Mongolia has been amazing, and the biggest superise of the trip, as we were not sure what to expect. We had an amazing time, and hope to visite again someday. The people here was so friendly, and though few of them knew english, we always found a way to communicate. Ulan Baatar was like all major cities, vibrant, fun and happening. The outksirts were filled with big developmens, and different plants. But you don’t have to go far outside the city to see horses, farms, yurts and sheep. We hope we saw some wild horse, their population is growing. But its hard for us norwegians to tell a wild horse from a domestic one. We saw a lot of them and they all looked happy.
Continue reading “At the end of the road”Tattoos in Mongolia
We have talked about getting tattos in Mongolia for a while. As a souvineer from a cool far away place. We stumbled across a tatto shop in the back of a designer/thrift store called Red Wood store. The artist was there and we made an appointment for a cuple of days later with the help of google transelate. He didn’t know much english but made a good impression.
Continue reading “Tattoos in Mongolia”Narantuul Market
Narantuul market, or the black market, history goes back to the Soviet era, and is absolutely massive.
The market is largely un-regulated and is known for hosting a lot of counterfeit goods, but also lots and lots of other stuff. Here you will get everything from washers to tshorts, saddles, jewelry and suitcases. Also there is tons and tons of clothes, cloth and shoes….so so so many shoes.
Continue reading “Narantuul Market”Cenghis Khan
The popular mongolian hero is visible almost every where you turn in Ulan Baatar.
We decided to visit the 44 m high statue of him located outside the city, an hour and fifteen minutes by car.
Genghis Khan was born Temüjin 1162 and he died in August 1227. He was the founder and first khan of the Mongol Empire. After spending most of his life uniting the Mongol tribes, he launched a series of military campaigns, conquering large parts of China and Central Asia.
Continue reading “Cenghis Khan”The closest thing available to the Trans-Mongolian railway
As we all know the the world is on fire, and if one wants to travel, you just have to go with whats avalible. Trond booked tickets 3 months ago with the travel agency in China for railway tickets from Bejing to Ulan Bator. It was a lot of emails and the language barrier was significant. But with a little trust and patience. It all worked out. And it was quiet the experience. We got to see a lot of both China and Mongolia we woulden’t have seen otherwise.
Continue reading “The closest thing available to the Trans-Mongolian railway”Got to Erlian
Got woken up at 0500 by the conductors, everybody off in 30 mins. Now it is time for change of the wheel sets to fit the wider tracks in Mongolia, og narrower – we are unsure. They are different at least.
It was absolutely freezing and windy – it at least felt so that early in the morning, think it was about 10c.
Continue reading “Got to Erlian”Hohhot to Erlian
We arrived in Hohhot after 2,5 hours on the bullet train, arriving at a huge rail station (the new one). And we where met by our travel-company-guy just outside. He had gotten a bit nervous that we would not be able to get from the new station to the old one (10 km), so he had gone and got his car after work – so he could drive us there. What a nice guy! ( He had been to Senja in Norway )
Hohhot next !
Today we start the travel that will/can/might bring us to Ulan Batar in Mongolia. We have spent months setting up these tickets, transferred money abroad.. 20 emails, so lets see how this will work out in the end.
The bullet train (speed just below 300 kmt) leaves from Beijing North railway station, and because of luggage we went with a taxi this time around.
Continue reading “Hohhot next !”