Tibet - Part 1

All other travelers we met said they were jealous we were going to Tibet and 'how did you manage to get a permit?' The more we looked into it we realised how difficult it was to get in and how many good things there was to see. Therefore we had high expectations and were very excited. 

In 2008 there were violent protests in Tibet between Tibetans and Chinese who effectively walked into Tibet and said, we're having that. Tibet is a very policed region with police and army checkpoints every hundred or so kilometres. Jimmy had warned us about our calor gas bottle on the roof rack. He said we were not allowed to travel through Tibet with a gas bottle due to security reasons. The first checkpoint we arrived at, the policeman was pointing at the gas bottle and shouting at Terry. Not knowing any Tibetan we guessed Terry's response by his body language. He replied with, 'It's a f@#king campervan, what do you expect!'. The young policeman didn't know how to respond, we continued with the gas bottle on the roof. Later Jimmy confirmed our suspicions and said 'I can't believe it, Terry just told the policeman to f@#k off!'. Brilliant, it seemed we wouldn't have any trouble at checkpoints in Tibet.

We were heading towards Lhasa, the capital of Tibet and the most holy Buddhist city on Earth. The road climbed into the mountains, mountain pass after mountain pass. The temperature began to drop the higher we got. We arrived at a pass, 5200m, frozen lakes and snow covered mountains. It was getting serious now! Big Sal was doing well, struggling a bit on the climbs due to the thin air, down into 1st gear on the steep bits, but still holding her own against other traffic. We hit a traffic jam, me and Stew rode on the roof for a bit much to the locals surprise! We could really notice the effects of altitude, getting out of breath from just walking a few metres. At this altitude water boils at 70 degrees. Considering the rapid gain in altitude we were fairing pretty well, slight headaches but generally OK. Jimmy was suffering, head in hands and complaining about sickness, the big girl!

We parked up in a village at 4500m. The 5 of us slept in the van, fully clothed trying to stay warm. We woke at 7am with ice on the inside of the glass, it was a bloody cold night! We had a flat tyre, the first of the tour so far. It was OK, we had two spares, one of which turned out to be as flat as the one that was coming off, bollox! The second spare wasn't much better. We drove the 100k to the next town and got both spares pumped up. This confirmed our decision to get two new rear tyres in Lhasa. They rears were pretty knackered.  It was dark, about 100k from Lhasa, when BOOM, we had a blowout. The other rear disintergrated. Luckily we got the second spare pumped up! Only two punctures on the try so far and both on the same day! We drove the last 100k to Lhasa with no spare. We arrived at 11.30PM safe and sound and parked smack bang in old town.

We woke to the sound of someone bouncing on the rear step of the van. I jumped out in my boxers thinking it may of been round two of someone trying to pinch the bikes from the roof.  It turned out to just be a curios road sweeper. Probably never seen a vehicle like ours parked in Lhasa old town before.

We walked arround old town and immediately loved the place. Narrow cobbled streets, old stone buildings and windows colourfully decorated with paint and flags. We met Terry at a tea room next to where the van was parked. It was brilliant, full of locals sitting around drinking Tibetan butter tea. We spent the rest of the day finding tyres for the van and cycling around the town. At the tyre place Dunny asked if they had a toilet, 'yes offcourse sir, over in that room' see photo! We went to the University for Stew to enquire about teaching English in Lhasa. After arguing with security we managed to meet the person responsible for setting up foreign teaching placements. Stew had an interview and exchanged contact details, it looked promising.

We arranged to meet Terry at our hostel for some drinks at his local. He sent a friend to meet us. We followed him over the road, down a side road, through an alley, up some steps into a old Tibetan block of flats. It was cool, it had internal balconies over looking a central courtyard. Past the communal long drops we entered a three room flat. The owner sold beer in her front room. It was brilliant, we met Terry's friends and sang song for song. Everyone was friendly and pleased to meet us. We headed out into town. We went to a Tibetan dance hall. Not dance music as we would normally expect but more like ball room dancing. We obviously showed them all how to do the tango with brilliant style and finesse. (Not). Terry had a bit of a disagreement with another Tibetan man. It turned into pushing and shoving. We broke it up and moved onto another bar.

