What an Adventure!

I can very vividly remember about 10 years ago seeing a place on a PBS travel show where people live in a surreal landscape of tropical rain forest, float down the many rivers in bamboo rafts, and drink a very uniqe oil tea. I'm glad to say that I've arrived.

I'm posting from the internet room of the Yangshuo Culture House, a very small hostel in Yangshuo China run by a guy named Wei (with 4.5 fingers on his right hand) and his family. Things here are really great and this is definitly one of the best places I've been on my trip so far. The scenery is absolutely incredible (go to images.google.com and search "yangshuo" or "guilin" which is another city nearby) and I feel more like I'm in Vietnam or Cambodia than China. Even the people look different than they did in northern china.

Two days ago I travelled from Xi'an to Yangshuo by catching a flight from Xi'an to Guilin, then a taxi into town, and a minibus to Yangshuo (about an hours ride). Once I arrived in Yangshuo I gave Wei a call and he came to pick me up. After handing me a helmet and taking my small bag to carry himself, we were off on his motorbike! (I was still carrying my big backpack!) We were quite a sight to the locals.

Once we arrived, dinner was served to everyone staying there (about 10 in total). Everything seemed to be of local origin and featured a lot of chili peppers, bamboo, eggplant, and a little meat - needless to say it was delicious.

The next day was probably the biggest adventure I've had since I left. Five of us from the hostel - A welsh couple, two australians, and I decided to take a bike ride around the countryside with the goal of going to a large cave outside of town. Things started off smoothly enough with us renting some mountain bikes for around $1.25/day and making our way to the trail head.

The ride through the countryside was absolutely amazing. All around Yangshuo are large limestone peaks that fade off into the distant mist. Between all of these are farmers who use water buffalos to pull the plows through their rice paddies. I would generally have to say that this is the most incredible scenery I've ever seen in my life. I simply wouldn' have believed it unless I hadn't seen it for myself. Simply mindblowing.

After about an hour on our ride we came to the point where we thought there should have been a bridge. Since our map was really no more than someones idea of what the bike paths might/should look like we weren't suprised when no bridge stood there. The only option? Hire a few rafts and have the locals ferry us across the river. We continued biking and came to the main road a little while later (did I mention I'm in the tropics in August, riding a bike through the countryside? It's a little warm by this point).

At this point things got bad - we first took a left and rode for about 2 miles. Then we realized that we should have gone right, so we turned around and went back those 2 miles PLUS another 3 miles. At this point we decided to confer with some locals who made it clear (even though they spoke no English) that we were somewhere completely different than we believed! We figure in retrospect that we had screwed up pretty early on and that we were just going back and forth for nothing (grrr!)

Once we realized where we were, our options were to bike all the way back to Yangshuo (about 10 miles at this point) or hire some locals to float us down the river on their rafts for an hour and a half (and a lot of money). Both of these woudl have meant missing the spelunking expidition we had already paid for. Then, I had a brilliant idea. We went across the street to where some covered trucks were parked and convinced one of the locals to load the of us, along with our bikes into the back of the truck and drive us to the cave. This wasn't any sort of normal human transport - in fact this truck was used to transport livestock (literally). After half our hour of bone jarring riding we arrived and went through the cave. I can't say the cave was my favorite, but it was a good time and the others seemed to really enjoy it.

The ride home was pretty uneventful and we soon found ourselves back in Wei's house where we devoured dinner (we had missed lunch). Soon afterwards we all passed out.

Today I'm going to buy another pair of shorts in town, and get a haircut.

Thanks for reading,
Andrew

The Terracotta Warriors

Yesterday morning, the day after my last post, I went to see the Terracotta Warriors. They were absolutely unbelievable, and every bit of hype I had heard about them was understated. To get out to Xianyang, the city where the warriors stand I signed up for a tour through my youth hostel. I was supposed to get a visit to the Banpo neolithic village, and a visit to the Terracotta Army with an English Speaking Guide and minibus.

After I signed up the day before, the trip filled up and our minibus was full. But before we could make our first official stop at the Banpo neolithic village, we had to stop at the silk factory. What's this?, they have a showroom? - how convenient! (sarcasm). After what was clearly a tourist trap from which our driver was given a commision we were really on our way to see the sights of the day.

First up was the neolithic village. This was simply a museum built over an archeological site where a group of stone age Chinese had lived. Throughout the museum were pieces of pottery, boneware, and other simple tools which the villagers had used in their day. Also included were a variety of poor English translations such as "tool for digging holes in the ground" instead of "shovel".

The best worst part of the museum however, had to be the emphasis that the curators put on the "smartness and cleverness" of the Banpo villagers. The triangle patterns on their pottery "clearly shows that the Banpo villagers had a mastery of geometry".

I don't mean to sound like the museum wasn't a good stop, but come on - "mastered geometry"? Einstein mastered physics, Freud mastered phsychology, Euclid mastered geometry.....

After the museum we drove for another half hour before arriving at the main attraction - the Terracotta Warriors. Before we could see the actual pits where the statues were excavated and still stand, we were supposed to watch a movie about the Qing dynasty emporer who united China and subsequently built the Great Wall before being buried in his own massive tomb (guarded by the terracotta statues). My guide book highly recommended the movie, but it must have been for comic effect.

