Riyad and Sarah's Travels

Ulaanbaator, Mongolia

Our journey from Beijing to Ulaanbaator (UB), the capitals’ of neighboring China and Mongolia, took us two days. 

There were faster ways of traveling, but the two hour direct flight cost a ridiculous $500 each and we just missed the weekly international train.  After some research, we found a way to complete the trip for one-tenth the cost provided we took a bus to the China-Mongolia border, crossed it on our own, and continued to UB via train.

Our bus took off as it was getting dark, and we fell asleep in a city of 15 million to wake up in the middle of nowhere, alone on a highway in the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia.

We pulled into the border town of Erlian, and after some negotiation found a taxi driver to take us to the border.  We weren’t permitted to cross it on foot so we paid a merchant to squeeze us into the back of his car.  

He disappeared after we were stamped out of China and into Mongolia, but after hanging around for an hour again in the middle of nowhere we were given a ride by a passing motorist to the train station at Zamyn-Uud.

The train to UB wouldn’t leave until evening, but we passed the time chatting with a friendly Mongolian businessman returning home and having our first experience eating buuz, Mongolian’s fatty and delicious mutton dumplings. 

We eventually boarded the train – the only backpackers among Mongolians returning from China with cartfuls of merchandise – and it pulled away, traveling north through the barren Gobi desert. 

The train wasn’t as smooth or modern as the one we had taken from Hong Kong to Beijing, it was still relaxing and we were offered food and drink by the Mongolians in our compartment.  We read for a bit, the attendant came by with tea, and we watched the sun set over the unchanging scenery. 

The following morning, the sprawling city of Ulaabaator, home to nearly half of Mongolia’s population, emerged out of the desert.  We stepped off the train onto the platform to find that fall had arrived – after months of wearing t-shirts and sandals we had to dig deep into our bags for our jackets in the chilly weather. 

Ulaanbaator was a very modern and happening city, with restaurants and pubs and karaoke bars lining its streets and impeccably dressed locals out and about.  We were warned about rampant street crime and pickpockets, but left our valuables at our guesthouse and had no problems.

Sukhbaatar Square in the center of town was the location for Mongolia’s declaration of independence from the Chinese in 1921 and protests leading to the end of communism in 1990.  At the north end of the square sits Mongolia’s most famous citizen ever, Chinggis Khan, who’s image appears everywhere – from vodka and beer bottles to the city’s main airport.

The Zaisan memorial was constructed on a hill outside of downtown, but more impressive than the site was the panoramic view of the city.

On the walk up, I had a chance to hold an eagle, not traditionally trained for hunting, but a domesticated one on a leash that was resigned to his fate posing for pictures with tourists.  While he didn’t sink his talons too deep into my arm, I was told to shake my arm (it was quite a bit of effort given his weight) to get his wings to flutter.

The main draw to Mongolia is not Ulaanbaator, but the countryside, where nomads live as they have for the past thousand years.  Sarah and I decided on a 9 day, 8 night tour of the Gobi Desert and Central Mongolia with a Canadian couple we met.  After a day of running around town gathering the last of our supplies we met our tour guide and driver, lumbered into a Russian 4×4 van and were on our way.

Beijing, China

Sarah and I had both been to Beijing before, so we planned to spend only a few days here before moving on to Mongolia. We crossed China overland by the country’s efficient railway system.  Our train from Hong Kong was clean and modern and so smooth that we didn’t feel it move.  The 24 hour, 1,200 mile journey passed by quickly – we read, we slept on our sleeping berths, watched the changing scenery, and before we knew it, we had arrived.

We spent three nights in a hostel on Nan Luo Gu Lane, a half mile long street built 800 years ago, and now combines historical architecture with restaurants and nightlife where Chinese hipsters and tourists alike congregate. 

Beijing was the first place on this trip where we faced a significant language barrier.  (Our previous visits were on guided tours, so we had no need to speak to anyone.)  Although bus and the subway stops were announced in English, very few people spoke English and failed to understand we couldn’t speak a word of Chinese.  A taxi driver who couldn’t find our destination kept turning to us to ask for clarification.  A waitress insisted that I pick my choice of tea from a menu printed in Chinese.  Eventually we realized it was best to fall silent and solely pantomime; pointing and counting with fingers began to work wonders.  I even managed to order Peking Duck and tea with hand gestures.

Of course, our short trip to Beijing would not have been complete without a visit out to the Great Wall.  Rather than seeing the overly touristy part close to the city, we joined a bus full of other masochists to hike four miles on the ridge of a remote section.   We were dropped off at the Tin Shan Ling gate and told to walk from Tower 1 to Tower 22 at Si Ma Tai gate, where our bus and guide (in name only) would be waiting for us.

The path to tower 5 had been rebuilt during the 80s so initially the walk was manageable, although steep. 

