The Art of Chinese Cooking

After a month of enjoying the food in China (with the exception of excessive grease), Eric and I decided to enroll in an afternoon cooking class in Yang Shuo so we could bring home a couple specialties to share.

Our cooking guide picked us and a few others from the group up from our hotel at 3PM and walked us to the local Chinese market. Unlike the groceries stores we'd been to thus far, this market is where the locals shop and was filled with local farmers and their goods spread out on sheets, in baskets, buckets and mini swimming pools. We browsed first through the vegetables and paid close attention as our guide pointed out both familiar and strange veges - eggplant, ginger root, carrots, garlic stalk, bok choy, tomatoes, mushrooms of every shape and size, seaweed, broccoli, and an assortments of leafy greens.

Then we moved on to the spices and grains. The Chinese love their chili and we found whole chilies, chili powder, chili seeds, black bean chili paste and more. Rice - lots and lots of rice.

Then we strolled through the meat section. With the exception of pork and beef, which are butchered and sold in the form of major body chunks, the rest of the meat is sold live. There were cages of squawking chickens, cooing pigeons, and quacking ducks...pools of

flopping fish, slithering eels, sucking leeches...mesh nets of frogs, snails, oysters and clams...pretty much every kind of meat you could imagine was sold at this market. You could see people riding away on their bicycles with their bags of veges, rice and spices and with a half live duck dangling from the handle bars quietly saying it's last quack. Quite an experience! We didn't actually buy anything at the market...it was more for us to see where the food is purchased and what kinds of ingredients we'd be using.

After a 20-minute mini-van ride out of town and into a smaller village, we arrived at the cooking school. It was a small collection of buildings set in a lovely garden against the backdrop of limestone mountains and rice paddies. Very picturesque indeed! Many of the herbs and vegetables we used in our dishes were grown locally right there. Another couple from Holland joined our group - making us a total of 8. It didn't take us long to cork the couple bottles of wine we had brought to mix good cooking with Chinese wine tasting, and add to the ambiance of what we imagined a cooking class should be.

Our kitchen consisted of several tables arranged in a half circle so we could easily observe the pro chef at the front. Each person had their own burner and supplies - a chopping block, a mega knife (if only I knew the proper term), a couple wok pans, small canisters and bottles of salt, pepper, oyster sauce, soy sauce, oil and water. And of course plates and chopsticks for the most important part - the eating!

We were first given a plate full of our vegetable ingredients which consisted of eggplant, tomatoes, a carrot, garlic, garlic stalks, red and green peppers, leafy greens, ginger, spring onion, chives, a tofu ball, a pumpkin flower and a mushroom. Our instructor told us we would be making 5 dishes - steamed stuffed vegetables, beer fish, chicken with cashew nuts, eggplant Yangshuo style and green vegetables with garlic. Our favorites turned out to be the eggplant and the chicken with cashew nuts (see recipes for these two below!). After a quick demonstration of our cooking utensils and how to and not to chop, mash and mince properly, we were on our way to becoming fabulous chefs (well maybe that's pushing it just a bit). For each dish, our instructor would give a demonstration, we'd get a quick taste of her creation and then we were at our little stations doing it for ourselves.

At first, we thought - no problem...I mean really, how hard could it be?! However, after stir fying our first dish Chinese style and having to adjust the burner temp at the right time, add the oil, water and seasonings on cue and swishing it all around so it came out just perfect...well, we worked up quite a sweat. It was actually a little stressful. Each dish got a little easier, but we were thankful for the "helpers" that came around to give you an extra set of hands if you were looking too frantic. Thank God for the wine! Despite the rushes of cooking frenzy, the class was great fun and the heated moments added to the thrill of learning how to chop and mix the ingredients to create our culinary delights.

After it was all finished, we carried our dishes outside to the patio just beyond the kitchen and enjoyed our starters and mains in the tranquility of the garden. The Dutch couple had brought snails for the instructor prepare in addition, so we even tried a bit of escargot. Our fellow student chefs made the experience all that more enjoyable and we had lots of good laughs, toasts and photos during the experience. If you haven't tried taking a cooking class before, we definitely recommend it! We are looking forward to more cooking classes in Thailand and other countries - and to cooking for friends and family on our return!

And just in case you'd like to try our favorite dishes...

Chicken with Cashew Nuts

Ingredients:

150g chicken breast thinly sliced

1/2 cup roasted cashew nuts (if raw, fry them in a little oil - be careful not to burn)

2 tablespoons peanut oil

4 cloves garlic- crushed

1 carrot - sliced

6 spring onions or garlic tops

2 tablespoons water

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions: Heat the wok and once it's smoking slightly add half the oil. Add chicken and garlic and fry until the chicken turns white and feels firm. Add soy sauce then remove the chicken from the wok. Add the rest of the oil, a pinch of salt and stir fry the carrot (or red pepper) for 1 minute. Return the chicken to the wok. Add the water and cook until only a little sauce remains. Add the oyster sauce, spring onions and cashew nuts. Heat through and serve.

Eggplant Yangshuo Style

Ingredients:

250g eggplant sliced (lengthwise)

4 tablespoons peanut oil

1 red pepper - sliced

25g ginger - sliced very thin

4 cloves of garlic - crushed then minced

3 spring onions - sliced (about 1/4-1/2" long)

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

1 tablespoon water

Directions: Heat the wok and once it's smoking slightly add oil. Cook eggplant until it turns a caramel brown color. Move eggplant to side of wok. Reduce heat and fry garlic, ginger, pepper for 1 minute. Mix eggplant with vegetables, salt, water and oyster sauce. Add spring onions and serve.

