Hey Everyone,
How's it going? Well, I survived the kayaking and I'm now back in Kathrnandu.
The kayak course started on the lake beside Pokhara. There were 12 of us in the course, all of us beginners. The first day was pretty sad to watch, we just had to paddle across to a beach, but everyone was going in circles and a couple people flipped. Then we tried to learn how to roll, another sad sight to watch, although one person did get it that first day.
The next four days were spent on the Seti River, an excellent place to learn. It starts out with smaller rapids (Class l & 2) and the water gets bigger until the last day where there's a Class 4. I spent the first two days on the river very frustrated cause I couldn't roll and almost everyone else was learning it, but on day 3 in the river, I finally figured it out and was very happy. I didn't flip the last two days either, and made it through the Class 4! I hugged a rock and then got turned by the eddy line behind it into a 3 metre hole, but made it. (We learnt some lingo too) It was pretty funny on some of the rapids, one of them we called Carnage City cause about 10 of us flipped, and after the rapid, all I could see were upside kayaks and paddles and people swimming about. It was way more fun than rafting, and way more team building too, cause everyone was cheering everyone else trying to learn stuff. We were all surprised at how quickly we progressed. I still can't roll in white water though, but I'm definitely addicted.
The take out was half way between Pokhara and Kathmandu, so I came here directly. We all got to sit on the top of the bus for four hours (and only l50km) and the views were amazing of the Kathmandu Valley.
So now I'm relaxing in Kathmandu, sorting out kayaking bruises / sore muscles, waiting for Marisa (from Canada) to arrive (she gets here on the l0th) and then we'll be traveling together for 5 weeks and returning home for Christmas.
Toilet Update:
When rafting, had a dug out hole, squatting only. Also used the helmet-on-the-paddle signal, if the helmet was on the paddle, the toilet was available. The easiest way to remember if helmet meant available or not (as our guide explained) was that you put the helmet on to use the toilet. Well, it was funny at the time.
Well, see most of you at Christmas.
Love Eric
Thursday, November 06, 1997
Wednesday, October 29, 1997
Pokhara, Nepal
Hey Everyone,
How's it going? Well, after 3 months, I'm now on my own, Gerry left to go on a 12 day trek yesterday.
When we got to Kathmandu, we decided to rest for a while, cause after China, it felt like a vacation. We could order food in english, listen to Bob Marley and Sting (everywhere I've been, local bar and restaurant owners seem to think that that's all we like), eat western food (although we did stick to local stuff). So for 5 days we did nothing but stand in lines for visa extensions, trekking permits, relax.
After Kathmandu, we came here to Pokhara for a 5 day raft trip down the Kali Gandaki. The rafting started out like a jeep trip in Mongolia, The first day, about 10 minutes down the river, the supply raft wrapped itself around a rock, It took us three hours to get it free, half of the people on the trip had to go to across the river with a rope to help pull it free, Then maybe another 100 metres down, the frame popped of the supply raft (l guess weakened from being stuck in the rapids) and so some of our supplies started floating down the river.
All of us were down river from this accident, so all we saw were tomatoes and other stuff (fortunately no beer) floating by us, not a good sign. Also all the eggs were lost (and they were all stored in the same raft...). By the time this was straightened out, it was dark, so we set up camp in the dark, probably 250m from where we had put in that morning, I figured all we needed now to complete the day was rain, it rained. Then me and Gerry made the mistake of telling everyone our Mongolia trip, so then we were blamed as being bad luck, (even though me and Gerry knew that it was the other people on the Mongolia trip who were bad luck.) But the next day more supplies were sent down, we got a new supply raft driver (?) and everything was fine after that.
The 4th day was pretty calm on the river, so I got to try kayaking for a couple hours. It was way fun, I got addicted, so now I'm doing a kayak trip from Nov 1 - 5. The first day is on a lake where we learn stuff, then we head down the Seti River. On the last day there's Class 3s, that should be fun.
On the 5th day we had a couple Class 4+'s, ours was the only raft to go over. This was after the night before when we bragged that we were the only raft (out of 4 on the trip) not to have any swimmers yet. We called our raft Mr. Wolf, cleaning up after everyone's messes, Then we flipped. Oh well.
A couple days ago I climbed up Sarangkot (about 1800m) to stay the night, cause it hs amazing views of the Annapurnas (mountain range) and of Pokhara by sunset and sunrise. It was the only cloudy morning I‘ve seen here so far. Coincidence? I'll tell you about coincidence. Gerry carried around a set of darts for 3 months from Germany to here, and finally decided to get rid of them in Kathmandu, cause we had used them exactly zero times. The next day here in Pokhara we found a bar with a really nice dart board.
Oh yeah, before I came to Nepal, I knew nothing about it, I figured I'd just do a trek or two. Now I’ll be here for around 45 days, and do everything but trek.
I need sports news! How are the Leafs doing? Better than Montreal?
How are the Raptors doing? Did Chicago keep their team together for another season?
Big Mac Combo Update:
None here. No chains at all of any kind (except DHL express)
Anyways, I'm just hanging out here for a couple days until my kayaking begins. Life's rough.
Love Eric (or Eric)
How's it going? Well, after 3 months, I'm now on my own, Gerry left to go on a 12 day trek yesterday.
When we got to Kathmandu, we decided to rest for a while, cause after China, it felt like a vacation. We could order food in english, listen to Bob Marley and Sting (everywhere I've been, local bar and restaurant owners seem to think that that's all we like), eat western food (although we did stick to local stuff). So for 5 days we did nothing but stand in lines for visa extensions, trekking permits, relax.
After Kathmandu, we came here to Pokhara for a 5 day raft trip down the Kali Gandaki. The rafting started out like a jeep trip in Mongolia, The first day, about 10 minutes down the river, the supply raft wrapped itself around a rock, It took us three hours to get it free, half of the people on the trip had to go to across the river with a rope to help pull it free, Then maybe another 100 metres down, the frame popped of the supply raft (l guess weakened from being stuck in the rapids) and so some of our supplies started floating down the river.