My first indication of what was to come was the circular movie theatre reminiscent of my early childhood family trips to disneyworld. It was one of those multiple screen things, sort of like an omnimax movie, but with 1960s technology. Once the movie started I half expected Charlton Heston to come riding over the hill in a Chariot with spiked wheels. While this never happened, it wouldn't have been terribly out of place - the whole movie was scripted much like the biblical thrillers that he is so famous for. Loads of extras, toiling in the slave camps, building monuments to their overlords.

Enough of that - there are three pits in the site of the Terracotta Warriors. First up was pit 1, which is the biggest and most famous pit. Here stand something like 6,000 life size unique statues. Originally, they all held weapons made of bronze which are now stored separately (out of view). The most amazing part of the pit is that while there are more statues than I could count, there are still many more that haven't been uncovered.

Pit 2 is similar to pit 1, but with many more horses. There are in fact 4 different types of horses including those carrying archers, pulling chariots, carrying spearmen etc etc. Unfortunately since pit 2 was discovered after pits 1 and 3, most of it has yet to be uncovered. Even once it is uncovered, most of the statues will have be reassembled since they were smashed when the wooden roof collapsed from rot.

Finally, pit 3, the smallest pit, is the command center of the army and features several generals who have different dress than the warriors in pit 1 and 2. They also have at least 1 chariot which was originally made of wood and has since disintegrated. It's easy to see how the riders are positioned to be holding the reins of the chariots. All in all the Terracotta Warriors were an unbelievable sight.

Today, I took the advice of a few Czech guys I met and took a bicycle ride around the Xi'an City walls. I walked around part of the city walls during my first day in town but I'm glad I went back. Once I rented the bicycle it took about 1.5 hours to the 10 km circuit at a pretty leisurely pace. Some of the areas of the wall were completely deserted, which was really cool.

Afterwards I went to lunch in the Muslim quarter where I had some mutton and bought a few more souvenirs before napping for the rest of the afternoon - not a bad day all in all!

Tomorrow I need to catch the bus to the airport in the morning for my flight to Guilin. From there I'll hitch a bus 60 km down to Yanshuo in the middle of the Li River Valley and home to some really mindblowing scenery. This is also where I will get to meet Wei, the hotel owner with 4.5 fingers! (oh boy!)

Time to find some dinner.

let my people go,
Andrew

I Haven't Seen the Sun in Three Days!

The pollution in China is simply overwhelming. There arent sunny days in the big cities and the sky is a perpetual shade of gray or white. There's also a constant haze hanging low over the cities, but I've been promised by other traveller's that this will get better once I move south to Yangshuo and Hong Kong. Here's to hoping.

Before I update you on another few days of life in China, I'm going to do something I should have done a while back. During my days on the trans-Siberian I was on a tour with a number of british guys. They have a lot of very unique slang that had never heard of before. The first person to correctly translate all of the following phrases will win absolutely nothing! (but try anyway)

a) bird
b) mingin'
c) sky rocket
d) trouble and strife

The last two are phrases from northern rhyming slang. If anyone gets those, I'll be very impressed.

Back to China... My second day in Beijing saw me feeling much better, so I decided to go out on the town and see what the city had to offer. Since I only had one day in which to see all of Beijing I decided to concentrate on the important parts - Tienamen Square and The Forbidden City (not so forbidden anymore).

Since Chairman Mao's mosoleum is only open in the mornings during the summer I decided to make that my first stop - until I saw the line. The line moves pretty quickly but it must have gone on for a mile (literally). I've been to Disney World twice in my life, and this was still by far the longest line I had ever seen! Once I had that idea scratched I decided to enter the Forbidden City. James Bond tactics be damned - I'll just pay the admission fee ($7).

To get inside, you have to enter under the giant picture of Chairman Mao (at least I know what he looks like without seeing his dead body now). From there it's a lot of little courtyards, gates, and buildings with names clearly showcasing the former Emporer's incredible ego's. If you were to name the front door of your house "the gate of divine heavenly peace" I woudl be a little concerned. Furthermore, if your dining room were to be called "the room of divine military genius" I'd call the nuthouse.

After spending an afternoon in the Fairly-Accesible City I went back to my hostel, got my stuff and caught a cab to the train station for my train to Xi'an. The train was suprisingly comfortable, with 4 people to a cabin and a TV screen at the foot of each bed! I was also expecting to be sharing my cabin with Chinese travellers, but it turned out to be two Canadians and a Mexican student. Oh well.

Around 8 am I arrived in Xi'an and transferred to my hotel. Over Breakfast I met a group of 4 Czech travellers who I go to dinner with tonight. They're travelling all over China for about 2 months and I have to say that I'm jealous. I'm certainly thankful for the trip I'm doing right now, but 1.5 weeks in China is simply not enough to see anywhere near everything this place has to offer.

After Breakfast I showered up and hit the town. And the town hit back with heat and humidity. It's the sort of heat that just sucks the life out of you. Taking it slow I first went for a hike around part of the old city walls. Xi'an is one of the only cities in China with it's ancient walls, and they make for a magnificent way to see the city. All along the way are beautifully restored Guard Towers and other outcroppings. Truly awesome.

