Monday, August 23, 2010

Next!

'Looking forward' for many people involves planning their week of bagged lunches and appointments.

For a backpacker - it's all about where to next.

And, of course, I have a few ideas:

Ethiopia - amazing untouched culture, great food and the Great Rift Valley

Nepal - snow-capped peaks, great food and cool treks

Mongolia - yes, go back to Mongolia, friendly culture, horrendous and repulsive food and wide open spaces. But this time it has a huge twist - buy horses with Kelti and ride across the country.

I only have 8 months to decide...anyone want to weigh in?

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Onwards and Upwards

This is it.

One more flight.

I leave for Edmonton on Tuesday to finally make it home. Part of me can't wait to see friends and family and the familiarity of a grocery store. But, most of me is itching to get back on a plane and take off to the next destination.

I like to fly - it gives me an opportunity to have what I call a 'full-stop' - a time where you can't do anything and you are forced to sit and relax. I also really like to fly on private jets.

I realized something today - my first flight was in economy where I got bumped to business class. My second flight was business class, a few short economy flights in between...then all the way up to First class from Hong Kong to Vancouver.

And, just when I thought I would have to slum it once again - I'm off on a private jet back home. It just keeps getting better.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

From Rags to Riches

I have spent two and a half months staying in hostels with stinky French and snoring Chinese, constantly tempting the gods of diarrhea with cheap street food and walking hours a day just to not pay a $0.12 bus fare.

And now I’m in Hong Kong with the G-ster for some duck confit at Alain Ducasse, a pedicure at the spa of the Intercontinental and drinks at Felix. Talk about polar opposites.

I have the extreme fortune of being able to experience both sides of traveling and, of course, the question is which one I prefer. The answer is much tougher than you’d think.

Budget travelling has its challenges – a few skipped meals to pay for a ballet or sleepless nights to be able to get a guide for the Terracotta Warriors. But it is a challenge and such a fun challenge at that. Going on a budget makes you do your research and prioritize, it makes you think about what you want to see and why and whether it is worth it.

Then again, the bathrooms look like this.


Then you have the luxury side where doors are opened for you, air con is everywhere and if there is even a hint of a stain on your sheets you get fresh ones. No bed bugs here. It is easy and mindless and incredibly fascinating. And the views from hotel rooms look like this.


But it isn’t challenging and it isn’t adventurous.

When you travel on $30/day (or less) you are always in for an adventure – getting off at the wrong bus stop and wandering through alleyways with people making handmade noodles. Ordering either chicken or dog (it’s a toss up) at a street stall while a fancy restaurant with an English menu is across the street.

With money – you can see so much more. Travel times are halved by taking taxis, explanations are clear when you have a guide who actually speaks English and internal flights means you can see more sights in a short amount of time. You don’t get sick, you don’t get tired and if anything stressful happens – you just pay to make it go away.

I have lived my life with the philosophy that the journey is more interesting than the destination and there is no journey more incredible than trying to do it as cheaply as possible. There is no other way to learn the culture and understand the people than to live like they do and the only way to do that is to have their budget.

So, I think I’ll be a budget traveler for much longer than maybe my age suggests – getting down and dirty on public buses, doing the point-and-pray at restaurants and learning the best strategies for avoiding warts in showers.

Then again – the passionfruit soufflĂ© at Spoon looks unbelievable.

12 days

I met an Aussie in Chengdu who said - “Yeah, we just got off a THIRTY hour train trip and we’re totally bushed. So we’re going to take a couple days in Chengdu to recover”. I couldn’t help it and burst out laughing. Ha, 30 hours! That’s like a commute.

It got me thinking about how much of this trip was actually spent looking out the window of a train. So I tabulated mileage and time spent in a 43.281 square foot cabin (I measured).

Torah’s trip by the numbers:
Ulaanbataar – Irkutsk – 1,110 kms – 36 hours
St. Petersburg – Kizhi (round trip in one day) – 788kms – 17 hours
St. Petersburg – Moscow – 634 kms – 8 hours
Moscow – Almaty - 3082 kms - 83 hours
Almaty – Urumqi –1374 kms – 32 hours
Urumqi – Xi’an – 2568kms – 41 hours
Xi’an – Chengdu – 842kms – 20 hours
Chengdu- Lhasa – 3360kms – 44 hours

Total mileage in 3 months = 13,748kms

Total time spent on trains = 281 hours

That means that 12 full days were spent sitting on a bunk bed, gently rocking from side to side, listening to the clak-clak and trying to find entertaining things to do for 192 waking hours. It may sound like hell to some people, and to others it may be that these numbers are so unfathomable that it sounds almost doable. Either way – it is possible and I loved it.

Long live train travel.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

The Murky Waters of Chinese Politics

Free Tibet! Free Tibet. Free Tibet? It is well understood in the Western world that Tibet is the punching bag of the Chinese government, it is oppressed by a dictatorship and the culture is being raped and pillaged by their overlords.

