Mongol hording

This was always going to be the easy bit – tourism by numbers. We were collected from the train by Dairii and Pilgung who would be our guide and driver for the next couple of days. The train carpark is a kind of organized chaos but it seems to work and without the contingent shouting and blasts of horn that you might expect.  However the roads are a more familiar kind of chaos which is only strange in that it is surprising to see them working. There seems to be an unspoken code in which everyone drives as proactively as possible but still within the bounds of common sense and so cars are allowed to nudge into seemingly stationary lines of traffic and the natural order prevails – which doesn’t stop the pretty girls in big cars getting through first, at least with our driver. 

The currency exchange counter at the bank is run along similarly unfair lines – foreigners don’t need to wait but go into a little office apart, still furnished with the reinforced glass screen and can change money without waiting on the ticket system installed for the other tellers. 

We were taken to a buffet style restaurant in a department store for lunch where we ordered four different dishes of typical Mongolian fare. The traditional noodles with beef were excellent – really delicately flavoured with cinnamon and anise and all four dishes very distinct and flavoursome. Already the prejudice of stodgy boiled mutton is blown out of the water.

Then we hit the road at the height of the rush hour to leave the city for the Terelj national park where we will be spending the night in a Ger camp. The driving remains resolutely proactive on the roads leading out of town and the overriding necessity appears to be overtake or be overtaken, regardless of oncoming traffic. Things can only get more exciting as we turn off for the national park and all semblance of sealed road is left behind. There are sections of road, and vast tracts of non-road where we choose the least pot-holed looking track, avoiding cattle and goats as necessary, allowing the 4x4s to pass in their great hurry on the less even track. Given that we are travelling in a small sedan it is amazing we get anywhere at all but there is never a doubt in the drivers mind as to this despite the frankly worrying squeaks emanating from the front drivers side wheel. The countryside opens out to a stunning river bed and we begin to spot unusual rock formations, the pace gets ever slower and finally we turn off into a tiny collection of houses accessible via a sliding gateway operated by bored security guard.

Passing more rock formations, we leave the village, chasing squirrels along ever more bumpy tracks and suddenly we arrive at a further gateway, “Welcome to Temir” and turning the corner discover a small camp of ger (Mongolian word for yurt). The setting is exquisite and this is the end of the track – it feels remote and serene.

(This seems awfully long.... let's do two posts.....)

Capital driving

Country driving

Obligatory view (no, really, we were turfed out of car to take this one, no choice)

The beginnings of rock formations and the very unsealed road

Newly-intrepid mother not whacking head against door-jamb (50:50 occurrence on leaving ger)

One of my fave pics of the whole trip. We woz 'ere

View from above the camp, apologies
for over-exposure.

 NB:  

I could do a whole post on wild-flowers, don't tempt me.

And finally, wakey wakey rise and shine: the sound of hundreds of happy crickets in the sunshine and a short visit to our ger. 

Beijing to Ulaan Baatar

Early start – up at 5.30 to be at the station an hour before train departure at 8.05 – the adventure begins!  An international crowd awaits departure – quite a number of French including two families with small children, Chinese, Mongolian, Dutch, Russian, us….. Berth 5 and 6, Cabin 2, Carriage 2; we discover my new big bag won’t fit in the under bunk stash but happily there are only us two in the cabin for the time being so bag can sit on seat out of the way.

Departing photoshoot was not only for us tourists but also the cabin crew who seemed to be training up a new staff member. The carriage and, in fact, the train, was not very full so there was plenty of room for hopping up and down and taking pictures. Interspersed with restorative snoozing, obviously. Buffet car food really tasty – despite only being scrambled eggs with tomatoes and plain rice; either we are easily pleased or Chinese cooking is amazing!

Coming into Erlian the sky was lit up with an incredible display of lightning – the longest forks we’ve ever seen and running in all directions concurrently with sheets lighting the whole sky. This station was where the Chinese border guards checked our passports so we could gaze for quite a while until we were shunted into the sheds for the bogie changing. We had a great view from the end of the carriage as we were lifted free of the wheels and then the new sets were run under us (changing from narrow gauge to standard 5ft gauge).