All of us were down river from this accident, so all we saw were tomatoes and other stuff (fortunately no beer) floating by us, not a good sign. Also all the eggs were lost (and they were all stored in the same raft...). By the time this was straightened out, it was dark, so we set up camp in the dark, probably 250m from where we had put in that morning, I figured all we needed now to complete the day was rain, it rained. Then me and Gerry made the mistake of telling everyone our Mongolia trip, so then we were blamed as being bad luck, (even though me and Gerry knew that it was the other people on the Mongolia trip who were bad luck.) But the next day more supplies were sent down, we got a new supply raft driver (?) and everything was fine after that.
The 4th day was pretty calm on the river, so I got to try kayaking for a couple hours. It was way fun, I got addicted, so now I'm doing a kayak trip from Nov 1 - 5. The first day is on a lake where we learn stuff, then we head down the Seti River. On the last day there's Class 3s, that should be fun.
On the 5th day we had a couple Class 4+'s, ours was the only raft to go over. This was after the night before when we bragged that we were the only raft (out of 4 on the trip) not to have any swimmers yet. We called our raft Mr. Wolf, cleaning up after everyone's messes, Then we flipped. Oh well.
A couple days ago I climbed up Sarangkot (about 1800m) to stay the night, cause it hs amazing views of the Annapurnas (mountain range) and of Pokhara by sunset and sunrise. It was the only cloudy morning I‘ve seen here so far. Coincidence? I'll tell you about coincidence. Gerry carried around a set of darts for 3 months from Germany to here, and finally decided to get rid of them in Kathmandu, cause we had used them exactly zero times. The next day here in Pokhara we found a bar with a really nice dart board.
Oh yeah, before I came to Nepal, I knew nothing about it, I figured I'd just do a trek or two. Now I’ll be here for around 45 days, and do everything but trek.
I need sports news! How are the Leafs doing? Better than Montreal?
How are the Raptors doing? Did Chicago keep their team together for another season?
Big Mac Combo Update:
None here. No chains at all of any kind (except DHL express)
Anyways, I'm just hanging out here for a couple days until my kayaking begins. Life's rough.
Love Eric (or Eric)
Tuesday, October 14, 1997
Kathmandu, Nepal
Hey everyone,
So Kathmandu is nothing like I expected. I thought it was cold and there was nothing to do but trek, but it's amazing! In Kathmandu it goes up to about 25 C (that's about high 70s for you non-metric people) in the day. There's white water rafting (we're going on a 6 day trip soon), elephant safaris, cool villages and markets. Also trekking. I could spend months here.
We seem to be giving the impression that all we do is drink. Some of you may be wondering why we just didn't stay home and do a round-the-world tour at Milwaukee's (that's a bar in Toronto that has about 150 beers from around the world). So in this message we won't mention beer anymore.
Later today we're going to a slide presentation from one of the Rafting companies. Normally we wouldn't go to boring slide shows, but they're serving unlimited rum and cokes. It should be good. Yesterday we went to a similar one from a different company, also cause they gave away free rum and cokes.
Hmm, I could use a BEvERage.
Last we wrote were in Shanghai. Life's been fairly uneventful since then, no major accidents, no one's got lost or missed trains. We've even been fairly regular. After Shanghai, we wanted to take a boat cruise to HongKong, but that service has been cancelled. (so we took a train). Then, in HongKong (China), we went to a Chinese embassy to get a visa to enter a country we were already in. Does this make any sense? Cost us 30 bucks too. HongKong hasn't really changed much since I was there last (2 years ago), but then that's only from a tourist view. One resident we met said the only thing that's changed is the colour of the mailboxes.
Next we went to Macau. We thought we would go in the middle of the week cause it's not as busy (read cheaper), we managed to hit China National Day and so it was busier than ever. We really liked Macau though. It's much more European than HongKong. Also good cheap red wine (imported from Portugal). We did the tourist thing and went to a casino, Gerry lost, I won.
Then we wanted to take a boat on our way to Yanghuo via Guangzhou, but that's been discontinued as well. So we took a bus. Then a boat. Then a bus. Ended up in Yanshuo at about 3:00am. All the hotels were booked up, there was a group of 8 people outside a bar, who were going to stay up till 11:00 hoping to get a room in the morning (they had arrived shortly before us). We decided to do the same, so spent the next 8 hours in delightful conversation. At 11:00 we got a room (don't read into that), slept a bit. Then we got up, went to the same place and had some more delightful conversation. We didn't really like the town cause there were far too many tour bus groups there (Gerry's impression of a tour group person 'Hey Frank, didja see this over here' (read it in a slow drawl)). So we got the next available train out (had to wait a day).
Three buses, a train and 48 hours later we were in Chengdu. The only reason people go to Chengdu is to fly to Lhasa (in Tibet) However, we really like the place.
So then we were in Lhasa, courtesy of China Southwest Airlines (anyone know if I can use that for Aerolplan?) (I may just send them the flight coupon to mess them up). A really good flight, new plane, even got served an in-flight meal and got english newspapers! Lhasa is the home of the Tibetan monks, or what's left of them after China liberated Tibet (that's the Chinese official description) (we would use other verbs). Our major reason to go there (to the disappointment of many other people we met) was to the do the 'once-in-a-lifetime' (LP description) Lhasa to Kathmandu crossing by land. We did see the major sights in Lhasa, then started the 3 day journey by bus to Kathmandu.
The crossing was pretty cool. We did get altitude sickness, cause we had flown in from pretty much sea level, and the crossing reaches 5200 metres at its maximum. But after the pass, it's almost a straight drop down to 500 metres in Kathmandu. That part was cool. We did get our cheapest room yet the second night of the trip, 10 yuan ($1.25 US) for a double, and it wasn't too bad.
So in Kathmandu, we ran into Eileen and Kirsty (you may remember them from our little adventures on the jeep trip in Mongolia). They have a much better story of their Lhasa-Kathmandu crossing, their driver was a litle careless/dangerous, and managed to roll the vehicle off a 20m drop (and rolled it six times). Fortunately no one was seriously hurt, although one passenger had to be taken to a hospital. We thought about doing the rafting trip with them, but we're not sure if we should wait until we up our insurance policies.