Except, talk to a Chinese person and you’ll get a drastically different perspective. On my 44 hour train ride from Chengdu to Lhasa I met an English teacher from Chengdu and his 5 travel mates. All incredibly nice and well educated and they asked me what it is with Westerners feeling so much sympathy for Tibet. They are fully confused with our attitude towards their region. They fully believe that the Chinese government is trying to help the poor and backwards Tibetans that want to be modernized.

I got off the train completely confused. Thinking maybe the American propaganda machine has taken Tibet as their little ‘project’ and the reality is much different.

Then I got here.
Tibetans are incredible people, they surpass the hype about their friendliness and beauty. And they are prisoners in their own country – they are not allowed passports so they cannot leave China, military is EVERYWHERE stalking the small lanes and holding their AK47s in tiny 16 year old hands, pictures of the Dalai Lama are illegal, free speech is impossible and Tibetans are completely marginalized – they are second class citizens in their own country/province/region – whatever you want to call it.

It is the systematic destruction of their culture. Incentives by the Chinese government encourage migration of Chinese to Tibet, all high ranking posts are only offered to ethnic Chinese and the Tibetans continue with smiles on their faces and prayers in their hearts.

I have been converted. It only takes one day in Lhasa to be convinced. Tibet is a special and magical place that, if the Chinese government has their way, will fade into the cultural wasteland that is modern China.

I don’t know the answer and neither does anyone else. In the meantime, we can visit and appreciate the beauty of this region and its people…while it still lasts. I can only imagine in 2 years there will be rice terraces and cable cars holding 50 Chinese on a package tour up Everest.

The Culture of Beauty

I'm in the Qinghai-Lhasa train – a feat of engineering only the Chinese could accomplish. Mostly because they see their population as a natural resource and loss of life is just a normal part of development.

The scenery at 5000 meters is beyond spectacular – snow-capped mountains, permafrost grasslands, small pockets of water and streams running across the frozen landscape and endless sky so blue you won’t believe my photos. This train journey is one of the most beautiful experiences of my life.


I told my Chinese friend this.

His response: “Not very beautiful, no people”

If you live in a land of 1.2billion people where you are never alone, it would seem so desolate up here, so lonely and such a waste of land. To them, uninhabitable land might as well not exist. He may not find it that that appealing, but his camera shutter has been fluttering non-stop.

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Dinner

I ate pig brain.

Friday, July 30, 2010

Happiness is.....

It was incredible.

Most of you have seen this picture already but here it is again.

For your information - I'm presuming no one else will hold a panda in their lifetime - they are pretty heavy. This little guy was about 60 pounds. Their fur is coarse. He sat still because they put honey on his paw that he was sucking like a baby sucking their thumb. He is about 1 year old and I am really happy in this picture.

Megalomania

Power corrupts, of that I have no doubt. But does corruption also include rampant paranoia and megalomania?

I think one thing that this trip has taught me is that absolute power makes men think they are gods. Men - you are not gods.

I visited the Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an, China a couple of days ago and its sheer size is magnificent, the artistry is spectacular and the level of preservation is unparalleled. I just couldn't help but thinking that this dude was certifiably insane.



The Terracotta Warriors are a massive army of 8000 lifesize replica soldiers that are all different and were placed in full scale battle-ready positions. Built 1800 years ago for the first Emperor of the Qing dynasty, the army may have been constructed to protect the Emperor in the afterlife, although some people think that it may have been because Emperor Qin Shi Huang, in all of his cockiness, thought he could continue to rule from the heavens.

Then of course we have Mao Zedong, a pretty nifty dude at the beginning of his rule, then his ideas of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution cost China millions of lives. Kudos.


Of course there is Stalin. Psychopath.

All of these larger-than-life figures had one thing in common - a belief in their own god-like status and yet a level of insecurity so high that they forced, coerced, cajoled their public into believing their psychosis and building crazy-ass structures to prove their power - the Pyramids for the Egyptian Kings, the Taj Mahal, St. Peter's Basilica for some Jesus-guy and the Terracotta Warriors.

Some of the most incredible tourist sights in the world are for dead dudes, normally planned and executed by the leader themself. Talk about self-indulgence.

In my tour of megalomaniacs of the last two millenia I started thinking about one guy I haven't mentioned yet - Chinggis Khan. He wanted an unmarked grave, constructed no lasting structures to prove his power and generally just wanted to be left alone to rape and pillage. In other words, Chinggis Khan is my buddy.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Chill Out Day

Chilling out is important when you are gone for 3 months - it involves a day online or reading in a cafe or sitting in a park doing absolutely nothing. Also called "Western" days or "Administrative" days - these are the days where you can't feel bad about doing nothing.

Today is my "Chill Out" day. Except, it's not supposed to be literal, the Chinese take Air Con to a new level - its bloody freezing everywhere. And that is a Canadian talking - that means seriously cold. Plus, AC units are dirty filthy beasts that circulate gross air breathed by billions of people and barely manage to filter out the intense pollution here in China.

It's totally the AC's fault I'm sick.