The Mongolian border control was the least strict I have seen – admittedly the lights went on but no one wanted to gaze earnestly at us whilst checking the passports. These things always seem to happen in the dead of night, perhaps for maximum effect. We could eventually get off to sleep long after 1am.

In the morning we awaken to views across the steppes of the Gobi dessert – vast tracts of grass with wildflowers and the odd herd of grazing horses, cattle or goats. Any buildings are brightly painted and slowly we start to spot solitary ger (mongolian yurts).

Follow link for bogie-change video (apologies for inane commentary) http://youtu.be/1xVmbodaKEI

Bay window in train, of course

Feeling hot hot hot

I always forget how much I hate moving from temperate to roasting temperatures and I seem to have developed a knack for wearing cowboy boots whilst I’m about it. This just isn’t very pleasant. As an extra-special gift I left NZ with the germs for a cold which brewed on the flight and came out beautifully in Beijing. I made it out for a half day to the Temple of Heaven which felt mainly like shade-hopping and crowd-avoiding. Then spent a full day in bed feeling achey and snotty.

Once again food in China has proved excellent – inexpensive, tasty and fun to order (since you never really know what you’re getting until you taste it). Our last evening was animated by an impressive thunderstorm – we watched from our restaurant as the wind blew up, the lightning lit the streets and the rain fell in sheets. It soon became clear that it wasn’t going to let up and that crossing the street would involve wading through newly-formed puddles but at least the temperature had cooled slightly.

Whistlestop

Goodbye NZ, it's been fun..... en route for new adventures back in the northern hemisphere.

Watch this space for TRAVEL* updates: I will be flying out of Auckland to Beijing in 29hrs time and there I will meet up with my newly intrepid Mother. We'll spend a couple of short days exploring since she has never been there (no pressure on me to play the tourguide..... much) and then hop a train for Ulan Bator. Couple of days exploring Mongolia (yeah, yeah, not enough, I know) and onwards to Moscow. In principle, we should be back in the UK for August 16th.

*Note: this is specifically directed at BRAN, who apparently didn't twig the first time that a travel blog might actually contain info about TRAVELS.

View from window on Christchurch - Hamilton flight

Adieu la Nouvelle Zélande, ça a été chouette ..... en avant pour l'aventure de nouveau en hémisphère nord.

Gardez l’œil ici pour des reportages sur mon périple: j'ai un vol Auckland-Pékin d'ici 29heures et la je retrouve ma Mère l'exploratrice. Nous restâmes quelques jours brefs car elle n'y est jamais allé (pas (trop) de pression sur moi a faire le guide.....) et ensuite nous allons prendre un train pour Ulan Bator. 2/3 jours a explorer le Mongolie (oui, oui, je sais bien que c'en ai guerre assez) et nous reprenons le train vers le Moscou. En principe, nous sommes de retour en Angleterre le 16 aout.

Great Lake Taupo region

J'ai de la famille en NZ.....ce qui faisait d'ici le premier endroit à visiter une fois diplômé.... nan, mais vous savez qu'ils font du vin par ici? Et oui, parole! Même du pas mauvais, si on sait où chercher (et je précise que ca fait rarement le Marlborough. Sorry). Évidement c'est bien le seul raison. Rien à voir avec le fameux paysage.

Et bien, cette famille est basée autour de Rotorua dans l’ile du nord dans la région de Great Lake Taupo. Et ma foi c’est beau déjà. Je me risque du libelle en disant qu’Auckland est très moche. Je dirai même encore plus moche que Christchurch qui a au moins une petite excuse. Du coup peut être que mes sympathies viennent tout simplement du fait que j’étais dans la campagne encore (bien possible) mais vraiment je trouvais beau ce lieu.

Voici donc quelques images – du parc géothermique à Lake Taupo (faut dire qu’il y a mieux à venir quand on passe à Rotorua), et plus près de mes relations – un beau coucher du soleil à la ferme, Waikato et des pierres flottantes ! Volcanique sûrement mais plus que marrant quand on y tombe dessous je vous assure.

I have family in NZ .... which clearly made it the perfect place to come visit once I qualified ..... no, but they have wine here, did you realise? Yes, honestly! Obviously you have to know where to look (and that's rarely Marlborough, I'm afraid). That's the only reason, of course....the magnificent scenery did not have the remotest influence.