The following day we woke up with thick heads. It was the day to visit the Potala Palace. The most sacred Buddhist temple in the world. Set on a hill with over 11 floors and more than 1000 rooms it dominates the skyline of Lhasa. It wasn't like any other temple and well worth the visit. Terry knew the security so we were allowed more than the permitted 1 hour to walk around. We spent the rest of the day and evening exploring old town. There was something about it that made it our favourite town on the trip so far. The people were cool, carrying prayer beads, colourful braids in their hair and old school dress. We were sad to leave and would of liked to spend much longer in Lhasa. But things weren't all bad, we were on our way to Everest Base Camp!

Rob

Mount Tai and Shanghai

We drove from Beijing to Hongmen and found a hostel. We arrived at 6PM and got ready for the walk up Mount Tai. The tradition is to walk through the night and get to the top for the sunrise. We set off at midnight and began the 7000 steps to the top. It's an old path built so emperors could climb and worship at the temple at the top, 1500 m above sea level.  It was brilliant, nice stonework and old bridges crossing a gorge with waterfalls and old engravings in the rock. Then lots of old temples at the top. What was meant to be a 5 hour climb took us 3.5 so we had a bit of time chilling at the top.

The sunrise was very unimpressive, it was far to misty to see it.

The norm is to get the cable car and bus back down, but we wanted to see the path in daylight which was a good decision. Our guide, Jimmy, was tired so he got the cable car back down. We got down in two hours, mixture of walking, jogging and jumping down the steps. Felt good to do a good stint of solid exercise.

We stopped at a city called Quofu with an old walled centre. We walked around the outside wall and moat then stopped at some street food vendors and had some absolute beauts. A cold fruit smoothie drizzled in syrup was everyones favourite.

Next stop was Nanjing, the former capital of China. Nanjing translates directly to south capital. (Beijing translates to north capital). We parked the van up down a quiet side street. It looked perfect. We woke up to find the van amongst a shed load of market stalls selling street food. We heard tapping at the window, the van was surrounded by policemen, one had a pretty serious gun slung over his shoulder. We weren't going to argue with them, we got dressed and drove off pretty quickly.

We found another spot to park a little bit out of town. Quickly a crowd gathered around the van, all intrigued about us, our van and why we were parked on their road. A Chinese guy stopped on his bike and began chatting to us in Chinese. Jimmy translated that he was inviting us up to his flat for tea. 5 minutes later some coppers turned up and checked all our paperwork and said we had to move the van, we moved 20 metres up the road, all seemed good. We went to the guys flat for tea and a turn out. He whipped out some musical instruments and played some tunes for us, then went and bought us breakfast leaving us alone in his flat, very trusting. We had our suspicions he may be the local drunk. Our suspicions were confirmed when he polished off a bottle of vodka over lunch. We headed to a river in Nanjing, it was huge with serious amounts of shipping going up and down. On the way back to the van we came across an outside party, with one lady singing and a hundred or so people gathered round. The next thing we have 100 pairs of eyes staring at us, everybody tapping their mate and pointing over. They probably hadn't seen a foreigner in there estate before.

We woke up, went for a jog then made our way towards Shanghai. It was Saturday, two days until my birthday and we had planned to be driving all day on my birthday so it made sense to have a night out tonight. We bought some Chinese fire water (56% proof) which got us well on the way. The lads made me where the sexy little Chinese number that Stew wore on his birthday a week before. We met some Germans at the hostel and went to a sports bar with them which was good fun. We liked the look of Shanghai so much we decided to stay a few more days than planned.

Me and Dunny went out for a beer the following evening. We were struggling to find a bar with cheap beer. A girl approached us and said she works for a bar where beers were £3 which was the cheapest we could find. We followed her to a bar which turned out to be a brothel. When we said we weren't interested and tried to leave 6 horrible looking Chinese blokes stood in our way, locked the door of the room we were in and claimed to be mafia. They threatened to beat us and drop us in the countryside unless we paid them money. Dunny got up to leave and they through him back down onto the sofa.  They took £190 of each of my cards. Not a very pleasant experience but we got out alright. After we met some genuinely nice Chinese guys and had a drink in their bar with them. The following day we went to a police station, explained the situation so we could get a transcript from them and hopefully get my bank to reverse the transactions. Great way to spend your birthday! The next evening made up for it. We went and sat down on the Bund and saw the most awesome skyline I've seen. At night it was even better, all lit up. We met two English girls who were travelling China. We went out for some amazing street food then down to the Bund for the next where's willy.