China Adventures

Hi all,
It's been awhile since our last entry because we've been so busy traveling and enjoying the sights and people of China. We have done and learned so much in the past few weeks it's hard to know where to begin in sharing our thoughts and experiences. We are currently in Yang Shuo (Just outside Guilin), a very famous tourist destination - the place with all the picturesque rice fields and large limestone mountains that are often seen in Chinese paintings. Late tonight, we will take a night train to Hong Kong, our final destination in China.

To catch you all up on some of the highlights of what we've seen and done on this whirlwind tour of China...

Train Interaction With the Locals - We took an overnight train from Beijing to Xi'an in the "hard sleeper" compartments...not as bad as it sounds. It's basically a carriage with triple high stacked bunks and lots of great opportunities to interact with the locals. Eric and I had seats a bit separate from the group, but were seated by a lovely Chinese grandma, mother and young daughter who we shared photos and snacks with. We also were seated with Hellen and Linda - two cousins age 17 and 20 who spoke some English. We had a great time talking with them about their school, teen idols, travel desires and families. We played some cards with them, shared music and photos as well and have been keeping in touch via email and messenger since. It was a fun train ride!

On another of our train rides, I acquired a little admirer in the dining car - a shy boy about age 10 who was sneaking photos of me with his dad's PDA. When I offered to take a photo with him, he finally agreed after hiding behind his dad for a few minutes. He sat on my lap and I gave him a kiss on the cheek. He smiled big and turned bright red - so cute! The next day when we de-trained, he made sure to give me a big wave goodbye. Eric was also a big hit with the little ladies. He acquired a cute little friend on our last train journey who he played a version of rubics cube with. She was quite enthralled. In general, we found the people on the train to be extremely friendly and excited to have us aboard. The family in our tour group even got a private concert commissioned last night in their seats by musicians sitting nearby them and in other cars down the train. There is certainly still a novelty of having Westerners around - especially on public trains and buses where it's more unusual to see tourists.

Terracotta Warriors - On the afternoon we arrived in Xi'an, we were taken by our local guide to see these amazing historical creations. Check out our photos to get a sense of the size and scope of what they've uncovered. And they haven't even finished the excavation. To read more about the Terracotta Warriors go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terracotta_Warriors.

Xi'an - We truly enjoyed this city of about 8 million. It's one of the only Chinese cities to still have in tact its historical city wall and we were able to take a bike ride with our friend Neil from our tour around the top of it - 14 kms in total. Due to the lack of single bikes, Eric and I rode tandem with me in the back. It took a bit of swerving before I figured out how to not lean and steer on my own accord and just let Eric do the work (that whole not being in control thing! :) We finally got into a groove and really enjoyed the view and just knowing we were riding on an ancient wall.

We also found a great little local noodle shop in one of the alleyways of this city and were served up 2 huge bowls of spicy noodles and 3 orange sodas for about $1. It's on my list of top meals in China. And shamefully, we have to admit to caving in and spending some time in Starbucks across the street from our hotel. It was just irresistible to have some familiar Western coffee, muffins and atmosphere. Though we were quite shocked to find that Starbucks has the same prices in China as it does in the USA, not at all reducing it's $3.50 coffees for the locals. Starbucks certainly was not as busy as all the McDonald's and KFC's we passed.

Panda Sanctuary - We spent a morning seeing pandas of all ages at this special sanctuary just outside of Chengdu...including iddy-biddy babies from 1 month to 4 days old! It was most fun to watch the "toddler" pandas who are about 10 months old. They are certainly docile animals - almost like teddy bears. The attendants in the "toddler" cage were able to easily pick them up, feed them and play with them. We could have sat there watching all day. As they get older they are more lethargic, not a surprise considering they spend something like 14-16 hours a day eating and the rest sleeping. And for a donation to the center, I was able to take a photo with one of the adolescent pandas (check out our photos from Chengdu!).

A Sense of Community in Parks, Squares and Tea Houses - All throughout China, people convene in the mornings and evenings to socialize and take part in dancing, singing, gaming and chatting. We got the best dose of this community feel when we were in Chengdu. After an afternoon nap, Eric and I set off with our friend Neil at about 4PM to the local park to check out the tea houses. Immediately when we entered the park, we saw a large group of people dancing to music blasting from a small speaker. They were ballroom dancing, line dancing and some of them were in their own little world dancing on the sidelines. The crowd was a mix of ages (though the majority were 40-50+), men and women...and no matter how good or bad they were, they were just enjoying the movement.

As we explored further into the park, we found an entire open-air pagoda filled with people watching as small groups put on dance performances, sang karaoke, or played traditional card games and mahjong. We sat in a tea house and played cards ourselves as we sipped tea along with others. Later in the evening as we were walking back to the hotel, we noticed that every public square or corner was filled with groups of people dancing, singing or drumming. Early in the mornings, people gather in the same way to practice Tai Chi and do exercises together. The atmosphere is so warm and inviting and gives off a real sense of community and belonging. We found ourselves thinking that if only we had a culture and practices this in the USA, we would not have the problems of loneliness and disconnectedness that is so common for our elderly. Everyone in a community - elderly and young - would be able to connect with each other and feel a part. This aspect of Chinese culture is by far one of our favorites.

