Desert life

I know that it might not be everyone's idea of fun to go on a desert tour. But we hadn't quite found our inner nomads in Terelj, and thought that we should give it another go. So, we booked a tour that went to the Gobi desert for 7 nights and 8 days. All the nights would be spent in traditional gers (to me they look like big tents, but apparently there is a difference) with nomad families. Our tour group consisted of us two, Scott and Katie from the US, Claudio from Italy, and our driver Ekme.

Day 1

The first thing that we had to face was the long drive from Ulan Bator to the Gobi. The Roads in UB are bad enough, but the roads in the desert are absolutely awful. If you think of a dirt track that has been bombed every day for a decade you start to get the picture. Luckily our van was a sturdy Russian half-jeep, so at least it stayed in one piece.

The scenery was quite wonderful as soon as we left the city. Big mountains on both sides and pretty much nothing apart from infertile land in between. We could see some sheep, cows and horses. And above them hawks and eagles.



We spent the first night with a family who had one ger for themselves and another for guests. I thought that I should go and have a look what our hosts were doing in their place, and happened to walk right into a sight that you don't often see in a city: in one corner there was a tv with an American soap on (with Mongolian voice overs). In the middle of the floor the mother of the family was cooking our dinner, and in another corner the father and son were skinning and gutting a sheep.



Day 2

When we woke up the ger was pretty cold, and I had a sore throat. I decided to gargle with the Ghenggis Khan vodka that we had left over from Terelj and felt instantly better.

When we started to drive you could see that the scenery was already different from the first day. Bits of grass sticking out from the ground were becoming fewer and sand was taking over. We were now deeper in the desert and the sheep and cows were also starting to be replaced by camels.



Just before lunch we stopped at a little Buddhist stupa (at least that's what I think it was, Ekme just told us to walk around it three times). We walked around it to guarantee a successful trip, and I sprinkled a bit of vodka on some of the other offerings to ensure my throat was getting better.

In the evening we found our ger camp next to a small lake (I know, I didn't realise they had lakes in deserts either!). After a hike around the lake we went socialising with our hosts who entertained themselves by offering Claudio some snuff tobacco and watching him sneeze like hell afterwards.

Day 3

There is nothing quite like starting your day with a gentle camel ride. We took the camels (or rather, the camels took us, we had no control over them) for an hours walk, which turned out to be a lot more comfortable than anticipated. My throat was also feeling a lot better, so the vodka and offerings seemed to be doing their job.

After the camel ride we started driving towards a mountain range in the horizon. After a drive to the top of the mountains we got a glimpse of our next destination: the sand dunes.



Our camp was about 1 hour walk from the dune that stretched about 100 km in length and 200 meters in hight. After lunch we went to the dune to have a little look. It seemed that the highest point was a little further away and since we were staying here for two nights we thought that we would go and check it out tomorrow.



Day 4

We set off to the highest point of the dune in the morning. It turned out that it was about 10 km to the base of the dune, and then 200 meters climb up. The walk to the dune was easy but the climb was hard because the dune was quite steep, and the wind was blowing sand into our ears, eyes and mouths. We finally managed to get to the top and the view was totally worth the climb: on one side you could see the dune continuing until the mountains, and on the other side the desert stretched until the horizon.





Claudio thought that this walk was completely pointless because it was the same sand as yesterday, just a lot harder climb. He was cursing in Italian (I'm sure "mi chiano" and "madonna" were mentioned) most of the way but still came along. I think he actually enjoyed it.



After we returned from this walk we were pretty knackered and spent the rest of the day relaxing in the ger.

Day 5

After yesterdays walk on the dune we were all feeling very dirty and had sand all over us. That is why we were really looking forward to tonight with the first opportunity to shower since leaving UB.

Before showers we were taken to "Ice valley", which is indeed a valley with ice in it (for most of the year - but not just now). The place was lovely, a small valley in between huge mountains, a few mountain goats on the hillside, and horses eating grass in the valley. Claudio was a bit surprised though, "No ice, just a valley".