So now my "Personal" day is turning into the adventures of buying flu medication in a Chinese pharmacy, trying to swallow food through the golf balls stuck in my throat and power walking to sweat it out.

That being said - my AC is on right now. (it's HOT here!)

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Little things

We travel to see the big things - the Pyramids, Machu Pichu, the Great Wall and the Sahara. And China is about BIG things: largest population (1.2 billion), tallest mountain (Everest 8,848m), largest manmade structure (Great Wall 8,851.8 kms) and the tallest woman (Yao Defen 7'8").

Except it's usually the little things that are most memorable.

Urumqi - the amazing rice paper wrap at the night market with fresh veggies, grilled tofu and peanuts with an amazing sauce
Train ride to Dunhuang - the mists over the mountain passes at 4000 meters

Dunhuang - the painfully hard bed in a garden bungalow at the base of massive sand dune

Xi'an - an 80 minute massage for $8.50 complete with a tiny Chinese woman standing on my back and kneeing my shoulders, bum and legs. I had bruises. It was awesome.

Xi'an - walking through the Muslim quarter early in the morning and watching the assembly line of bread makers mix, flour, knead, shape and fry the dough

Xi'an - finding games to entertain yourself during a 6 hour wait at the train station while sitting on your luggage surrounded by zillions of Chinese

These little things can't be explained or photographed and probably have no significance to those reading this. But, we all have those little things we remember about a place in time that somehow hits us.

I'm feeling close to the end of my trip and have started to reflect and to solidify these memories. They are wonderful memories and will stay with me forever...

and with the rest of the world in cyberspace.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

The Great Firewall

First impressions of China - fantastic. Great food, a nice atmosphere of bustle and while still being really chill and a great little hostel in Urumqi.

And then - I tried to blog back to all of you.

It turns out www.wanderinggeneticist.blogspot.com is a really scary site aimed to promote riots, raping and pillaging and otherwise subversive behaviour because my lowly travel blog is blocked by the 'Great Firewall'.

Okay, it's not like I drew attention of Hu Jintao and he stamped the 'Block' form...all of blogspot.com hosted sites are blocked.

How am I blogging right now, you ask? I hacked that shizz.

No - I didn't become a computer hacker in the 2 months I've been away...there are proxy sites I can access my blog with. Except I can't post anymore photos. Sorry!

I thought that for sure I'd have access to a silly travel blog in China...that was until I got to the Chinese border. At the Chinese border there are a whackload of soldiers all standing at attention when the train rolls in. Then, the mount the carriages en masse and spend 10 minutes inspecting each passport (for what - I have NOOOOO idea) and then the customs guy comes in and inspects everything.

The customs dude found my computer and beckoned this lovely Chinese border official to inspect it. She turned it on and went straight to the My Pictures folder.

The first thing she saw - a caricatured photo of Mao (now my fb profile pic). I might have groaned out loud when that happened. And Mao was right next to a picture of Borat. Thankfully, another dude walked by and saw the Mao picture and started laughing and broke the ice.

She then proceeded to go through my pictures one by one....I have about 4000 photos on here. She took particular interest in a picture of a kid in Peru - he was really cute, he just happened to be naked. I was like 'Oh SHIT' again, so I decided to give her a description of all my photos and everywhere I had been.

Finally, when my list of countries that I have visited were exhausted and she was duly impressed, she started to get to my worm gonad pictures. About 2000 of them, and finally gave up...just when she was getting to the good parts!

What the customs officials didn't know was that I am now a smuggler of contraband. Yup, the Lonely Planet (aka - the Bible) is banned in China and I had to smuggle it into the country. So really, the photos were all just a distraction for the real stuff. Man, I'm good...I can bribe AND smuggle now.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Borders and Bribes

Another 2 day train. Almaty - Urumqi.

I got lucky this time, the only other foreigner on the train also happened to be in my train car, a young British backpacker. It was great because I hadn't spoken English in about a week (besides to myself) and it was nice to converse again. He's chill and we spent the first night on the train chatting away and sharing stories.

Then we hit the Kazakh border post where an over-enthusiastic immigration officer was quite insistent that my documents were "Ploha" (bad) because I didn't register my visa upon entering the country.

Let's just pause to talk about the absolute stupidity of registration. All the former USSR countries have this ridiculous policy of having this tiny slip of paper that is a registration document - something with your name and shit and you have to get stamped within 5 days of entering the country. If you lose it, you're screwed. If you don't stamp it in every place you stay longer than 72 hours, you're screwed. If you don't register it within 5 days of arrival, you're screwed. For no reason whatsoever other than "because they can". And, it is a useful source of bribes.

I didn't register my Kazakh visa.

I was screwed.

Except - I was on a transit visa and the Kazakh Embassy in London was quite clear is saying I did NOT have to register for a variety of reasons.

Max - the Kazakh border official - thought otherwise.

So, he pulled me into a little train compartment and explained to me that I was totally screwed and would be left at the Kazakh border post having to hitch hike back to the capital to register, be stuck in Kazakhstan for the rest of my life or until I can extend my visa and try again. Of course, he was trying to freak me out and I having nothing of it.