Mt. Emei Shan - This was where we got our major workout of the trip. Eric decided the planned hike at this famous Buddhist mountain was not strenuous enough, so despite warnings from our guides of wild monkeys, snakes and a path less traveled, we opted to take the 23 km hike from the top of the mountain to the monastery where we'd meet the group to stay the night. Neil and another of our group members, Barbara, also came along on this adventure. Turns out, the Chinese version of "dangerous" hiking is not dangerous at all. The path was paved in stone with steps the entire way. We saw no snakes, but we did see lots of other people. In fact, there were snack shops and even restaurants dotted along the trail the entire way and near each of the monasteries we passed. The wild monkey warning was true, but we had sticks to bang on the ground to keep them at bay so they wouldn't attack us to get our bags and food. We did hear a couple interesting monkey stories from others we passed, but the monkeys we encountered must have felt well fed because they pretty much left us alone. What was difficult about the hike was the thousands (and we are not exaggerating here) of steps down the mountain. While we did have some uphill and flat areas, the bulk of the hike was steps down. At first, no prob. After 4 hours, our knees and legs began to ache. The next day, I almost couldn't walk from soreness. However, on day 2 we still had to hike the remainder of the way down the mountain. The result: I didn't walk normal for 4 days and had to have help walking down even 1 step. Eric, luckily, was in slightly better shape.

The other notable, and very amazing part of our visit to Mt. Emei Shan was staying 3 nights at monasteries - one at the bottom of the mountain and one part way up the mountain. These are working monasteries, open to the public and run by devout lamas. Our rooms were simple and the toilets/showers were communal (i.e., no doors and only small divides), but we didn't mind one bit. Throughout the night, and in the wee hours of the morning, we often woke to chanting, gongs banging, wood blocks clacking and the smell of incense. Had we been anywhere else, we would have not been happy with a 3, 4 and 5AM wake up call, but we found the smells and sounds of the monasteries to be very relaxing and peaceful. And the mountainous setting in lush forest and with magical, misty fog only added to the spiritual ambiance. It was by far the coolest place we've stayed so far.

The Bus Journey to Changching - This is on the list not so much as a highlight, but more as a point of disbelief...let me explain. After leaving Mt. Emei Shan, we boarded an 8-hour public bus to Changching where we would catch the boat to cruise the Yangtze. A public bus going long-distance is an experience in itself - we only almost had a head on collision once. In China right of way is pretty much determined by size of vehicle and overtaking other cars is permitted as long as the driver thinks he can - regardless of blind curves - and is indicated by beeping one's horn to say "here I come, get out of the way!." Scary driving rules aside, towards the beginning of the journey a young Chinese couple with a cute, bobble-head baby of about 2 months boarded and sat in the seats in front-diagonal to us. We noticed pretty early on that the baby had no diaper, but only a slit cut in the bottom of her pants (which is very common in China). We were curious how the mother would know when the baby needed to pee or otherwise, and what she would do. We soon found out...when she noticed it was peeing, she leaned its bum over the front of her seat and it peed on the floor. Ok, so you'd think she'd at least wipe it up when it finished. Not so. Instead, it just rolled to and fro. Supposedly baby's pee is considered very clean in China, but we weren't convinced. While we were not in the immediate range of "attack" of the drifting pee, we immediately decided to take our bags off the floor not knowing who had sat there before us! Thank God the little thing didn't have to go number 2!

Yangtze River Cruise and the Three Gorges - This 3-day cruise was a great chance to kick back and relax after 2 weeks of being on the move. Eric unfortunately came down with the flu on the first night so spend the majority of the cruise in our cabin sleeping and reading. It was good timing because he didn't miss too much and was feeling better by the time we got off the boat. I spent the three days catching up on journaling, reading and hanging out with Neil and other group members. The Yangtze isn't exactly a beautiful river...it's brown, polluted and there are many cities dotted along the way that aren't exactly scenic.

The part of the journey that was lovely was the three gorges tour where we were taken on smaller boats into some of the river off-shoots to see amazing gorges with rising cliff rock walls. Due to the Three Gorges Dam Project and building of the largest dam in the world to supply hydroelectric power, the river is rising and over a million people have had to be relocated on higher ground. They have built entire new cities, the old ones now being completely submerged. The final stage of the project and water level increase will be completed by 2009. At the end of our cruise, we were given a tour of the dam site. When everything is finished, the electricity from the dam will supply something like 8-10% of China's electricity. To read a bit more on the project check out:
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1999/china.50/asian.superpower/three.gorges/

Yang Shuo - This has been a highlight of our site seeing and experiencing in China. As mentioned above, it's one of the most well-recognized scenic areas of the country (check out our photos to see). In just three short days here, we've cruised the Li River (much prettier than the Yangtze), watched Cormorant fishing (a traditional way of fishing using Cormorant birds), gone bike riding in the country side to see the rice paddies and ancient villages, watched a spectacular show performed on the Li River with impressive lighting, sound and effects and over 600 actors (including some of the local fisherman), gotten a relaxing massage and taken a cooking class. This town was discovered by Western backpackers about 10 years ago and so has quite the backpacking culture complete with restaurants serving Western food, fun bars and great shopping. We thought we were in heaven when we ordered the "French" breakfast and were served French Toast, yogurt, fruit and scrambled eggs - yum! And compared to the cities we've visited with millions, this town of about 60,000 residents has felt much more manageable. A great place to end our visit to mainland China.

In addition to all the things we've seen and done on this trip, we have also learned so much from our conversations with people and our general observations. We will soon be posting a separate blog entry to share our thoughts and impressions about the Chinese - their culture, traditions, politics and hopes for the future. Stay tuned!

10 Days in Beijing

After an overnight train from Ulan-Baatar, which included a 5-hour stop at the border to check passports and hoist up the entire train to change the wheels to fit the Chinese tracks, we arrived to Beijing on Aug 3. Beijing is a bustling city with SO much to see and do, but after 10 days, we are eager to see more of what China has to offer and hit the road once again.

Having so much downtime here - with one tour ending and waiting for the next one to begin - this is also the first place we've experienced a bit of travel weariness and homesickness. We had such a fabulous time with our Vodka Train group across Russia and Mongolia that it was kinda melancholy to see it end. It has also been extremely hot on many days, which makes it easy to feel grouchy and tired cramming onto Chinese public transport and sight seeing in unbearable heat. But don't get us wrong, despite transitioning to the new culture and dealing with heat, we have thoroughly enjoyed our first Chinese city.