After Ice valley we drove into a small desert town, and finally got our showers. It was a glorious feeling, the showers were clean and there was hot water. After showers we went to shop and treated ourselves to a couple of beers. In the camp we had a good dinner, a beer, and a game of cards, and then went to sleep feeling full, clean and warm!

Day 6

In the morning we were slightly surprised to find a small Mongolian lady in our van. There also seemed to be some of her bags in the back of the van and the driver didn't seem surprised so we just guessed that we were giving her a lift somewhere. Strange things happen around here, and when you can only get a few words of English out of your driver it is often better not ask.

The drive was not particularly inspiring today (the token camels and endless desert), and we arrived to our camp quite early. After that the driver and the Mongolian lady disappeared and we decided to go for another walk.

After a long walk we arrived back to the camp for dinner. The food in the Gobi seems to consist entirely of rice, potato and mutton (sometimes with a bit of pasta, if you're lucky). The same was on offer tonight. For those who are curious about the Gobi breakfasts, it's also always the same: little bits of dough, deep fried in sheep fat (or mutton sticks, as we called them) and a flask of hot water that smells of sheep. Yum, yum!

Day 7

The mysterious Mongolian lady was still with us in the morning. We are now suspecting that she is getting a ride to UB.

Our first stop was a buddhist monastery, situated truly in the middle of nowhere. You just have to admire these people for their perseverance, to be a monk is one thing, but when the monastery is in the middle of a desert that is something else. Not that the nomads living here have it easy either. They have pretty much all their possessions in their gers, and the only means of transport is horses (and motorcycles in some cases). A simple trip to the nearest shop might mean an 8 hour drive. And that's just in case you have money to buy something, there is not exactly oodles of money to be made in herding sheep.

Our last night in the desert was spent in some luxury because our driver managed to find some firewood and lit a fire in the oven of our ger.

Day 8

The last day of the tour was a long drive back to UB. We only had one flat tire today (total of 4 on the tour), so it didn't take too long.



The time spent in the Gobi was something quite special, and after 8 days of simple life the city seemed even more chaotic than before. But there was a promise of running hot water, clean clothes, and fresh food.

I guess it's safe to say that we are not cut out to be nomads, we were missing our showers and fresh vegetables too much. But we really enjoyed our experience. It made a great change from city life, and there's just nothing like a clear starry sky in the desert night.

Around Mongolia

Hello again! Sorry it's been a while since the last post but we've been busy "on tour" in Mongolia with very limited access to the internet!

So, I'll start where Mikko left off. We took the train from Irkutsk to Ulan Bator and to our surprise found ourselves sharing a cabin with Andy and Rob; two English guys who, we are starting to suspect, have been stalking us since the beginning of our travels! We met them first in our hostel in Moscow, then later on Olkhon Island, and then on the train to Mongolia. We got some beers in (as you do!) and had a good night chatting about our travels so far.

This time we spent just 2 nights in the train, but annoyingly it passed through most of the nice places (it follows the edge of lake Baikal for quite a distance) during the night, and for most of the daylight hours the train was stationary at a very depressing Russian border town called Naushki. After what seemed like an eternity (especially when you're not allowed to leave the train and the toilets are locked!) the border guards finally came onto the train and checked that our passports/ visas were all in order. We were slightly disappointed that after all the hassle trying to register our visas in Moscow, they didn't even check whether we had bothered to register them at all!

On arrival in Ulan Bator we were met by a mob of people offering accommodation/ taxis/ tours, etc. Fortunately, we'd prebooked a hostel so we could just ignore the masses and made our way to a man holding up a card with our name on. Good thinking! :-)

Andy and Rob were also staying at our hostel, and we figured that since we would probably end up in the same place anyway then it made sense for us to book a tour together! So, we arranged a 2 night trip out to Terelj National Park, leaving the following morning. We had the rest of the day free so we went for a walk around the city. Ulan Bator is a bit of a crazy place. Its polluted, noisy, the traffic is hell, the buildings are ugly (still Soviet-style) and there are pickpockets everywhere. But despite all that, there is something very nice about it... a nice atmosphere somehow, but I can't quite figure out why!