This guy's game was brutal. I saw right through it and have been pressed and prodded much harder by many African border officials, embassy officials and people who extract bribes for a living. So, I remained calm.... I may have agreed to become his second wife and eventually kissed him on the cheek but I was let off with a warning. (hehehe - I can talk my way out of anything - even in Russian).

And then, because it was just soooo much fun the first interrogation, he brought me back about 4 hours later to go through it all over again. At the border post, he guided me through a whole bunch of tiny little offices where he sat me down and expected me to stress out and freak out and give him all the money I had. But, I obviously didn't give in and some more officialdom came in, put the gears to me, said how stupid I was to not register - all the while with me explaining that I didn't have to register and I knew the drill.

In the end - it took a $20 'Thank You' for letting me off with a warning.

I'm good at bribing. My parents must be so proud.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

No facebook.....

China blocks facebook.

I might die. It might be possible to die from Facebook withdrawal...just like you guys might die from Torah withdrawal.

I have scoured the internet for cracks in the "Great Firewall" and I just might be able to do it. It's not like facebook is that important - it's just Science in Seconds and a way to reassure everyone I'm alive while I travel. It's just - well - everything.

This trip has been a good cure for my addictions:

Phone - cured
Internet - not daily at least
Facebook - about to be cured by the 'Cold Turkey' method.

Those crazy Chinese may also block my blog, not sure yet. If you don't hear from me, no worries, I'll survive - I'm like a cockroach - I always survive.

Friday, July 16, 2010

The Land of Borat

I survived.

4 nights and 3 days cooped up in a 100 square foot closet with 3 other people.

I’m quite proud of myself right now. Not only did I survive, I enjoyed it. The train was very peaceful and relaxing, especially when it ended in Almaty, Kazakhstan with one of the most impressive and comprehensive banyas in Central Asia.

About 1 hour after the train pulled into Alma-Ata I was checked into the hotel and was off to banya. To feel clean is such a luxury when you travel and getting clean is often part of the fun. You guys know from older posts how much I love banya. But this one was incredible with a full pool that you swim naked in (sex-specific obviously) and mostly because you could also opt for a $20 massage.

There may be some bruises on my back this morning. The masseuse was a diminutive Kazakh named Karina, whom I quickly renamed Igor - she dug in fingers, fists and elbows into my back and found muscles that definitely have never been reached before. It could have hurt more - if she was wearing stilettos standing on me while carrying a Hummer. It probably also could have hurt less, but where is the fun in that.

Now, with a few less skin cells on my body and way less dirt, I find myself in Almaty - an incredible city of trees. So many trees, all the roads have pedestrianized tree-lined side streets and fountains everywhere (and a church...aaaaahhhhh). It is fantastic and super cosmopolitan. This is hardly Borat-country.

Despite the beauty and energy of the town, I'm stuck in a cafe on the internet. I haven't yet cured my internet addiction, curing my phone addiction was enough I think. But, mostly I've been online all day organizing my Tibet trip and Panda volunteering. It's really going to be great and I'm totally looking forward to China - if only there wasn't another 52 hours of train in front of me next week.

The Clak-Clak is coming to get me.


Epic


Clak-Clak, Clak-Clak, Tak, Screech, Slam, “Chai, Kofe, Chai, Kofe”…these sounds both haunt my dreams and rock me to sleep.

81 hour train ride from Moscow to Alma-Ata, it’s an incredible adventure and a quintessential Russian experience. That's 4 nights and 3 days stuck in a cubbyhole.

You probably have some basic questions - some I've answered below.

The main question though - Why do I do this to myself? Sorry, I have absolutely no answer to that.

1) What do you eat? Lots and LOTS of ramen noodles ($0.30 a package). In the train there is a samovar with a continuous supply of boiling water. Which means lots of porridge, tea and noodles, there is also cardboard crackers and that miraculous Laughing Cow cheese that never goes bad. And, chocolate (obviously). Did you know that Mars bars don’t melt? One of the more important discoveries in a traveler’s life.

B) What in the HELL do you do with your time? Write a blog, for one. Read, eat, pretend to speak Russian to your cabin mates and stare at the endless expanse that is the Central Asian countryside. I’ve been pondering life a lot. Where I am in my life and how I got here. So far, my conclusions are pretty simple – I love the life I have created for myself and I love all of those reading this (unless someone strange that I have never met is reading this – then – “Go away weirdo”).
Third) How do you wash? In short – you get creative or just sit in your stench for 4 straight days. A sponge bath can do the trick or wash with a small Tupperware container as a bucket shower. I have become a ninja master at putting-on-underwear-in-wet-shoes-balancing-on-one-foot-in-moving-train. I also have trained my nose to no longer smell BO. Mine, or others.