Since we've spent so much time here, we thought we'd condense our blog entry into our "Top Ten" experiences. In no particular order...

1. Hiking 10km on The Great Wall of China - Luckily the day we undertook this feat, it was overcast and actually quite cool. The hike started at a restored section of the wall, but soon moved to the more genuine sections. The wall climbs up and over many hills, so it was quite strenuous at times climbing up and down all the stairs between towers. The views were incredible and the engineering of this wall is truly phenomenal considering it goes on for 6,000 km (I think) over some very rough terrain. We also found that each person in our group acquired a farmer "friend" about a quarter of the way into the hike. They pair up with tourists to "help" you over the most difficult section to the halfway point and chat with you using their limited vocabulary (e.g., "Where you from?," "This side wall Mongolia, this side China," "How old are you?," and so on). While we knew that they were going to sucker us into buying a souvenir from them (we bought 2 cheesy t-shirts), I actually found it nice to have someone there to help me up and down some of the steep bits and to fan me at the top of long flights of stairs. You must check out the photos to get a better sense of our hike!

2. Staying with a Chinese family - Since we had about 5 days in between tours, we decided to arrange a home stay through Couchsurfing and found a lovely family to stay with for two nights. Changliang and Hong welcomed us into their home located about 30 mins from the city center. Changliang is an English professor at the Communication University and Hong works as a nurse in the clinic there (and she is a phenomenal cook). They have one daughter who we also met that is 20 years old and studying in Chengdu. We had many nice conversations with them about Chinese culture and they spoiled us with several traditional, home cooked meals (dumplings, noodles, and an assortment of Chinese dishes)...it was by far the best food we've had since arriving. We hope one day they will come visit us in the Bay Area so we can return their gracious hospitality.

3. The Night Market - We visited this market on our first night in town with some of the others from our Vodka Train group. Eric and Ali braved a number of local delicacies including sheep testicles, scorpion, cocoon, and centipede. I only managed the cocoon before I gave up. Again, you must check out the photos to get feel for the night market and its offerings!

4. The Summer Palace - So, let it be said that we visited here on what turned out to be the hottest day of the summer in Beijing (well over 100 degrees F), so we might have enjoyed it even more had we not been sweating buckets. Nonetheless, this assortment of temples and palace buildings located on many hectares of lush land with an array of flowers, trees and a lake was very beautiful. We took a boat ride, strolled around a bit (and rested a good deal in the shade), and peeked into a few of the main temples and buildings. We were thankful for the air conditioned bus ride back with a sweet pea popsicle - even if it did take us 1.5 hours to get back to the city center in the traffic (not uncommon in Beijing).

5. Acrobatic and Kung Fu shows (and the Peking Opera) - While in Beijing, we had plenty of opportunities to take in a few of the recommended shows. China is known for its talented acrobats, and we were quite impressed at the twisting, twirling, stretching, jumping and balancing of the child show we went to - all the acrobats being under age 17. Most impressive was the bike stunt where 12 + Chinese girls balanced on one bicycle and rode in perfect formation around the stage. We also went to a Kung Fu show, which we found to be targeted to Western tourists. I'm not sure how much "Kung Fu" actually took place, but the bright costumes, elaborate set, lighting/smoke/sound, dancing, singing, and some martial arts was fun to take in. Though 1.5 hours was enough. Our least favorite of the shows (where we were the only Westerners) was staged in the Forbidden City theater and was a Peking opera of sorts. There were a number of short skits with dialogue, singing and again elaborate costumes. However, everything was in Chinese with no translation. So after we took in enough of the "feel" of the show, we got tired of understanding nothing and snuck out at intermission.

6. The Forbidden City - Known as one of the most famous tourist sites in China, the Forbidden City was not as impressive as we had hoped. The history of emperors that lived here is quite interesting, but since the historical site is undergoing major reconstruction efforts until 2020, many of the main buildings are covered in scaffolding and not accessible to the public. That aside, there is much beautiful Chinese architecture and a lovely garden towards the back gate. It is said you could spend an entire week seeing every room in this palace (there are 9,999 and half), but for us, 2.5 hours was sufficient.

7. Chinese Massage - After our Mongolian massage experience, we decided it would be interesting to try a massage in every country we visit - one must try the local styles! We found ourselves a little massage place near our hotel and had a one-hour full body massage for around $8US. The massage therapists had no trouble finding our sore spots from loads of walking (and our new daily regime of sit-ups, push-ups, lunges and squats we've started to stay in shape). They twisted, pulled, pushed and rubbed us until we could feel no more. It was fabulous!

8. The Pearl and Silk Markets - Over the course of the week, we replenished our clothing supply (throwing out some of the worn pieces of our wardrobe) by going to the Pearl and Silk markets. These places are floors filled with clothes, bags, shoes, jewelry, silk, souvenirs and electronics. You have to bargain - and I don't mean that lightly. To get the prices we wanted, we endured hard bargaining consisting of arguing, hollering, walking away, getting chased, having our wrists held and slapped, getting guilty spiels, and much more. We got some pretty good deals, but it was exhausting and we could only handle so much before we wanted to scream. At that point, we had to call it a day. The little Chinese shop girls said to me today, "Lady, your boyfriend bargain so hard - he is so tough, you should leave him." But thanks to Eric's resilience and incredible bargaining skills, we got what we wanted without getting ripped off - unlike some of the other tourists paying way too much. It was fun, but I think I prefer shopping at places where the price is set and it's already a good bargain.

9. Peking Duck - This is the famous local "must-have" meal. We indulged on the first night and I loved it! Eric is not as big of a duck fan, so he's had to talk me out of ordering it again, but it certainly was something you have to try at least once while in the city.