So, yes, the aforementioned family are around Tokoroa in the Great Lake Taupo region of the north island. Which turns out to be quite stunningly lovely. I shall risk being libellous in labelling Auckland as really quite ugly. I would go as far as to say even uglier than Christchurch which at least has a fairly credible excuse. On the other hand, it could be fair to say that my sympathies with the region may be closely linked to the fact that it's simply back out in the countryside (perfectly possible, given previous evidence) but honestly it's very pretty here.

See below a few pictures; the geothermal park in Taupo (although I would say there are better pix to follow from Rotorua) and, closer to home, a nice sunset at the farm, somewhere along the Waikato river and some floating stones! Ok, fine, they're probably just pumice but it's something excellent and confusing to stumble across. I'd put up the video but it simply doesn'd do them justice.

"Crater's of the Moon" geothermal park

 

View from Waikato river trail

Floating stones

mise a jour..... / updates....

Bon, les vendanges termines.... je me disais que je doive vous mettre a la page..... Ca fait bien trop longtemps que je sois arrive en NZ et je n'ai pas vraiment mis de fotos. Alors on va faire un petit tour, d'accord?

Alors,arrive en Auckland en fevrier c'etait au moment du nouvel an Chinois et on a profite de la festivale des lanternes. Ensuite mon pere est arrive et on a ete recupere par ma cousine pour rentrer dans la famille. 

So, since the harvest is over.... I feel like I really owe you some updates. In fact, its been over 4 months that I've been in NZ and I've barely put a foto on here. So, let's do a little tour....

We arrived in Auckland in early february in time for Chinese New Year and so we got to see the lantern festival. Then my dad arrived and we were picked up by my cousin and taken back to meet The Family.

pretty tree lotuses

monkeh!

lunes

Snooooooooooooooooow!

Spot the difference:

view NW through vines from the hill beind house (12/5/12)

view WNW across vines from hill (7/6/12)

It snoooooowwed!!!! Everywhere!

Mountford Estate

Alors ici ca vendange, enfin. C'est bien et longuement attendu. Du coup je vous fais partie de petit video. Tranquilo, hein?

Here we're picking, finally.... About time too. I thought maybe you'd like to see a quick video. Chilled out, eh?

Singapore

Fin janvier 2012 : Et on arrive dans la super-civilisation. Ce qui veut dire 'c'est quoi ce bordel?!' J'avais rdv avec une amie de famille ici et elle m'avait précisé : dans la communauté expatriée à Singapour on te demande 3 questions : que fais tu (ou plutôt ton mari) dans la vie? Dans quel quartier habitez-vous? est ce que vous ayez une voiture (à suivre par, 'quelle modèle?`)? Je crois que tout cela est très proche à mon pire cauchemar..... par ailleurs, c'est ici que je me suis acheté un petit ordi genre netbook et un appareil photo numérique. J'en suis largement contente donc ok, c'est pas mauvais le Singapour. Par contre, il faut quand même que je précise : il ne vaut pas la peine de venir jusqu'à ici acheter ton joujou car vous trouverez largement les même prix sur amazon ou ailleurs sur la toile.

On est aller faire une balade canopée dans les jardins botanique (j'ai loupé voir le serpent qui a fait peur à un joggeur devant nous.... bien le seul créature vivant sur le chemin). Observation : c'est quand même flippante de voir à quel point les arbres se déplace avec les coups de vent à hauteur de leurs sommets.

End of january 2012 and it's welcome to the super-civilisation... or at least to another world. I had a family friend to visit here and she told me that in the expat community you get asked three questions : what do you (or more likely your husband) do ? Which part of town do you live in ? Do you own a car (and if so which make?)? It essentially sounds like my idea of hell. On the flip-side, I did pick up a netbook and a digital camera so it can't all be bad. Although I should probably point out it is in no way worth coming here to buy digital equipment as you can pick it up just as cheap on amazon or elsewhere on the web.

We did do a nice rainforest canopy walk here near to the botanical gardens. I just missed seeing a snake which freaked out a jogger in front of us... the only living creature in our whole 300metre trail. Observation : it's nevertheless incredible to see the extent to which trees sway and bend with the wind when you are at summit height.