BigMac Combo research:
HongKong 17.30 HKD, 5.6 HKD = $1 US
Macau Never visited one.
We'll let someone else do the math, apparently (as pointed out by Roach) our math skills have deteriorated (I hear delightful conversation kills brain cells).
Toilet Update:
We're still regular.
That's about it, now we're off to have some delightful conversation.
Love Eric and Gerry (or Gerry and Eric)
So Kathmandu is nothing like I expected. I thought it was cold and there was nothing to do but trek, but it's amazing! In Kathmandu it goes up to about 25 C (that's about high 70s for you non-metric people) in the day. There's white water rafting (we're going on a 6 day trip soon), elephant safaris, cool villages and markets. Also trekking. I could spend months here.
We seem to be giving the impression that all we do is drink. Some of you may be wondering why we just didn't stay home and do a round-the-world tour at Milwaukee's (that's a bar in Toronto that has about 150 beers from around the world). So in this message we won't mention beer anymore.
Later today we're going to a slide presentation from one of the Rafting companies. Normally we wouldn't go to boring slide shows, but they're serving unlimited rum and cokes. It should be good. Yesterday we went to a similar one from a different company, also cause they gave away free rum and cokes.
Hmm, I could use a BEvERage.
Last we wrote were in Shanghai. Life's been fairly uneventful since then, no major accidents, no one's got lost or missed trains. We've even been fairly regular. After Shanghai, we wanted to take a boat cruise to HongKong, but that service has been cancelled. (so we took a train). Then, in HongKong (China), we went to a Chinese embassy to get a visa to enter a country we were already in. Does this make any sense? Cost us 30 bucks too. HongKong hasn't really changed much since I was there last (2 years ago), but then that's only from a tourist view. One resident we met said the only thing that's changed is the colour of the mailboxes.
Next we went to Macau. We thought we would go in the middle of the week cause it's not as busy (read cheaper), we managed to hit China National Day and so it was busier than ever. We really liked Macau though. It's much more European than HongKong. Also good cheap red wine (imported from Portugal). We did the tourist thing and went to a casino, Gerry lost, I won.
Then we wanted to take a boat on our way to Yanghuo via Guangzhou, but that's been discontinued as well. So we took a bus. Then a boat. Then a bus. Ended up in Yanshuo at about 3:00am. All the hotels were booked up, there was a group of 8 people outside a bar, who were going to stay up till 11:00 hoping to get a room in the morning (they had arrived shortly before us). We decided to do the same, so spent the next 8 hours in delightful conversation. At 11:00 we got a room (don't read into that), slept a bit. Then we got up, went to the same place and had some more delightful conversation. We didn't really like the town cause there were far too many tour bus groups there (Gerry's impression of a tour group person 'Hey Frank, didja see this over here' (read it in a slow drawl)). So we got the next available train out (had to wait a day).
Three buses, a train and 48 hours later we were in Chengdu. The only reason people go to Chengdu is to fly to Lhasa (in Tibet) However, we really like the place.
So then we were in Lhasa, courtesy of China Southwest Airlines (anyone know if I can use that for Aerolplan?) (I may just send them the flight coupon to mess them up). A really good flight, new plane, even got served an in-flight meal and got english newspapers! Lhasa is the home of the Tibetan monks, or what's left of them after China liberated Tibet (that's the Chinese official description) (we would use other verbs). Our major reason to go there (to the disappointment of many other people we met) was to the do the 'once-in-a-lifetime' (LP description) Lhasa to Kathmandu crossing by land. We did see the major sights in Lhasa, then started the 3 day journey by bus to Kathmandu.
The crossing was pretty cool. We did get altitude sickness, cause we had flown in from pretty much sea level, and the crossing reaches 5200 metres at its maximum. But after the pass, it's almost a straight drop down to 500 metres in Kathmandu. That part was cool. We did get our cheapest room yet the second night of the trip, 10 yuan ($1.25 US) for a double, and it wasn't too bad.
So in Kathmandu, we ran into Eileen and Kirsty (you may remember them from our little adventures on the jeep trip in Mongolia). They have a much better story of their Lhasa-Kathmandu crossing, their driver was a litle careless/dangerous, and managed to roll the vehicle off a 20m drop (and rolled it six times). Fortunately no one was seriously hurt, although one passenger had to be taken to a hospital. We thought about doing the rafting trip with them, but we're not sure if we should wait until we up our insurance policies.
BigMac Combo research:
HongKong 17.30 HKD, 5.6 HKD = $1 US
Macau Never visited one.
We'll let someone else do the math, apparently (as pointed out by Roach) our math skills have deteriorated (I hear delightful conversation kills brain cells).
Toilet Update:
We're still regular.
That's about it, now we're off to have some delightful conversation.
Love Eric and Gerry (or Gerry and Eric)
Wednesday, September 17, 1997
Beijing, China
Hey everyone,
How's it going? We are now in Beijing, having crossed by train into China about 4 days ago. It was pretty neat, we took local trains (as opposed to one international train that most travellers take) and so got to stop in a couple towns that probably have never seen tourists before. Got to learn to count to ten (in Chinese, we know how to count to ten in English, we're math majors) in some restaurant with the whole family helping out. Gave them a Canadian flag pin for that...
So today we just got back from the Great Wall. We camped there over night, at Simitai (about 3 hours from Beijing). It was way cool, first we had to climb up the wall, it's in a non-touristy condition, so quite dangerous in parts (climbing up 75 degree slopes with a tent on your back ain't easy...) but well worth the effort. After about 2 or so hours, we reached the tower that we camped in along with 5 other people we had met in the hostel earlier. It was amazing, as the sun set in the west the moon was rising in the east, I couldn't decide which way to look... as if that wasn't enough, a gentle cloud cover passed in front of the moon. It's enough to give a guy inner peace, and I haven't even got to Nepal yet.