10. Night out on the town - To commemorate our last night out with our Vodka Train tour group, the lot of us found a local Beijing night club to party it up. After drinking a few over-priced beers, we ventured onto the dance floor - complete with laser lights, stage smoke, and incredibly loud house and pop music (and some good ole' favorites like "YMCA" - though the locals don't know the hand motions). By the end of the evening, we had blended completely with the locals, sharing drinks, dancing together (even on stage for a bit), laughing, singing, and shouting. It was amazing to us how it didn't feel much different than a big night out in California - or anywhere in the world for that matter.

More and more, especially with our generation and below, popular culture is spreading like wild fire and providing a uniting common experience for young people across the globe. Whether it's watching "Die Hard" on the big screen in Sweden, stumbling upon the 3AM opening of the new "Harry Potter" book in Moscow, or dancing the night away to familiar music and atmosphere at the club in Beijing, young people around the world are growing up with similar exposure to music, media, brand name shopping, information via the Internet, fast food chains and more. We have been astonished again and again at the globalization that is taking place and the role of big business in this process. The question remains, can this be a positive, unifying influence for our global community...or will this have a negative, consumerist impact that results in an "all out for myself" mentality? Our hope is that it will be the first, and that we can use these common experiences and exposure to our advantage in creating understanding and commonality as we grow into leadership positions and work together in business, government and humanitarian efforts. What do you think? - We'd like to know and hear from you!

Towards the end of our Beijing stay, we met up with our new tour group through Intrepid (to read about our trip itinerary click here: http://www.intrepidtravel.com/trips/CSE). This tour is much more a mix of ages - from 14 to 50-something. There are 12 of us in total including a family of four from Britain, an Aussie couple, and a few solo travelers. It's a much different feel from our 20-something tour through Russia and Mongolia, but we think it will be a very nice group of people to travel with through China. Our tour leaders (who are with us throughout the trip) are two Chinese girls in their mid-twenties, Eugenie and Yolanda. We've already started picking their brains on a variety of topics including the one child policy, Mao, Chinese culture and traditions, religion and more. They have been very willing to speak candidly about their experiences and opinions, so we'll be sure to write a future entry to share our Chinese learnings once we finish our stay here - so stayed tuned.

In the meantime, if you're interested in reading a bit more about the growing influence of China on the world stage, check out this article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070814/ap_on_el_pr/us_china2008_campaign

For now, we better sign off so we can continue enjoying the best part of travel - experiencing as much as possible!

Please feel free to continue writing to us on email or by posting comments on the blog with your thoughts and questions - we do enjoy hearing from you.

-Mariah and Eric

Mongolia

After our interesting and painstakingly long border crossing from Russia, we arrived to Ulan-Baatar the following morning and met our new guide, Tsolmon. Tsolmon has an interesting background...his father was in the Mongolian air force and died in a test flight when he was only 5 years old. His mother eventually re-married an American scientist who spent his summers doing research in Mongolia. At about age 10, Tsolmon moved with his mother to Philadelphia and since then has spent his school years in the USA. He is currently going to Temple University in Philadelphia, but spends his summers and some semesters back in the Mongolian countryside helping his grandparents (his father's parents) with their herds of sheep and horses. He also works as a tour guide and is planning to help his mom open a tour company specializing in bringing American tourists on hiking excursions to Mongolia.


Tsolmon was able to answer most of our questions about life in rural Mongolia, and even offered to take people out to his family's Ger on a separate trip. He did this for an American reporter this past year - so let us know if you would like an authentic Mongolian experience - riding horses, eating the local cuisine, and living in a Ger for two weeks!


Tsolmon showed us around Ulan-Baatar, which has two main streets that break the city into four quadrants. Just off the main roads, you find crumbling soviet block housing, shanty-type dwellings and even some city gers. However, now that the country is becoming a bit wealthier, there are numerous building projects going on throughout the city so perhaps in several years it won't appear as run down. There isn't much to say about downtown Ulan-Baatar, it's like Tijuana with huge stone complexes and gers mixed in.


We did take some time to visit the huge statues of Genghis Khan in the center of the city and the Mongolian History museum, which proved how much history we had learned from reading our book "In the Land of Genghis Khan" by Stanley Stewart before we arrived to the country (we highly recommend this book if you're interested in Mongolia). The museum did fill in some of the gaps and helped us better understand Mongolia's history and how traditional nomadic life combined with Chinese and Russian influences to make-up modern Mongolian culture.

After a day in Ulan-Baatar we were ready to head out to the countryside (1.5 hrs outside Ulan-Baatar). After a hair-raising minibus ride, which Mariah is still recovering from, we arrived at our tourist Ger camp, which consisted of a main camp that had 3 extra-large gers for the dining hall and about 20-30 smaller gers for guests. Our gers were located about a 5-10 min walk from the main camp - our group shared 4 gers between 14 people. Mariah and I shared with Paul and Caroline, an Australian couple on our tour.


Ok, so how is a Ger constructed? Well from our best reckoning, a Ger has a lattice base of wood and birch wood beams that serve as the ceiling support. After the lattice and beams are in place, a heavy wool mat is laid around and on top, which is then covered with white plastic to rain proof the structure. There are three poles that stand up in the middle of the Ger to help support the cone shaped top. There is a hole at the center of the roof, similar to a tee pee, where the smoke from the stove is piped out. We all agreed that gers were great to stay in...until it started to rain heavily for 12 hours. We found that our tourist Ger was not so well looked after and it began to spring leaks everywhere. Paul and I were able to effectively seal off the roof after my bed and some of our bags were soaked. After resolving the major leaks, we cranked up the wood stove and turned our little Ger into the best sauna we've had yet. We had a great afternoon reading and chatting while we dried out our stuff.