Once we passed tower 5 we slowed to continue along the original path.

The weather cooperated fully with us – the sky was clear and it wasn’t hot – but we still had quite the workout climbing up and down the hills.

There were no other tourists there besides our group so we had the views to ourselves.

The path became progressively worse with small rocks crumbling away if we took the wrong step. 

By the time we completed the hike two hours later we were drenched in sweat and covered with the bodies of Kamikaze gnats, but left feeling far more accomplished than had we just shown up for a photo-op.

After a day of physical exertion and a late night out with a British couple we had met during the hike, we spent the following day at a much more leisurely pace.  Our hostel was a fifteen minute walk from the Tiananmen Square.  This concrete square at the center of town is huge, stretching half a mile long and a third of a mile wide (yes it’s technically a rectangle). Surrounded by a waist high fence, we had to pass through a metal detector to enter.  It was overrun with tourists taking pictures and following their guides around.

At the south end of the square is the mausoleum of Chairman Mao, where the embalmed body of the founder of modern China is displayed.  As our interest in viewing dead communist leaders had been piqued by our visit to see Ho Chi Minh a few weeks earlier, we stood in line to see Chairman Mao.  Mao’s mausoleum was twice as large as Ho Chi Minh’s but protocol for entering both was the same: our cameras were locked up, we had to pass through additional security, and were told to remain quiet while being quickly ushered past the glass coffin.  Mao’s body looked even less real than Ho Chi Minh’s, with only his head exposed under a Chinese flag.

Directly north of Tiananmen Square is the Forbidden City, the palatial home of Chinese emperors from 1420 until 1912.  We could have spent several days exploring the nearly 1000 rooms here but cut our trip short because we were exhausted from our previous day’s activities and the palace was extremely crowded – we had to push our way in just to peer into windows of buildings.

We returned to Nan Luo Gu Lane, spent some time planning logistics for our trip to Mongolia, and enjoyed another dinner of Peking Duck.  By our third morning on the following day, we had had enough of Beijing’s sites, and instead of rushing around to see more, we relaxed in a cafe before heading north.

Hong Kong, China

Technically, Hong Kong and Macau are part of China, yet maintain separate currencies, immigration, and forms of government.  Both enclaves were European colonies (Hong Kong under Britain, Macau under Portugal) that were returned to Chinese rule in the late 90s provided they remain capitalist and be allowed freedom of speech and dissent.  A decade later there are no calls to end this policy of “One Country, Two Systems” given the tax revenues and international trade these regions bring to the mainland.

We set out for Hong Kong from Hanoi overland, first taking a bus across the Vietnam-China border to Nanning, a deluxe sleeper bus from Nanning to Guanzhou, and a third bus from Guanzhou to Hong Kong – the entire journey taking 26 hours.

Hong Kong consists of the mainland region and several islands;  we stayed in the Kowloon peninsula across from the skyscrapers of Hong Kong Island to the south. 

The city was cleaner and more modern than any other we have seen in Asia.  Signs of wealth were displayed prominently, between the luxury stores and the cars on the road. (I counted several Rolls Royces, two Ferraris, and one Lamborghini.)  All signs were in English and Chinese, and we had no problems finding English speakers.  The city remained lit up well into the night – the streets were as crowded at midnight as they were during the day.  Unlike Bangkok (probably the next most developed city in our travels) there were no sex workers or Western men walking around with younger local women.  Not surprisingly, our guesthouse was far smaller and far more expensive than any of Southeast Asia. 

We viewed the impressive skyline from Kowloon south….

..and north from the top of “The Peak” – the highest elevation point on Hong Kong island.

Each night at 8, skyscrapers on both sides of Victoria Harbor lit up with an impressive laser show coordinated to music.

We made a trip out to Macau, leaving Hong Kong in the morning via a one hour ferry.  During the day we walking between the remnants of Macau’s five hundred years of colonial history including the old fort, cemeteries, churches, and the ruins of St. Paul.

But the main reason most people come to Macau is to gamble.  Thousands of mainland Chinese flock here every weekend, driving casino revenues higher than those in Las Vegas.  We’re not much for gambling though, and after failing to find a table with a low enough minimum bet, we walked to the pier to return to Hong Kong.

Sarah’s family friends graciously showed us local haunts: a dim sum restaurant with no English on the menu, a fish market where we selected a live fish to have cooked at a nearby restaurant, and to the hills above Kowloon devoid of tourists.  My friend Bob happened to be in Hong Kong for work, and showed us the business district and the ex-pat areas. 

After we saw the main sites, we spent our time enjoying the Western comforts of Starbucks, cinemas, and shopping.  Sarah bought clothes, I replaced my worn out shoes and purchased a new camera lens (watch this spot for closer up pictures).  Our week passed too quickly, and we bid goodbye and parted ways.  Bob saw us to the train station and we headed north to Beijing.