We took a walk around a buddhist monastery in the city centre which was a very beautiful and relaxing place, then we walked down the main street, Peace Avenue, in the hope of finding a new camera. We didn't find one (at least, nothing that didn't look like it had fallen off the back off a lorry!) but we did find a vegetarian restaurant, much to my delight! In the evening we went to a concert, which had a strange combination of the tradition Mongolian art of throat singing (very weird... I can't even begin to describe what it sounds like), other tradition music performances and dances and some gymnastics. It was a fun evening, very different to any other.

So, the following morning we were packed into a minibus bound for Terelj, a National Park about 100km from the city. Outside of the city, most of the Mongolian people lead a nomadic lifestyle, following their animals around the countryside and staying in little round tent made of felt, called gers. We were told that we would be staying with a nomad family and were all looking forward to the experience. But on arrival, I think we were all a bit disappointed. One man came and showed us to our ger, informed us "lunch at 2pm" (it was 10am) and then disappeared. We had no idea where we were, no map and no idea what we could do in the area. Our camp was facing a mountain so we decided to climb. It was a beautiful view over the camp and the surrounding countryside, and there were wild horses everywhere. We went back to the camp for lunch, which consisted of rice, mutton and potato, pretty much what we expected!



After lunch some other tourists told us about Turtle Rock (a rock which looks- you've guessed it!- a little bit like a turtle). So with no other options, we set off on another walk to the rock, which turned out to be quite a hike since we didnt really know where we were going, just wandering aimlessly looking for anything resembling a turtle. In the end, we found the turtle, which is really nothing special. But next to him was a small ger where some people were charging tourists a small fee to have there photos taken dressed as Mongolian emperors/ emperesses. We all felt a little bit foolish in the beginning but before long Rob had started cross-dressing, and in the end I think the locals got more of a kick out of it than us tourists did!



When we returned to the camp, they had organised horseriding, and this was by far the best part of the whole trip. Our "guide", the son of our host family, was about 12 years old and spoke very limited English. I think we were all pretty nervous. Sure enough, within 2 hours he had everyone's horses galloping down the mounainside, completely out of control, to his screams of "GENGHIS KHAAAAAN!!".



The following day we walked to a remote monastery up int the mountains. There was not so much to see there, but still it was a nice walk. We had to walk past the turtle again to get there. It doesn't matter how many times you see it, it still doesn't look like a turtle.



The next day we returned to Ulan Bator, and booked another longer tour, into the Gobi desert. I'll leave that to Mikko to report.

We still don't have a camera (should get ourselves a new one in Beijing), so the pics of Terelj are by Andy.

We are reading all your comments, and I'm happy to hear you're enjoying our blog! It's always really nice to hear from you too. I'm having a wonderful time travelling but believe me I miss you all, so thanks for your comments. Until the next time...

Olkhon Island

Olkhon Island is situated just a six-hour minibus ride from Irkutsk in Lake Baikal, but it feels like a different world altogether.



As we left Irkutsk on a bumpy road the scenery started to get more and more rural, with little villages here and there. After a short ferry crossing onto the Island the road pretty much disappeared and the last few kilometers were more of a dirt track. We were really out in the back of Siberia now!



The Island itself is absolutely beautiful. There are some impressive hills covered in forests, grassy plains, and even some sandy beaches. Where ever you walk you can see cows wandering about (this is true of the villages as well as the fields, I nearly fell over a cow when I opened our door one morning) and sometimes a pack of dogs chasing them.