Also while in the countryside,we visited a local family's Ger to get a taste of home cooking. Home cooking in this instance consisted of:

- Airag: Fermented mare's milk...need I say more, this stuff tasted like bad milk and vinegar mixed and then carbonated. The worst part is that you don't drink it in a cup but instead a bowl. Yes, we did finish it out of courtesy, but no one felt too well afterward.


- Hardened cheese: These looked like little biscuits, so we all thought it was safe...turns out to have been the worst tasting of the dishes


- Pudding with hardened donut things: This is fresh milk that is mixed with flour, boiled and left out overnight so that it becomes a pudding. This pudding was Mariah's favorite and she had several helpings.

Besides the local cuisine, we learned some interesting customs about family Ger life. For example, men are seated at the back and the right side of the Ger, while the women are seated at the left. The door of all gers is supposed to face East to the sunrise and it is considered very bad form (and bad luck) to step directly on the threshold of the Ger. Across Mongolia, a traveler or passerby is welcomed at all gers to stop and rest, have a meal, a chat, and stay the night. Mongolians are some of the most hospitable people you will ever find. Despite many miles across vast distances, Mongolia is like a small community with news and gossip traveling easily across the country.

Our honcho Tsolmon once drove some cattle from his grandparent's Ger camp 400 km to Ulan-Baatar. All along his way, he stayed in local gers or camped when there were none in sight. It took him 3 weeks to complete the journey.

In addition to our family visit and a day spent shielding ourselves from the rain, we were able to take a short horse back ride. This is only worth mentioning because we were in Mongolia - the land of great horsemen. Our tourist horses were lazy, slow and stubborn...refusing to go any faster than a slow walk despite kicking, whipping, hollering. It was also quite comical because Mongolian horses are quite a bit smaller than Western horses so we almost dwarfed the poor things. The locals' horses were quite a lot faster to say the least. I did get a chance to ride a Mongolian wooden saddle, which was actually pretty comfortable, though you have to lean to one side to make it bearable for long distances.

After our Ger expedition, we headed back to Ulan-Baatar for one more night out and a massage. The massage was supposedly a Taiwanese massage (we're not entirely sure). The six in our group who went were all put into the same room along with others and given flannel PJs. The room was lined with comfy chairs and foot stools and filled with the smallest Mongolian women we had seen the whole trip pounding, twisting, kneeing and rubbing backs, necks, hands, legs and feet. The sounds coming out of the room must have made people on the street run because it sounded like they were torturing us. I was literally tearing up as this 80 pound girl dug under my collar bone with her elbow and twisted me to and fro. However, in the end (and after a few beers) we all felt great.

Overall, our time in Mongolia was a blast. And after reading about the nomadic life style and the impact of the Soviet Union on Mongolian society (see book mentioned above), it was amazing to see what life was like in the city and countryside. What was probably most surprising was that even in Ulan-Baatar, many people live in gers - there are gers all along the outskirts of the city, and even in the downtown areas.


Northern Mongolian landscapes are beautiful with sweeping planes and rock outcroppings. It wasn't until we started to cross the Gobi Desert in the South that we found the landscape we were expecting in Siberia - vast "nothingness," brown deserts and grass stretching for miles on end. Lucky for us, we crossed the Gobi mostly at night so weren't too bothered by the heat or dust the train kicked up.


Mongolia can't possibly be captured in words, so please take a look at some of the photos we've posted. If you want to learn more about their way of life, read the book we recommended or watch the Academy Award nominated documentary on Mongolian life in the Gobi Desert called "The Weeping Camel".


Until next time,
Eric

The Border Crossing from Russia to Mongolia

We had read in our tour literature that the border crossing between Russia and Mongolia is a once in a lifetime experience, and they were right...

Our train journey and border crossing from Russia to Mongolia would have been slightly more pleasant had we had carriage attendants as lovely at Irina and Tatyana. Unfortunately, we were stuck with two catty Mongolian women who were quite content on making themselves at home at the cost of their passengers. They decided that we didn't need access to the two bathrooms on the carriage, so they closed one for their own private use (and the use of their family members they had on the journey) and made everyone else go to the toilet at the far end - the one they didn't clean or resupply with toilet paper. They were also quite protective of the hot water...they had to literally stoke a fire in a stove underneath to heat it up, and when they decided to let the fire die at the border because of the heat, they filled up their thermos canisters to use it for themselves (and their family) while it was empty for everyone else. If you were lucky, asked nicely or begged, you could get them to give you some.

And then there was the Mongolian guy who brought on board his pet Chinchilla. He hid the little creature in his bag and then kept it in the compartment...except when it occasionally snuck out into the corridor. He also was carrying about 10 boxes of fruit back over the border to sell and decided to store them in our friend's cabin while boarding and then have the boys carry everything for him back to his own compartment. A very quirky guy to say the least...and characteristic of this train journey where tourists mixed with the locals.

After a night on the train from Irkustk, we arrived to the Russian border town of Naushki at 1PM. The temperature was pushing 100 degrees Fahrenheit, with no fans or aircon on the train. It was scorching hot with no where to go to cool off. This wouldn't have been such a bad deal if it were a speedy passport and visa check, but that is not what the Russian bureaucrats have in mind. For the first few hours, we just sat there...luckily they did let us off the train to wander around, but there wasn't much to see. About 5 mins walk away there was a small market set up in metal shanty shacks selling clothes, underwear, and shoes (no thanks)...and one stand selling noodles and a few bottles of water. Otherwise, there were only a couple block buildings housing a waiting room (which was slightly cooler than outside or the train) and a bathroom that you had to pay to use.