After mastering the Cyrillic script, we are now onto Chinese characters. We know about 10? so far, at this rate by the year 2013 we will know enough to read a newspaper.
So back to Mongolia for a sec... It appears that we only talked about the problems we had on our trip. Lotsa good stuff happened too:
Mongolians are amazingly polite and curious and helpful. (There's no thesaurus on this thing). I think it's cause the borders have just recently been open to tourism, and so we're the first wave. (Sullying the place up for future travellers.) We went to sand dunes in the Gobi over 100m high, and the edges on them were perfectly crisp... unlike some that I went to in Chile, which were amazing in themselves, but there was major evidence that you weren't the first one there... Our guide even took us to a Ulaan Baatar disco after our trip (everyone was watching us as the official dance gurus cause we were from the west, (and Gerry's from Strathroy, Ontario for crying out loud))
Local Customs (Mongolia):
- Drinking fermented milk of various milk-producing animals (camel, horse, mare, goat, sheep...) I kinda liked it after a while, Gerry got gas
- Living in Gers... as nomadic people they move around a lot and so live in portable tent-like things that they can move in about 7 hours. (as former co-op students we can appreciate this)
- Brewing home-made vodka... first round of which each person must skull (that means drink it all for you non-Aussies) an entire glass. This one we're bringing home
Toilet Update: (Mongolia)
- Gerry writes 'In the open air baby... well for 8 days at least' Otherwise it's a mix of fully functional toilets, toilets placed over holes in the ground, or just holes in the ground. But the toilet paper has improved immensely from Russia. (quite impressive for a country with few functional toilets.)
See you soon from Xi'an (that's in China)
Love Eric and Gerry (or Gerry and Eric)
How's it going? We are now in Beijing, having crossed by train into China about 4 days ago. It was pretty neat, we took local trains (as opposed to one international train that most travellers take) and so got to stop in a couple towns that probably have never seen tourists before. Got to learn to count to ten (in Chinese, we know how to count to ten in English, we're math majors) in some restaurant with the whole family helping out. Gave them a Canadian flag pin for that...
So today we just got back from the Great Wall. We camped there over night, at Simitai (about 3 hours from Beijing). It was way cool, first we had to climb up the wall, it's in a non-touristy condition, so quite dangerous in parts (climbing up 75 degree slopes with a tent on your back ain't easy...) but well worth the effort. After about 2 or so hours, we reached the tower that we camped in along with 5 other people we had met in the hostel earlier. It was amazing, as the sun set in the west the moon was rising in the east, I couldn't decide which way to look... as if that wasn't enough, a gentle cloud cover passed in front of the moon. It's enough to give a guy inner peace, and I haven't even got to Nepal yet.
After mastering the Cyrillic script, we are now onto Chinese characters. We know about 10? so far, at this rate by the year 2013 we will know enough to read a newspaper.
So back to Mongolia for a sec... It appears that we only talked about the problems we had on our trip. Lotsa good stuff happened too:
Mongolians are amazingly polite and curious and helpful. (There's no thesaurus on this thing). I think it's cause the borders have just recently been open to tourism, and so we're the first wave. (Sullying the place up for future travellers.) We went to sand dunes in the Gobi over 100m high, and the edges on them were perfectly crisp... unlike some that I went to in Chile, which were amazing in themselves, but there was major evidence that you weren't the first one there... Our guide even took us to a Ulaan Baatar disco after our trip (everyone was watching us as the official dance gurus cause we were from the west, (and Gerry's from Strathroy, Ontario for crying out loud))
Local Customs (Mongolia):
- Drinking fermented milk of various milk-producing animals (camel, horse, mare, goat, sheep...) I kinda liked it after a while, Gerry got gas
- Living in Gers... as nomadic people they move around a lot and so live in portable tent-like things that they can move in about 7 hours. (as former co-op students we can appreciate this)
- Brewing home-made vodka... first round of which each person must skull (that means drink it all for you non-Aussies) an entire glass. This one we're bringing home
Toilet Update: (Mongolia)
- Gerry writes 'In the open air baby... well for 8 days at least' Otherwise it's a mix of fully functional toilets, toilets placed over holes in the ground, or just holes in the ground. But the toilet paper has improved immensely from Russia. (quite impressive for a country with few functional toilets.)
See you soon from Xi'an (that's in China)
Love Eric and Gerry (or Gerry and Eric)
Monday, September 08, 1997
Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia
[written by Gerry Timmermans]
Sain Bainuu (Hello there).
Well, since our last message from Irkutsk we've had quite an adventure indeed. Eric managed to get himself left behind at a train station on the way to Mongolia. Here's his version of the story:
We had 50,000 roubles left, so at the last stop before the border, I went out to spend it at any shop I could find. I asked the provodnitsa (train attendant) how long the stop was, I asked 'pyaht naht zut minutes', which is 15. She though I said 'pyaht minutes' which is 5, so agreed with me. So I wandered off to spend our money (about $9 US), only to see the train pulling away as I tried to pay. So I ran after the train, but it was going faster than me. Just as I was running out of breath, I stopped beside a solo locomotive. The driver (?) asked me 'Ulaan Baatar?' (captial of Mongolia) and I said 'Da, da' so he gave me a ride. I got to sit up front and even got to toot the horn. A couple stops later (after about 45 minutes) we caught up to my train and so I got back on, no problems.
Now, here's my version:
Eric wanted to buy some beer. Out of the goodness of my heart I agreed to remain in the train to watch our stuff lest it be stolen by some wayward individual. As Eric left the train I could have sworn I heard the provodnitsa say "5 minutes" in English but that could have just been my imagination. So, about 4 minutes later I went to the door and started looking around to see if he'd gotten back on the train. I noticed a couple of other folks that also seated in our compartment running back to the train a few cards ahead. A few seconds later we started to pull away and there was still no sight of him. I mentioned this to the provodnitsa as she locked he door to the train but she insisted that he'd gotten back on the train near the restaurant car. I kept looking for him anyway and soon I realized that we indeed must have left him behind. So, as I was making contingency plans to get his and my stuff off the train in Ulaan Bataar (or explain where my friend was as I crossed the border) up pulls a locomotive along side us and Eric hops back on the train. No one could quite believe that he'd hitched a ride on a train engine. Once he was back we decided it might be a better idea to buy the beer in the restaurant car instead.
