Week 11 - Taiwan

Neehow from Taipei, Taiwan!

We have survived the typhoon and are just getting ready to go back to China after completing our fun, wild and crazy time in beautiful Taiwan! And let me tell you it has been a great time! We heard from travellers in China that Taiwan is just like China so no therefore no reason to make the effort. We didn't believe this and have found this place to be very exciting and unique in its own ways.

Our travel path(s) in Taiwan

So reflecting on this country: is Taiwan part of China... Well the Chinese think so, however still Marina still needed a visa to Taiwan and it is very much like entering a new country. Its own currency, immigration; and the people definitely believe they are separate. Apparently there is a split among the Taiwanese of who wants to be part of China and who wants to be completely separate, but everyone we met seems to feel separate, with the realisation that they are still somewhat under the control of China, but people are happy, prosperous and do not want to create a major negative change to this. That being said, it seems the upper classes are finding ways as a backup plan in case China pulls them closely back to the mainland. It seems wealthy people are getting a backup plan with foreign passports and educating children in English seems to be a primary goal.

We feel Taiwan is very different than its parent/cousin/friend/foe to the west. Certainly the look and feel is different. People certainly look different and the Japanese influence is very obvious. The Taiwanese are very open and do utilise their free speech. As you have seen from my posts, in Taiwan blogs are allowed and facebook, along with protests (for the most part). Obviously in China these are all blocked and dealt with very harshly. The food is certainly a mixture of the nearby countries; Japan, Korea and China.

So you are probably interested to know about the Typhoon (Hurricane) and what happened. Well it was pretty bad! Lots of damaged buildings, tree limbs down, major flooding, however people just carried on! For us, we nestled up well and were very safe: my obligation to Marina's parents Gyena and Luda; although you may not believe we worry much seeing the shark diving pictures.

Well let me update you on this past week;

Taitung > Tainan > Kenting > Taipei

And who said women are bad packers; Lighter the better!

Sunday - The Typhoon: When I finished writing you last time, it was just getting ready to worsen. After the writing the blog we went for some food (nearby the hotel, just to be sure) and then chilled out. We didn't venture out until dinner and we again went to a crummy place nearby just to be sure. It was cool to see places still open and the people just getting on with things; although most places were closed and sealed up well.

Monday - The Hotsprings: This was not the best decision we made on the trip so far. As the weather was fairly good with some occasions of seriously heavy rains, we decided to go to a nearby town and chill in the hot springs. When we got to the town of Chihpen, it was mildly raining and we had about a 800 meter (1/2 mile) walk down a road in the forest. Unfortunately the clouds decided to dump all their water on us at that very minute. Completely soaked in 5 minutes! Luckily there were not any electronic disasters.. yet!.... That night, we had a great time partying in the Kasa bar again with David, Claire and Cody! Not sure if anyone noticed, but you could see Jupiter very clearly in the sky...

A hotel in Chihpen damaged by the typhoon.

Tuesday - The tour around Taiwan: This was a real pain, have a look at our map above and you will wonder why we went via Taipei so often. Well, the typhoon destroyed the railroad which we needed to take to get to Tainan. Unfortunately we needed to spend the day driving via Taipei and there were no buses or planes.. Maybe a taxi would have been better, but we didn't check. Arriving in Tainan we went out for some dinner and hit the Armory pub which was pretty full as the full moon was the next day and everyone was off on Wednesday.

Wednesday - The Beach: We spent the morning seeing Tainan's sights and by afternoon we were on the train then a taxi bound for Kenting National Park! We stayed in Nanwan the first night with a nice room overlooking the beach and ocean. Kenting is one of the hot spots for the Taiwanese to relax, hit the beach, and not swim.. (yes, people generally do not know how to swim).. Its is at the far south of Taiwan so its also the warmest.