4) Is it comfortable? Yes, sort of. You pretty much get an entire bed to yourself the whole time. The upper bunks are more private but you don’t get a view, the lower bunks have a table for eating etc but the upper bunk people often want to just sit with you on your bed. You get linens, pillows and a towel and everyone knows the drill so you just hunker down and smile when you get stressed.


And my new lesson I learnt this trip – VALIUM. I haven’t needed one yet but there is a certain comfort in knowing that I have 15 of them (for $5 in Ulaanbataar). You just never know when I’ll go insane in this cage of a train or that ‘clak-clak’ finally snaps me.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

The Itinerary

I have a plan.

I swear!

Well, I sorta have a plan. Okay, I have an idea of a plan. Correction - I have a fair inkling of something that looks like a plan.
It goes like this:

4 days (!) on the train from Moscow to Almaty, Kazakhstan
2 days in Almaty, Kazakhstan
2 day train to Urumqi, China

From Urumqi there are a few possible options but it is looking like I will be visiting:

Xi'an to see the terracotta warriors
Chengdu to see the pandasTibet for probably 7 days and maybe a trek to Everest Base Camp

The BEST part - there is a volunteer program with the Wolong Nature Reserve where I would get to clean up panda shit! I'm SOOOOOOooooooooo pumped for that! And, you get to hold a panda...I'm kinda pumped for that.


Then Beijing. Then home :(

I'll keep you posted because, knowing me, I might end up in Australia. Oh - and no Facebook in China....wtf

Blasted Church

For an atheist traveling in Russia, I think I'm doing pretty well. I've seen about 1,093,283 churches including 2 Cathedrals of the Annunciation, 2 - no make that 3 - Churches of the Resurrection, toss in a few Churches of the Transfiguration (whatever that means), a Church of something or other on Spilled Blood, and St. Isaac's, St. whathisface and whoisitwhatsit and I think I'm churched out. Russia is about two things - vast tracts of uninhabited lands and churches. I've done both - in spades.

Despite my unredeemable soul, there have been some incredible and jaw-dropping churches.

The Church of the Transfiguration on Kizhi Island in Lake Onega.

The ever-changing St. Basil's of Moscow.


And, my favorite - the absolutely majestic St. Isaac's of St. Petersburg.

So it's time to move on. Kazakhstan beckons tonight and I get on a 4 day train to Almaty. I'm definitely going to welcome the change. From churches to mosques.

Friday, July 9, 2010

The Ritual

The North Africans have their hammams, the Finns have their sauna, the French have their stench and the Russians have the glorious world of banya.

It is absolutely essential fr any visit to Russia to go to banya. It is a world of naked people all thrashing themselves into oblivion. No, it's not the hot new sadomasochistic trend of Moscow nightclubs, it's the weekly pilgrimage to the sauna. The Russian banya is simple - stoke a huge wood-burning fireplace and heat a sauna to the point of eye-scalding heat. Once you are utterly and thoroughly roasted you take a bundle of birch leaves and beat yourself, and others, with it. Then, when you are cleansed of all your toxins and remaining moisture in your body, you jump into a freezing cold plunge pool. And then you repeat - over and over again.

After that you shower, shave, lather, exfoliate, moisturize, nap and otherwise treat yourself like a goddess for another 2 hours and you leave feeling refreshed and possibly a little battered.

After having done banya a couple of times it got me thinking of the ritual of it. All the bathhouses have a similar concept and they are focused on the ritual and the community. North American women go to the spa and are told how to feel good. In Russia, the women all get together and chat, without abandon, about how to make banya good for you. It's about exploring and creating your own ritual.

I would love to see something like this in Edmonton, we do at home spas and spend gazillions dollars a year on doing something I just did for $20. All we really need is a big communal shower room, a sauna, a plunge pool and a humbling nakedness to complete the community that is banya.

Friday, July 2, 2010

Catherine (aka Torah) the Great

I have decided that Catherine the Great and I probably would have been pretty good friends.

a) She had great taste.

Her palace called Tsarskoe Selo (or now known as Pushkin) is an incredible piece of architecture and landscaping. A small lake and island in the middle is perfect to make a gorgeous hunk row you across. The fabulous marble staircase makes a perfect makeout spot and the palace itself lets you worship your own success.

b) She overthrew her husband

With quotes like "I believe the Crown of Russia attracted me more than his person", how can you not love that in an 18th century woman

c) She had lovers, lots of lovers

Potemkin, Orlov, Zubov - and those are just the names I recognize. She had heaps of lovers, some poets, some military generals and others just darn sexy.

I'm not saying I'd want to be her, but man I'd love to hear her gossip.

Busk Away

St. Petersburg is a city of artists, a city of lovers and a city that is painfully beautiful. In every park there are people with easels or sketchbooks on on every train there are people reading books. And not just the most recent Dan Brown. But real books - Pushkin, Hesse, Dostoyevsky.

Even the buskers have culture. So far I have seen a flamenco dancer, a flautist, a trumpet player, a tap dancer and, the most special of all of them, a saxophone player in the square of the Winter Palace at 5.30am playing requests from a single Russian girl who loved Kenny G. It was magic.
I will leave, I promise. I'm going to book my ticket to Moscow today. I just have to keep telling myself that I will actually leave this magnificent place.

