Ad-ed urbanism

Advertisement opportunities are exploited to the extreme in Beijing.
You take the metro, and the handle (the small flexible one that you
use while standing) is ad-ed, you grab a taxi and lcd screens are
running short tv ads on the back of the seats. It seems to us that
Chinese pushed the concept of influencing people's choices beyond what
we have in the west. JC and Marie

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Dumlings and steamed buns

We have found a heaven of dumplings, were they also serve delicous
steamed meat buns, Niuge Jitozi on Donghuangchenggen Beijie. Our
favourite dumplings are stuffed with duck or mutton with coriander. We
have had 20 dumplings each every morning since we arrived. That's a
total of half a kilo of dumplings per day - per person - each
weighting 0.05 g made of hetao dumpling flour and cocked to perfection
al dente. Marie

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Shopping Mecca

The Silk Street Market is a crazy place. This is the Mecca of cheap
copies of famous brands in Beijing. Up until now we were wondering
where all the tourists are in the city. Here! There are bus loads of
them... Clothes, bags, perls and jades filling up seven enormous
floors. The vendors are standing in narrow alleys grabbing your arm as
you pass by: 'one more jacket? a bag? need shirt?'. If you happen to
stop or even look at something, expect to be overwhelmed by offers
shouted at you from all angles. When you buy, you have to bargain
hard. Prices are negociated on a calculator (common denominator): you
type the price you want to pay and you may hear them say 'joke?' if
they think it is too low. You continue like this for a couple of
times, the vendor becomes emotional. Then the best thing to do is to
walk away; you can expect a huge drop in price in your first two
meters; you come back and make the deal (and realize how much margin
they thought to make on you ;-) ). After a 3h long walk in the
forbidden city, we stretch oursleves 3 more hours in this market.
Tonight we feel so tired we decided to postpone the Great Wall tour to
friday. JC and Marie

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Forbidden city

Le roi de soleil est cassé - Louis XIV's Versailles is nothing
compared to this. In the Forbidden city you can really die nicely
(xorosho omerat') as the Russians say, meaning that life is so
beautiful and fair you don't mind dying on the spot. Marie

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Cannot get enough of Chinese food

Now I don't have a choice anymore, I have to wear the turquoise dress
for Mia and John s wedding on 8 August.
I ve gained about five kilos on this trip, and most of it I've put on
since I entered China - like five days ago.
But I feel no shame. I could continue like this for the rest of my
life. In fact, I could move to China just for the food. Last night we
had another spree, vegetarian food. They even had vegetarian fish
(!?), but also served vegetarian chicken, beef, mutton, tutti, which
tasted better than the real thing. I cannot get enough of Chinese
food. Should I take a course in learning how to cook Chinese food?
It's seems like a life mission, since there is a never ending variaty
of dishes. Zhongwei said that we wouldn't get through all the dishes
even in a year because there are so many different local variaties of
the same dish. I don't mind staying here finding out. Marie

Hotel dream

Our hotel is a dream. Flowers and trees in the patio and friendly
smiling people. And the room. It's quiet and has red anique-looking
furniters. The bathroom is in black ceramic with a hand painted
porcelin sink, and lots of hot water. We are approx. 100m from the
Forbidden city. I feel so grateful for this unexpected luxury. Marie

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Developed country

There are a lot of construction going on everywhere we look, along the
highway, in the city and in the country side. "I guess that's why they
call us a developing country?" Zhongwei says. What is a developing
country anyways? Aren't we alway in development? It seems very
developed to me here. All the roads are straight. No curves, even on
the highway. The same goes for the railway. If there is a mountain in
the way they just make a million of small tunnels. Chinese people like
straight roads Zhongwei tell us. In all that they decide to undertake
they carry out with will power and discipline. Take education for
example. It's very cometetive and you have to be the best to go to
university. Only 40 of 100 score high enough on the national entrance
test for university. Then Chinese have a total of seven years for a
master's degree. It takes a lot of discipline and development to get
there, I think. Marie

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Yellow sea

"The yellow sea yellow sea, it's so yellow you go
crasy..."Jean-Christophe composed and sang in a country melody during
our half hour walk to, that's right,the Yellow sea. However it's not
yellow, rather bronish and fairly cold. "I didn't go 133 hours on a
train not to swim" JC said, so he swam. I didn't feel like undressing
into my scimpy bikini since all women on this crowded beach wore
swimming suits with legs or skirts. We are already attracting a lot of
curious looks as it is. And also, I never did like cold water. Marie

