sit down... we were strapped in and stood waiting for the wind to pick up. Before long Kaz's parachute was up and she'd walked quickly to the edge of the cliff where she was immediately lifted up and out into the air over the paddy fields and out towards the other hills nearer to Pokhara. A minute or two later I followed, although I hadn't felt nervous at all there was a brief moment of panic as I went to put my foot down and I'd run out of ground to tred on- but I was soon whipped up into the air to follow Lady Ka Ka, floating about on the thermals.

Once in the air the whole experience was so calm and so relaxing. It felt strangely natural to rise and fall on the different currents in the air. At times my feet felt like they were almost going to brush the trees as the parachute glided gently down, then we'd catch a thermal and you'd feel the chute fill again, lifting you swiftly up again high above the hills and out towards the lake. In the distance you could see the Annapurna Range, with its pointed snowy peaks just breaking through the top of the clouds. I could have stayed up there all day and I know Kaz loved it too. Definitely an experience I'd repeat if I had the opportunity. After landing back on firm ground I had a little read up about paragliding and apparently Pokhara is one of the most popular and beautiful places you can do it, so we were extra pleased we'd decided to do it! Now we just have to get rich so we can take it up as a hobby.... we can always dream...

So... Goodbye! I'm home and boring again now, so I'll leave Rich to tantalise you with tales of his travels (Miss you already TinyPants!)

Thanks for reading! Sadie xxx

And then there was one.....

I've just come away from saying goodbyes to Sadie and Kaz as they shot off in a taxi to Kathmandu airport to get their flight to the UK. I can't believe its come around so quick! It doesn't seem like 5 minutes since we left Heathrow on 26th July, Moscow bound. Since then we've traveled across Russia, Mongolia, China and Nepal! Its been an awesome trip. Sadie had always planned to go back, and Kaz has been offered a job in Melbourne so is heading home to sort stuff out before heading down under.


And now there is moi.... and i'm very excited about the next part of my adventure! I have another month in Nepal to do some more trekking and climbing before heading to the jungles in the South. Early November i'll make to 3 day trip to the eastern most point of Nepal and cross into India, starting an epic 3 month journey starting in Darjeeling and ending somewhere in the south.


Right now, i have 4 or 5 days in Kathmandu to sort out visas, trekking permits, bus tickets and to visit all the sites. Its the start of the Hindu festival Dashain tomorrow, which starts with a music and food festival :) Apparently the headliners are a Nepali band called Albatros who are the "Nepalise Incubus"...


I have skpe now, so if anyone fancies a chat then my username is richcolley5


Rich x

Annapurna Sanctuary Trek- Nepal

Annapurna Base Camp- Well worth the pain, rain and amount of huge stone steps we encountered! Here we are with Ganesh and Igor, our adopted guides and new friends!

We left the busy Kathmandu with all our newly acquired fake polyester clothing and got a bus to Pokhara, about 7 hours west of the capital. It should have been 7 hours, but after about 4 hours driving and a brief stop for lunch, we stopped in a huge queue of traffic... nothing unusual until we looked about 200 metres up the road to discover that there had been a landslide overnight and the road was blocked by a boulder. It looks just like the boulder in Indiana Jones and 2 large JCB's were trying to break it down to clear the road. After about 4 hours stuck in the midday sun we finally started to get going.

Pokhara is a huge contrast to Kathmandu. Its next to a lake, mountains in the distance (you can only see them if you're up at 6am as the cloud comes in..) and a very chilled out atmosphere with a mixture of trekkers and hippy types.

We'd planned to start trekking the day after we arrived, but poor Sadie was sick for a few days so we just chilled. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as people we met that went said they didn't see much because of the cloud, but we had perfect weather.... well for most of it!

Day 1 - The WET day....

The trek started in a small village (a couple of wooden shelters) call Phedi and started with a 2 hour climb up some stone steps. This is when the rain started and our loving relationship with stone steps started. The rest of the day was a mixture of paddy fields, forests with monkeys in the trees and more wet and perilous stone steps! Despite the bad weather we got to our first teahouse in Tolka 8 hours later.

Day 2 - Steps....

Probably the hardest day on the trek. It started with us having to put on damp clothes and boots as nothing had dried overnight. Our spirits were raised when the sun eventually came out and we could see further than 20 metres into the valley. We had a pleasant walk along the river to a the next village Jhinu Danda for tea and food. Behind us we could see our destination Chhromrong... To get there, we had a 1-2 hour climb up some very steep steps. I met with a Nepali guy and I think the talking helped the time pass and my mind not concentrate on my burning legs. It was very tough and even he was struggling towards the top.