Thursday - Scuba Diving & BBQ: On Wednesday we organised a dive with the local Dive master John Boo. Despite diving with our gear from the 1970's - note Marina's suit below; we survived and had a great time. Marina even saw her first wild turtle! Although visibility was not superb having been hit by a typhoon earlier in the week. Unfortunately we had our first setback of the trip; our underwater casing for the camera leaked.. so we did get it to work, but it had a few problems so we have a 'new' same model camera :( That night, Jon cooked us and our new friends Cory and Denise (a couple from Chicago who was travelling from Korea where they teach English).

Marina suited and booted!

Friday - Scooters: We rented scooters this morning and made our way around Kenting. Firstly we hit possibly the most beautiful beach in Taiwan - Baisha Beach. An absolute gem and the water was aqua colored! We then scootered over to the southern tip of Taiwan, pretty cool. That night we went out in Kenting town with the gang and partied.

Saturday - Diving & Pool sharks: Waking up early was a pain, but we made it and had two great dives seeing lots of fish. Marina did great with her deepest dives so far - 27 meters (85 feet). After diving we caught a taxi with Cory and Denise to Kaoshung to get the high speed train to Taipei (which travels at about 170mph (260kph ish). In Taipei, we all went out and had a very late night, which featured jagermeister, seeing Arsenal blow an easy game, and getting schooled by some local Taiwanese pool sharks (but not losing anything but pride).

Sunday - Snake alley: Well on the 7th day we rested.. and boy did we need it! We probably slept until about midday and still were a bit rough, but we made it out and saw a few museums and later in the night we went to snake alley. Before you ask, we did not indulge, but I think that isn't even the best word... Essentially they have huge snakes that they cook and you drink the blood... Not quite gourmet dining, but I guess its good for some people..

Well as you know the blog doesn't work in China so I'll have an emailed blog for the next four weeks. We are heading to Hunan, China tomorrow and will be seeing quite a few national parks so get ready for some fantastic pictures...

Until next time,

Zaijian - Dan and Marina!

Week 10 - China and Taiwan

Typhoon Fanapi - You can barely see Taiwan in the white storm! And this is right now!

The UK expo exibit, with my new UK passport (or VIP entry as I call it)

At the gates by the Chiang Kai-Shek memorial
Shanghai's beautiful Bund overlooking Pudong (The building we drank at is the one just under the blue building on the right; it has the white cone on top)
One of the monsters on the Caoling trail

Trekking through Toroko Gorge on a small suspension bridge

Nehowma!!

Welcome to our blog from the epicenter of Asia's famous Typhoon which is just getting ready to hit Taiwan. We are now in Taitung, which is on the east coast of Taiwan and getting ready for a direct hit - don't be alarmed, despite this being the biggest storm and only Typhoon Taiwan has had this year, we are very safe. But the mood is very cool and despite some people being deadly frighted of the typhoon, most shops are open and people are just going about their business despite the 60mph (100kph) winds outside this internet cafe. But to try and reassure you from any fears, we are heading straight back to our hotel for shelter after this blog is finished.

So what have we been up to this past week...

Shanghai > Taipei > Fulong > Taroko Gorge > Taitung

Since being in Taiwan, let me tell you a few cool things we have been finding about the place.

Firstly the country has a very tropical feel; after all this is an island in the Pacific. Lots of palm trees, greenery, gorgeous mountains and beautiful beaches.

Secondly, its quite a bit like Japan in a way. Its obvious to see that the decades of Japanese occupation has rubbed off on Taiwan in a good way. People are extremely honest; back to the scenario as in Japan where you can leave your wallet and phone on the table when going to the bathroom in a restaurant (although we haven't tested this ourselves :D). A.so, the Taiwanese dress very well-Japanese like and generally things are very clean. Being that Taiwan is part of China and they speak Mandarin, this is a comparison to the Chinese.
Lastly - be careful with Taiwanese market food.... more told below...

Saturday: (Street Food) - Speaking of market food, in Xian, before our flight to Shanghai, we went for some delicious market food. A big white fish, cooked in a tasty dark sauce. Enough to feed us both for about $3! Then we caught our flight to Shanghai; unfortunately after the delays, we only made it to our hotel at about 12:00, and being that we didn't see anything fun nearby, we crashed for the night.