The next two day was spent cycling around Shanghai admiring unbelievable skyscrapers, bridges and general brilliant infrastructure. Everything is new and clean. The area surrounding our hostel had about 50 small shops selling machine tools and spares. Just showed how much the country is geared towards manufacturing. Loads of construction here too, skyscrapers going up all over the city.

We still haven't heard whether we can get a permit for Tibet which is annoying. We are going to start heading west across China anyway.

Shanghai was awesome, up there with St. Petersburg as my favourite city so far on this tour.

Rob

Off to China

We had a good few weeks with the girls but it was time for them to go back to work - unlucky! We said our farewells at the airport then headed back into town.

We collected a parcel from the TNT office. An exhaust downpipe, front indicator, side lamp and number plate light. All of which fell out or broke on the crap Mongolian roads. The van took a fair beating in Mongolia. Thanks Baker, Whitey and my parents for getting the bits out to us.

Our priorities for the next few days was to get the van fixed and have a send off party for Mongolia. We met up with Sanchir, Arry, Jaruu and others and had some beers at their summer house. The next morning we fitted all the parts to the van which went well. 

We received an email from our Chinese tour agent saying that Tibet have clamped down on issuing permits to foreigners and the road from Tibet to Kathmandu is closed due to a landslide. So at this point we still don't know where we are going after China. The original plan is Nepal then India but plan b is Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia then ship van to Australia, sell it and fly home. Not a bad second option! We will find out on September 15th.

We left a few days to get to the Chinese border, in case of bad roads or van problems. It turned out the road was one of the best in Mongolia. We got near the border with time to spare.  The drive down was awesome. Driving through the Gobi with next to no other cars, amazing views of nothingness as far as you could see and the odd camel plodding across the road.

Dunny received the sad news that his Grandfather passed away. We dropped all plans. We bought a load of beer and a litre of Mongolians finist Chinggis Khan Gold vodka and headed to the Gobi for a wake. We found a remote spot in the desert and parked the van up. Out came some fancy dress outfits and the three of us had a party for Ken... to Ken.

We woke up with sore heads and all went for a turn out in the desert. I shouted over to the lads, 'come over here and see this, it's genuinely worth a look'. They walked over a bit confused. There were two dung beetles rolling in my dump. They crash landed next to me shortly after crimping off and began rolling it into balls. We watched fascinated for 20 minutes, Stew and Dunny both did the same and without fail two more dung beetles arrived! Interesting stuff!

We tidied up from the night before and drove to the border.

Mongolia has been brilliant, never seen so much of nothing before, which was what made it so good. Rolling hills, desert, mountains, lakes, volcano and loads of people still living in Gers with a nomadic lifestyle. It's the most sparsely populated country in the world, 3 million inhabitants (1.5 million live in the capital)  in a country 6 times the size of the UK.  Loads of wildlife, eagles flying overhead, vultures covering hillsides and we road horses and camels. We met loads of nice people who we stayed in contact with during the 7 weeks we were there. Thanks Mongolia you have been good!

Bring on China!

Lake hovskol. 8 in the van

We began the mamouth 700km journey not knowing it was that far! Me Rob, Stew, louise, Emily, Helen, Sanchir and Dutchy hit the road about half 2 hoping to get there later that night. We made it half the way before it getting dark, so we stopped at a ger camp just outside of the rich mining town Erdenet. It was a anniversary of the camp so we joined the celebrations at a disco and danced the night away. We were introduced to arag..... Fermented mares milk, a Mongolian delicacy. Not the brightist of drinks, a bit sharp but it got you drunk!! So we all had a go and forced it in. 

The next morning we woke up late felling a bit worse for ware with heavy stomachs. After playing a bit of rugby with the locals we set of about 2. It was good road until about 40km from the next village. Off road tracks didn't suit big sal but she dealt with them well. Me Dutchy, and stew admired the views from the roof. A storm hit us out of nowhere, so we got back inside the van and procedded to get B-A-T-T-E-R-E-D battered, battered!! The road became undriveable so we stopped for the night. Rob didn't like the look of the roads so him and Helen headed back to ub early the next morning. 