Day 3 and 4

We were up and 6am and was greeted by our first clear morning and some amazing mountain views. For the next 2 days we followed the valley to a small place called Bamboo (it has a bamboo plantation) where we stopped for one night. The lady in the teahouse we stopped in was a great cook and i had the tastiest dhal bhat i have had in Nepal! This is also were we met our new trekking partners, Igor from Slovenia and his Nepali guide Ganesh. We all trekked together for the next 4 days and would spend the evening talking and playing cards. Our next stop was a place called Deurali at 3200m above see level. Stopping in the guest house with us was a South Korean expedition who were going to be climbing one of the 6500m peaks.

Day 5 - Annapurna Base Camp

Today was what we had been waiting for. We had about a 3 hour climb to Machhapuchhare Base Camp (3800m). It is just a collection of hotels and technically not a basecamp as climbing the mountain has been prohibited since so many people died trying. We had a rest to ensure none of us were suffering from the early signs of mountain sickness, and were soon on our way for another 2 hour walk up to 4130 m and Annapurna Basecamp. It was such a great sense of achievement to get to basecamp and we were rewarded with some great views... but nothing compared to the morning.

Day 6 - 9

We were at 05:30 and climbed a short distance to wait for the sun rise. It was the most beautiful sunrise and the mountains changed to an orangey-pink colour. The photo really doesn't do it justice. It was so cold but we were mesmerised as we watched the sun touch each of the peaks in turn and gradually light up the whole surface of the Annapurna range.

The next 3 days were retracing our steps back down the valley to Bamboo and Chhromrong, where we said goodbye to Igor and Ganesh who were going a slightly different route to us. On the way to our final stop off, Ghandruk, we came across a couple of cows. On earlier parts of the trail we had been stuck for a while because the cow would just stand in the middle of the path and refuse to move. We carefully walked past the first 2 and carried on our way... or so we thought. The largest and craziest one then started to snort and run towards us every time we we moved. Usually, I'm not afraid of cows, but having something that big with huge horns (they are a cross between a cow and yak) snort angrily at you is quite a frightening experience! We only got past it as a line of laden horses came past and blocked the cow's path.

The final day was an easy 4 hour descent to our destination Naya Pul, where we had a taxi back to Pokhara for a sleep and more importantly a shower!

It was an experience I don't think any of us will ever forget!

Milk tea in Nepal.

And now were in Nepal! My goodness, we spent a day in Kathmandau where we shopped for the requitite fake North Face clothes (we all have identical zip-off-at-the-knee trousers, its hilarious!) and bizzare wooly hats (sexy). We also had to go get a permit as we wanted to trek in the Annapurna reigion, so we had to find the Annapurna Conservation Area Project office to purchace this. Obtaining the permit itself was easy enough, but finding the office involved a bizzare, frustrating and frankly, frightening encounter with rickshaws and busy traffic that now it is over was an 'experience' and added to the rich tapestry of character building encounters that backpacking involves.

But Kathmandu is very crowded and touristy so we were glad to head out to Pokhara to start our trekking, which is where we are now and hopefully off soon to complete the Annapurna Sanctuary trek. There is limited internet in the Himalayas so we'll post after were done and will have loads of awesome pictures (as long as its Sadie behind the camera, not me) Also it's really expensive to drink here in Nepal so were tee total while were here, so we'll let you know how that goes!

Climbing at the Baby Frog.

When we got back to Yangshuo our primary aim was to chill out for a week as we were exhausted from being on the go for so long, but we also explored some of the cimbing sites which were amazing- beautiful scenery and awesome climbing with a good range of grades, great for us as we'd had two months of drinking beer in deserts and not doing much exercise, but also really interesting to watch the seasoned pros scale the giant Karsts on the harder routes. It was very easy to do, we rented gear for the day which was cheap (twenty quid all in for rope, quickdraws, harnesses and helmets between us) and cycled off to the nearest climbing spot which was the Baby Frog. It took us four hours, but between us we conquered two routes, which to our credit in our unexercised state and battling with the baking heat was quite a feat. It was really fun and it'd be worth a trip to China for the climbing in Yangshuo alone.

