Our train trip on the CHR, which is the new fast train network, took just over four hours from Weifang to Beijing. The trip was very comfortable and several friendly locals chatted with us along the journey. One entertaining young man spoke excellent English - he works with CCTV (television) in advertising, so enjoys being able to speak both Chinese and English.
A Canadian man came up to chat with us when we were in the train. He told us how he has worked in China as a teacher of English since 2003 - each year he has a 10 month contract then he and his wife head home to Canada for 2 months. He told us he is an English Language co-ordinator for a large area in China and told us how he only employs Canadians and Americans and that he won't employ Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans and British - he said he doesn't want anyone with an accent teaching English!!!! I felt like giving him a serve about his loud personality and his loud twangy accent - but I said nothing and remained calm!!
Charlie told us not to worry about our transport in Beijing and that someone would be there at the train station to pick us up. Once again we entered a very busy train station and once again there was James at the front of the line to meet us. He had been in the north on business so was able to pick us up together with one of Charlie's twin sons, also named James. Charlie's twin boys are both almost 20 and attending University, James here in Beijing and Bob in Wuhan City. It was great to meet up with Charlie and his wife Kelly once again. We had visited in both 2006 and 2007. The only difference this time, is that Otmar and Antoinette are in Australia - it seems a little quiet without them. Wu now works for Charlie and for our stay in Beijing, he took us out and about to most places.
We spent one day with James and then the following day he flew to another city before flying home to Angela in Chongqing. In the evening we went down to the Restaurant street to the Mongolian Restaurant and had a very enjoyable hot pot dinner. As it can be difficult to obtain train tickets, Pat and James headed off to purchase our train tickets for the following Tuesday for the 13 hour train trip from Beijing to Erlian, close to the Mongolia border. Our Chinese visas will expire on the Wednesday, so we have to ensure we cross the border on or before the 15th June.
To help ease vehicle congestion on the streets and freeways in Beijing, the government has introduced a plan whereby you must not drive your vehicle on certain days of the week when the registration plate ends in particular numbers - for example - on Mondays if your registration number ends in either 2 or 7 you must leave your vehicle parked up - otherwise suffer the fine of 100 to 200 RMB (divide by 6.8 for Australian equivalent) for as many times as you are caught on the day. Tuesdays numbers are 3 and 6.
One day Wu, Pat and I headed out to the Olympic Stadium which is nicknamed The Birdsnest. On our last visit in '07 it was still under construction, in preparedness for the opening of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The stadium is huge once inside - it was great to see it first hand - we spent a couple of hours walking around the different levels. Wu took us to the rebuilt hautong area of Beijing - it is a shame that the original hautong area has been razed to the ground and the modern "old design" structures stand in their place.
Charlie suggested that we have Chinese names for when we visit China as it is very difficult for Chinese people to pronounce our English names. My Chinese name is Wei Bo Sha (pronounced WE BOW SHA) and Pat's Chinese name is Wei Bai Cui (pronounced WE BUY TSUI) - Wei is the surname for Wells which is always placed at the front of the christian names. I think that's pretty cool!
We have been in Beijing twice before, so we didn't need to do much sight seeing, instead we enjoyed some casual shopping - particularly at the Silk Markets. On our Silk Market day, Charlie's wife Kelly joined us for lunch and then we continued shopping in the afternoon. We stocked up on some gifts for the family and had a great time, with both Kelly and Wu joining in the fun of the bargaining. A girl remembered Pat from 5 years ago when he bought a set of golf clubs from her - she said he was such a hard bargainer she can never forget him. I did mention that man loves to bargain!
Charlie comes from a village in the southern area of China, so he took us to meet some of his friends he grew up with in that same village. Over the years they all moved to Beijing and are in the throes of expanding their already booming media and film business. With the Chinese film industry at an all time high there is a lot of work available and many businesses have already established themselves as clients with them. We wished them the best of luck in their new and expanded venture.
After a tour of the business premises, we visited their apartment for fruit and tea, after which about 16 of us headed out to a restaurant for, once again, a magnificent meal. This round table (3 metre diameter) and lazy susan (2 metre diameter) would have to be the largest we have seen with a seating for 16. A little 5 year old girl sat next to me and we chatted a few words in English - yes she is now learning English at school.