Towards the end of my walk I took a break under a bit of shade that I found not too far from where a group of rickshaw drivers were hanging out. When they saw me they invited me over and wanted to know all sorts of things about me, like my name, where I was from, where I was goin in China and on and on! They were all very nice and clamboring to ask me questions. They even asked me to write down my name in their scrapbook along with the name of the city I was from. All in all the Chinese have to be the nicest people I've ever met. They all want to help you all the time, even to the point of overkill.

After visiting with the drivers I walked back to my hostel (took another shower) and signed myself up for a tour of...


Drum Roll Please...........



The Terracotta Warriors!!!

I'm so excited about going to see them tomorrow. I think there are very few more amazing sights in the world and I'm going to see them firsthand!

From Xi'an China,
Andrew

The Chinese Government Has Read This Post

Greetings everyone! I made it to Beijing China! This place is absolutely insane, and I can't wait to tell you about it. Like always, I'll start from the beginning...

After my last post from Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia I had the rest of the afternoon, and one night before I boarded an early morning train to Beijing to complete my ride on the trans-mongolian railway. As with all the cities our group has visited, we had an optional group dinner that night which was to consist of "traditional mongolian food". Note the quotation marks. I dutifully showed up outside the Ulaan Baatar post office and waited for my group. After a 15 minute cab ride (that cost 750 Tugrugs = $0.60) we arrived - at the BD's Mongolian Barbeque! Traditional mongolian food my ass! We had one these places in Cleveland!

For those that don't know, what is called Mongolian Barbeque in America is a restaurant where you go and pick out from a bar a selection of raw meats, vegetables, and sauces which are then stir fried on a big round grill. The story goes that they invented this form of restaurant in American and exported it to Mongolia. Don't worry, I even have a great picture of me in front of the building!

The next morning we got on our train bound for Beijing. late in the evening we left the mongolian steppe and entered the Gobi Desert. The Gobi only looks like desert (lots of sand) for a little portion, but that little portion was enough to kick up enough dust to cover everything in our cabin (including us while we slept) with a thin coating of dust. After cleaning that off the next morning we began to approach Beijing, by crossing over mountains on which the Great Wall is built. We got some really spectacular shots of the wall as we came through, which is good since I won't have a chance to go hiking on it.

We arrived in Beijing at 2:30 in the afternoon and had to then transfer to our hotel. Since there was money left over in our communal tipping kitty we decided to take cabs rather than the metro - this is where thigns get crazy. I never imagined there would be so much traffic in Beijing. The idea of a city of 10 million bicycles is long overdue as there are many more cars than bikes, and a constant cloud of smog overhangs the city. You can't even see the sun through it, which is really disgusting.

After we got to our hotel, we went as a group to go get cash from the ATM. On the way it started to pour out, and I not only got soaked, but my bag collected a puddle of water (I thought it was waterproof). The real bummer was that this meant the end of the camera my father generously lent me for the trip. Fortunately my travel documents remained dry in their plastic folder (train and plain tickets). Feeling very bummed about the loss of photo capabilities (fortunately my photos are backed up on my ipod, so I still have them) I decided to go to the group dinner, in what was our last night together as a group.

This is where I had the best meal of my life. All 13 of us went to a very nice Chinese restaurant where we were served family style to an onslaught of traiditional Beijing and Sichuan style cuisine. We even had Peking Duck, which was simply amazing! I ate so much that I had trouble moving when I got up, and fell asleep in the cab on the ride home. The most amazing part was that the total food bill (minus drinks) for all 13 of us came to $70!! This meal would have easily cost $500 in Boston or New York.

When I got up this morning things looked a lot worse - I in fact have a fever and feel really sick. After breakfast I went over to the Peark Market with Thomas and Roch (the two Belgian guys from my tour group) to buy a new camera. This place is four floors of real and knockoff electronics (just about all real, actually), pearls, clothing, shoes, handbags and a really impresssive food market in the basement.

I found a camera I liked, and that worked with my ipod downloading kit and haggled for the price. It was really fun to be involved in the back and forth, even if I wasn't too good at it! I got the camera, memory card, and carrying case for a really good price, and then proceeded to buy a few gifts for people when I get home. I'd love to tell you what they were, but I can't ruin the suprise.

After the pearl market we went back to our hotel, and checked out took a cab to my youth hostel. Thomas and Roch didn't have reservations, but were able to get a room while I checked into my pre-arranged single. For $15 a night, this is the best deal in lodging I've ever found - I even have a private bathroom! After sleeping the afternoon away to try and conquer my sickness I'm now off to get some dinner and hopefully start to feel a little better.

Cheers from China,
Andrew

Searching for Some BBQ

It's been another few days, so I think it's time for a post. In fact, I would have posted sooner but I was out in the wilds on Mongolia having quite an adventure without an internet cafe in sight. As always I'll go through things chronologically.

When I last left you, I was in Irkutsk, in the middle of Siberia. After spending a very uneventful day and a half there, it was time to again board the train bound for Mongolia at 9 pm. Since our minibus didn't show until 1/2 hour before the train was to depart, we really had to book it - this meant driving very fast over very decrepid streets. We got there on time, and boarded our train with time to spare. The scenery leaving Irkutsk was just amazing. Since the region is somewhat mountainous the train spent a few hours slowly winding its way up hillsides before slowing winding its way back down and repeating. Along the way were a million little siberian villages filled with wooden Dachas and the ever-present ornate window frames. This train didnt have air conditioning like the others, but we were able to open the windows as a result. I got some great pictures of the train as it rounded corners.