Since we've been in Mongolia we've also had a few adventures. Our first day here we met up with a couple of folks who wanted to take a jeep trek through the Gobi Desert. We agreed and left the next day. In our group was Kirsty (Australia), Eileen (USA), James (England), our driver Bimba (Mongolia), our guide Gana (bilingual Mongolian...fortunately English as the other language) and us (Canat's ... we're no longer Canadsky's, we're Canat's).
The 8 day trip was full of surprises which are far too lengthy to explain in detail. So, I'll just list the major catastrophes:
1. The first night we were forced to pitch our (borrowed) tent in sand. As a result the pegs didn't stay in very well and the wind blew most of the fly off just before it started to rain. We woke up in the middle of a collapsed tent with big rips in the side and big puddles all around us. It was pretty damn cold too (about 7 degrees or so). ... good start to the trip.
2. We're driving through the middle of the Gobi Desert when we crashed the jeep into a 3-foot deep crevice. It took us about 2-3 hours to change a messed up tire, remove the front-wheel-drive driveshaft, fill in the ditch, and push and shove our way out. I think the frame of the jeep was bent afterward as well. Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt but we were afraid our guide might have a concussion because she smashed her head into the windshield quite hard (shattering the glass).
3. I (Gerry) got lost in the middle of a mountain range after dark for a few hours and had to be rescued by several Mongolian horseman. They received a couple of bottles of vodka for that one ... enough said.
4. With our jeep now only rear wheel drive we got stuck in the sand near some sand dunes in the south Gobi. Our driver had obviously never driven in sand or snow before because he continually buried the vehicle despite our cries of "Zogs!" (stop!). It took us a few hours to get out of this one too.
5. Same day as 4. Our engine overheated numerous times throughout the day in a whole day of driving we made maybe 200km progress. To top it off we ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere (and I mean nowhere) and the driver had to walk for miles to get some fuel. We'd found a gas container by the said of the road about an hour earlier ... ironic huh. Fortunately our group had become immune to the adversities of Mongolian travel and before the driver was out of sight we had a fire burning and our dinner half cooked. At this point we were averaging one major disaster per day.
6. We had a few good-luck days and we were all trying to guess at what the next trouble would be. No one guessed that the electricity would have been down for two days at the gas station and we wouldn't be able to fill the tank. We made a hopeful run for Ulaan Baatar with the fuel we had and ran out just as we approached a station on the outskirts of the city ... whew.
Despite all these problems (or maybe because of them) this was one of the best 8 days I've ever had. Mongolia rules.
Our plans for the next few days are to head to a nearby National Park and hike and camp and meet the locals. The people we met on the Gobi trip were so friendly we'd like to meet a few more. We're worried now that the border restrictions have been lessened this place will be all sullied up in a few years time by all the gringos.
We heard that Princess Diana was killed in a car accident about a week or so ago. The details are really sketchy around here so could someone please give us an update (there's a British guy with us who's pretty curious too). For those of you who are paying attention this is a clear invitation to write us a note.
Big Mac combo research:
A BMC combo doesn't exist here. If it did the burgers would probably be made with mutton anyway.
We'll check your messages when we hit Beijing in about a week or so.
Byal-staa
Gerry & Eric (or Eric & Gerry)
Sain Bainuu (Hello there).
Well, since our last message from Irkutsk we've had quite an adventure indeed. Eric managed to get himself left behind at a train station on the way to Mongolia. Here's his version of the story:
We had 50,000 roubles left, so at the last stop before the border, I went out to spend it at any shop I could find. I asked the provodnitsa (train attendant) how long the stop was, I asked 'pyaht naht zut minutes', which is 15. She though I said 'pyaht minutes' which is 5, so agreed with me. So I wandered off to spend our money (about $9 US), only to see the train pulling away as I tried to pay. So I ran after the train, but it was going faster than me. Just as I was running out of breath, I stopped beside a solo locomotive. The driver (?) asked me 'Ulaan Baatar?' (captial of Mongolia) and I said 'Da, da' so he gave me a ride. I got to sit up front and even got to toot the horn. A couple stops later (after about 45 minutes) we caught up to my train and so I got back on, no problems.
Now, here's my version:
Eric wanted to buy some beer. Out of the goodness of my heart I agreed to remain in the train to watch our stuff lest it be stolen by some wayward individual. As Eric left the train I could have sworn I heard the provodnitsa say "5 minutes" in English but that could have just been my imagination. So, about 4 minutes later I went to the door and started looking around to see if he'd gotten back on the train. I noticed a couple of other folks that also seated in our compartment running back to the train a few cards ahead. A few seconds later we started to pull away and there was still no sight of him. I mentioned this to the provodnitsa as she locked he door to the train but she insisted that he'd gotten back on the train near the restaurant car. I kept looking for him anyway and soon I realized that we indeed must have left him behind. So, as I was making contingency plans to get his and my stuff off the train in Ulaan Bataar (or explain where my friend was as I crossed the border) up pulls a locomotive along side us and Eric hops back on the train. No one could quite believe that he'd hitched a ride on a train engine. Once he was back we decided it might be a better idea to buy the beer in the restaurant car instead.
Since we've been in Mongolia we've also had a few adventures. Our first day here we met up with a couple of folks who wanted to take a jeep trek through the Gobi Desert. We agreed and left the next day. In our group was Kirsty (Australia), Eileen (USA), James (England), our driver Bimba (Mongolia), our guide Gana (bilingual Mongolian...fortunately English as the other language) and us (Canat's ... we're no longer Canadsky's, we're Canat's).