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Small Wedding ceremony

Today at 12 was the celebration of Zhongwei and Zhanyu's wedding!
Actually it was their second party; they had a first one in Zhanyu's
hometown some weeks ago. The arrival of the bride and groom was
welcomed by fireworks so loud and smoky that we felt like on a battle
field... After that, they undertook many traditional rituals such as
lighting candles together, thanking the parents or filling up with
champagne a whole pyramid of glasses. All accompanied by music. And
lots of pictures. Instead of throwing the wedding bouquet to the
singles among the guests the couple invited us on stage and asked if
Marie wanted to accept it. She was very honored and of course happily
did. After the ceremoney the bride and groom went around thank you
toasting with all 300 guests together with their parents. But that's
really nothing compared to the over 60 tables (600 guests) they had to
drink with on their first wedding. As usual, the food was fantastic
and abundant, we are really having a blast with food in China!
Congratulations for a magnificent ceremony, we wish you all the best
on your journey in life together. JC and Marie

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Chinese hospitality

We had so been looking forward to Chinese food, and today we had
plenty. Breakfast at 10 then two hours later 16 different dishes for
lunch - mainly seafood since Zhongwei's hometown is located where the
Yellow sea meets the Bohai sea. After a beautiful excursion to the 5A
ranked (same as five star restaurant but for historical sights)
Penglai pavillion, the Dragon king's temple, we had a typical "light"
Chinese dinner with vegetables and soup. And lots of deep fried
chicken in sweet and sour sauce. Only 10 dishes topped by dumplings
and rice soup. We are now digesting while watching a Jackie Chan
movie. All blood in our stomachs. Marie and JC

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Playing cards with audience

We just have been playing foul (cards game) with a cheerful audience,
namely a drunk man and his friend. These two have been trying to
figure out the rules of the game and even coach us by looking at both
our hands and pointing at cards... The whole situation was quite funny
for we could not communicate, at all! ;-) JC Marie

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Chinese standards

It was so nice to meet Qiang, someone we knew on the other side of the
World. He came to meet us at the Beijing Railway Station to give us
the tickets for our next and last journey to Yantai where we will
attend Zhongwei and Zhanyu's wedding. Qiang looked at the ticket, and
said smiling 'this is a slow train'. But in fact, this is the best
train we have ever been on during this trip on all aspects. Air
conditionning (so nice!). Fast speed compared to the trans-mongolian.
Travelling in China is luxurious! The compartments are spacious even
tough they fit 6 people sleeping and there are proper washing stations
with lots of water, and Chinese radio emissions. JC and Marie

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On the rail again

It's 39 degrees on board and we cannot open the window in our cabin.
So JC went to ask the Chinese host if he could help us open it. He
looked at his colleague and than back at JC and said drily "no good".
Marie

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Changing wheels!!

Believe it or not, we are currently undergoing a change of the wheels
of our train... In fact, Mongolians and Chinese have different
standards, so they need to do a pit stop in between! There is some
sort of large garage where the entire train can fit, and then it is
almost as when we change the tyres of cars, they just lift the whole
thing! Crazy. JC

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Data coverage

Hurray, we just got into China and we have access to the internet
again, let's rock. JC

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Freedom in its simplest form

Just imagine: galloping in the endless steppes of the pre-Gobi desert.
I can hardly imagine something better... When we did that this morning,
I felt like a cow-bow from the far west! The faster you go the better, it
really feels like you are the king of the World, just great! JC

Rain fantastic

Our caravan guide came to us this morning and said "horse ready". But
the rain was washing down and the sky in fireworks. So as a sound
westerner I asked him if we shouldn't wait for the rain to pass.
"Rain fantastic", he replied and looked at me in religous conviction. Marie

Desert mint

When you step on the desert grass or flowers most of them release
a scent of mint. Opening the door in the morning washes a wave of
mint to bed. Marie

Compassionate action is...

when our caravan guide takes us on a detour to see an eagle nest
even though we are almost home and we are way past the hour.

when the ger camp owner proposes to take us by car, for free, to
see a Nadaam (small horse race), since we missed the big one. She
will prepare a picnic and have the car take us directly from there
to UB the same afternoon.

when the ger chef and her daughter come with tea and cockies as
the rain is pouring down for hours confining us to the ger circle -
actually one sqm bigger than our appartment at home! Marie

Why do Mongolian men have bare stomachs?

Today it's so hot that you can only retain your energy by being completely
still. We are sweating like pigs with hot tea and soup - the only way to cool
down your body, Sasha and JC concluded already in Moscow. Although it
doesn't feel like it while having the infusion. After half a soup JC takes the
long end of his t-shirt and puts it behind his neck, leaving his stomach and
chest bare. And that's when he realized that answer to the question he has
been asking himself all along the trip "why do all Mongolian men show their
stomachs?" Marie