Sunday: (The Bund) - We saw about the only cool thing in Shanghai - The Bund (its the picture with the city background -absolutely gorgeous). Well, I lied a bit, the only other thing that is cool in Shanghai in our opinion is the World Expo (you will hear about for Monday). Shanghai is probably the worlds biggest city, which at face value, perplexes me that we didn't like it. The main problem, is there wasn't much to do.. strange I know. The sites were very poor, temples, etc, but one main reason is there is not a bit bar/restaurant area. Or maybe we didn't find it, but we searched hard. on Tuesday you will see we actually found a street with about 5 bars - which was exceptional by shanghai standards, but it was no where near as cool as Beijing or Xian. I'd probably say Shanghai gets a 5 compared to Beijing's 9! However, one cool thing we did Sunday night after seeing the Bund (essentially like the promenade along the river) is go to Cloud 9 Bar in the Jinmao building. The bar is on the 87th floor with excellent views of Shanghai and one good thing in favour of Shanghai is you can actually see the city from a distance as where in Beijing its very smoggy.

Monday: (The World Expo or previously called the World's Fair) - I went to this 10 years ago in Hanover Germany and let me tell you, the Chinese know how to throw a party! This place was phenomenal. The general idea, is every participating country builds a cool unique building and then advertises for its country inside. It was wild and right up our intrepid alleys! One more thing about shanghai, it rained every day we were there! Luckily during the expo, after monsoon like rains, it cleared up at about midday. So we really enjoyed the place. There was so much to see, we spent about 13 hours there and may have seen 1/3rd! Firstly we went and saw 2 of our remaining Asian countries - India and Nepal - At the India tent we had our first taste of Non-Local food on the trip! Precisely 2 months!! And yes, the Indian food was to die for!!! So tasty! After the rain subsided, we wanted to see our countries and the cool thing was if you show your passport you get to jump the 1-2 hour line! Britain's was very cool and its the one you see pictured. We next went to Russia's which was decent; then on to America's. I don't mean to sound unpatriotic, but ours was probably the worst of the 3... On the bright side, is Marina and I were able to jump the line/queues with our passports... which was priceless! All in all we saw about 25 different countries. Our favourite was probably Chile who had buy one get one free glasses of wine - and it was yummy- can't wait for Chile now!!!

Tuesday: (Happy Hour) - After a nice sleep in - and that it was raining; we chilled for the day and hit a happy hour. Looking for a bar in our guidebook we stumbled upon the street of bars I mentioned above. Well it was about 5 tiny bars and 1 had a few people in it... But the cool thing was they had happy hour. Now China is not as cheap as before and in many places prices and be like London - at least in Shanghai and Beijing...

Wednesday: (Roxy 99 and Wax Bar) - Arriving in Taipei, Taiwan, we headed for their famous night market! This place was pretty cool and Marina and I decided to indulge in some of the market food, which was probably not such a good idea (look down to tomorrow's comments)... Maybe Taiwan isn't as clean as I think it is.. :D Afterwards, we stumbled upon a fun and lively university area of Taipei and met a local expat who knows Nathan Davie from Ottawa (one of our friends from London) and he showed us around for the night hitting some of the fun nightspots.

Thursday: (Hooters) - Today, the hangover was not the problem, but the market food was creeping up on us.. Nothing more than stomach pains, but I would say we are very lucky to make it 2.5 months without any real food issues. So after doing our usual round of sightseeing, we decided to have our first Western food on the trip! Given that Taipei has a Hooters there was only one place to go.. This was Marina's first trip to a Hooters and she does like chicken wings so that was my sell. The funny thing about Taipei's chain is the girls do performances like hoola hooping and getting the crowd involved, it was pretty entertaining and it was great to have chicken wings and a burger!