The 8 day trip was full of surprises which are far too lengthy to explain in detail. So, I'll just list the major catastrophes:
1. The first night we were forced to pitch our (borrowed) tent in sand. As a result the pegs didn't stay in very well and the wind blew most of the fly off just before it started to rain. We woke up in the middle of a collapsed tent with big rips in the side and big puddles all around us. It was pretty damn cold too (about 7 degrees or so). ... good start to the trip.
2. We're driving through the middle of the Gobi Desert when we crashed the jeep into a 3-foot deep crevice. It took us about 2-3 hours to change a messed up tire, remove the front-wheel-drive driveshaft, fill in the ditch, and push and shove our way out. I think the frame of the jeep was bent afterward as well. Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt but we were afraid our guide might have a concussion because she smashed her head into the windshield quite hard (shattering the glass).
3. I (Gerry) got lost in the middle of a mountain range after dark for a few hours and had to be rescued by several Mongolian horseman. They received a couple of bottles of vodka for that one ... enough said.
4. With our jeep now only rear wheel drive we got stuck in the sand near some sand dunes in the south Gobi. Our driver had obviously never driven in sand or snow before because he continually buried the vehicle despite our cries of "Zogs!" (stop!). It took us a few hours to get out of this one too.
5. Same day as 4. Our engine overheated numerous times throughout the day in a whole day of driving we made maybe 200km progress. To top it off we ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere (and I mean nowhere) and the driver had to walk for miles to get some fuel. We'd found a gas container by the said of the road about an hour earlier ... ironic huh. Fortunately our group had become immune to the adversities of Mongolian travel and before the driver was out of sight we had a fire burning and our dinner half cooked. At this point we were averaging one major disaster per day.
6. We had a few good-luck days and we were all trying to guess at what the next trouble would be. No one guessed that the electricity would have been down for two days at the gas station and we wouldn't be able to fill the tank. We made a hopeful run for Ulaan Baatar with the fuel we had and ran out just as we approached a station on the outskirts of the city ... whew.
Despite all these problems (or maybe because of them) this was one of the best 8 days I've ever had. Mongolia rules.
Our plans for the next few days are to head to a nearby National Park and hike and camp and meet the locals. The people we met on the Gobi trip were so friendly we'd like to meet a few more. We're worried now that the border restrictions have been lessened this place will be all sullied up in a few years time by all the gringos.
We heard that Princess Diana was killed in a car accident about a week or so ago. The details are really sketchy around here so could someone please give us an update (there's a British guy with us who's pretty curious too). For those of you who are paying attention this is a clear invitation to write us a note.
Big Mac combo research:
A BMC combo doesn't exist here. If it did the burgers would probably be made with mutton anyway.
We'll check your messages when we hit Beijing in about a week or so.
Byal-staa
Gerry & Eric (or Eric & Gerry)
Tuesday, August 26, 1997
Irkutsk, Russia
Hey everyone,
How's it going? Well, this is the second attempt at sending this message. The first one
Technical Explanation:
we lost cause the internet connection timed out and while trying to reconnect with russian prompts we lost it
NonTechnical Explanation
we lost.
Anyways, since we last talked to you, we have been to Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk, and now we're in Irkutsk. Yekaterinburg was formerly called Sverdlovsk (for those of you with politically incorrect maps).
Yekaterinburg was, well, formerly called Sverdlovsk. That's about all we have to say about the city. However, the people we met there were amongst the friendliest people ever. A lady on the train told us which bus to take, and we must have taken it in the wrong direction, cause nyet less than six people on the bus (this version of Word converts 'n-o' into something weird, must be like teh in english but in russian, so wehave to use 'n-y-e-t') helped us figure out where we were going, and then showed us the proper connection, told the conductor on the bus where we were supposed to be going. We were very impressed.
Novosibirsk was pretty cool. We were split up on the train cause there weren't two seats together. I had a cabin to myself (Russian train logic for ya) and Gerry ended up in a cabin with a girl (Variya) from Novosibirsk who was going home from Moscow. Anyways, her Mom met Variya at the train station, and then insisted that we stay at their house. As the Lonely Planet says (it is the authoritative guide), one of the best ways to see Russia is to stay at a local's home. We talked about basic life things, like how many years of school and stuff. They even called all their english speaking friends to come over and meet the two Canadskis. They play SOS, Crazy 8's, Battleship, and even keep their garbage under the sink. And all during the cold war, I thought they were the bad guys. Weird, eh?
The train from Novosibirsk to here was pretty cool too. It was probably the low end of the second class russian trains that we've taken. But we were the celebrities of the train. We introduced ourselves to the other lady in our cabin (in Russian!), and within 10 minutes the entire train knew that there were two Canadskis on the train and they all knew our name. It was pretty neat being the centre of attention. One guy kept on insisting 'Canada? Futbol!' and we kept on saying 'Nyet, hockey'
Speaking of hockey, we read that Messier nyet longer plays for the Rangers. Where'd he go? (Some of you who have nothing new to say about your lives can use this as an excuse to reply to us) Also on the hockey topic, the Stanley Cup was in Moscow last week. They had in front of Lenin's tomb. Maybe it was news in Canada?
Now for something different. We'll have recurring features in our little update to keep you interested.
Toilet Update: (thanks to MSB for the enquiry)
- Still western sit-down style. Although the train toilets do have little anti-skid things for those who prefer to squat.
- Toilet Paper Quality: Going downhill. Poland was okay, Russia's is, well, paper and it is used in the toilet and so I guess technically is toilet paper.
Local Customs:
- Hangover Cure: Called 'Rassoule', it's pickle juice. And it works, based on my experience.
- Standing-in-lines: this part of the Russian stereotype is true, especially in train stations. We usually spend about an hour waiting in line, only to be told we have to go to another window.
- Drinking before noon: we're going to try this tomorrow.
Big Mac Combo research:
- BMC in Moscow was R25,000. (About US $4.25) The cheapest so far on my journeys has been El Salvador, at about US $2.35
Well, that's it. We now have higher expectations of finding e-mail in places cause we found 4 places here in Irkutsk! So, you can (please) send us mail.