The next day was filled with the joy of crossing boarders. Unlike air and car travel, crossing a boarder by train is a long and painful ordeal. First, we had to go through the Russian exit procedure which involved giving the offials our passports for several hours while they checked our visas and searched the entire train for stowaways and hidden packages. There must have been at least 3 officials who came to collect different documents and give back passports. All this while, we had to stay in our compartments and the bathrooms were locked. I thought that given the hassle I had to go through to get a Russian Visa, that they would be itching to get rid of us.

Once we had passed through Russian customs and immigration, the train travelled for about 45 minutes through no-man's-land to the Mongolian customs check. There, we had to repeat the whole process which involved filling out forms, letting our passports go, and generally waiting around. A few hours later we were on our way. All told, the border crossing took nearly 8 hours.

Early the next morning we arrived in Ulaan Baatar, the capital of Mongolia. From there we transferred by minibus directly to Terelj National Park, which is about an hour and a half outside the city. The scenery was absolutely unbelievable - I'll have to post pictures to do it justice. It felt like something out of Jurassic Park! That afternoon we went horse riding which was a lot of fun - I really wanted my horse to do some galloping and running, but he was much more content to ignore me and sniff the other horses asses. Sort of reminded me of my dog in a way. During the horse ride we stopped and I had the chance to try some fermented mare's milk. If anyone ever gives your fermented mare's milk, do not for the love of god, drink it.

We rode around for about 2 hours and saw all varieties of quadrapeds - horses, cattle, sheep, yaks, and camels. The next day we went out to a Buddhist Monestary buried deep in the mountains (but not unknown to tour groups apparently) which was both a really nice hike, and a great view into the valley. There's a lot more to say about my time in Terelj, but I'm pressed for time on the internet and I'd rather tell you about in personally when I get back.

After two nights in the park, we transferred back to Ulaan Baator where I am now. Tomorrow morning we leave early for the train to Beijing. I'll be sure to write more when I get to China!

-Andrew

Heaven on Earth

Woah there everyone, sorry for the long delay in posting. As you know, I'm in Siberia and it may come as a shock to you that this isn't the most wired place on earth.

Before I go into the details of the past 5 days I'd like to thank everyone that has been putting comments up on here. I really appreciate that people read my posts and take the time to give me some feedback. I'd like to be able to e-mail you all back, but the way that blogspot has their system set up I can't respond privately. So, from now on I'd appreciate if you could include your e-mail accounts in your comments - that way I can send you a note.

I think my last post (way back there) was from Yekaterinburg which I have since found out was not actually in Siberia. Yekaterinburg is technically in the Ural Mountain region of Russian, which is only a political definition. Only once I got to Irkutsk (current location) did I arrive in Siberia proper.

After my last post I spent another long afternoon in Yekaterinburg before boarding the train again towards Irkutsk at around 11 pm Moscow Time. The entire time we were in Yekaterinburg our group was (unfortunately) working on Moscow Time, which is two hours behind local time. The reason is that the trains run on Moscow Time and we didnt want to miss it. I personally thought that our tour group would be intelligent enough to subtract, but others thought otherwise.

During the long afternoon I ran into a couple of Dutch guys who were travelling the trans-mongolian by themselves. They were really thrilled to meet someone who spoke a language that they also spoke (Dutch is obviously their first language, but their English was flawless). We spent about an hour talking about our travel plans before I ventured off to find some supplies for the train. More about them later in the post.

The train journey from Yekaterinbug to Irkutsk takes approximately 52 hours. Since we boarded late at night, this meant that we would arrive in Irkutsk after three nights and two whole days. Now stay with me while I explain this next bit - Yekaterinburg is 2 hours ahead of Moscow Time (MT), but we had been working on Moscow Time while there. Irkutsk is 5 hours ahead of MT (MT+5) and we are working on local time while here. This means that after two days on the train, we had to set our watches ahead by 5 hours, making the trans-siberian railway the only train on which you can get jetlagged. This was only compounded by the train journey itself. The general rules for 52 hours on the train is that you eat when you're hungry, sleep when you're tired, drink when you're bored (just kidding), and play more card games than you though imaginable.

The train journey itself was pretty enjoyable. For this leg of it my cabin consisted of myself, Steve (my british roommate for the trip) and the two Belgian guys on our tour. I think Laziz (our Uzbek tour leader) just puts all of the young guys together so that we won't keep up the other travellers. Probably a good strategy when we were yelled at by the train attendant for being noisy at 3 am (we were on Moscow Time, it was only 10 pm!).

Each morning we were given a boxed breakfast that had some instant coffee and a wafer type cookie that was pretty tasty in addition to some other stuff I didn't really fancy. A hot lunch was also given to us (usually about an hour after breakfast) which was pretty small. The rest of the time I lived on instant mashed potatoes that I made with boiling hot water available from the Samovar in our wagon. Into this I cut up sausage (un-refigerated. big mistake. put the details together yourself.) and chowed down. I also had some bread and chocolate which were nice accompaniaments to my gourmet meal. At the station we usually bought beer for around $0.60 a bottle!