We spent the rest of the time in Yangshuo relaxing and eating steamed dumplings (the best in China, maybe?) before reuctantly getting on another sleeper bus to Guangzhou for our fight to nepal. Athough, in the sleeper bus's defence, it was very cheap.

I think this is me, and definetly Sadie.

Check out the background scenery.

Sadie - master of sport climbing!

The cycle there wasn't too bad either.

China part two - Yichang to Hong Kong.

Yichang is pretty but there is nothing there really it was just a stopover before we got on our boat that would take us up through the three gorges area. We had eagerly awaited the boat as the scenery was meat to be beautiful, but more importanty we had been promised thet there woud be on-board kareoke or 'Kariboaty!' as it was christened (in a strong northern accent). When we first got on the boat it was very exciting and the foyer has a chandelier and carpet and was very nice. And then we saw our cabins which were HORRIBLE! Being used to budget travel we have previously stayed in worse places, but the plush hotels of the tour had spoiled us and the cabins were dirty (and we diddnt even look behind the furniture) and smelled sooo bad. We were jeaous of Sara and Orissa's room because they had a toilet seat, but on the other hand our toilet door stayed shut. We all dealt with this by congregating on deck and getting drunk on various Chinese spirits. Our luxury cruise took us through the gigantic Three Gorges Dam through a series of locks that were over a hundred feet tall each. It was all very impressive.

The next day we were woken up at some ungodly hour to get on a smaller boat, to get on another even smaller boat so we could explore further up into one of the smaller rivers. The whoe area is very beautiful, the mountains are green, the cliffs are high and we even saw monkeys. But heavy drinking on the boat the night before meant half of us felt terrible, and it was very hard going. The views afforded to us by the boat were very cool and at night when we were all hungover we all snugged up in Spiv and Cath's cabin and watched a film with the window behind the TV screen and we could see all the twinkling lights on the hills and on the other ferrys on the water.

After the boat there was a bus/overnight train/bus sandwich that seemed to go on forever (we were al sick of eating instant noodles on trains) but at the end of that we were rewarded with Yangshuo. Whenever you see anything promoting tourism to China it will have pictures of the region around Yangshuo, the land in the area is pretty flat but dotted around are these big mountains shaped like upside down cups. The prettiest part is the stretch of the Li river starting at Xingping (which is on the back of the 20 yuan note) and we did a cruise on a bamboo raft down the river, which was awesome. The next day we went off as a group cycling to an area of the river with smaller bamboo rafts. Before you get on them, tiny old ladies with dentures made completely from silver metal sell you water pistols fashioned from bits of pipe for 30p so that when you are going down the river, rather than a tranquil paddle its an extended waterfight across a group of rafts. It was a lot of fun, the handmade water pistols were very effective and everyone was absolutely soaked, including some groups of Chinese tourists that managed to cross our paths. Don't think that we were rowdy British tourists though, the Chinese gave as good as they got!

And the frightening woman we brought the water pistols off. Don't be fooled - she was about 4ft tall but she had a grill like Jaws straight 'outta 'The spy who loved me'.

Another great part of Yangshuo is that as a touristy place lots more people spoke English. Which was good for us as hard as we tried to mumble words in Chinese, we were just terrible - the pronunciation of words for us with our limited reptoire of sounds made it difficult for people to understand what the hell we were tying to say anyway so it was nice to be able to chat with the locals - something we had been unable to do before. (Except Lois of course, who 'released' all the infomation we needed including such questions as 'Why dont the babies in China wear nappies' which they don't and there is a very interesting reason why...) Another thing that was very helpful to know was the kind of sign language they had for different numbers in China, it made haggling a lot easier.

The view from our holel in Yangshuo.

After Yangshuo it was off on our very last overnight train to Hong Kong, where we had our last meal as a group and then wandered onto the bay (Which was another beautiful city view, like the Bund in Shanghai) to watch the Light show which is made up by all the different buildings flashing their lights to music accompanied by lazers pointing up into the sky. We went out with the intention of going to a kareoke bar (which we had all talked about non stop since we got to China) but after one failed attempt where we ended up in a strip club we brought beers (5% strength beers in HK thank you!) and utiised the hotel common room instead, where we had an emotional goodbye drink with Lois. The next day was sad as we said goodbye to Rob and Kate to continue their honeymoon at a much more romantic location in Thailand and Orissa who was off to Cambodia.

