Round the World with Ann and Katie

Hi again
Thanks for your comments Noel and Andy – glad Ullapool was a success. For info. Colin Thubron is a writer (books include In Siberia, Shadow of the Silk Road etc) You would like them, Noel.
Anyway we are now in Mongolia having got back on the train in Irkutsk and travelled to Ulaan Baator. Only about 9 hours crossing the border with our legs firmly crossed as the toilets were kept locked the entire time! Mongolia is a big contrast to Russia – everyone is much more friendly. We were met at the station by the owner of our guesthouse, which is very luxurious for what amounts to two quid a night. We spent the first day exploring UB and trying to access our money at various ATMs: I find it a bit un-nerving withdrawing 200,000 at a time but 1000 is only 50p!. Then we got the bus to Tsetserleg, a bone shaking 12 hour journey, mostly on dusty tracks rather than proper roads. They sell a rather optimistically titled Road Atlas in town but really proper roads are virtually non-existent. Every now and then we went over a particularly deep pothole to remind us that are bums were not quite as numb as we thought they were. After getting off the bus we had another two hours in a jeep and arrived at the ger where we were to spend the first night of our 7 day trek. It was organised by a company called Ger to Ger, based in UB. As the name suggests we trekked from ger to ger! We camped outside the gers but had alll oour meals provided in the gers themselves. The diet is based entirely on yak milk and mutton so whilst we were very well fed it was all dairy products (milk tea with salt in it, yoghourt, various types of cheese, butter, cream, dried curds etc) I could feel my coronary arteries closing up by the minute! It was all extremely tasty though. We were a party of 6, 3 French people and a Mexican woman. Each day we loaded our gear onto a yak cart and trekked for about 20k to our next camp. The scenery was very varied: woods, rivers (good for swimming), steppe, mountains, lakes. Various highlights of the trip included seeing the cooking of a marmot over an open fire: they cut off its head and pull the entrails out through the neck before stuffing it with hot coals from the fire. The fur was then burned off. We had noodles that night! The vodka night was also very enjoyable (good thing we had Katie in training in Fort William). We all sang songs, including my rendition of “Donald where’s yer troosers?” Powerful stuff Mongolian vodka. All the herders and their families were very welcoming and we had some fun playing with the children as well. We attempted to chat in Mongolian, having had a crash course before we left UB. It was very difficult but we did manage to communicate reasonably well. The day is based around caring for the livestock, mainly yaks, goats, horses and sheep. The yaks are milked by hand every morning and evening and then the milk has to be processed into cream and cheese etc. The children all help and are expert horseriders, rounding up the animals with great skill. It is just like being in an episode of Rawhide (Rollin’, rollin’ rollin’) – all I needed was Clint Eastwood and it would have been perfect.
We survived the bus journey back although it was close, and are now spending a few days exploring UB before catching the train for Beijing on Saturday – more fun anticipated at the border as this time they have to change the wheels on the train.

Hi Guys, Sorry to have been away so long but we had problems with t’internet last time we tried to up-date you. We have been to Moscow and seen all the sights there including the Kremlin, Lenin’s mummy, St Basil’s, GUM etc etc. Moscow was very hectic after St Petersburg and full of angry people who shouted at you for getting the slightest thing wrong. So it was a relief to get on the Tran-Siberian and head out for Irkutsk. We travelled in the lap of luxury in a 4 berth compartment for just the two of us. And food was provided which we hadn’t expected as we had stocked up with the inevitable noodles before getting on. So we looked out the window as Russia flashed by and read our books and played Scrabble and cards and slept for 4 nights and 3 days before getting off early on Monday morning in Irkutsk. Charlie may be interested to know that in a town we passed through somewhere in the middle of Siberia there is a Palace of Culture of the Builders of Combine Harvesters!!!!
Everything in Irkutsk is closed on a Monday (well, the shops and the market are open but all museums and touristy things are shut) so we wandered around and chilled out a bit. It was a pleasant relief from Moscow, nowhere near as fraught.
Then on Tuesday morning we caught the bus to Listvyanka on Lake Baikal where we met our guide, Valera, for 3 days hiking. Lake Baikal is wonderful. We walked for about 20k along the lake shore in the woods, masses of wildflowers and butterflies of all sorts. Ann tripped over (admiring the scenery!) and took a lump out of her knee and, worse still, her trousers. All our meals were cooked for us over a log fire by Valera, who made us soup every day for lunch (once from mushrooms we had picked in the woods) and then rice or pasta for dinner and porridge and new laid eggs for breakfast. We hiked to a little village on the first day and camped there. You can’t get there by road, only by boat and foot (bit like Inverie but no pub!). They also have bears in the woods but deeper in than where we were. But they had eaten a horse about 5k from the village recently! On the second night, after exploring the area during the day, we had a banya (a Russian sauna). It was extremely hot and we were provided with birch twigs to hit ourselves with. I believe you are supposed to dive into the freezing lake afterwards but this seemed a bit extreme to me. Wimp! On the following day we hiked back over a 900m hill, through the taiga. All in all a very good trip. Back in Irkutsk now to catch the train for Ulan Bator this evening. We are experiencing our first days rain since we left. Can’t be bad.
How was Ullapool? Hope you all enjoyed it.

Hi All
We have had a great time exploring St Petersburg and getting a bit of culture before heading for Siberia. Ann has a blister (unheard of!) from pounding the streets trying to keep up with Katie. We spent a long time in the Hermitage mainly looking at 19th and 20th century art before visiting the Winter Palace for a total contrast. We have also been to St Isaac’s Cathedral, the St Peter and Paul Fortress (very loud cannon at midday) and the Menshikov Palace. We had dinner at the Stroganoff Palace where the well known beef dish was invented and then caught the overnight train to Moscow. We travelled 3rd class in a a coach with about 40 bunks in it. One of our neighbours, of course, snorred, that is when his phone wasn’t playing “What shall we do with the drunken sailor”. One more time and I was going to offer a hint! We have already been to see St Basil’s and the Kremlin (just from the outside as everything seems to be closed on Tuesdays). Off to collect our Trans-Siberian tickets this afternoon. We get our train on Thursday night and then it is 4 days to Irkutsk so you won’t hear any more for a while.
Ann and Katie