I haven't only been in the 'Burg. I went for a two day trip to Kizhi, an island on Lake Onega with a fabulous cathedral and ancient building museum. There aren't really words that can describe this place, so here's a pic.
And, I've spent many days out in the suburbs of SPb checking out the cool palaces and monuments built by the Russian nobility. Peterhof was a dazzling display of gold leaf, cascading fountains, beautiful gardens and the deserving title - the Russian Versailles.


Tomorrow it's off to Moscow. Unless I get stuck here. Again. Plus, the cute boy left today.

Friday, June 25, 2010

The City of White Nights

Saint Petersburg is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen.

It's Paris with canals, Budapest with flair and Venice without Italians. It has Baroque-gilded palaces like the Winter Palace, Soviet-style block buildings and the invariable Neva River running through.

As you can see, I'm in love. In love with a city where the sun doesn't set for a few long days in June called White Nights. The city is alive with special theatre events, boat trips and strolling the ever-present canals that criss cross the city.

Highlights so far have been:

The Hermitage Museum - despite the hour and a half wait and elbowing your way through some of the more popular exhibits - there is a spectacular array of artwork from Egyptian mummies, Matisse's "La Dance", Catherine the Great's Throne Room and my favorite of the day: Rodin's "Eternal Spring".
Boat trip on the Neva at midnight. Every night the main bridges on the Neva River rise to allow the passage of ships, but, at the perpetual dusk of White Nights the whole city comes alive. I took a boat trip that left the dock at 12.30am to cruise the canals and see the raising of the bridges with the dome of St. Isaac's Cathedral in the background. It was truly spectacular.

Finally, I saw "Anna Karenina" the ballet in the wonderful Mariinsky Theatre. It was incredibly well done and a special celebration night where the muse of the composer was in attendance. And, I didn't cry at the end...a very good night indeed.

Except today, it is pissing rain. No, not pissing, sleeting rain. So, I get a day off from pounding the pavement in search of another Lenin statue and get to blog to my heart's content.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

There are moments


There are moments when you travel where everything is right. Where you feel at peace, calm, happiness, breathless, whatever you want to call it.

Like when I watched the sunset on Lake Baikal on a boat overlooking Shaman rocks - one of the most sacred places in Buryat culture. The sky turned pink all across the lake and the stillness was infectious.

Or when I saw the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg for the first time and just stood there, mouth agape and staring at the splendor of it all.


There are 'moments' where I catch myself smiling like an idiot bumping across a pot-holed road in Siberia in a chocked full marshtruky bus for 8 hours and being more uncomfortable than you could imagine and yet being happy.

It's not that there are none of these breath-stopping moments at home - nights at the cabin, drinks with the girls. But 'moments' when you travel are particularly special because they can be so unexpected, so untimed and often after a long day's travel or a few days without a shower.

Friday, June 18, 2010

The Toilet

(actual picture of a toilet at the hostel)

One of the greatest traveling adventures is how exactly to do the personal business we do in the bathroom.

When I leave my hostel dorm, instead of doing the 'cell phone-wallet-keys' check, I do the 'toilet paper-hand wash' check. It's quite a talent to learn how to squat across a 'toilet' in some of these countries. Often the 'toilet' involves a hole in the floor with, essentially, a missing floor board that you balance across and (try to) aim.

In the Mongolian ger country, when you ask where the toilet is, you get a blank stare and then a arm sweeping across the landscape. Because the earth is the toilet - if only you can find a small bush in the endless steppe to squat behind. I thought I had a great spot, in a bit of a depression, hidden by a scrub of grass - until a visiting local buzzed by me on a motorbike - the best I could do was smile and wave.

Then on the train you are forced to do your business while perched over a toilet that usually is missing any semblance of seat while the constant rocking of the train tracks. If you are wondering, the toilets 'flush' directly onto the tracks.

But the best part about the traveling ablutions is that you can talk about ANY of your bodily functions in a serious conversation with every other backpacker. Diarrhea in Ulan-Ude? Hmmm...interesting. Constipation in Ulaanbaatar? Must have been the pizza. None of these observations are ever taken offensively, in fact, they are often welcomed. Because all of our bodies are subjected to the constant changes in diet, water and stress that any normal human that doesn't try to do 5 countries a year isn't subject to.

So, in conclusion, I've had a bit of diarrhea today but the toilets are comfy so I don't really mind. Too much info for those at home? Maybe.

And here is a gratuitous shot of Lake Baikal to cleanse your palate after that post.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Baikal

Lake Baikal is a study in superlatives - biggest lake, deepest, oldest, most biodiversity, cleanest...but that doesn't describe the singlemost important thing about this Siberian water reserve.

It's beautiful.

Stunningly beautiful in a way that supersedes all superlatives. It changes color, it dances in the sun, it's crystal clear and you can see across the expanse for miles. I find it absolutely fascinating and peaceful.