We had grown quite attached to the rest so we planned to meet up the next day, but dragged Cath, Spiv and Thomas off with us to our next hotel as we just couldn't bear to leave them. It was in Chungking Mansions which is famed for being a wreched hive of scum and villainy, but our guesthouse though teeny was clean, safe and had an awesome view over the city. Over the next couple of days we went to museums, took the Star ferry, rode up the Mid-level escalators (a bunch of escalators) and shopped at various markets. We met up with Sara, Jamie, Cordy Klaus, Louisa and Marco one last time for a picnic at the top of Victoria Peak which looks out over Hong Kong Central just as the sun went down.

The bay.

The Big Bhudda on Lantau Sadie and Thomas Tawn went to see. Huge!

The next day we said goodbye to Cath and Spiv who we made promise would come to see us when we got back as we had told them all abouts the delights of Birmingham and now they cannot wait to see the sights!. After that we all explored different parts of Hong Kong, Sadie went to Lantau with Thomas Tawn (sweetcorn) to see the Big Bhudda and soak up some rays on the beach, Rich took advantage of the uptown hotels swimming faciities with Sara and I went off up the peninsula to Sai Kung to meet up with the lovely June who looked after me just like I was back at home and took me out for the best thai food in HK!

And then all of a sudden our time in Hong Kong was over, and i'm sorry to say we diddnt try much food there (sorry Kwok!) as it had amazing western food (Hardys wine!!) and everything else was very expensive. We did shop our asses off though, the markets and malls in HK are wonderful. So it was a sad goodbye to Sara and Thomas Tawn (face of a prawn) and off up to Shenzhen where we discovered the horrors of overnight sleeper busses on our way back to Yangshuo. We planned to go there for a few reasons firstly being that it has great climbing and secondly because as I said earlier, people speak English there so we could get by without Lois there to guide us.

China - Beijing to Xi'an

After leaving Ulaan Bator the journey was short in distance, but long in time as Mongolian and Chinese customs took several hours each. Then our carriages were hauled off individually to a giant warehouse where the wheels of the trains or 'bogeys' were changed to acccomodate the Chinese tracks, which are slightly different to the European tracks in Russian and Mongolia. I'd like to say that we watched enthralled at this amazing feat of engineering, as our carriages were hauled up several feet into the air by huge pneumatic lifts and as the new wheels were rolled in and attached. However, we mostly ate noodles and slept.

Beijing was where we would start our tour, and in the pouring rain we made it to our hotel. We were worried about the tour, mostly the people who would be on it, but we met our guide Louis 'Call me Lois, like Lois Lane' Liu and the rest of the bunch who (to our relief) were all very nice. We celebrated this fact by frequenting a bar together, and quickly learning that pretty much all Chinese beer is roughly 3.3% in strength. On our tour there were: Cath and Spiv (who we had seen earlier running up and down the road outside the hotel in waterproofs and crocs) Thomas Tawn (Who was sharing a room with Rich) Sara and Orissa (who were sharing a room) Kate and Rob (who were on their honeymoon!) Jamie and Cordy (Jamie would later teach us all how to complete a Rubiks cube) Klaus and Louisa (From Denmark) and Marco, who was from Finland.

Our first group excursion was the Great Wall of China, which me and Sadie were so slow to walk up to we diddn't see anyone else all day. It was very impressive, but also very, very hot. Sweaty picture of us on the Wall to follow. Other activities in Beijing included: Tiannemen Square, the Forbidden City, the Night Markets (where Rich and Spiv ate barbequed insects - yeurgh!) exploring the fancy shopping malls on Wangfujing, and failing to find the Sanlitun bar street. Worried friends and relatives would have passed out if they'd have seen me and Sadie negotiate the Beijing traffic on cycles, which was a lot of fun amongst the other thousands and millions of cycle and moped userson the road. Another thing we found very curious about Beijing which diddn't happen anywhere else in China was that being Foreign was regarded as a huge novelty, and many many Chinese people stopped to talk, stare and take photos. This was worse for Cath and Sadie who as blondes were treated practically like celebrities!

Our next destination was Shanghai which we were getting to on an overnight train. As soon as we got to the station we were 100% sure we had made the right decicion to come on the tour, as it's unlikely we would have been able to negotiate buying tickets alone, as non-Chinese speakers. (little English is spoken in China) The train set up in our Hard-sleeper carriage was a row of twenty open-ended six bedded 'dorms'. Although clean and relatively comfortable, it was noisy and the primary source of noise was Chinese men clearing their lungs and hocking up giant gobs of phglem, a sound heard often and throughout our trip never failed to elicit a shudder - especially when I was eating.