This was the first time we both really felt like we were traveling. Before here we had only seen cities and trains, but now we were really experiencing something new. The relaxed atmosphere was a welcome break from city-life. The traditional folk song concert (two ladies and an accordion in a cafe) organised by our hostel and a couple of rounds of local fire water also helped us to get into the truly shamanic frame of mind!



The only problem was that our camera broke (luckily only on the last day of our stay on the island) so we will have to find a new one either in Irkutsk or in Ulan Bator where we will be stopping next. But that's still a couple of nights train ride away...

3 days on a train!

So, after all the hassles in the last hours in Moscow, we boarded the "Baikal" Trans-Siberian train to Irkutsk. It's a 3 day, 4 night journey covering 5185 kilometers and crossing 5 time zones!

We were quite amazed how quickly the time passed by. I guess after 5 days of pretty heavy sightseeing and vodka-drinking we were quite ready for a few peaceful days of not-doing-very-much. We sat and watched the scenery go by, we chatted to other passengers, we read books and planned the journey ahead, and of course, slept a lot!

We shared our cabin with a very quiet but polite Russian man. Also in our carriage was an English bloke (in the next cabin down), a really cute little girl who kept coming by to chat with us (...I'm not really sure whether she was old enough to understand that we didn't understand a single word she said!). Oh, and a very tanned, very muscular body-builder type who like to wander around with nothing on except a very tiny pair of shorts :-)

Sometimes we wandered down to the restaurant car but the food wasn't really anything to write home about. There was much better food to be had from the old babushkas selling their homemade food from the platforms whenever the train stopped. I was particularly impressed with the cabbage and potato piroshki, which is hard to describe, but similar to a savoury doughnut. Other than that, we ate a lot of dried pot noodles that we bought in the supermarket beforehand. I can say without any doubt that I don't ever want to eat those again!

So now we are in Irkutsk. We haven't really had time to explore the place yet. But tomorrow morning we are taking the bus to Olkhon Island, on lake Baikal. It looks really beautiful there. We're hoping to do a bit of trekking, if only the weather improves a bit!

Finally, I am getting used to the idea that we are travelling. It never really sunk in until now. In Saint Petersburg and even in Moscow it just felt as if we were on a weekend break. But the further away from home we get, the more I'm starting to realise the enormity of the trip we've embarked on. And it's a great feeling!!

In the next blog I will try to add some pics of Mikko. In the last week he's grown an amazing technicolour beard!!

Some pics from Moscow

St. Basil's Cathedral at night


Inside the Kremlin walls 


Shopping, Moscow style! 


In front of the Red Square


Inside the Kremlin

Introduction to Russian bureaucracu

Moscow was a bit of a surprise. Completely different from St. Petersburg. Here you have a lot more tourists (although no tourist information, street side maps, or other things a tourist might need), and you can really see the wealth of the moneyed Russians.

One thing that doesn't change is the bureaucracy. It could all be so simple. You could just buy your tickets, book your hotel and enjoy your holiday. Well, not in Russia! Not only do you have to get a visa to enter the country but you also need to register your visa in every city where you stay for 3 days or more, and at least once during your stay in Russia.

We didn't do our visa registration in St. Petersburg because our stay fell on a weekend so we needed to do it in Moscow. This became a bit more of a hassle than I imagined. When we arrived to our hostel we were told that they sort it out and we go and pick up the paper the next day. Then they changed it to the day after that. When we finally got the go ahead we found ourselves trying to navigate our way through this huge city during rush hour. After standing in a queue outside a metro station for a quarter of an hour, we decided to walk instead. The only problems were that it had suddenly got really hot, and that we didn't have a map.

Somehow we managed the trek through the unknown and found the right street. The first big question mark appeared when we entered the address given to us by our hostel owner. The place had no sign outside (this seems to be the standard here), and when we entered there were just a bunch of teenagers behind desks in a room. Not exactly the bureaucratic scene I had invisioned. To make things worse these kids did not speak english and seemed to come equipped with a foul attitude.

