K23 Beijing to Ulan Bataar

The K23 goes beijing to Ualn Bataar. We are in first class and it is a very old fashioned train but has a certain charm to it. There is a dining car that serves lunch and dinner, the choice is limited but yummy. There is only one wine available "Great Wall Wine" but it was ok and even better at about $5Aus. There are many young people on the train and we meet our French neighbour Thomas very early in the trip. The train is decorated in polished wood and red brocade. The cabin is tin, what do you expect. There was a share bathroom between two cabins which was adequate (on a later train I would now describe the bathroom on the K23 as luxurious).
As we travel out of Beijing we see much poverty and squalor. People have a very hard life on this train line. We see people tilling earth that looks as hard as rock. The equiment they use could only be found in a Museum in the Western world.

The further we head out the more desolate the landscape become. There is only one colour to describe this scape "Beige". Miles of Beige. There are hundreds of plastic bags scattered across the Gobi Desert, hanging in trees like Christmas baubles.There are piles of rucbbish dotted across the landscpe. the only ray of hope was at one village the rubbish had been sorted so I am hopin ghtis is for recycling. The rubbish really made me feel uncomfortable and although I am not much of a  "Greeny" I felt ill at  the thought of what we were doing to the planet.

Having said that it is something everyone should see such a contrast to our society. It brings you back to earth with a thud.

Beijing

We had an amazing apartment in Beijing. So different to my experience in the hotel in Shanghai a couple of years ago. We stayed at the State Apartments near the Beijing train station. These were booked online. Checking in was a little odd as the people at the desk spoke no english but they telephoned Sammy who came to meet us and check us in. As he was leaving he said that we should register at the Polic Station but as it was Friday and there would be noone there on the weekend not to bother as we would be leaving tuesday. He also said if there was a raid int he middle of the night to call him. WHAT THE????

The raid never happened and we had a great few days in Beijing. We visited the Great Wall an amazing experience but not for the faint hearted. The chair lift up was not my idea of fun but then I hate heights, Steve loved it. The steps on the wall are a challenge but there are thousands of people climbing it everyday. To see it stretch across the country is incredible and to imagine how it was built is impossible. Take plenty of water with you because it is hot and dry up there, although there are smmall stalls selling drinks. We walked all the way down beacuse I was too chicken to go back on the chair lift but met a donkey along the way, so that was nice.
We visited a Cloisionne factory, silk factory, tea house. all lovely cultural experiences. Several visits to the Silk Road Markets where you can buy anything you want for a fraction of the price you pay in Australia. It is very large and clean and everyone speaks English. There are great coffee shops outside the Silk Road Markets. This must be a legacy of the Olympics because when we visited Shanghai before the Olympics coffee was dreadful now in Beijing it was great.
We saw bugs, scorpions, baby ducks and all manner of critters on skewers for sale as snack food. We ate in the grottiest little restaurant in the Huong where I was certain we would get food poisoning or mugged on the way in. Instead we ate the most amazing Peking Duck. The dishes just kept coming. "Best Peking Duck" a must have experience at the "Li Qun" 11 Bei Xiang Feng Alley, Zheng Yi Road, off Qian Men Avenue
Beijing, China.
We bought our tickets to Mongolia from the ticket office in the large international hotel near the train station. Cash only so make sure you have a wad of cash. There is an ATM in the hotel so that helped. Tuesday we boarded the train for Ulan Bataar.The train station in Beijing is frantic as you can imagine and there were many people travelling with large laods of goods wrapped in all sorts of parcels. People squatted on the floor eating food I could not identify out of a range of vessels. There were young and old and all in between. I could see no other Westerners. As the crowd got up to move when were swept up in the current of people and just hoped we were heading for the correct train the K23. 

AT LAST

Finally our visas for Russia and out passports have arrive with only 1 day to spare. That was a  very stressful experience. Of course we only have booked the Flight to Beijing and the return from Warsaw (our final destination). We will have to boook the rest as we go, hopefully that will work out.
We are now at the airport waiting for the first flight of our journey. There is hardly anyone at the airpot and no queues due to so many European flights being cancelled as a result of the volvano erupting in Iceland. We will be stopping in Singapore for a couple of hours before heading off to Beijing.
Oh the airport at Singapore is lined with sleeping people. these poeople can not get to there next destination beacuse of the ash in the sky from the volcano.  They do not look very comfortable or happy poor things. They all have matching sleeping bags so these must have been provided for them. The airport is in darkness as we step past sleeping people and make our way to our flight.

One Step Closer

Yah today the Russian Consulate told us the passports would be put in the mail from Sydney today. Of course no hint of whether they issued us the long awaited visa. I guess we will have to wait for the envelope to find out.

So near yet so far

With only a week to go before we depart we still have no Russian visa. We finally obtained a letter from the Russian travel agency which took weeks of emails and then finally a telephone call to Russia. The money then had to be transferred into their acount via three banks starting in the USA. We were very relieved to get our letter of of invitation.
We applied for our visas and these were rejecgted with a notse saying "date". So we have changed the dates and reapplied. We have heard nothing and so we sit here with no passports or visas wondering what is going to happen.
I have just emailed the consulate to make enquiry about the progress. Meanwhile my fingernails are bing bitten down to the quicks.
Fingerscrossed!!!!

Planning the trip

Planning the trip started months prior to departure. There was much to do, book airfares and hotels, get passports and visas, check train timetables and tickets and sort out warm clothing. Steve has spent many hours pouring over maps, train timetables, hotel websites and airline websites. 

Getting visas for Mongolia was straight forward. It took a letter explaining our travel dates and plans for Mongolia, an application form, and a fee. These arrived stress free in the mail within 2 weeks.

Visas for Russia on the other hand are proving to be more difficult to obtain. It is necessary to get a letter of invitation to Russia before a visa cen be applied for. It appears these are available from travel agents and hotels, if you book with them. We are having difficulty knowing who to trust in this process. There are many russian agencies online but there are many scmmers also, so how do you know who to trust. Already we had chosen one agency only to later find it listed on a scammers site. Fortunately for us we had not given them any personal information. So with only 4 weeks to departure we still have no letter of invite and no Russain visas!!!