Friday: (Fulong Beach) - we headed out to the west coast, despite the typhoon warnings, we wanted to do some hiking before the storm hit. That may sound like a crazy or stupid idea, but it worked out well. We did a big of hiking on the Caoling Trail and wow, we saw some seriously big spider many right on the trial in big 10 feet (3 meter) webs across the trial. Pretty cool and scary so after we chilled on Fulong beach. Then we caught a train to possibly the best site in Taiwan: Toroko Gorge. We arrived at dusk and the views of the gorge and adjacent mountains were superb! We stayed at the Catholic Hostel in Tienhsiang and after a few minutes, I saw it - a hand size black spider in our bathroom - this think looked like it could eat a small child! So being the typical city boy, I told the owner to kill it... That night, I can tell you, we wondered how many were under the bed... :D

Saturday: (Taroko Gorge) - This was arguably one of the nicest natural sites to be seen anywhere! We woke up at about 6am to do our hikes and clear out as it wasn't a good place to be stuck for 3 days during a typhoon, I'm sure the spiders would even agree... We did about 10 miles (16km) of hikes that day, up the tops of close to 2000 meter (6600 feet) mountains which we even saw 3 monkeys. And after we felt great. With little time to the next bus departure, we quickly grabbed our bags and speed walked to the bus station. After a bus and then a train and then a taxi, we made it to our typhoon hide out city of Taitung. I was certain the typhoon would not hit today despite the television warnings and I was right. So we went out to the Kasa bar and had a great time talking with David the owner from Texas, Claire, Cody and Henry.

Now in Taitung, the storm is getting bad outside, but our hotel is about 500 meters (1600 feet) from the beach so we are a decent way inland ;)

Next, well we aren't sure exactly. It just depends on Typhoon Fanapi and how brutal she is... We are hoping to go to the Green Island next and then down south to Kenting, for some,, hmm scuba diving, but I don't think that will be possible.. so who knows.. :D

Until next time,

Zaijian!

D&M

Week 9 - China

Marina feeling up the turtle

This bad boy was right next to me - no glass :D

Raj, Meg and us in front of the Beijing Olympic stadium

Raj, Meg and us on the Great Wall
This is the culmanation of my beard... cave man enough?? but when in Mongolia!
just in front of the Terracotta warriors

Attention subscibers, the blog will remain temporarily inactive until we leave China. We have been warned by the authorities that visiting such sites at facebook, blogspot, etc is strictly prohibited and will be dealt with in the most severe way... For the mean time, please view the blog via this email which will continue weekly until we exit the Peoples Republic of China; or possibly in Taiwan next week :D

Also, if you want to ring me, my Chinese number is +86 136 411 91484 (we will be in Taiwan from Sept 15-25 so it might not work then)

NeeHow! Greetings from Xian China! The past week has felt like an eternity in a good way as we have done so so much and had probably the best time of our trip so far! Wow! I'm just getting goosebumps reflecting on the last week! No I haven't ran off with a Chinese girl and yes Marina is still happily married :D

China... The word now has some new meanings !

So essentially, everything is from China! This is what you see when you are here! We think we invented stuff - and especially the greeks things so, but its all wrong; the Chinese are really the super race that has everything, its unreal! example: Pasta, sorry italians, Paper, and probably food - or at least proper food! This stuff is so good, I don't care if I'm 300lbs (140kgs) after this trip; its just that good! I mean, I could sit and eat this stuff 24 hours a day :D And if you are wondering, the food in Chinatown in London, is NOT, far off the mark - its pretty much the same! Well in China, you get some crazy stuff, like boiled frogs, pig feet, chicken legs (with the feet attached)... And yes, we have tried some crazy stuff which you will hear about below...

What else, China is seriously modern, we haven't been to the countryside, but Beijing and Xian are pretty much like western cities - with a serious chinese influence. I joke with Marina that China is more modern that Russia, but in fact its more modern that countries that are more modern than Russia! It is cleaner and more sensible than even south Korea!

This country should ABSOLUTELY be the preeminent TOP tourist destination in the world - it is awesome! I'll give you some reasons why below, but it is unbelievable!

AND... I love the Chinese! They are soooo fun and really are the same as westerners, but maybe better :D They party hard, are very funny, love good food (I mean good food) and are just cool people!

So what have we been up to for this past week.. Well a short list this time.