Shanghai is very beautiful, its streets in the area we were staying were lined with trees and lots of tiny boutiques. The highlights of Shanghai for me were firstly The Bund, which is the area on the river where one side is huge Asian style skyscrapers, brightly lit with flashing lights and advertisements, then across the river is 'European style' buildings, more classical in design and tastefully uplit in white. It was beautiful, i've never seen anything like it. We'd been in the day but at night the lights, the sheer enormity of the buildings and the reflections in the water completely transformed the riverfront. Secondly, we went to see an acrobatics show which was AMAZING! All throught I was on the edge of my seat as I worried more and more for the safety of the performers as the stunts became increacingly dangerous. What started off as hat juggling escalated to a giant metal 'Ball of Death!' where five performers whizzed around inside on motorbikes passing each other with only inches to spare. That coupled with a bizzare and mainly Star Wars-based sound track made it thoroughly entertaining, and i'd reccomend anyone visiting Shanghai to go.

Our next stop was Xi'an which is famous for its Teracotta warriors, the excavated site where an Emporor had an 8,000 strong army of teracotta statues placed to guard his tomb. I won't pretend to know much about it, but its very impressive and there is a branch of Subway there. Xi'an also has some cool markets that sold all manner of wonderful tat, including fake Chanel wallets and Chairman Mao watches. There was an awesome trip to the tea wholesale market where we got to try all the different teas and see the correct way of preparing it, which seemed to involve pouring most of it away. We also sampled an array of foods which ranged from the delicious (street food including a variation of spring rolls cooked flat, and on a cart, and resturants that we followed Kate and Rob too) and the bizzare (Sheep hoves we discovered after trying to be adventurous, don't have any meat on them - just skin).

Kaz.

Mongolia, Mon-Mon-Mon-Mongolia

At long last, after battling with the lack of Google in China, the terrible internet in Nepal and then a 4 day tummy bug- here it is- Mongolia!!

"Welcome to Mongolia- Everyone speak English here, we love you!" our Hostel Manager Mr Kim informed us as he picked us up from the Ulan Bator train station at the ungodly hour of 5am. We were whisked into a minibus and transported to what looked like the sort of place your Mother would hate you to walk near let alone sleep in! Luckily once we'd lugged our rucksacs up the stairs it was much nicer inside. We filled out all of the standard forms and talked about what we were hoping to do with our two weeks, then we were taken to the next door block of flats where we were shown into a small flat with two sets of bunk-beds, a kitchen, FRIDGE, bathroom and balcony. Apart from the very 70s curtains it was not too shabby and the beer cooling facilities were very much up to standard. After a short sleep and unpacking some of our things we realised that we were going to be treated to one of Mongolia's 252 sunny days a year! It was very warm and the whole city looked a lot less intimidating in the sunshine. Despite this we were repeatedly warned by Mr Kim and other hostel staff that UB was not safe, there are pickpockets, "we have man-sized rats here, you must lock the window, lock the door!" We're still not sure if he was insinuating that there were thieves or if there really were human-sized-rodents running around!

Our first job in Mongolia was to get enough money out for the things we wanted to do, like head into the Gobi desert, visit the Terelj National Park and eat something more delicious than Russia had had to offer. Amusingly the amount all three of us got out of the ATM came to 1.5 million togrogs, and although briefly millionaires by Mongolian standards, it was actually only about 260 pounds each! Oh well... By far the second most important thing we did on the first day was eat a platter of many different meats from the 'Modern Nomads' restaurant and buy large, ice cold beers for 50p. After a somewhat dismal and scary start, Mongolia was getting better and better.

Before setting off on our one-night trip to Terejl, we did a little bit of 'sploring around UB. We walked around most of the main sights and visited the Mongolian National History Museum. Now, first off it was only about a pound, so we weren't expecting much, however, it was so awful it went past being crap and became hilarious. It was essentially a crazy collection of terrible taxidermy and dinosaur bones (the only decent bit!) We had to stifle giggles at the birds in particular, they were all so manky and most of them were upside down or their feet were backwards. There was even a penguin with a strangely long neck- David Attenborough could have told them a thing or two! The final part of our museum experience was 'animals of the ocean' and included such gems as poorly stuffed sharks and blow-fish with stick on googly eyes! Hilarious! Well worth a pound.