This morning we set off at about midday. 120km of dust track and 150km of good road stood between us and the lake. Not knowing what we had let our selfs in for before the point of no return meant we had to continue. A series of winding dust/mud/bog tracks took us longer than we anticipated averaging 20km an hour, it was going to be a long day. On route Dutchy asked us the date. It only turned out to be his birthday and he didn't realize!! Another night of B-A-T-T-E-R-E-D battered battered would be in celebration!! We stopped for the night in Moran. Just over 100km from the lake. While in the van some local wrestlers challenged us to arm wrestling. Stew cleaned up! 

Finally we arrived at the lake after a 2 hour drive from Moran. The lake was huge. Known as the blue pearl of Mongolia, Stretching 136km long 262m deep with a total area of 2760 sq km it is the 14th largest freshwater source in the world! Crystal clear waters surrounded by Rocky Mountains. It was well worth the drive. We settled down for the night in a ger camp. Me and Dutchy heard music coming from the next camp. We went to investigate, only turned out to be a mongolian disco. We got right involved and was professionals at the mongolian dance by the end of the night. 

From what locals had told us bird island was well worth a visit. So we booked on to a boat tour and we were off. The boat was pimp, kitted out with leather sofas and a shit hot sound system. Suited us down to the ground!! After the 2 1/2 hour drive we made it to the island. Quality views all around the lake. Going for a swim was the best part of the day. Very very cold but bearable. Stew dived in off the side after asking the drive if it was deep enough. '5 meters deep' it clearly wasn't stew appeared from the water with a bloody head f ing and blinding. It was only 1.5 meters deep. Ouch. More mongolian dancing followed this night, after a few to many vodkas Me and stew had a minor alteration, but all was good in the morning!!

The next morning more swimming and a spot of fishing was the last of the lake for me. Me Dutchy and Sanchir were driving back to UB while Stew, Emily and Louise would stay at the lake for a couple more days and fly back. We set off just after 5 drove till it got dark then stopped for the night. Knowing we had a full day of driving ahead of us we got up at 6 and hit the road. There was a few dangerous situations but big sal handled them excellently. One of which was a 6 m wide river with a boggy bank. Just floored her and hoped for the best, luckily we made it. The scenery was unbelievable on the way back stopping only a couple of times at good spots. We managed to arrive back in UB just after 9 absoloutely shattered.

Me and Dutchy were felling a bit sore from the previous days drive. So we booked into a mongolian massage. Well recommended both came out after the hour long session felling refreshed. A trip to the black market was next. Equipped with our dell ( a dell is a mongolian gown nomadic family wear) we were done. I said my goodbyes to Dutchy, top bloke mind.

The lake was awesome, the drive wasn't but the views and scenery around the lake made up for it. Looking forward to traveling south and exploring the gobi. 

Safe dunny 

Hitch hiking to the Gobi Desert

We parked the van outside the Lotus Guesthouse. The group of us were back together so we had a few drinks in the van with some other people staying in the hostel. At about midnight a dog came sniffing around the van. I picked it up and put it in the back of the van. We gave it food and water. It immediately felt like our pet, it guarded the van and took a liking to Dunny, it slept on his bed in the van that night. We named him Kieran. In the morning we were tempted to keep him for a week. But we decided to let him go, emotional times.

The next destination in Mongolia was the Gobi desert. Louise and Emily were short of time so decided to get an internal flight with Stew and Nikki. That left Dunny, Helen and me to drive the van down. We left at 6am. Half an hour into the 12+ hour drive the roads turned into mud tracks, 20 minutes later the exhaust downpipe was completely broken. With the van sounding like it had a monster truck engine again we headed back to the hotel we stayed at the night before. The English speaking lady said we could park the van in the car park (which had 24HR security and a horrible looking guard dog) for a week, perfect. We ordered the spare parts we needed from home on the hotel computer, then headed to the road to thumb down a lift. We decided to hitch hike to the desert.