It would be much more peaceful if I didn't have the most annoying roommate on the planet. We met on the train from Ulaanbaatar and found out it was just two of us in a compartment designed for 4. A bit of luck at the beginning of a 36 hour train trip. The train itself was fantastic, I love train travel and I love the slow rhythm of the cars going over the tracks. After that journey, I got onto an 8 hour bus ride across the bumpiest road ever to Olkhon island - an island in the middle of Lake Baikal.

And she followed me. I'm not being a bitch, well okay, I am. But do you REALLY need to hum and talk to yourself for more than 8 hours a day? It seems a bit excessive to me.

Now, I'll spend 4 days relaxing here and hiking around the island then it is off to Irkutsk to catch a flight to St. Petersburg.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Realizations

Spending a week in ger country was amazing and peaceful and fascinating but I'm a city girl, right? I've tried to balance my country-time with city-time and have spent 5ish days in Ulaanbaatar.

This has been a bit of a week of realizations: 1) I realize I know nothing about Buddhism. 2) I realize I'm a closet country girl and 3) I'm really am a wanderer.

1) I went to a big Buddhist ceremony in the main temple in Ulaanbaatar and as far as I could tell - it consisted of people-watching, milling about, watching the head monk sit at the front and the distribution of Chocolate Wagon Wheels. Yes, I'm not kidding - wagon wheels - is it too late to tell them marshmallows aren't vegetarian and not even food. The ceremony was very cool, but it was all in Mongolian so I ducked out early.

2) You'd think that I'm a city-girl, raised in the big bad E-ville...but I'm not really. Back in the city I've been craving the country side. I've been dying for an endless view and watching the storms roll in for miles. So, I took off for a day to a National Park called Terelj a couple of days ago and hiked through pine and cedar forests to overlook more steppes and mountains. It was a picture perfect day and the weather finally cooperated.


3) I originally planned my trip to do the Trans-Siberian in both directions. Then I switched it to the Trans-Mongolian to the Trans-Manchurian. Then it became the Trans-Mongolian to the Silk Road. And now, I'm flying one leg.

I've decided to cheat and fly from Irkutsk to St. Petersburg to catch the White Nights Festival in the cultural capital of Russia, this will allow me to spend 4 days appreciating the depth and vastness of Lake Baikal instead of the depth of body odor of my train mates for 4 days. It's a large deviation but I think it will be worth it. I'll have plenty of time on the train and still will likely go through Kazakhstan but that's still a month away. I could end up in India knowing me.

Tomorrow I set off on my first epic train ride - Ulaanbaatar to Irkutsk for 36 hours. I'm excited to get moving and see something new. I'm also really nervous about whether I'll like Russia, I guess it's the reason why I travel - to walk into the unknown with a backpack.

Random activity last night - went to the opera (in Mongolian).

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Yurts, Gers and Mongolian Nomads

The Mongolian sky is endless, I always thought Alberta was "Big Sky" country, and then I spent a week galloping across the Mongolian steppes.

The past 6 days were spent walking, horseback riding and camel riding around Bulgan aimag (province) in Western Mongolia. I signed up for a eco-tourism getup with an Irish couple to spend a week carousing with the locals.

The first day we traveled to our first ger (yurt) and settled into the landscape. It was vast and empty with almost no greenery to support any substantial life. Even though the pictures show swaths of green - it is deceiving - the grass grows only inches and sprouts in small tufts that are separated by the lack of nutrient content. We mounted our camels and set off for a few hour ride, then a massive sandstorm rolled in. Somehow our guide found his way in the storm to a spectacular sacred site covered in blue cloth celebrating the sky.


The second day was a bit of an adventure, our guide from the day before was too hung over to actually do the scheduled program so we made our own program hiking all the rocky crags and hills in our site. Vodka is a burden everywhere in the world.

Our next site we stayed in the ger with the family, watching solar-panel powered black and white TV crowded around a 14" set. A Night in the Museum isn't as good when its dubbed in Mongolian. That night we were greeted with one of the most spectacular sights of my life - with a sunset that gave a panoramic vista of mountains, sand dunes and pastures filled with goats and sheep.


Our last site was nestled into the mountains and we rode more horses, hung out with the nomads and ate traditional Mongolian food with the families. This traditional food consisted of dried mutton, noodles, more dried mutton, more noodles and the occasional milk tea. Now back in Ulaanbaatar - I went for pizza.

Few people can say they have galloped across the steppes and in the same trip visited mountains, monasteries, sand dunes and rolling hills. It was spectacular.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Sainbanuu

Ulaanbataar is known for very little, it's a hodge-podge of a city that seems to have no rhyme or reason.

And it's notorious for pickpockets.
Except my ninja skills are way too good for these amateurs. I caught one today trying to unzip a pocket on my day bag. I yelled at him out in English pretty good but I've only been here a day, so my Mongolian curses aren't quite up to snuff.
Other than that, it's been somewhat uneventful arrival in Mongolia. My first impressions are that Mongolians are incredibly peaceful people, they leave you alone but are willing to help and friendly. Tourists don't get lots of unwanted attention (except from hordes of pickpockets) and there are tons of tourism resources to choose from. It's a fantastic introduction to the Trans-Siberian adventure.