Wolves at night

JC woke up me up at 1 p.m. last night tightening the rope that keeps
the wooden door of the ger closed, but still leaves a 4cm opening.
"What are you doing?", I asked him. "I'm closing the opening so that
no wolf can get inside", he answers assertively. The horse circling inside
the ger camp whinnies nervously each time the wolf howls, keeping
me awake for what seems like more than an hour. I'm doubting, but
start convincing myself and JC that wolves never come near to ger
camps or eat horses. It calms me down and I finally fall asleep. The
next day I read that wolves do eat horses, but only during the winter
when there are no mammals and the horses are weak. Marie

The Schumacher of the Steppe

Our stay in Mongolia will mainly be in a ger camp (felt tent made of wool),
4h drive south of Ulan Bator (UB). To go there, we got our own driver and
his very old bus. Incredibly, most of the journey to the camp is not on
regular roads but simply on sand, in the steppe of the pre-Gobi desert
(ok 'incredibly' for JC the pure city boy ;-) ). I was amazed by the skills
of this man; he was driving this bus at 70kmph in the sand, with a ride
not bumpy at all considering the conditions . I had to sit down by his side
to watch him in action, making the bus slide, redirecting it in case of sand
planning, etc. Wow!This guy well deserved his title of the Schumacher of
the Steppe! ;-) JC

Russian-Mongolian border experience

When the controller goes under control... It is interesting to see that
all the processes that we apply to the non western world is turned
against us. Here is what happens: you get into the Prussian control
area , you wait, you give your passport, and empty the train, you wait,
you get back in, you wait, you give the custom form, you wait, you
get your passport, you wait... total time: 4h!!
The warmth in the train is beyond crazy; the best thing to do is to lay
down and try to sleep. Temperature outside is 30 degrees and it must
be at least 40 degrees inside the train.
You go on, you think you are done and feel happy when the train gets
in motion... However the nightmare goes on and the same procedure
is applied on the Mongolian side 30 min later. Only difference: we are
not allowed to get out of the train. It is night, everybody is fanning
themselves with any paper they can get a hold of. We are loosing our
patience , the French group starts singing the Marseillaise and one
person bursts out with a strong French accent 'Welcome to Mongolia!' ;-)
Furthermore, we are engaged on a war on mosquitoes on all fronts;
you can feel them bitting your entire body every second.
After 2h stuck at the Mongolian customs, they let us out, super nice!
A fresh breeze is blowing on us, we get this feeling of gratitude one
usually gets after a bad dream...A little bit more waiting and we finally
get going toward our last stop: Ulan Bator. JC

L'arrivée en Mongolie

Le paysage a radicalement changé après notre départ de Ulan Ude. Les
forêts sont devenues des prairies, la plaine a laissé place à la
montagne. Les scènes sont assez spectaculaires, le vide de tous les
cotés, de grands lacs ici et la. Même le climat est différent, un vent
chaud souffle et pénetre le train de telle sorte que tout le monde
semble être à la recherche d'un peu d'air; je viens de finir mon
premier livre, je savoure mes premières heures en Asie, life is fair!
JC

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The rythm of the sound

Tchoutchoutchoutchou... When approaching a city or a stop, tge train
slows down tchou...tchou. If you only listen to teh sound of the train
on the railway, it works as a mantra for meditation. Suddenly a
passing train cuts the rythm and barks in, screeming like an animal
being cought for food. Sometimes the rail is so perfectly fitted that
it mes no sound at all, and your all body relaxes as when you turn off
the computer after a day at work. When the train brakes it sounds like
a wale, or like it is running over chubaca from Star Wars ;-) JC and
Marie

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La veillee du Baikall

We stayed awake the whole night, not to miss the World's deepest lake
(it actually contains 1/5 of the World's unfrozen fresh water...). The
icy blue water of the Lake Baikal is hypnotic. Endless silvery water
against steep hillsides. The shore is lines with campers who are out
fishinf at sunrise-the rays of light not able to reaching out through
the cotton like cloud cover. JC and Marie.

Sleeping

The more I sleep the more tired I become. I probably sleep 15 hours a
day on my hard 40 cm wide bed. All my energy is gone and I'm left with
an aching head and legs. I feel motionless and empty, waiting for
something to come and fill me up. Meanwhile I'm just staring at the
endless field passing by outside the window or trying to read,
sometime sheding a tear for no particular reason. This would
be a perfect time to meditate, but every attempt fails as my tired
body starts talking and interrupting me and I finally give in and lay
down to sleep... I finally got into meditation day 4. I'm in a bliss.
All pain gone. Marie

Ilanskaya

Kilometer 4377, this place is the largest trading point we have seen
so far, locals sell food, and Mongolians sell clothes and shoes
mostly. The platform is full of people, this is impressive, nice
surprise. We got water, bananas, potatoe pirogues, chips and even a
russian cake! We were running our of food, good! JC

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Soup in bottle

We brought dry soup for the whole trip, because so many people warned
us food is no good on board. Really yummy bio soups. Just that we forgot
to bring a bowl and a spoon... ;-) Our first idea was to cut a plastic
bottle in half and stir - with something we did not have! Then we
thought about putting the powder inside the bottle and shake it. But
to get the powder through the small opening was easier said then done.
Soon the floor was full of white dots, and Marie worried about what
the hostess would think - she already reproached her for using the
toilet too much. So she bruscly took our only tea cup and put the
powder inside, mixed with water, then poured it into the bottle and
shaked. Less soup spoiled but still very messy! Today we had a better
idea. We made a cone out of paper and filtered the powder down into
the bottle, and added water later. There was still some undisolved
balls in the soup, but it is food! Ciao, Marie and JC.