Beijing > Xian

Saturday- Raj & Meg: Our best friends Raj and Meg came to visit us in Beijing these past few days. For those who do not know Raj he was my best man (along with Jon Lurie) at our Russian Wedding. So the next few days were carnage! We met them at about 9pm after a long day of plane delays at Ulaan Baatar Chinggas Khan airport. But it was great to see them and as soon as we met up we went out to the party area in Dongchang Beijing and had quite a few beers! The area was fabulous, just along a lake brightly lit by the neon from the bars and alive from the live music emanating from the bars!

Sunday - Squirrel Fish and Peking Duck: We did the sites today; the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace. Surprisingly the Summer Palace was preferred by all four of us. That night we went out for dinner at a nice posh Beijing restaurant and order some great dishes. Marina and I were really looking forward to Peking Duck, but this wasn't our favorite that night. The squirrel fish was unreal! Its really a mandarin fish in a gorgeous sauce that that is supposed to be shaped like a squirrel, but it looked more like a strange animal...

Monday - The Great Wall: Despite the early morning, seeing the Great wall was fabulous. We went to Jinshanling and did some hiking a few kilometers along and on top of the wall! Its truly a breath taking site! Back in Beijing we went to the market to try some rare delicacies. Now I may not have mentioned, but in Korea, Marina tried silk worm larvae, so I guess it was my turn. We started with scorpion! These were pretty big, probably a bit bigger than a baseball; not too bad, almost like crab - the claws had white meat in them. Next we tried a fried starfish - that all four of us tried a bit of! After we went for some wine at Atmosphere (80 floors up) for a view of Beijing, however the pollution seriously shortened the view.

Tuesday - Chairman Mao: We started the morning seeing the great leader, Chairman Mao Zedong! He was embalmed in a Lenin type of way in the middle of Tiananmen square. Absolutely necessary to pay tribute to the man himself before we really start our journey in his great country! We then went to see the Olympic park and the birds nest stadium; it looks huge from the outside, but not too big or impressive on the inside. Later at the market was quite an experience, they make EVERYTHING! as a replica, blackberrys, Ipads, Mont Blancs, cloths, golf clubs, etc... That night we had our best night, besides the girls almost getting kidnapped by a crazy taxi driver, we ended up at Suzie Wongs for some drinking games. Meg didn't do too well, but by the end we were all in the same state, having a great time!

Wednesday - The Sharks: In the morning Meg and Raj were leaving. Guys - thanks for a great time and coming to visit! Later in the day,we got to do what we had been hoping for; scuba diving in the Beijing aquarium with sharks! Surprisingly Marina was getting pretty brave to the idea. We wanted to do this in Korea, but were there at the wrong time. So the scenario; 20 sharks; nurse, white-tip, black-tip, leopard, cat sharks, AND one HUGE TIGER SHARK!!!! yes, I said Tiger shark - this was a huge 3 meter (9 feet) beast with razor sharp teeth jutting from its mouth. The teeth were mostly out of its mouth just ready for a kill. So semi-nervously we jumped in the tank, somewhat aided by a dive master that just kind of showed us some things and then left us alone for the remaining 40 minutes. The coolest thing was he had us swim up to the tiger shark (this was in the first 5-10 minutes and had us pet the tiger shark! I mean pet the back side of a seriously man eating shark! Marina was scared then but did this later. Sharks would swim straight at us, like you see in the movies when they attack, but these were mostly docile sharks and it seemed harmless. It also hardened our nerves to when the Tiger shark did this. I mean, this hugh man eating beast with its teeth jutting out swam towards us looking as if it was going to attack (probably to about 1 meter-3 feet) and then just swim past us! You may wonder, were we wearing some metal suit or were we in a cage.. Nope and Nope, just a small wetsuit! We also were able to ride the turtles. Along with Morays the size of great anacondas, they had fish that were as big as cows.