After a long and utterly unfruitful conversation in English (by us) and Russian (by them) we were no closer to the solution. They seemed to think that we were wasting their time, and we tried to convince them that they should have our papers ready. We finally managed to get them to call our hostel so we would all have some kind of an idea of why we were there. Two minutes after they made the call we were already on the same wave length, but still couldn't agree on the price. Another phone call followed, and a minute later we had paid the sum previously agreed and had the papers in our hands. No problem!

This is a strange country. You can get so utterly frustrated with it, but you can't help liking it at the same time. Or maybe that's just me losing my mind...

Anyway, tonight we will catch the Trans-siberian train to Irkusk, where we will arrive in the morning of 8th September. This gives us a good few days to contemplate what we have encountered so far. After all, what else is there to do in the train? Unless, of course, they happen to have some vodka on board...

From Rags to Riches

The first impression from a train window was not particularly encouraging when we crossed the border to Russia: in the middle of the forest I saw a shabby little blue house with tree Ladas in different stages of decomposition on the yard. Great! But that was the countryside, we were off to the metropolis.

Among the first things that you notice in St. Petersburg are traffic, cyrillic alphabet, and women's heels that remind you of radio masts.



The alphabet is actually not that hard to grasp, and luckily we had a quick look at the differences on our way. Which was good, because otherwise the metro, street names and the rest are just plain incomprehensible. Russians don't seem to be too bothered about tourists in general, and very few places use western alphabet, not to mention any language other than Russian. But that's all part of the fun!

The traffic is something quite different from what we're used to back home. There are all kinds of cars on the streets from stretched Hummer limousines to rusty old Volgas. The one thing common to all cars is speed. Everyone drives like mad, and pedestrians who expect a car to stop at a zebra crossing are soon going to be ex-pedestrians.



We also managed to experience Banya (Russian sauna), which wasn't too different from a Finnish smoke sauna. The place itself was quite interesting, from the outside the only indication that this place was a sauna was a little piece of paper stuck on the door. Inside they had a pool room (and by this I mean billiards), a couple of massage beds, and the banya area with saunas and pools (with water).

We have also been introduced to Russian vodka. I guess you can't really avoid it. There doesn't seem to be any strict etiquette to drinking vodka, as long as there is plenty of it.

Last night we cought a train from St. Petersburg to Moscow. We shared a compartment with a Russian guy who was on his way to an exhibition of precious stones in Moscow. He gave us tickets for the exhibition, so I guess we'll have to go and take a look...



One thing that we still have to take care of is visa registration. This is some incomprehensible remain of Soviet days that only exists to finance the bureaucracy. How it works in theory is that you have to register your visa every time you stay in a town for three working days or more. How it works in practise may be a different thing altogether. We'll see...

St. Petersburg

Hello and greetings from our first destination, St. Petersburg!
After a super early start from Tampere on Friday morning we arrived here around 2pm and successfully managed to navigate the St Petersburg metro and find our way safely to the hostel. We kept ourselves entertained on the train by trying to master the cyrillic alphabet which has proved to be really useful!

Since then we have done A LOT of walking around but managed to cover all the main sights: Nevsky Prospekt, Peter and Paul's Fortress, the Hermitage, the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, a.k.a. Saviour on the Spilt Blood, St. Isaac's cathedral, Alexandrovskiy gardens...
The Hermitage was a wonderful experience. I wasn't so sure if it would be worth it since neither of us are huge art fans, but just being inside the Winter palace and looking at the interiors was fantastic, and we had fun deciding what we would do with the rooms "if we were tsars" :-)
Our feet are aching with all the walking, and I'm really amazed at how well the Russian ladies cope, since their heels are at least 3 inches higher than mine!



Today we have arranged to go to a Russian banya (Russian equivalent of sauna) with some other guests in our hostel. I'm looking forward to finding out if it's any different to the Finnish sauna. And then tonight we are heading off to Moscow on the night train.