Rich pondering the beauty of the landscape, or considering what the future holds, or maybe just hoping Kaz won't notice how much his feet smell... :P

So... Now for the serious stuff. On Wednesday 11th we bundled into another questionably maintained minibus and set off for Terelj, accompanied by two Korean girls, a Korean guy, a Canadian English teacher who was living in Korea (more about him in the Gobi), a Chilean Doctor living in China and a silent French guy who sang to himself. We had been allocated a guide of sorts in the form of a 16 yr old Mongolian girl called Nomi. As we left the city you realised just how big it was. As it peetered out towards the edges you could see all the ger camps with their bright white tents and colourful wooden poles. As soon as we arrived at our ger camp we dumped our bags and headed straight up the nearest hill to get a good view of the landscape. We climbed up

onto some of the huge gritty rocks that were scattered all across the green hillsides and enjoyed the cool breeze that hadn't quite reached us when we had been down in the valley. On our return back down we ate mutton, rice, potatoes and carrots (the first of many mutton meals!) and weirdly- sushi!

After lunch we had another little 'splore in the other direction whilst we waited for the horses to return and go for a ride around the area. If I'm honest I was dreading it, as Mr Kim had said "horse is good animal, BUT it is still animal" Anything that has eyes that big can't be trusted if you ask me (and that includes cows, which we proved in Nepal!). As it turned out the hour or so that we went riding for wasn't a terrible ordeal at all, and apart from a slightly uncomfortable length to my stirrups- I didn't hate it, it was actually quite fun! We did a huge circuit around one of the hills before running back to the ger camp. This bit WAS scary, but in a good way and we were giggling and laughing all the way to dinner after the adrenaline rush. Unsurprisingly dinner was more mutton with pasta and carrots and after we'd eaten we headed back to our ger where we lit candles, drank vodka and apple juice and played cards with the rest of the group. A memorable moment was Yohanne, our crazy French aquaintance, acting out scenes from Monty Python's 'Holy Grail' to Mauritz, from Chile- who clearly hadn't got a clue what all this "African swallow or European swallow? I told them we already got one!" and "Ni! Ni!" was all about. Very funny for us though!

We arrived back in UB by midday the next day and after a brief wash were back in the van, with Canadian Michael and on our way to the Gobi desert. This time our guide, Tugsuu, was a little bit older and a little bit more qualified and our driver, Ott, was a no-nonsense Dad type who had an infectious laugh seemed like he'd be fun too! The plan was:

• Day 1: Erdenedalay Village
  
• Day 2: Bayanzag and The Flaming Cliffs


• Day 3: The sand dunes and camel riding


• Day 4: The Ice Valley and Dalanzadgad town (shower available!)


• Day 5: Tsagaan Suvarga, The White Mountain


• Day 6: Rock formation (??) and Buddhist ruins

Each day would involve driving for about 5 hours and for about 200km, we did a lot of sleeping, looking out of the windows and listening to Ott's mix tape of The Pussy-Cat Dolls, Kelly Clarkson, Leona Lewis, The Black eyed Peas and other auditory delights- all of which he'd sing along to with gusto and sometimes with Tugsuu too! Because we were travelling such large distances each day the landscape would be completely different from the morning to the evening. All very different, all very beautiful and all very fun to walk around. Each evening we were meant to sleep in a 'tourist ger' which was the same external structure as the families gers but only kitted out with beds, a table and a mirror or a chair if we were lucky. The family would bring us food in the evening and for breakfast and flasks of hot water to make tea or coffee.

The ger we randomly went inside to make lunch when it was too windy to cook. The family had gone to the next village and got stuck there due to a sand-storm. They returned as we were eating and didn't bat an eyelid to the fact we were sat on their floor and using their cutlery! Very bizarre!

However, lovely as this was- we got lucky on the first night and didn't make it far enough to get to our tourist ger camp. Sounds bad, we were in the middle of nowhere and couldn't see another ger anywhere in any direction but after another 15 mins driving Ott pulled up to some gers to ask for some floorspace for the night. After a few polite refusals we came across a tiny ger, again- in the middle of nowhere, no other gers in sight, just a small herd of goats and some horses tethered to a washing line. The family inside quietly welcomed us in and after Ott had made us all at home issuing orders in Mongolian left right and centre, the Father offered us a some of the dairy foodstuffs that they produced from their goats. We tried a hard, sharp tasting cheese called 'aro' that was a lot like Parmesan (amusingly we later realised all three of us had put it into our coat pockets after a couple of bites!). We tried a kind of fizzy yoghurt with sugar which required us to lick the bowl once we'd finished. And we tried 'urom' and 'eezgeii', a delicious clotted cream that we ate on biscuits and a weird hard cheese cluster that would have broken our teeth if Tugsuu hadn't warned us. Needless to say the cream on biscuits was mine and Kaz's favourite and we ate way more of it than is probably healthy- doubled our cholesterol in one morning for sure!