Also in our wagon (different cabin) were the two Dutch guys that I met! They quickly befriended everyone in our group and pretty soon we had packed upwards of 8 people into our cabin (code-named the Blue Oyster Bar after a british comedy sketch about a gay bar). After a while we had to start putting people into the top bunk just to have space.

Needless to say we didn't sleep very much on the train with the constant lurching and noise. When we arrived in Irkutsk and had to adjust our watches ahead, we were all pretty much in shambles. Right from the train station we boarded a mini-bus bound for Listvyanaka, a small fishing village on Lake Baikal (the pearl of Siberia). Baikal is the deepest lake on earth and home to 1/5 of the worlds fresh water.

Tired and hungry we arrived in Listvyanka and were dropped off at our homestays. This is where the whole heaven on earth things starts. Imagine yourself in my state - tired, hungry, and unbathed for three days. Imagine you've been eating nothing but airline type food and instant mashed potatoes for a few days.

Now imagine yourself arriving at a house that has breakfast laid out for you (with home-made food), beds that don't shake, a shower, and a sauna, not to mention a Russian woman named Rita to take care of you. Steve and I agreed that given our groggy state this all seemed like more of a dream than anything. After breakfast, we all took a four hour nap before being awoken for a lunch of borscht (homemade, and delicious). That afternoon we walked into the village which was filled with fishing boats and locals suntanning on the rocky beaches (when winter is 9 months long you take what you can get). After dinner we all passed out again until morning when we were again woken for breakfast.

That day Steve, Pat and I decided to forgoe the guided hike and go off on our own with my guidebook. Rita packed us lunches and we set off. After a long walk down the road and a pretty tough 1 hour hike up one of the big hills around town we were rewarded with a spectacular view of the Angara river, the village of Listvyanka and the lake. At the top of the hill were a million little ribbons tied to tree branches. We learned this is a Russian tradition meant to bring good luck.

We ate our lunches and walked back to our house for a sauna and shower, followed by a nap until dinner time (rough life). We all agreed that we could have stayed in Listvyanka for approximately the rest of our lives. The food that Rita made was absolutely awesome. Everything was homemade (save for a few cookies) and very traditional including homemade jam from Siberian fruits. In addition, everything was absolutely laiden with calories which makes sense given the extreme environment.

Unfortunately, this morning we had to keep moving and get ourselves back to Irkutsk for the night before boarding the train for Mongolia tomorrow afternoon. While there'll be staying with some locals in a Ger Camp (yurt accomodation) in the Terelj national park, which I'm really looking forward to.

I'll probably be taking another hiatus from the we when I'm in Mongolia, but I promise another good post once I get back.

from Irkutsk,
Andrew

Siberia

Not to be arrogant, but I'm pretty sure that right now I can say that I've been somewhere that nobody reading this has ever been. I'm in Yekaterinburg Russia, on the Asian side of the Ural mountains. I left Moscow two days ago, late in the afternoon, and arrived in Yekaterinburg last night. Before I go any further, I'd like to give you my top 5 list of the most boring places on earth.

1) Yekaterinburg, Russia
2) TBA
3) TBA
4) Detroit, MI (sorry Dave)
5) TBA

I'm exagerating a bit, and I'm actually having a lovely time here. There's not a lot in Yekaterinburg, but then again this is Siberia and I should probably have known better than to expect a whole lot.

We arrived at our hotel last night after walking from the train station (right across the street) and everyone desperately wanted a shower. Despite the traditional image of Siberia, temperatures have consistently been in the 90's and the A/C in the trains can be a bit dodgy. What did we arrive to find? No hot water. Not just in our hotel, but in the whole town. Apparently, hot water isn't a home grown utility like it is in the US - needless to say I wasn't too happy. I was reassured there would be hot water in the morning.

there wasn't. I always pictured my descent into insanity as being an experience where I was far from home, exhausted, dirty and really really smelly, eating a breakfast of completely foreign foods with a TV playing bad Russian MTV in the background. I'm suprised I made it through.

After an incredibly cold shower a couple of us headed into town and found the church where the Romanov's were murdered. The house that was the actual murder scene is long gone, and the church is pretty new. Afterwards we set off for the second sight Yekaterinburg has to offer - the military museum where the wreckage of Gary Power's U-2 plane is on display. For 30 roubles ($1) I gained admission to the museum which chronicles (in Russian) several hundred years of Russian Military tradition. On the top floor, sure enough, were a few small pieces of the plane and the pressure suit that Gary Powers wore during his flight. Also on display were pictures of his survival kit which included some gold rings, Russian money, and a poisoned tip needle (survival kit, eh?).

Tomorrow evening we board the train for a 52 hour journey to Irkutsk, in the heart of Siberia. There I'll be staying with a Russian family in the small village of Litsvyanka and will have the opportunity to enjoy a traditional sauna complete with a beating from a birch branch (gotta do something to keep yourself entertained out here).

До свидания!
Andrew

Lenin

Yup, I saw him.

It was really cool, and somewhat creepy as you can imagine. He's buried inside a mosoleum, and his body is underground in a dark room of marble. He looks pretty waxy, and has one fist clenched and the other open. It's definitely one of the more macabre sites out there. Next stop on the Embalmed Leader Tour is Chairman Mao in Beijing!

Since I'm more of a Stalin kinda guy myself, I was sure to see where he was buried behind Lenin's crypt which was also neat.