Side note: The toilets on the train are closed during the entirety of the border crossings - makes sense considering the "residue" is deposited directly onto the tracks. This wasn't such a bad deal at the Russian/Mongolian crossing because there was a bathroom, but at the Mongolian/China crossing (where you couldn't de-train), a few of our travel mates almost peed into their empty cups of noodles. We luckily had used the facilities just before they closed them, so were ok.

So back to the Russian border...there were hours of sitting and waiting, fanning ourselves and finally soaking our towels in the bathroom sinks with cold water to put on our heads for relief. After about 5 hours, immigration officers came onto our carriage and asked for passports. They checked each one very carefully, asking our names and examining our photos. They then took them away for another two hours. When they finally returned, they handed back the passports and then searched each compartment - under and above the seats - for any stowaways or unreported goods.

Luckily, we didn't have any trouble, but we did find out from an Australian couple who got put on our train last minute that they had tried to enter Russia 3 days before their visa allowed. They were promptly taken off their train and put into a locked room for 18 hours with two make-shift beds while their passports where confiscated. They were let out two or three times briefly to go to the bathroom, walk around and buy water (all while the Russian guards teased and laughed at them). When our train came, they put them on it to deport them back to Mongolia until their visa was valid. Lesson: pay VERY CAREFUL attention to the instructions on your visa and follow them! One cannot enter before or leave after the dates noted...at least not in Russia (or China for that matter).

After a grueling 7 hours in the unbearable heat, they finally let our train cross the border into Mongolia. But we were not yet home free...we still had to get clearance from the Mongolian side. Thank God in Heaven, this side of the border was much quicker - taking only 2-3 hours - and there was more to see at the border. Once we arrived, they boarded our carriage promptly to take our passports and after about 45-minutes came back to return them. It was finally getting into the evening and cooling off slightly. After we were all checked, they let us off the train for about an hour while they pieced it back together and added some more carriages (they had separated the train into pairs of carriages for the border crossing to do two at a time). There were a ton of people on the platform selling and buying sweets, snacks and water. We bought an ice cream, only to find out it tasted like sour milk. I gave mine to a local boy who was delighted at a free ice cream. Finally, we were on our way for another 10 hour journey to Ulanbaatar.

From Moscow to Lake Baikal

Hello all,

We are on day 5 in Beijing and greatly enjoying being in one place for awhile. We spent the day yesterday haggling at the Pearl Market for fun cheap electronics - Eric bought some mini ipod speakers - and some new clothes. Today it's been raining all day, so we are enjoying some down time to relax, read and catch up on email and internet stuff.

The train trip through Russia was quite an adventure and a once in a lifetime experience. Let me begin in Moscow...

We boarded the train late in the evening for our 4 night, 3 day journey through Siberia to Irkutsk and Lake Baikal. We were welcomed (well, maybe just casually greeted) onto our carriage by our two attendants - Irina and Tatyana. Every long distance train has two attendants per carriage...their role is to take care of the carriage by cleaning the corridors and bathrooms, making sure the hot water at the end of the carriage is working, keeping track of passengers at the different stops to get everyone back on the train and so on. For most our train journeys, we had female attendants with the exception of the train from Mongolia to China when we had two males. Luckily, for our longest journey, Irina and Tatyana turned out to be the friendliest and most pleasant. (To read more about VodkaTrain tours go to: http://www.vodkatrain.com/)

On night one of our Trans-Siberian crossing, it was one of our travel mate's birthdays (Fred), so we had to celebrate Russian style (i.e., with plenty of vodka). The partying went well into the night...it's amazing how many people you can fit into a tiny compartment if you want to, I think we managed all 14 of us at one point. Needless to say, our first morning on the train was spent sleeping in - until the afternoon. But hey, not much else to do on the train so we were quite happy to catch up on sleep with many sleep ins and numerous daytime naps.

Aside from sleeping, our days were spent reading, journaling, playing cards, exploring the other train carriages and the dining car (which was too expensive for our taste), and eating countless cup-o-noodles and soups. They provide boiling hot water in each carriage so it's safe to have hot drinks and hot water meals. I managed to scald myself only once when the train jolted as I was filling my soup...Eric, Ester and Fran helped me nurse my wounds with a cold beer can and cucumber slices. Luckily, not long term damage.

Every several hours or so, in between all this very exciting activity, we made a 15-20 minute stop at a local station. Sometimes we were in the middle of nowhere, other times at city stops. Regardless, at each stop there were a number of small stands, carts or "Babushkas" selling bottled water, soda, chips, sweets, cucumbers and tomatoes (the most common vege), fresh berries and, when we were lucky, cooked local treats and meals (chicken, ground beef, potatoes, meat pies, pancakes with cheese, dumplings and more). It was fun to haggle and try the local flavors. Needless to say, we did not starve on this journey...in fact, quite the opposite.

As far as scenery, Siberia is not nearly as desolate as the name would indicate. I don't know why, but we were expecting a lot of "nothingness"- maybe desert, bleak grasslands or something of the like. We were wrong. In the summer, Siberia is quite lush and green. There are stretching grasslands, but they are not bleak. There are sometimes mountains in the distance, and at times we passed by rivers and small lakes. Birch trees are dotted all along the way and occasionally we passed through dense forests. It was actually a very beautiful landscape. The population along the route was minimal and infrequent. An occasional village or town and maybe two or three sizable cities. However, we were often surprised how we would be in what we thought was the middle of nowhere and there would be some random person moseying on their way near the tracks, or posted up on a tree stump eating something for lunch as they watched the train pass by.