After minutes a land cruiser pulled over and took us a few km to the correct road we needed. Again waiting for only a few minutes two land cruisers pulled over. They were going to exactly the right place, and offered to take the three of us for a 50,000 tug fuel contribution, £5.50 each. Perfect. Half an hour after being picked up the diesel pump shaft seal failed and pissed diesel into the sump. It made a horrible noise and plume'd  smoke out the exhaust. We were well and truly broke down in the middle of nowhere. It would have been hours before they got going again.  We decided to try and get a different lift. After a stint in the back of a van, 6 people in a prius, then a new land cruiser, a day later we were in Dalanzadgad. It was good seeing the lush grasslands of central Mongolia gradually turn into sandy desert. We drove through a sandstorm in the new land cruiser, it sounded like the car was being sand blasted. The rich miners didn't seem to mind, it was a company car.

Now separated from the others we decided to make our way to Yoliyn Am, a gorge in the mountains which has ice shelves present all year round. We tried to get a lift for about 45mins. There wern't many cars going our way and less stopping. Finally a land cruiser stopped, but it was full with 5 people. We thought it was a bit of a waste of time trying to explain where we were going because we wouldn't fit anyway. After a bit of rearranging we were in! 8 people in a 5 seater. We were chuffed we were on our way again!

We stayed in the foothills of the Altai mountains. Looking one way was the rugged mountains and the track to Yoliyn Am and the other was the Gobi desert - it stretched as far as you could see, it looked like an ocean.  We stayed in a Ger which was lit only by candle. The next day we packed our bags and walked into the mountains to the ice gorge. The gorge was surreal. Surely there wasn't going to be any ice left in this 30 degree heat?! But there was. We met some English hippies also hitch hiking and we had a much needed wash under a little waterfall. It was a good day, after 20 miles of walking we were delighted to find a ger shop selling cold beers. The owner of our ger came for a beer then offered to take me and Dunny the 100m to our ger on the back of his motorbike. We went up a steep slope, the 150CC bike struggled, he dropped it down a gear and opened the throttle, me and Dunny flew off the back and landed in a heap on the floor, luckily no injuries, we would walk the rest of the way!

Next stop was the sand dunes at Khongorn Els. A fair distance from Yoli Am. After an hour we flagged down a van and got in the back with a load of furniture. After that we bumped into the same people who had 8 in the land cruiser, they gave us a lift the remainder of the way. 

We stayed at a posh ger camp overlooking the dunes.  We woke up and the manager said he was driving the way we needed to go in two hours time. We asked if he could stop at the sand dunes on the way, he said no problem. It wasn't ideal because it meant we didn't have time for a camel ride but was too good an offer to turn down. The sand dunes were class, a few hundred metres high and went on as far as you could see. We continued on back to Dalangzad with the manager in the old Russian 4x4 van. Half an hour into the 6 hour journey it over heated, radiator split, so the driver limped it back to the ger camp topping up the water every 10 mins. They stripped it down and ordered a new radiator from the nearby town. Also the fan had seen better days ( see photo).

Ideal, it gave us time to have a nice lunch and a camel ride. The camels were massive animals, not far off twice the size of the Mongolian horses. We had a few beers waiting for the van to be fixed. The van was fixed nd we set off.  The drive back took us down dried river beds and over mountain passes. Was pretty awesome.

We went back to UB in a shuttle bus, 19 people in a 14 seater, pretty cramped but was cheap and made it back in good time. We tried for a hitch but the heavens opened so the shuttle bus parked opposite looked inviting.

Rob

Northern Mongolia - Lake Khovsgol

We were in Khatgal, a small town on the southern tip of lake Khovsgol.  Lake Khovsgol holds 1% of the worlds fresh water and it's 95% pure - cleaner than water that comes out taps at home.

We walked through the town looking for a ger camp to stay at. We found a family run camp right next to the waters edge.  They didn't seem to mind about the 200m rule which says no camps less than 200m from waters edge to keep the water pure.  Suited us though, £1.50 each a night, unlimited supply of wood for the stove and a big pan for cooking, perfect.

The first night we bought a load of yak meat from a meat counter in town and a load of veg.  We cooked up a big Mongolian soup on the wood fired stove. It was lush and lasted a few days.