Love,
Eric and Gerry (or Gerry and Eric)
How's it going? Well, this is the second attempt at sending this message. The first one
Technical Explanation:
we lost cause the internet connection timed out and while trying to reconnect with russian prompts we lost it
NonTechnical Explanation
we lost.
Anyways, since we last talked to you, we have been to Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk, and now we're in Irkutsk. Yekaterinburg was formerly called Sverdlovsk (for those of you with politically incorrect maps).
Yekaterinburg was, well, formerly called Sverdlovsk. That's about all we have to say about the city. However, the people we met there were amongst the friendliest people ever. A lady on the train told us which bus to take, and we must have taken it in the wrong direction, cause nyet less than six people on the bus (this version of Word converts 'n-o' into something weird, must be like teh in english but in russian, so wehave to use 'n-y-e-t') helped us figure out where we were going, and then showed us the proper connection, told the conductor on the bus where we were supposed to be going. We were very impressed.
Novosibirsk was pretty cool. We were split up on the train cause there weren't two seats together. I had a cabin to myself (Russian train logic for ya) and Gerry ended up in a cabin with a girl (Variya) from Novosibirsk who was going home from Moscow. Anyways, her Mom met Variya at the train station, and then insisted that we stay at their house. As the Lonely Planet says (it is the authoritative guide), one of the best ways to see Russia is to stay at a local's home. We talked about basic life things, like how many years of school and stuff. They even called all their english speaking friends to come over and meet the two Canadskis. They play SOS, Crazy 8's, Battleship, and even keep their garbage under the sink. And all during the cold war, I thought they were the bad guys. Weird, eh?
The train from Novosibirsk to here was pretty cool too. It was probably the low end of the second class russian trains that we've taken. But we were the celebrities of the train. We introduced ourselves to the other lady in our cabin (in Russian!), and within 10 minutes the entire train knew that there were two Canadskis on the train and they all knew our name. It was pretty neat being the centre of attention. One guy kept on insisting 'Canada? Futbol!' and we kept on saying 'Nyet, hockey'
Speaking of hockey, we read that Messier nyet longer plays for the Rangers. Where'd he go? (Some of you who have nothing new to say about your lives can use this as an excuse to reply to us) Also on the hockey topic, the Stanley Cup was in Moscow last week. They had in front of Lenin's tomb. Maybe it was news in Canada?
Now for something different. We'll have recurring features in our little update to keep you interested.
Toilet Update: (thanks to MSB for the enquiry)
- Still western sit-down style. Although the train toilets do have little anti-skid things for those who prefer to squat.
- Toilet Paper Quality: Going downhill. Poland was okay, Russia's is, well, paper and it is used in the toilet and so I guess technically is toilet paper.
Local Customs:
- Hangover Cure: Called 'Rassoule', it's pickle juice. And it works, based on my experience.
- Standing-in-lines: this part of the Russian stereotype is true, especially in train stations. We usually spend about an hour waiting in line, only to be told we have to go to another window.
- Drinking before noon: we're going to try this tomorrow.
Big Mac Combo research:
- BMC in Moscow was R25,000. (About US $4.25) The cheapest so far on my journeys has been El Salvador, at about US $2.35
Well, that's it. We now have higher expectations of finding e-mail in places cause we found 4 places here in Irkutsk! So, you can (please) send us mail.
Love,
Eric and Gerry (or Gerry and Eric)
Friday, August 15, 1997
Our pre-Siberian update
Hey there folks (it's my turn to type this time ...gmt)
Well, we've been here in Moscow for 4 days now and we're still alive and kicking.
Here's an interesting adventure that happened to us yesterday though. We were sitting around in the Metro station waiting for a surprise rain-storm to subside when a Police Officer approached us and asked to see our Passports. This was the second time that a policeman had made such a request during the course of the afternoon (We thought some murder had been committed by a foreigner or something). Of course, we generally don't walk around with our Passports and valuables on our person so when we showed him our photocopies he didn't seem too impressed and he brought us over to talk to his other police-type buddies. Of course, nobody spoke English and suffice it to say that our Russian isn't up to snuff for this type of conversation (or any type of conversation) ... and nowhere in the Lonely Planet does it say how to pronounce "I'm innocent". Some more heated discussions amongst officers and we were shuffled off to the Police Station in a Police Jeep (a first for us) and we met several more non-english-speaking officers who seemed to have made several jokes at our expense. One in-charge-type officer looked at us and asked one oficer why they'd brought us in and laughed at the response by telling us to "good-bye" (we didn't bother to correct his grammatical use of good-bye as a verb) ... so, we quickly left in the rain and managed to get suitably drenched before we made it back to the hostel ... hmmm ... we still don't know why they brought us in there in the first place but we now have photocopies of our passports and recently registered visa documents so hopefully the next police-type people might be more inclined to just let us go home.
Moscow itself is quite beautiful really (although not nearly as nice as St. Petersburg). We've been to the Kremlin, Red Square, the original McDonalds, the Russian White House, several cathedrals and we've seen one dead body of Lenin (he winked at me though).
So, we ate a McDonalds (it had to be done) and while there we were amazed at the sheer velocity of the place. We've never seen every cash-register being operated in any McDonalds and here there were about 30 all being used by two employees (one taking orders and the other getting food). The place was a model of efficiency in a country where efficiency generally isn't in the top 3 of priorities. We took pictures (and I got one with Ronald).
Next on the list for us is a train eastward to the Ural Mountains. We'll be stopping in Yekaterinburg (sp?), 18 kilometers inside Asia (wahoo) and only a mere 29 hours from Moscow. We don't really know anything about the place so we'll probably be surprised at what we find. From Yekaterinburg another 22 hour train ride will bring us to Novosibirsk and then another 12 to Krasnoyarsk before hitting Irkutsk (yes, the Irkutsk from RISK ... We hope this RISK related fame has created a technology hub and introduced internet cafe's or something ... send us messages and we'll get them eventually). Then, on to Mongolia (which we now have a 30 day visa for) to get some inner peace. (Eric is waiting until we get to Nepal to get his inner peace but I think I'll like the Mongolian product better). We hear they sell it in the streets. Our route following China may now go through Tibet, Nepal, India, Bangledesh, Myanmar (ya know, Burma), Thailand, etc. We keep getting these great ideas from other travellers we meet.