The Mongolian family who took us in on the first night, and our guide Tugsuu in the red T-shirt.

Another perk to our impromptu 'real' Mongolian experience was playing with the children. The family had five children, two were away at University in the city and the remaining children aged 19, 16 and 13 helped with the animals when they weren't at school in the village. They took us to see their goats on an old motorbike, we watched them milk them and used a half-binocular (monocular??) to watch the sun set. After that we played basketball in the dark until it got too cold to move then piled back inside to get ready for bed. There was only two beds in the ger, the parents took one and Tugsuu took the other. Ott, me, Rich, Kaz, Michael and the three children took the floor space- and there wasn't much of that! There was some pretty intense spooning going on but considering the temperature, it wasn't necessarily a bad thing!

The Flaming Cliffs, up close these were very red and it was VERY windy- cue Kaz fashioning a sort of Arab head-dress out of her multi-coloured electro scarf. Very trad-Mongolian darling...

Kaz enjoying the luxurious decor (check out the bling on the clock!)

Me, Rich and Kaz having a lovely time in the sand-dunes. This was before we took 45 mins to clamber up and 2 mins to run down! Very hot but very beautiful- definately my favourite part of our journey through the Gobi Desert.

The smelly, horrible, poo-covered camels! Maybe my least-favourite part of our trip!

All in all, a very exciting journey through a brilliant and changing landscape, made all the more awesome by our guide Tugsuu and driver Ott, who were a credit to their country. We left Mongolia feeling very happy to have seen so many beautiful things, to have had so many valuable experiences and feeling thoroughly well looked after. I'd recommend a visit to Mongolia to anyone, it was so different to anywhere else and with so many natural sights to explore in the sunshine, it'd keep anyone busy and glad to be outdoors.

Goodbye Mongolia, thank you for our lovely time!

Lake Baikal and Olkhon Island

So after a night at Golina's unamed hostel we were up for 7am to catch the minibus she said she had booked for us. Although it was a little late we finally got on our way with some people from France, Israel, Russia and Finland. The minibus was in an interesting state of repair with a very cracked windscreen, questional sealing on the doors/windows and some old vinyl flooring.

We had a 6 hour drive from Irkutsk to a small town called Khuzir on Olkhon Island. The first 3 hours of the drive were ok if not a little cramped (we were in the middle of a big rain storm and the driver didn't have any sheeting to put over the roof rack so all the bags were in the bus with us!), there was also a massive draft coming from the rear door that Kaz and Sadie were sat in so were freezing until the driver threw back a quilt for them. After a brief stop to use the most horrific toilets at a petrol station we found that the tarmac road had finished and the next 3 hours were on very bumpy, stoney and fairly dangerous tracks. This didn't stop our driver from still driving as if he was on the M42 and insisted on overtaking every vehicle we came across. To get onto the island we have a half hour ferry crossing and another hour to get to the town.

We stopped in place called Nikitas Homestead which was like a little hippy commune. We paid 800 rubles (16GPB) a night which included 3 meals a day. They didn't have room in the homestead so we stopped with an old lady just around the corner. We had electricity, water was from a bucket and a hole at the end of the vegetable patch as a toilet.  Kaz was delighted to find a stove outside so she could boil water for feet soaking and clothes washing! All the food was very simple but delicious. Breakfast consisted of porridge, eggs and pancakes. Lunch was always a pickled salad, some fish and rice. Dinners had the same fish and salad combo with some meat and rice/potatoe/pasta.


One of the highlights of an evening (apart from the stunning sunsets and stars) was the Banyas... You get to sauna first, then have a stand up bath. Unfortunatley there was no bunches of birch sticks to hit each other with, so we improvised.


The island and lake are mind-bendingly beautiful. A mixture of woodland, mountains, sand dunes and steppe. It is also has Russian's in tents listening to techno at all hours of the day and a depressing amount of litter from said Russian's (Greenpeace would have a task on their hands in some places on the island).