Other than seeing The Great Leader today, I spent some time in Sculpture Park which is a park (obviously) where they put all the old soviet statues after they were ripped off their pedestals by anti-soviet protestors in 1991. It's the weirdest and best dump I've ever been to.

After the sculpture park I decided to take a look at few of the more notable metro stops. If I thought the metro in St Petersburg was impressive, I was absolutely blown away by the Moscow metro. Some of the bigger stops will have no less than 2 dozen mosaics each about 5 ft squared. Of course the themes are usually (i mean, exclusively) along the lines of "look how great communism is!". Aside of mosaics and paintins, they have a lot of bronze statues and marble walls (some are entirely marble). I took some pictures, even though you're not allowed. This place is truly mind-boggling.

Tomorrow we board an afternoon train to Yekaterinburg (Catherine the Great - burg). I'll be on there for 2 days, so you won't be hearing from me. Wish me luck.

"Those who vote control nothing. Those who count the votes control everything." - Stalin

-Andrew

Holy Freaking Crap, I'm Still In Russia!

Yes, it really is that surreal.

I need to write this post quickly since there's no timer at this internet cafe - I'll do my best.

Since I last left you at the Hotel St Petersburg where I last updated two days ago, quite a bit has happened actually. First and foremost I met up with my tour group from the Imaginative Traveller. I'll be travelling with them from St Petersburg to Beijing. My tour guide, Laziz is an Uzbek fella who speaks no less than 8 languages. The really impressive part in my mind is that they have very diverse alphabets - everything from English, Chinese, Mongolian, Russian, Uzbek, Persian and a few others. Truly remarkable considering that I only speak English and a little French (and I sound like a dyslexic St Bernard when I speak French)

After meeting up with the group on Wednesday evening, we all went out to dinner at an authentic Russian restaurant where I got some Solyanka (pickle and pork soup) and some fish. It seems to me that Russian food is centered around a bit of a sour taste. Nothing overpowering, but everything from the Bread to the soup has a hint of it. It's not my favorite but I'm sure I'll dreaming about it when I have nothing but Mutton to eat in Mongolia.

I also met up with my roommate for the trip, Steve from NewCastle England. Steve has been travelling around Europe for the past month, mostly through Scandinavia by ferry. Other than Steve the group consists of a married couple from Luxembourg, a married couple from New Zealand, a married couple where he's English and she's an Aussie (met travelling in South America, eloped in Las Vegas), a pair of Belgian guys, a Dutch girl, and an older English woman. Quite the mix, and yes, I am the only American.

After dinner I went to bed and the next morning was to see St Petersburg. Steve, the two Belgians and I decided that we would stick together for the first day and go see the Hermitage. Before that we went to see the Church of the Resurection or the Churched of the Savior of the Spilled Blood (both names are accepted). Its a truly Russian sort of monument complete with frescos and gold onion domes.

After the church, we went to the Tsars Winter Palace, which is home to the Hermitage. Since it was the first Thursday of the month, entrance was free! It was definitly the most impressive museum I had ever seen, and also the one with the most lax security. First of all, the museum has over 400 rooms, each with a breathtaking display. On top of that, there are a number of rooms that are preserved to appear as they did in the day of the Tsars. The throne room, and the chandalier rooms are especially impressive.

After the Hermitage we got some lunch at a little cafe nearby. Steve had been told by some travellers that the best way to order food in Russia is to get the so called "business lunch" which is just the daily special. For 150 roubles apiece we got soup, and a main course of fish and potatoes. It all felt very Russian, and for a little more than $5 a bargain as well.

After lunch we saw St. Isaacs Cathedral and took a long walk back to the hotel along the river. It was really really beautiful. The architecture in Russia is very unique, with all the buildings painted some sort of pastel color, and largely unadorned buildings excepted for elaborate molding around the windows and tops of the buildings.

After walking around for 8 hours, I decided it was time to go back to the hotel and meet up wtih the others. We sat around and talked for a while before it was time to get on our overnight train to Moscow! The tour had arranged a minibus to take us to the train station.

The train was comfortable enough. We were in 4 person berths where it was me, Steve, Pat and Hanna (the brit and aussie who got married in vegas). Sleeping was suprisingly easy, but we were all really exhausted from touring around St Petersburg.

Once we got into Moscow we transfered to our hotel. if I thought the last one was big - this one is just enormous. It's actually one of the buildings that was built for the 1980 Olympic village. (you know, the one we boycotted?). Once we all got freshened up in our rooms it was time to head into town.

Today, I stood in Red Square. Red Square! It's really weird to think that I was standing in a spot so infamous in the West as epitomizing our ideological opposite. I also took at look at St Basil's which is another big onion dome church type deal, and some walking around the Kremlin. At 3 oclock, I spent the $40 and took a 3 hour guided tour of the Kremlin with 4 others from my group. The old buildings inside the Kremlin were built by the Tsar's and there are some really incredible Orthodox churches, as well as government buildings and sights such as the world's largest cannon.

Included in our tour of the Kremlin was a tour of the Armory, which is where the store the treasures of the Russian Federation. This included not only a ton of really impressive jewelery, the Tsar's clothing (incredible!), and about a dozen of their old coaches, but they had an entire of display of real faberge eggs! There's only about 40 real faberge eggs in the world, and all the hype is completely deserved.

