It was a train ride..

There is no possible way we can write each day on the train chronologically as we had absolutely no concept of time. However, Near the beginning of the journey was the Russian border. After filling out about 7 different forms, one of these were entirely in Russian, we were asked to leave our room as a russian women, who Tony and Marius lovingly nicknamed 'tractor' climbed all over our compartment to search for anyting illegal. We passed. We would have taken a photo but we were worried she would eat us.
Our border crossing was at 11pm and at 2.30 our train was accepted into Russia. While the train is stopped at the border they lock all the toilets (Why? coz theyre bitchy communists) and Lee, after some pleading with the officials, was accompanied to the toilet by the train lady and her 5 year old daughter.

We were told later that this was a really quick border crossing and they often take 12 hours.

Over the next 4 days, our bags of snacks uickly dwindled into nothing except noodles and mushy apples and we had to wait for the overly enthusiastic russian woman to come with her weird potato/broccoli/sausage deep fried pastries. We also bourght soya meat which was like a tasty version of wood and cereal, but it was actually a hit!

We spent a lot of the time at the 20 minute stops 'people watching' and commenting on the Russianness of people. we took particular interst in a girl we named 'Mullet girl'...Im just gonna drop this here...

Over the next couple of days, we played cards, read lots, watched skins, dissected plastic mooing cows, appreciated Nell chairman Mao clock, explored the train, became addicted to peanuts, told scandalous stories, finished a full bottle of jam, played with swiss army knives, pointing, staring, laughing, ridiculing and generally became horrible people.

Oh, and we almost missed the train one time when we were standing on the platform at one of the stops. One of the other passengers ran past pointing to the train and we had to quickly climb onto the moving train. So tip: dont do that.
Overall a pretty enjoyable train ride, learnt a lot, grew as people etc etc.
A couple more photos just coz we can,

Last days in Mongolia

We started the day with a small breakast at a local backery and began to prepare for the epic lunch we had planned

But we then relised that we were yet to get a photo on a bridge. sadley UB in no on a river which made the whole idea of finding a bridge problamatic . but in the end we found one...

The coldest capital

We arrived in Ulan Bator at about 10.30 Sunday morning where we met our Andy. After showering for the first time in about 4 days, we started our Mongolian adventure by going to the Mongolian Museum, where we learnt that UB was the coldest capital in the world, among other cool stuff. Then, after squishing 5 people in the back of a taxi

and regaining feeling in our legs, we walked up to this amazing lookout where you could see the city tucked right in between the mountains.

That night we went out for Rob’s last night before had to go home to his banking emergency.

A couple of beers in we shared some stories that are best left off the internet and learnt an essential Norwegian sentence.
...



Ah, the ger camp. Just completely awesome. We tried and failed at archery, climbed turtle rock, played with ankle bones, rode horses, visited a nomadic family, went on a hike and ate lots of food.

We also watched a movie about Genghis Khan – Fun fact 1 in 200 people are related to Genghis Khan. He was practically the hue Heffner of the 1100’s.
I feel as though I am running out of descriptive words to describe the places we are going but the Ger camp was just Amazing. This was our Ger

On the second day there we attempted to watch the sunrise. but it was cold and we failed. Took some really blurry photos of our attempt though.

Highlight of the day - LERANN WINNS ATTT MONNGOLIAN MONOPOLY

We watched “The Weeping Camel” – with a riveting, intense and complex plotline- pretty much the Mongolian version of the ugly duckling but also included a young boys search for batteries. And there was a guy who was called dude so that was entertaining
We went on a hike across the mountain and looked at the unreal views
We said goodbye to the Ger Camp and headed back to Ulaanbaatar

were we went to the back market and were complete paranoid tourist.

Train ride and stops on the way

...and the train ride beginss

But a train journey would not complete without someone leaving their phone on the train..then the search begins for the missing phone leading to a wild goose chase through train security back rooms and its seedy underbelly..

After that we went for a traditional Inner Mongolian breakfast

and tried to figure out why Hohhot was called Inner Mongolia because it is clearly in china and even if it was a part of Mongolia it would be outer Mongolia because its not actually in Mongolia. Mind boggling stuff.
We then made our way to the museum. Highlight.. the cute puppies on the steps outside.

But the most confusing geography lesson of all time continued inside the museum.
The obviously too energetic guide, Jasmine walked us around the whole of Hohhotand our constant need to sit down got us named “laziest group of all time”. We are thinking about getting matching tattoos..

We went to the Llama temple and I tried to summon all my knowledge learnt in studies of religion. Turns when put on the spot. I didn’t learn to much that year. But I did take a photo in front of it just for Miss Kroie so one day she may be able to identify a Buddhist Temple..

We had a traditional lunch of oat rings, soup eggplant and lots of tea.

We proved our title of laziest group of all time at the next train stop of some random place on the edge of china beginning with E. The day pretty much can be summed up with buffet breakfast and sitting in the hotel lobby (of which we were not even staying at) playing a drinking game, with no drinks. Amazingly a very entertaining day.

“Dreams come true in china”

Our second day started hope of seeing the great wall of china. We were picked up by our good friend Justin number 2 and started making our way on the tour bus. First we went to the ming tombs (add fact on ming tomb here )

And we rubbed a dragons head for good luck

Our guide was really awesome and called everyone his friend and carried around a stick with a soft toy of the end so we wouldnt lose him. I am pretty confident our tour group had one of the coolest mascots.

Before the great wall we had to gain some energy and strength with a banquet meal all of which was included in our tour. We took full advantage of the meal and were the last ones eating at the table. Typical.

and then started on the long drive to the great wall of china.

It is Amazing! But much more effort to climb than you might think and we took about a thousand photos to symbolise the thousands of years of its standing.

And on the way home the *Zichdog saga began
We went out that night with our new friend kestra and Justin 1

and began our search for a good club in china. Who knew this would involve so much walking..
Found some really cool places and danced like crazy people for a couple of hours.

And then landed up in the bar across the street from our hostel and now our mark is permently in the wall of bar NO 98

Day 3 in Bejing we went to the temple of heaven and more importantly nell bought a chairman mao clock..

The temple of heaven was amazing and we saw the inspirational corridor of animal slaughter... At least it was decorated nicely..

The temple of heaven had it all, even a price complaint hotline for all the stupid entry fees you needed to pay. But it was worth it

We started to head off to our new hostel and who knew it would be such an effort to find. No taxi drivers would take us there and couple of times they would just start to laugh while looking at the address and quote us a crazy price. But eventually we got there and met up with the rest of our Vodka train group – Tony a New Zealander, Marious a Norwegian and Rob a English Person?
We went to the night markets and chillaxed at the hostel.

Day 4
For our last day in Beijing we went with Marius to the Summer Palace. So, the Summer Palace is huge and as i’m sure everyone knows, we suck at being knowledgeable tourists so naturally we spent long periods of time map-gazing.

Again, many entrance fees for different sections of the palace but we went to the important ones like the Temple of Timely Rains and Extensive Moisture.

But seriously the Palace was so beautiful and mind-blowing. We were a bit confused at the Buddhist temple on the mountain that sold saddam hussain playing cards...
And we built a strong hatred for the Anglo French troops of 1860 who destroyed everything
Also, after many days of searching and pondering we took our ‘on a bridge in Beijing photo’

Now we were ready to leave Beijing (after stocking up on chips, noodles and 52% vodka) and we got on the train on our way to Hohhot.