We walked up the coast about 5 miles and on the way had a swim in the lake. I say 'swim', it was the coldest water i have ever been in, so was a very brief dip. We also sat on the beach for several hours watching the world go by, skimming stones and Sadie and Kaz threw stones at me and at tomatoes...

In the other directions there was a number of hills so we had another day of trekking up to the tallest one (photo from the top). While taking in the views from the top, 2 bus loads of Russians turned up, took some photo's and one even stripped down to her bikini and had a quick sun bathe - wheres the sense of achievement in that?


The final evening we watched 2 very attractive women fire-dancing just outside the homestead... a great end to 4 days on the island.

Sadie's fancy long exposure shot...

Making stone monuments...

Sunset view from our room

Four days aboard the Trans-Siberian Express.

Hi! Now that we have the internet we are finally able to get stuff on here.

After sweltering in the heat of Moscow's hottest ever recorded day we were happy to be heading off to Yaroslavlsky Station to catch our train to Irkutsk. We had stocked up on noodles, coffee, biscuits and the requisite bottle of vodka (which cost roughly three pound fifty). We were in second class soft sleeper or Kupe. This meant four bunks in each compartment with a small table and room to stow your stuff. We met our first train companion Anya, who's mother introduced her as an 19 year old student going back off to uni. We bonded over a love of celebrity magazines (in particular Russian Heat! Magazine) and Brad Pitt in Fight Club and credit to Anya's English skills managed to chat away for hours with a shared understanding of about 50 words. We also met Kate and her mother and cute little brother Daniel who were from Irkutsk and spoke good English and better German than us.

After we waved Anya off at Tyumen we had a day of lounging in the carriage by ourselves which gave us a good oppurtunity to try out our 'Train Yoga' programme (We'd been on the train for over 48hrs and were a bit restless). Later that night we were woken up by a family from Kyrgystan occupying various beds up and down the carriage. I peeked out of my sheets to see a woman sat on the end of my bed breastfeeding a small baby, and a girl (who we think was the baby's aunty) moving into our spare bunk. Between the family they had two babies, two toddlers, various adults and grandad who had a full set of extremely striking gold teeth. And they were all lovely, the babies slept through the night without so much as a peep (except when Rich waved at one and made it cry) and in the day the girls sat with us and let us admire the babies, which we did for a considerable amount of time as they were ridiculously cute. And with our new improving Russian skills managed to convey our names, ages, jobs and of course the requisite showing of family pictures.

To our surprise we were given food, which after we tried to give it back as we assumed we'd be charged for it, was delicious beef goulash, a rock cake and some horrible vinegary bread. We got a food parcel every day, which was lucky as we'd only got noodles and soup to last us. At the end of each carriage there was a big water heater from which you could get absolutely scalding water from - frightning when the train is bouncing over the tracks at 50mph. Saying that, at every stop hawkers on the platforms were selling loads of things like bread, cakes, beer, ice creams, cups of berries and whole dried fish if you wanted, so we never would have starved.

The views from the windows were very similar for the first couple of days, which was dense forest right up to the tracks. This was broken up only by random things, one being an Obelisk marking the Europe-Asia border which was much lauded in the book but after we squashed our faces up the window for half an hour looking for it it turned out just to be basically just a 6ft white post with 'Europe' and 'Asia' written on it. After that the scenery opened up a fair bit and there were meadows of cows and hills covered in small wooden houses, all painted in a slightly schizophrenic combination of colours.

The next morning we arrived at Irkutsk very early and were given the perfect excuse to finally stretch our legs properly as we couldn't find our hostel and we ended up on an unscheduled tour of Irkutsk's streets full of old wooden buildings. This would have been more pleasurable if we weren't wearing our 15kg packs at the time. We finally accidentally stumbled on a hostel of which the name was never revealed to us, however Gorina the owner made us very welcome and amused us greatly with her red dressing gown, hearing aid which she kept removing and her continual shouting of 'kleine problem!' at our Swiss-German roomates. We booked the bus to Olkhon island for the next day as to get out of the town and enjoyed our first shower in four days, which is quite possibly the most I have ever enjoyed washing in my entire life!.

With Kate in our cabin.

A small part of our family from Kyrgystan. Initially unsure of the photo-taking etiquette, we knew we were okay to take pictures when they started snapping us on their camera phones.

Our first train beer.

The strange and sometimes delicious food.

Our train.