Tomorrow I'm going to get up early and go see Lenin, the man himself - embalmed and kept on display in Red Square. creepy to the max. can't wait!

Regards,
Andrew

Holy Freaking Crap, I'm in Russia!

I managed to make the German keyboard work for me in Hamburg, god help me if I have to use a cyrillic one. Fortunately, my hotels "business center" has english keyboards - this is good for everyone involved in this blog.

Holy Freaking Crap. I'm in Russia. This place can't be real - I suppose I should just go through my day chronologically.

The first part of my day was pretty boring actually. I got up at about 4 am, got a taxi to the Hamburg airport and flew without incident to Copenhagen and onwards to St Petersburg. This is where things get interesting. There wasn't anything in particular bad that happened, just a sort of realization of the I'm-not-in-Kansas-anymore variety.

First thing when you get off the plane, is Russian immigration (crap). Things went smoothly enough, and I got through relatively quickly. There was a constant sound of stamps thudding againts the wooden counters in exactly the way you would picture it. Also, I was not let down in the appearance of my Russian immigration official. She looked business, and also like she could bench press me.

Next came the really interesting part - getting myself to the airport. The taxi drivers wanted 50 euro (!!) so I decided to take the public method (public for both humans and probably livestock). First I had to get cash - roubles to be exact. At the ATM it asked me for an amount and I took out 1500 and soon realized this was only 50 bucks. I kinda like roubles, they make you feel really really rich. monopoly money of sorts. ($1= 28 roubles)

Anyway, back to the public transit. So once I get cash, I wait for the K-13 bus, and take it to Moscowavskaya stations. The only problem is that all this stuff is written with the cyrillic alphabet. I hand the driver a 500 rouble note for a 30 rouble fare. we're no longer friends in his mind. Grudgingly makes the change and I stand in the middle of the bus.

I only know its time to get off the bus and into the metro station when everyone else does. This was my plan from the beginning, and I'm truly thankful it worked. Going down the escalator I start to wonder how far down I'm going. When I look over the person in front of me I realize that I'm sinking into Haites, and fast. The subway here is at least 3 times as deep as any I'd ever seen before. It's really unbelievable.

Inside the station, waiting at the platform I realize that this place is built like a palace. The walls are all marble and the signs are down in wrought iron painted gold! Each station was different but all equally impressive. I've heard the ones downtown are even better. (can't wait)

All along the sides of the platform in the marbel covered walls are sets of heavy iron doors. Once a train comes in behind them, they fly open (with serious force) and people get on and off the train. Once inside the train, the doors fly shut (god help you if you're in the way, theres no child safety anything around here!) and the train speeds off. On arrival at the first stop I realize that Russian metro drivers dont like to slow down, and just jam on the breaks as hards as they can about 5 feet before the stop. I make myself abundantly clear as the tourist when I go flying.

Since I don't understand a lick of Russian, and can't read the cyrillic alphabet I was only able to tell where to get off by counting stops. Once I get to my stop its easy to get to my hotel. Since I haven't already, I'll give you a few tips on Russian public transit ettiquete for your next trip over hear.

1) push and shove as many people as you can
2) push and shove as many people as you can
3) push and shove as many people as you can
4) don't wait for people to get off the trains before pushing and shoving as many of them as you can
5) don't smile. For the love of god man, don't smile.

there, 5 easy tips that will make your trip a breeze.

Alright, so now I'm at the hotel which is HUUUUUUGGGGGGGEEEEEEEEEE. Clearly a product of the soviet era by the sheer size, architecture and the amount of bueracracy to check in.

They have 7 elevators - they need 2 (in case the 1 they actually need were to break).

I think there are more people working here than staying here, but that's just a guess. Regardless, this place is really overstaffed and seems a total throwback to the mid-80s. The rooms aren't bad, but they aren't good either. My room doesnt have a view of the river, but those that do have spectacular ones.

The TV doesnt work, not that I want to put any undue pressure on this place's electrical grid. The toilet kinda flushes, and my matress is about as old as the hotel. The furniture is all really beat up - I think they bought some of it from my old fraternity house... It's pretty bleak.

I'm going to try and go out to see some of the town tonight, but I need to meet up with my tour guide and other travelling companions before dinner. I'm sure I'll be updating this soon - there's a lot to talk about in Russia.

From Russia with Love,
Andrew

The Kindness of Strangers

Doing laundry in a foreign country, I've come to learn, can be a very taxing experience. Given the state of my clothes I decided it was time to get some wash done. To that end I asked the woman at the hotel desk where the closest laundromat was (well really, I called it 'the place where you can wash clothes' because 'laundromat' doesn't really translate).

Get on the 116 bus across the street and go two stops, and its right in front of you. good. that's easy.

There's no freakin laundromat two stops down. What is two stops down is nothing, and nothing is a very lonely place. As I started considering what to do next, it started to dawn on me that I was literally several thousands of miles from anyone I knew. Feeling utterly alone, with a bag full of rank clothes on my back things looked bleak.