Not too far from Charlie's home is a Home Furnishings and Building Materials Centre - we think Bunnings is big - this place covers blocks and the shops go on and on and on .... If you think of something to buy, yes it can be bought here. We spent many hours wandering around and checking out the gear .. it is mind boggling.
Not too far from the house, is what we refer to as the Restaurant Street - there must be about 50 restaurants fronting the street in a space of about 250 metres. As you can imagine, it's a different place for dinner each night - no need to double up here!
On our last day in Beijing we had quite a few things to do, namely post a box of shopping and gifts home and stock up on some of our depleted medications before heading into Mongolia. I very sheepishly made an appointment to have my hair cut and coloured - remembering full well that my last episode at a hairdresser in China left me with bright yellow hair - somewhat looking like Big Bird's sister!!! I need not have worried - the salon was excellent, the staff were friendly and the outcome was perfect - not to mention the price of 130 RMB, which is approximately $18.50 Australian.
We said goodbye to Kelly this morning, as she is travelling to Shenyang for a 3 day business trip and won't be able to join us for dinner this evening. She is hoping to fit another trip to Australia into her busy schedule and include some time to visit Dingo Beach for well earned relaxation.
It was our shout for dinner on our last night in Beijing, so it was suggested we go to a Western restaurant, which we did. All had a great time and seemed to enjoy the Western style food. Back home we finalised our packing in readiness for our train trip to Erlian on the Mongolian border the following morning.
After saying our goodbyes to Charlie, Wu and James took us to the main Beijing station. After boarding our train we checked into our cabin for the 13 hour journey to the border of China. The train trip was quite good until we started crossing the Gobi - dust came pouring into the carriage and it became quite a dusty journey in the last number of hours before arriving at Erlian. We decided to head up to the Restaurant Car to wash down the dust with a cold beer. We met up with a couple of Aussies also having a beer, so after lunch the blokes chatted on for quite some time. At Erlian we checked into a hotel close to the station - it was great to have showers and wash our clothes, to get rid of the dust.
In the morning we took a taxi to a busy square full of Russian Jeeps - this was to be our mode of transport to cross the Chinese border into Mongolia. It was quite an entertaining day with all the goings on and the unbelievable movement of people and goods. We made a monetary deal with the driver and he indicated for us to sit in the front bucket seat and the area between the two bucket seats, on which he placed a little carpet. We noticed there was very little leg space behind the front seats so were pretty happy with our positions.
Well the people kept coming and the goods kept coming! About an hour later when we were finally leaving there were the 3 of us in the two front bucket seats; 2 men and 2 ladies behind us in quite a small space; the back was loaded up with our back packs and many goods the people were taking across the border into Mongolia - when lo and behold he put 3 more ladies in the back with all the gear! There was one lady I could not even see - she was buried somewhere amongst the gear. To top it off, when we reached the border a box with a portacot was placed on the bonnet in front of the windscreen! Vehicles were loaded to the hilt - boxes and parcels were tied onto the back bumper - items were tied underneath the vehicle and just basically anywhere there was a space it was pretty quickly filled. What a day! Also lined up on both sides of the border are hundreds of loaded trucks waiting for clearance to cross.
After clearing immigration we headed into the Mongolian border town of Zamyn-Uud. We checked out the train station to buy onward train tickets - no such luck - after a lot of hours we found out that there is no ticket available for the next 5 days on the 17:35 train - we certainly did not want to spend 5 days in Zamyn-Uud, which is recorded as the hottest town in Mongolia. Pat and I decided to check into a hotel and come back later. A young Mongolian guy who attends University in Washington DC befriended us and said he would help us in any way he can. There were 4 other westerners there as well, so we were able to converse about our plight - we were all in the same boat.
We returned to the station a little while later and came across our Mongolian friend telling us he had the solution - we can buy tickets for the following evening for the express train to Ulaanbataar. I was standing back in the line and he told me he would buy our tickets for me. He went up to the front of the line - pushed past some people and the next minute he was asking for our 2 passports and 68,000 Togrog ($60 Australian) - he then exited the queue with our 2 soft sleeper tickets for the next night - yet another 13 hour train trip. How good - we would have still been in Zamyn-Uud if it had not been for him! We offered to tip him for helping us - he refused - he said he enjoyed being able to help. The other 4 westerners were also booked onto the same train. The only thing I was not looking forward to was the dusty overnight journey.