Thursday - Terracotta Warriors: We arrived in Xian this morning by an over night train. This site is very cool, but I think people should wait to see this if you are not already coming to China. The reason being is its only 10% excavated! This crazy emperor (Xian was the ancient capital) was so crazy that he had everything in his real life replicated so when he died he had this all in his burial chamber. That's why there are the terracotta warriors. So he had a circus, concubines, family, servants, all kinds of things replicated.. and not just people.. everything. So they really only have the army unearthed, there is so much more to find. Emperor Qin Shi Huang was bonkers! But we have some really cool stuff now from him that was made over 2200 years ago. He started this project when he was 13 years old, it took 700,000 slaves 37 years to finish. And the crazy thing was this was only discovered in 1979 by a farmer digging a well...

Friday - Dim Sum: One great thing about Xian is it has a fully intact city wall spanning 14 km (9 miles) around. Marina had never ridden a bike so we opted for the double bike and rode it on top of the city walls. What a great time! That night, we finally found a Dim Sum restaurant. As Dim Sum is a regional dish for Hong Kong, its not so widely found in China.. But it was so good! After we went to the bar area and then finally a club which was seriously awesome. Pretty much surrounded by BMWs and Mercedes cars, it was a nice place! And we had a few drinks and then shared a table with a very cool couple who we partied with for the whole night playing different drinking games and having loads of fun!

But we are feeling it today! So its been a crazy and fun past week; what's next... We are flying to Shanghai today and then on the 15th we fly to Taiwan for probably 10 days, so maybe the blog will be fine there. Then somehow we are coming back to China for about another month! Zaijan!

Love Dan and Marina

Week 8 - Mongolia

Drinks with Orgilma - like my beard?

This is a very typical Mongolian cuisine - noodles and beef, pretty tasteless

Look closely at whats in this picture. It looks like someone went nuts on this sheep. We ate it...

Khovsgol lake and our horses

Our van we travelled in: 1950's Waz from Russia

Our path is in the middle in black; approx 2000 miles (3000km)

Sainbainauu!

Welcome to the final week of our trip in Mongolia. Its about 4pm here in Ulaan Baatar and I'm looking forward to a few nice cold Chinggas beers! We are very excited to see our good friends Raj and Meg in Beijing tomorrow! And Chinese food is also very appealing right now!

So what have we been doing since the last post?
Khatgal > Khovsgol Lake > Khutag-Ondor > Amarbayasgalant Khiid > Ulaan Baatar

This was quite an exciting part of the trip throughout Mongolia, mostly for the reason as we got away from everyone and Marina and I just spent some nice romantic time around Khovsgol lake - well it can't be too romantic in Mongolia as fresh showers are not common and the toilets are from the 1800's - yes they have outhouses outside of UB.

Friday - preparations for the lake: As we arrived to Khatgal our first thought was lets get the lake trip sorted. We wanted to go on a fishing trip via horses for 3 days. Once this was arranged we now had to buy the supplies and of course a few beers. You really get used to drinking beer warm in Mongolia. During the day we an expat living in Mongolia and we partied that night at the hostel hearing about Phil's cool adventures around the country.

Saturday - Mongolian Horses: Mongolian horses can be a lot more stubborn than American horses and when they told us they don't listen to foreigners as much, its true.. You really have to take control in the beginning or the horse will walk right over you... literally; just kidding. Although Marina did learn this quite quickly. Also, they are smaller than we are used to. Sometimes you see a 200lbs (90kg) guy on a small Mongolian horse and its pretty funny. So we began the trip through the mountains to the west side of Khovsgol lake. Our camp was again with a family who stays on the lake and that night we tried our luck fishing.... I don't mean to complain, but it is not easy fishing in Mongolia. Wow! Not only did we not see a fish in a lake during our whole time in this country, but we didn't have a bite either - I think rivers must be the way. I blew my forecast by a long shot (Donut!), but luckily we still got to eat! Picture attached of the food that night.