Fortunately enough, a guy walking by saw me and asked if I needed directions. Upon telling him that I needed a laundromat he confirmed my belief about the hostel desk attendent - she was full of it and there was no laundromat! Long story short, Harry offered me a ride (in his BMW) to the laundromat which I accepted. A truly nice guy, he went on to inquire about what I was in Germany doing laundry and asked a lot of questions about my trip. He even told me about his desire to see the US, and that he and his wife were planning a trip to Florida (everyone in Europe wants to see New York or Florida for some reason). I said goodbye and went into the laundromat.

Once in the laundromat I stared at the directions before two little old German grandmother type woman decided to have pity on me. After debating in excited German for literally 5 minutes over which temperature to use, they showed me how to use the machines, but they said everything in German. smile and nod.

The fortunate thing about all this was that I ended up right near a metro stop, so I was able to get back to my hostel with ease. Right now the Germany vs Italy game is beginning and I need to go watch!

Da sind Sie ja endlich,
Andrew

'The Dude' lives in Rome

Since my post two days ago, Ive actuallz done quite a bit (sorrz for some mispellings and missing apostrophes. These damn German kezboards have the z and y kezs switched theres also a kez for ö, ä and ü). As I mentioned, I went to the Van Gogh museum which was reallz great. Thez had quite a few of his more famous paintings and even though the museum overall was verz small thez had a reallz impressive collection of Van Goghs paintings, sculpture models, diaries and personal letters. The onlz thing thez didnt seem to have was his ear.

I also made good on mz promise to mzself to rent a biczcle. It was onlz about 2 Euro per hour to rent, and I kept it for about 4 hours. I used it as an opportunitz to ride around town and take pictures of all the thigns I had seen the daz before, when I didnt have mz camera. The onlz down side was that I got a little sunburned...

The most memorable experience from zesterdaz however, had to be meeting Marco from Rome. Marco is a walking-talking Italian stereotzpe of the funniest kind. He expressed to be (with elaborate hand gestures) his love for the Simpsons and the Eagles. When I asked him if he had ever of the movie The Big Lebowski (a classic) because of the Eagles references throughout the movie, he responded with a 'aaahhhhhh!! yesssss.... Le Grande Lebowski!!' I nearly died of laughter.

Today I woke up pretty earlz and caught a train leaving Amsterdam Centraal Station bound for Hamburg. I had to stop in Duisburg (where the hell is Duisburg?) and wait for about an hour for a new train. I dont have plans to ever return to Duisburg as long as live - the town is a complete hole.

I found out when I got here that Germany is going to be plazing a World Cup match tomorrow night. A few others from the Hostel that I met and I are planning to go watch on a giant screen TV in downtown Hamburg. Each host citz for the World Cup has one of these giant screens and thez usuallz draw the better part of a million people. Watching the world cup in Germanz, with Germanz plazing in the semifinals, surrounded bz a ton of Germans? Sounds like a good time to me!

Cheers,
Andrew

The Changing of the Guard

I'm in Amsterdam right now, after getting in yesterday afternoon. I know its been a few days since my last post, so I have some filling in to do.

Two days ago, when I was still in Brussels I took a day trip out to Brugge, in the Flanders region of Belgium. This is a pretty common daytrip for tourists in Brussels since there really isn't all that much to see in Brussels, and Brugge has been well preserved as a medieval city. It was pretty neat to walk around the streets which were intersected by a few rivers and look at the old architecture.

When I first arrived in Brugge, there were a lot of people setting up for some type of event in the main square with a lot grandstand seats and a stage. It turns out I had arrived on the day that the command of the Belgian military was to be handed over and there was a big military parade complete with band! I took the opportunity to get a lot of pictures. I also learned when I was in Brugge that Flemish is one hell of a language. I can't understand a word of it, and not everything in Brugge is also in English. I've been taking for granted that so far into my trip I've only spoken English and French which are the two languages I have any training in. I'm starting to realize that China will be a big challenge!

I was only in Brugge for a few hours before I had seen all of the city and decided to take off. On the train ride home I ended up sitting with 3 Argentinean guys. Georges (1) who was the English speaking ringleader, Georges (2) who was the handicam man, and Francisco who was the fat sleepy guy. They were all really nice and very interested in hearing about my trip. Georges even took a quick movie of me after I passed around a bag of chocolates I had picked up in Brugge. They very sincerely wished me well and good luck.

After my day trip to Brugge I went back to Brussels for the night and yesterday came over to Amsterdam. The train ride was pleasant and uneventful enough. Along the way there seemed to be nothing but flat land dotted with windmills - a very typical Dutch landscape.

So far I don't think I've been so amazed by any city in Europe more than Amsterdam. First of all, my Hostel is in one of the townhouses along one of the main canals. The city is absolutely beautiful too! The one down side is that with all the canals each street corner starts to look just like the last and it becomes really difficult to get around without a map.

The best part of Amsterdam so far though, is that everyone here rides bicycles. Yesterday, as I sat eating dinner at a sidewalk restaurant I must have been passed by a couple thousand riders. It seems like the whole population of Amsterdam is constantly circling around on their bikes! The truly impressive part of the whole bike thing however, is that everything flows so smoothly. I guess when you live your whole life riding a bike around town you have to learn how to make traffic work. I think I might rent a bicycle tomorrow and try my hand at it.

In the meantime I'm about to get some lunch (hopefully cheap) and then go to the Van Gogh museum which is supposed to be excellent.

Take Care,
Andrew