All in all, our mammoth train journey was very pleasant. It was almost a forced vacation where you didn't have to feel guilty about sleeping, eating and just hanging out. There were no sights to see and no work to be done. And we had the very pleasant company of our 12 travel mates, which made it nice to socialize and play games. Don't get me wrong, when we arrived at Irkutsk on the morning of day 4, we were ready to de-train and were welcomed by our next "honcho" guide, Kostya.

After we re-filled our wallets in Irkutsk, we were immediately put on a bus and driven through the countryside/forest for an hour to the shores of Lake Baikal where we spent the next few days. This is the world's deepest lake and holds something like 1/5 of the world's fresh, unfrozen water - more than North America's five Great Lakes combined. It is a beautiful place and so clear that during the day you can see meters and meters down below. Our accommodation was in a really nice chalet-style place about a 10-minute walk from the shore. During our time here, we went on two lovely hikes to view-points to take in the scenery, ventured out on a boat trip, sunbathed on the shore (Eric braved the freezing water and took a short - very short - swim), and did a bit of shopping.

The highlight of our time here, however, was the Russian banya - or sauna. Kostya arranged for us to have this must-try experience in our hotel's sauna. Everyone had to strip down and wrap themselves in a sheet. Then we all piled into the little wooded sauna heated by hot rocks (it was 110 degrees Celsius at its hottest) for about 10 minutes. During round two, Kostya splashed the rocks with water to up the steam and the heat. For round three, he took us in individually and had us lay down on the wooded bench and then whipped us (not too hard) on both sides with birch branches. It sounds painful, I know, but it actually felt (and smelled) really nice once you got over the initially sting of it. It's Russian tradition and something they typically do at least once a week throughout the year. The entire experience with all the ins-and-outs of the sauna, the whipping, the sweating and the cold water splash at the end took about 2 hours. It was heaven.

On our last day, we ventured back to Irkutsk for several hours for Internet, a walk around and some food before we boarded our next train that would take us to Mongolia...and the border crossing...

Moscow

Its been a while since we've had the chance to write updates, but Mariah and I are doing well and have made it through Russia and Mongolia and are now doing some R&R is Beijing for the next week. We have some catching up to do so let me start out with our time in Moscow.

We moved quickly through Moscow and in three days covered :
The Kremlin, St. Basil's Cathedral, The Red Square, Lenin's Tomb, and enjoyed a River Cruise to the University where there is an amazing lookout point.

All of these sights were interesting and are well documented in our photo section.

One interesting cultural tidbit we learned about is the Russian wedding tradition...after the bride and groom go to the court house to get married, they tour the city in a limo to a number of traditional sites to take photos with each other and their bridal party - drinking and making merry all the way. So, in St. Petersburg, Moscow and Irkutsk, we saw dozens of brides and grooms everywhere we went (check out the photos).

Our most enlightening experience while in Moscow, however, was the morning we spent with Dave and Fumiyo. To set the scene...we arrived in the morning with the Vodka Train tour group after a night on the train from St. Petersburg to Godzillas Hostel, probably the worst hostel we've stayed at (but that's not important - could have been worse). After arriving, Mariah called Dave & Fumiyo to figure out how to meet with them, and it turns out their flat in Moscow was less than one block from our hostel.

We first need to thank the Holley's for introducing us to Dave and Fumiyo while they were visiting California this past March. Dave is currently the Russian correspondent for the LA Times and Fumiyo is a "jack-of-all-trades," writing for journal publications in Japan and a freelance photographer. Between the two of them, they have lived and documented major events in Eastern Europe, Russia, China, Japan and have a combined wealth of knowledge and experience we were eager to learn about.

They treated us to a home cooked breakfast (a nice break from PB&J) and we sat around their dinning room table discussing Russian politics, history and the future of our increasingly global society. Dave was extremely patient and filled in the gaps from our secondary school Russian history lessons and brought us up to speed on the rise and fall of Communism in Russia, the current government under Putin, and Russian foreign relations with the US, Europe, Mongolia, and China. I won't go into the details now, but via email we would love to discuss in more detail our thoughts on Russia if you are interested. Our conversations with Dave and Fumiyo, combined with the conversations we had with our young Russian guides throughout the country about their perspectives on the current government and the future of their country/world, makes for interesting discussions.

All in all, we found very optimistic youth that are excited for change and eager to jump on growing opportunities and to adopt new ways that are more in line with Western European sentiments. In some ways, they are just waiting for the older generation of politicians - who spent most of their lives in a communist country - to transition out so the next generation with new ideas and great energy can transition in. In general, we were surprised to find that Russian cities had a very European feel to them- the shopping, style, music, technology, etc. felt very similar to our own.

On another note, we did get a chance to visit the Vodka Museum in Moscow, which would have been a failed endeavor (the museum was one room with some poor diagrams and a few posters on the wall) if there wasn't a complimentary shot at the end of the tour. :)

As far as Moscow night life...our guide, Natasha, took us out to one of her favorite bars in Moscow. The evening was nice, but the highlight was on the walk back to the hostel at 3:30am when we stumbled upon the grand opening of the new Harry Potter book (opened at 3:00am to coincide with the UK opening). It's incredible how some things are so universal - like the world's obsession with Harry Potter! This was a life saver because the next day we departed on a train to Irkutsk, which is roughly 3 days and 4 nights through the middle of Siberia. But after two days of solid reading (I disappeared from civilization and didn't put the book down), I was forced back to Crime and Punishment, a little contrast from Harry Potter.

One more sidebar...as requested by some of you, I did talk about literature with our local guides, Natasha in Moscow and Lera in St. Petersburg, and also Fumiyo. There was a general consensus that Russian literature and poetry focus more on how you say something, not what you say. This can mean long, laborious literary passages and descriptions that go on and on, which is one of the reasons why Crime and Punishment feels like a chore to read.

More to come soon from Mariah about the rest of our Russian adventures...

Until Next Time,
Eric