The next day we got a lift up the west coast of the lake from the ger camp owner. We spent the day chilling on the beach. We walked out along a spit which was cool. We went to a shop, bought a bottle of vodka and juice and sat on the shore listening to music until our lift returned at 7PM to collect us. Was a brilliant day. The lake and surrounding mountains are beautiful. That evening we were invited to a birthday party of the sister of the ger camp owner. They made a campfire on the bank of the lake and all the family were there. More vodka was consumed. It was a fun night. We invited the owners for food the following day.

The next day we arranged a boat trip on the lake. Coincidentally it was the same boat the others went on two weeks before.  That night the ger owners came to our ger for food. We cooked them mutton soup. Went down a treat.

The next morning we got a lift in a mini van to Moron where we were going to catch our 17 hour coach to UB. We arrived nice and early at 1PM, it was due to leave at 2PM. At 2PM we were the only people on the bus. We new is was meant to be full because we had the last two tickets. Gradually people began arriving in dribs and drabs. No one seemed bothered they were late, no sense of urgency with anyone. At 3.10PM it was full and ready to go, but they needed fuel, another 20 minutes of faffing and we finally set off at 3.30PM! The journey was interesting, a 50 seater coach going down mud tracks, through rivers and over passes. The bus stopped at one point and everyone was beckoned off. There was a floating bridge which looked like it was from the second world war. There was some serious movment when our coach drove across, we could now see why they asked everyone to get out! We arrived back in UB safe and sound.

Rob

Central Mongolia - Volcano

After being separated for a week the group got back together and headed to a national park in central Mongolia. There was 5 of us in total so hitch hiking would be harder but we gave it a go. Me, Helen, Dunny, Stew and Nikki We caught the train out of town which put us on the correct road.

The first hitch was in a pick up truck, Stew and me were in the back and the others in the front. The driver spoke perfect English, they owned the Burberry store in UB. The next hitch, all 5 again, was in an unmarked land cruiser police car. He was tearing down the roads, if anyone got in his way he would blast his sirens and flash his lights! We got to the next town in no time.

We stayed the night in a motel in a small town. We met some Korean businessesmen on a tour of Mongolia. We had a party in their room, listening to music and having a few drinks.

The next morning we were in the back of a pick up, two cars in convoy and an old Russian 4x4. A guy tried to stitch up me and Stew by making us pay a silly amount, we told him to whistle.

We finally arrived in a place called Harhorin to see an ancient Buddhist temple and settlement. The perfect place for the next where's Willy, well done Stew for probably the best one yet! The girls held eagles then we continued on to Tsetserleg to see the hot springs. 

When we arrived we learnt that it was a music festival and fashion show to publicise a new expensive clothing brand using Mongolian yak wool.  We hired bikes and cycled to the hot springs. The mud track took us over 4 passes and through a couple of rivers. Was a scenic ride. The main springs were too hot to get into so we paid to go into a bath house type thing. There was a pool outside. We met some other travelers, had a few beers with them then headed back.

The next day we went out on the bikes with the son of the hostel next door's owner and an American who we met who was cycling across Mongolia.  That night was the music festival and fireworks. We sat in the main square and had a few beers with us lot, the American and the hostel owners family.

The next morning we went our separate ways, me and Helen wanted to continue across the national park and on up to Lake Khovsgol, the others went to a waterfall then back to UB.

Me and Helen hitched to Tariet, a town next to a big lake and volcano. We stayed a night in a ger on the edge of the lake. Was a cracking spot. The next day we walked up the volcano, rimmed it, then sat and enjoyed the view. The lava fields stretched into the distance and the crater was intact. We both really enjoyed it.

Due to a bit of bad planning and a cash point not working we were running low on funds. We had the equivalent of a tenner for the both of us. We woke the next day and hitched a lift in the wrong direction in a lorry. Then had to pay a couple of quid to get back to where we started. Bollocks, our £10 was now down to £7. We got ourselves on the right road and flagged down a family who were going exactly where we wanted. We spent about 12 hours over 2 days with them along the most scenic road so far in Mongolia, you wouldn't even attempt in anything but 4 wheel drive. The family very kindly paid for our hotel then we paid them back the following day.

We arrived in Khatgal safe and well with money in our pockets!

Rob