I have booked to leave Thursday on a 6 day horse/camel/foot trek through a set of gers to stay in yurts and hang out with some nomads. Sounds cool - I learnt how to play a game with sheep ankle bones today (FYI - I kicked ass) and learned some useful phrases in Mongolian. Except I didn't learn - "Help, my ass hurts". Apparently the saddles used here are made of wood and I can only assume what I'll feel like after 12kms of horse riding.

I'll be staying in the traditional housing and doing stuff...I'm a little clear about what the days will consist of but I hope it will be peaceful and photogenic.

So, I'll be off the grid for a bit while I experience the true Mongol style and pretend I'm Chinggis Khan taking over the world.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Change of Plan #3

Okay, I haven't even started my trip and this is the third time I've modified any version of my itinerary.

First plan - Beijing to St. Petersburg and back
Second plan - start in Ulaan Bataar, St. Petersburg and back to Beijing

Current plan* (* denotes subject to change)


Start in Ulaan Bataar next Sunday, work my way on the Trans-Siberian to St. Petersburg.... yes, I know, nothing has changed there. But now, I had a brilliant idea - apply for a Kazakh visa in London to transit via Kazakhstan from Russia to China and join up to the Silk Road.

So - my passport is off with the Kazakhs right now. Which, for your info, are a very attractive culture.

Trans-Siberian adventure meet the Silk Road.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Off to a good start

I made it. Yay. And, it's 27 degrees and a beautiful day in London.

Getting here was a bit of fun as well. I went through the normal ridiculousness of commercial travel and got settled into my seat to find an empty seat beside me. I thought that was a good omen. Until the guy behind me started chatting it up, leaning over the seats to chat, reaching over the aisle to introduce himself to the Romanian women who spoke no English, leaning over the back of his chair to talk with the people behind him...generally just being obnoxious.

Then, he got plastered.

Not just plastered...embarrasingly, stupidly, stumbling s*#t-faced drunk. Where he badgered everyone around him, randomly would shake my seat and reach over to wake me up, pushed the steward, refused to sit down...you name it.

About 2.5 hours into the flight he got read the absolute riot act of airline travel - threatening him with federal prison if he even moves from his seat. That seemed to calm him down long enough for the drugs he took to kick in and knock him out.

In the meantime, the steward was doing an excellent job to diffuse the situation, so excellent that he bumped me up to first class for remainder of the flight.

Full-flat bed and a quick snooze and now it's London-time.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Departure Day

It's D-Day - the day I take off for London. All my bags are packed and I'm pretty sure I haven't forgotten anything.


Lots of people have asked me if I'm excited and my answer is "Not yet". It still hasn't happened, part of it is probably because I'm going back to London where I'm so familiar - I think we are even staying in the same room. And I think the other part is my complete and utter lack of preparation - I don't even know what to be excited for.

What I do know is that I'll be leaving London next Saturday (May 29th) and flying directly to Ulaan Bataar (capital of Mongolia FYI) which means "Red Hero" in Mongolian. From there...I have absolutely NO idea. I will book a hotel for my first few nights in the capital to get organized, get over jet-lag and get my bearings. I would like to do a 3-4 day trek in rural Mongolia either through the Gobi or in the steppes. But, again, no idea.

And a bit more of what I know - June 15th - July 14th will be in Russia because that is when my visa is valid. And, then China from July 14th - August 15th when I head home.

So - later dudes - I'll catch up with you from England.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Stupid visas

I don't really understand Tourist Visas... Yes, I get that communist countries and paranoid leaders want to know who is visiting their countries. I get that.

What I don't get is the exorbitant prices. Tourism means disposable income to be spent in your country. The Mongolian visa is over $200 but they are the 124th poorest country in the world (out of 182 ranked), that is 2 spots above Sudan. So why would they discourage visitors and their US moolah by making visas so expensive?

Of course, I'm paying it, because the vast Gobi is in between my two major destinations - Russia and China. But I have been known to skip countries because of their visa costs - I have wanted to go to Mauritania on three separate occasions, but a $180 visa for 5 days is just too much, WAY too much to visit a country where every single building is made from sand.

But - it's done. Passport sent away. I don't know how I'm going to manage staying in the country for the next 2 months, but I'll try.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Trip Preparation

It's booked. My trans-Siberian adventure will begin May 15th. Beijing to St. Petersburg and back in 3 months. Russia, China, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan (except...if you talk to my mom - I'm not going to any of the 'stans).

The plan is simple: wander, explore, simplify and experience.

I will start in Beijing and work my way through the Trans Mongolian segment through southern Russia to St. Petersburg for the White Nights Festival. Then back down through the 'stans through Western China (to see the pandas!). That is as close as I get to itineraries.


Finally - freedom in a backpack.

71 days but whose counting.