Sunday - Khovsgal Lake: The next day we did a 6 hour horse trip along the lake enjoying the scenery. This lake is absolutely gorgeous. Just to tell you a bit about it. Its Mongolia's biggest lake and something like the 14th biggest lake in the world. I read that it contains 2% of the worlds fresh water. So as your guessing, its big! But disregarding its size, its beautiful for the fact that it has gorgeous pine trees lined around it along the mountains which also surround the lake. And the water is the nicest I've ever seen in a lake. Your probably thinking, oh it must be clear. Well yes, it is clear, but the coolest thing is it has loads of white rocks at the bottom. So what happens to the water when white rocks or sand is at the bottom - it looks turquoise like in the Caribbean (well maybe not in 2010, but before BP's debacle). So this lake is just heaven! That night I thought I would take advantage of the gorgeous water and have a dip. Now remember we are just south of Siberia and at night around the lake its probably around 40 degrees F (5 Celsius). So the water was very cold. But in the day the ambient temperature is about 75 degrees F (25 celceus) so you warm up quickly. But that lake is almost cold enough for the polar bear club!

Monday - Riding back to Khatgal: The ride back was a lot of fun and we had a few scares along the way. Well at least the horses did. They are really big girls (no offence ladies). One lady came out of a gate with a stroller (pram) and her baby. One horse went nuts and the rest followed causing a big risk of getting thrown off - pretty funny afterwards. One more thing about Mongolian horses; the saddles are pretty simple and after 3 days, you feel it! Man you feel it! It would probably have felt better to get kicked by the horse in the butt...

Tuesday - riverside: The ride leaving Khatgal to the outskirts of Khutag Ondor was a grueling one.. About 12 hours including lunch... Oh have a look at the restaurant we ate at - picture attached. When we arrived at our destination it was gorgeous, nestled between the mountains and along the river. But besides that not much to mention.

Wednesday - Best food of Mongolia: We stopped in Erdenet for lunch. This city actually looked like a proper city rather than a Kansas mining town in 1831. We stopped at a little cafe (fast food place) and wow, great soup and excellent dumplings! what a treat! If I showed you a comparison picture from the other, you would appreciate it too. That night we arrived at Amarbayasgalant Khiid; Mongolia's most famous monastery. It was a shame as it again was not what it used to be; it seemed it was run by 10-12 year olds.

Thursday - Orgilma: Back in UB we were very happy to see civilisation after being in the van travelling around for 18 days. See a picture of the van above. We had stopped in small towns, but UB was UB and we were ready for decent food and cold beer! I managed to arrange time to meet up in the late afternoon with a friend from London in 2003 who is Mongolian and lives in UB. It was awesome to hear about Mongolia from her view.

Friday - Today our last full day here: we have been sightseeing this morning. One notable site was UB's famous Gandan Khiid Monastery. Now this place was vibrant and alive. Multiple buildings of young novices studying to be monks! And the buildings were very ornate! Tonight should be fun as we are hoping to hear some live music and relax in preparation for THE PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF CHINA!

Just to recap on a few of the thoughts we have about Mongolia.

- Mongolia is certainly a land of opportunity. They have a huge country like 3 times the size of Texas and it seems to just kind of sit there without any industry or agriculture. If these guys start to take advantage of the huge land they have they could be a very wealthy nation.
- Fast food: Mongolia uses the catch phase fast food quite often. Marina says this was chic in Russia 10 years ago. What I have gauged from fast food is the only difference is this food comes in about 15 minutes rather than 90 minutes which is a typical time to wait in many of the Airmag capitals.
- This is a challenging an arduous country to visit and especially live in! Anyone who wants to tackle Mongolia needs a big sense of adventure and to not expect the finer things in life - outside of UB.
- Its a great time to visit Mongolia. This place is getting popular and its still retains its old-fashioned ways. Mongolia is very different from any country we have been to and you really need to come here to truly know what this place is all about. It has been called the world's largest camping ground and that is absolutely true! With your open mind and ability to endure this place - you will have a great time! We really did enjoy our 3 weeks here! Priceless!

Our flight is to Beijing is tomorrow at 11:50 and we will be doing Beijing, Gi-an, Shanghai and then possibly to Taiwan before Southern and western China. We'll keep you posted!

Bayartai from Mongolia!

Dan and Marina