Endless Taiga

Leaving the industrial city Omsk (nothing to see really), where
Dostoevsky was exiled in 1849. We are now heading toward Barabinsk,
the original homeland of the Kirghiz people. 2676km accomplished so
far. JC and Marie.

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1777

We are in Asia! At the kilometer 1777 is situated the Europe-Asia
Border Obelisk, and we passed it few minutes ago! Actually we were
waiting for something big but we got a tiny stone on the side of the
rail ;-). We are now on a break at Yekaterinburg, ready to sleep (time
difference wit Europe is +4h now). JC

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Small stories on board

People scurry on the platform with their luggages and carriages full
of boxes with shoes, clothes, beauty products and food bought cheaply
in Moscow to be sold in Mongolia or even on the train. Hundred of jars
of russian caviar lay broken on the kay and the small grains are
swimming away in the pouring rain. A Mongolian man is sitting on his
empty carrier disabled by the two square meters of goods collapsed on
the ground, products spread everywhere. The unpacking on train
continues late into the night. People running in the corridor shouting
and storing their belongings into holes in the floor or make small
stores in their cabins. And they take out their goods to sell to local
people on the platform on each stop. Passers-by turn the handle on all
closed doors to check if there is room for new comers. I wonder
assumingly, do they check where there is money to get? But as I
believe people are inherently good, I quickly brush aside this
thought. After a restless night with many stops and bumpy take offs, I
go to buy hot water from the samovar (Russian tea boiler). Five
hundred rubles, one person for five days the Mongolian train hostesse
says. It seems reasonable for it is written chai something in
mongolian two hundred rubles on the sign above the samovar. I pay
thousand rubles for me and JC and return to our cabin happy to have
managed this endeavor in Russian and at the same time secured our
soups for the journey. Two hours later, the Belgian next door tells us
that water is free on board. His mongolian roommate confirms it when I
ask. I go to claim my money back and get it without any sign of shame.
'You have to be aware' JC says in his pepp talk as I return. 'think of
Narine how she checks the prices and bargain. You have to do it for us
to be a winning team', he concludes. I decide it is just a
misunderstanding, after all the hostesse did't speak Russian. Marie

Forced meditation

We just had a piece of sausage and bread for lunch. The two last
hachapury (Georgian cheese bread) Hasmik baked yesterday we had
already finished by nine this morning. It's a bit hard to go from two
plates of pelimini in the morning, two servings of kotletas from
heaven a couple of hours later, topped with cheese bread, cockies and
fruits en masse at night, to our scarse sausage regim. With nothing
but reading to do I feel sleepy all the time and I am slowly residing
into a forced but long awaited meditation. Marie

We have left!

That's it, the train has just left, and we are on our way to Ulan
Bator :). Believe it or not, we have 6 of our neighbors who are french
speaking... is that globalization? Our 'room' has 4 beds, but luckily
we have nobody right now, and I think the next stop is tomorrow night,
so we're good! it is incredible what people bring on the train; a huge
amount of stuff, and as it was raining many were dropping their bags,
we saw some guys leaving some russian caviar on the platform ;-). Now
we are about to make our beds, and prepare oursleves for our first
night, more insights soon, ciao. JC

Last moments in Moscow

At Yaroslavsky railway stationstation. We finished our journey in Moscow
the way we began, with a lot of food, some rest, a walk and more food... I

proposed to Narine's mom to come over and open a small restaurant in Stockholm ;-)

Tonight we got a tropical storm with really heavy rains, impressive; it is actually
nice, i'm hoping the temperature will go down now, and that we can
have a pleasant travel. We're sitting at the train station, from here
people go to China, Mongolia, basically on the other side of the
World! The platform of our train just appeared on the screen, we're
on! Ciao, JC

Meeting around cards

For the second night in a row, we spent approx 3h around the kitchen
table playing cards (foul again). I badly wanted to win so i teamed up
with Narine's mom, who is a guru of all games it seems (cards,
computers, ...). We had a lot of fun, and of course... we won ;-) (8-5
for the record). Tomorrow is our last day in Moscow, we leave with the
train at 9.30pm, for a short travel of... 4 days! I'm so curious.
Ciao, JC.