It RAINED (apparently it does this a lot)

I went Hindu temple visiting

Malaysia

Voici le pays qui aurait valu un peu plus de temps a son découvert.... Ah, la sagesse d’après coup! Le temps qu'on arrive en Malaisie on s'est retrouvé avec environ une semaine et donc on a élu de prendre deux destinations seulement. Comment décider ?! Ben, c'est facile quand tu te souviens que les grandes villes me laisse froid.... Alors c'est le jungle et du THÉ !!

Du coup on a passé trois jours à Taman Negara, réputé d’être le plus ancien jungle primaire du monde. C’était super-intéressant jusqu'aux sangsues..... ce qui étaient intéressants mais un peu dégueu (en action sur mon propre corps) et surtout chiantes. On était déçu de ne pas avoir vu ni tapir, ni serpent, ni tigre mais il ne faut pas trop espérer. On a quand même vu des semnopithèque obscur (je préfère un des noms anglais qui se traduit en 'singe aux lunettes') et des muntjacs et tout pleins des fourmis légionnaires et, of course, les sangsues.

Ensuite on est allé aux Cameron Highlands, un peu plus vers l'ouest, où on s'est resourcé de thé mais surtout des fameux 'cream tea'. Comme si l'endroit n'etait pas très jolie déjà meme sans l'ajout des scones avec de la confiture et de la crème caillée....

Now this is a country where I should have liked to spend a little longer... the benefits of hindsight, eh? By the time we got to Malaysia we found ourselves with barely a week to stay and so we elected to choose only two destinations. Tough choosing but made easier when you recall my allergy for cities.... rainforest and tea plantations it is then!

So, we spent 3 days in Taman Negara national park which is reputed to be the worlds oldest primary rainforest. Really interesting up to and including the leeches which were fascinating if slightly grim (in action on one's own flesh) if consequently quite irritating. On the other hand we saw neither tapir, snakes nor tigers (not asking too much?!) but spectacled monkeys (or dusky langur), barking deer, lots of army ants and more than enough leeches.

From the jungle we headed for the Cameron Highlands, further to the west, where we enjoyed the temperate climate and the cream teas. Seriously, anyone would think it wasn't nice enough there without the addition of scones with clotted cream and jam.

Arriving by river...

Army ants (the soldier ones). Lots of them. They make an impressive noise, must be those massive jaws

Tapir print!

Tea is very attractive from almost any angle. Green! And pleasingly bushy!

And green! (Does not have red flowers)

Thaïlande

...n'est pas aussi cool qu'il n’était censé d’être. J'y étais il y a une bon 12aine d’années et ce n’était pas mieux mais j'avoue que je n'ai jamais été dans les plus fêtards donc peut être il y a un truc qui m’échappe. Ou pas. Par ailleurs, il y a des belles temples a Bangkok (où j'aime énormément leur taxis sur la fleuve), des belles couchées de soleil partout et, lors qu'on trouve un petit bout d’île où il n'y a pas grand monde, c'est quand même sympathique. Et les lézardes sont chouettes aussi et il faut admettre qu'on y mange vraiment bien. 

(ouais ouais, je sais - je suis en traîne de condamner tout un pays a travers un aperçu et dans un contexte peu habituel de comparaison contre plein de pays en même temps. Mea culpa)

Thailand isn't actually all it's cracked up to be and, as far as I can recall, it never actually was. I say this from the height of my vast experiences having spent at least 3 weeks there about 12 years ago... but at the same time I've never been one for massive parties and lying around in the sun so perhaps I am not the target audience. Or something. In any case, there are some nice temples in Bangkok (where the river taxis are excellent fun), there are fantastic sunsets pretty much all over and, if you manage to find a corner of an island without too many other people, it's not that painful. And there are some great lizards too not to mention some excellent food.

(Yeah yeah, I know - I'm dismissing a whole country on the basis of some fairly superficial travel and in the unusual context of a comparison with loads of other countries in quick succession. Mea culpa)

Reclining Buddha. Business end.

River taxis : cheap, does what it says on the tin. Good views.

Koh Nangyuan off Koh Tao viewed from a sufficient distance that you can forget the packed beach

Lizards! Or possibly geckos, in fact. In residence in the bathroom.

And with scale!

Sunset, Koh Lanta