We walked up to the local Internet Cafe and logged onto our email - now we are in Mongolia we can access our GMail quite easily - also Google, Facebook and Blogs are now able to be accessed - thank goodness - it makes it a lot easier for us. Many Mongolian children surrounded us in the internet cafe - all saying hello in English and telling us their English names. They were great kids and we had a lot of fun with them on both of our visits to the internet cafe. Our tour company in Ulaanbataar sent an email to say that they will pick us up from our transport when we arrive in the city - that's something now that we won't have to worry about - excellent!
That afternoon we watched with great interest at the people lined up along the platform with all their stacked up boxes, bags and luggage heading for the central market place in Ulaanbaatar where they hope to make some good sales and also some extra money. We're actually very pleased that we were not able to get tickets on the 17:35 train!! After a pretty full day, we hit the hay onto a very hard bed and a seed pillow! Welcome to Mongolia!
We spent a leisurely day in and around Zamyn-Uud while we waited for our 21:35 train to Ulaanbataar. Check out time at the hotel is 5pm, which makes it very convenient when travelling on a night train.
Our train arrived and with trepidation I entered our carriage! What would be in store for us? Wow - no need to worry - the train was brilliant! The carriages are timber panelled, squeaky clean and the whole train is air conditioned! There'll be no dust in this train tonight! The provodnitsa (carriage attendant - she who must be obeyed) welcomed us onboard with a cup of tea and gave us our linen pack for our soft sleeper beds. A young Japanese man Yasuhiro joined us in our cabin and organised himself in the top bunk, leaving the 2 lower bunks for us. We put out the lights and locked the cabin door - we all had a great night's sleep in the dust-free, air-conditioned carriage. Even the toilets are kept very clean on this train.
Our driver picked us up at the station and took us to the tour company's office where we finalised plans for our 21 day overland tour of Mongolia, which will commence on 20th June.
Pat has been reading about the Guesthouses in UB, so after some walking around we checked into one he had read about - The Golden Gobi, which is easy to find alongside the State Department Building. This little place, where we will stay for the next 3 days, is a beehive of activity, with people coming and going all day long. There are all kinds of nationalities staying here and many different age groups - however I think I can say with certainty that we are the most senior residents! We went shopping at the deli and bought lovely bread, ham and cheese for lunch. In the evening we sat on the front patio with several travellers and listened to many interesting stories.
We haven't done many of the usual tourist jaunts around the city, as these places are being covered in the first and last day of our organised tour. There are many shops for buying local goods, which we enjoy checking out. In the evening we relaxed with a couple of drinks and sat on the front patio once again listening to the many interesting travellers' stories.
We have had a very eventful day today. Pat had a very restless sleep and kept waking up with excruciating pain in the left side of his mid to upper back. Checking out his symptoms in our medical books for travellers, did not clarify just what might be wrong. Pat being Pat, on the evening prior, he lifted and carried a large sack of onions into the kitchen of the Guesthouse - I told him to leave the work to the locals!! He just can't help himself - he always likes to help out.
We took a taxi over to the UB International Hospital and were welcomed by Benita, a Kiwi who is the Administration Manager and also a nurse and paramedic - immediately we felt we were in good hands. It was very heartening to hear that all the Doctors speak fluent English. She set about organising urine tests to commence before the Doctor arrived. We had the option of a Mongolian or Ex-Pat Doctor - Benita said take the Ex-Pat as he is just the best and is also an Orthopedic Surgeon. The Bulgarian Doctor arrived, gave Pat a very thorough examination, organised kidney scans and blood tests - later on he followed up with a drip to begin treatment.
The results were good - all Pat's tests are clear thankfully. It is very fortunate there is no kidney problem and Pat has been diagnosed with a badly strained back. He has been ordered to bed rest for the next few days before we head out of Ulanbaatar on our trip. The Doctor said he'll be fine to travel but also gave Pat strict instructions that he is not to horse ride or camel ride while on the trip. He was telling us that just this week he treated a man with a broken leg, after he was thrown from a horse; the second tragedy was when a lady's water bottle fell from her back while she was riding a camel - it frightened the camel and he threw her off. The lady is now in Singapore for treatment - he said very sadly that if she survives she will have brain damage. Good enough for us - there'll be no horse or camel riding on the trip. Pat is sleeping at the moment, so I have had the opportunity to finish off my blog. Till next time.
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