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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