That's it for now. We'd say more but it's cutting into our Friday night drinking time (not like we need a weekend to drink though). We're very impressed by the quantity and quality of all your messages ... it's great to hear good ole Canadian sarcasm at its finest.
Love Gerry & Eric (or Eric & Gerry)
Well, we've been here in Moscow for 4 days now and we're still alive and kicking.
Here's an interesting adventure that happened to us yesterday though. We were sitting around in the Metro station waiting for a surprise rain-storm to subside when a Police Officer approached us and asked to see our Passports. This was the second time that a policeman had made such a request during the course of the afternoon (We thought some murder had been committed by a foreigner or something). Of course, we generally don't walk around with our Passports and valuables on our person so when we showed him our photocopies he didn't seem too impressed and he brought us over to talk to his other police-type buddies. Of course, nobody spoke English and suffice it to say that our Russian isn't up to snuff for this type of conversation (or any type of conversation) ... and nowhere in the Lonely Planet does it say how to pronounce "I'm innocent". Some more heated discussions amongst officers and we were shuffled off to the Police Station in a Police Jeep (a first for us) and we met several more non-english-speaking officers who seemed to have made several jokes at our expense. One in-charge-type officer looked at us and asked one oficer why they'd brought us in and laughed at the response by telling us to "good-bye" (we didn't bother to correct his grammatical use of good-bye as a verb) ... so, we quickly left in the rain and managed to get suitably drenched before we made it back to the hostel ... hmmm ... we still don't know why they brought us in there in the first place but we now have photocopies of our passports and recently registered visa documents so hopefully the next police-type people might be more inclined to just let us go home.
Moscow itself is quite beautiful really (although not nearly as nice as St. Petersburg). We've been to the Kremlin, Red Square, the original McDonalds, the Russian White House, several cathedrals and we've seen one dead body of Lenin (he winked at me though).
So, we ate a McDonalds (it had to be done) and while there we were amazed at the sheer velocity of the place. We've never seen every cash-register being operated in any McDonalds and here there were about 30 all being used by two employees (one taking orders and the other getting food). The place was a model of efficiency in a country where efficiency generally isn't in the top 3 of priorities. We took pictures (and I got one with Ronald).
Next on the list for us is a train eastward to the Ural Mountains. We'll be stopping in Yekaterinburg (sp?), 18 kilometers inside Asia (wahoo) and only a mere 29 hours from Moscow. We don't really know anything about the place so we'll probably be surprised at what we find. From Yekaterinburg another 22 hour train ride will bring us to Novosibirsk and then another 12 to Krasnoyarsk before hitting Irkutsk (yes, the Irkutsk from RISK ... We hope this RISK related fame has created a technology hub and introduced internet cafe's or something ... send us messages and we'll get them eventually). Then, on to Mongolia (which we now have a 30 day visa for) to get some inner peace. (Eric is waiting until we get to Nepal to get his inner peace but I think I'll like the Mongolian product better). We hear they sell it in the streets. Our route following China may now go through Tibet, Nepal, India, Bangledesh, Myanmar (ya know, Burma), Thailand, etc. We keep getting these great ideas from other travellers we meet.
That's it for now. We'd say more but it's cutting into our Friday night drinking time (not like we need a weekend to drink though). We're very impressed by the quantity and quality of all your messages ... it's great to hear good ole Canadian sarcasm at its finest.
Love Gerry & Eric (or Eric & Gerry)
Tuesday, August 12, 1997
Moscow, Russia
Hi Everyone!
How's it going? Well, we have just come down from Murmansk, a 35 hour, 2 night train ride to Moscow. It was pretty comfortable though, we bribed our carriage lady with a Canadian flag pin and she took good care of us. We even got breakfast in the first morning. Plus there was this Russian guy in our compartment who didn't speak a lick of english, but we managed to figure out he was a officer in the army or something, anyways, he pulled out this huge bag of food, bread, sausages, tomatoes, cucumbers, boiled eggs, home brew beer. Man, we haven't eaten that much since I don't even know when. Apparently it's traditional on the trains though for Russians to share their food.
We gave him a nectarine. (and some cheese)
So Murmansk was nothing special. Just way north, that's all, near 69 degrees. We were there on a Saturday night, lotsa sailors and their girls walking about. We stayed up playing crib (oh yeah, we started counting in Russian playing crib on the train. I'm not sure if the officer was impressed or going to shoot us at the butchering of the language) trying to stay up until it got dark, but because it was cloudy, it got dark at around 1:30 and bright at 3:00. I think if there were no clouds that the sky would have been white the whole night.
Well, we arrived in Moscow, walked through the train station (with our big packs), walked to the hostel, got a room, walked to the subway, took the subway here (even had to change lines) and not once were we mugged, approached or looked at by any mafia types. The whole thing has been blown way out of porportion by the western media. Of course, they're driving around in cars with big corporate expense accounts, it's no wonder they're targetted. It's no more dangerous here than any other big city, if you walk around counting your money in dark alleys while drunk, you probably are asking for trouble. (Not that we didn't do that in St.Petersburg, although we were just using the alleys for pit stops, and we never walk out of bars with money). So we're not in danger from Mafia thugs.
We'll give an update later this week, we're here for at least five days (till Aug 17) after that we're going to the non-technical expanse of Siberia. So if you want to send a message to us (hint, hint, nudge, nudge, knowwhatimean, knowwhatimean?) if you send it by the end of this week, we'll pick it up before we get to Beijing.
Love
Eric and Gerry (or Gerry and Eric, you know who you are)
How's it going? Well, we have just come down from Murmansk, a 35 hour, 2 night train ride to Moscow. It was pretty comfortable though, we bribed our carriage lady with a Canadian flag pin and she took good care of us. We even got breakfast in the first morning. Plus there was this Russian guy in our compartment who didn't speak a lick of english, but we managed to figure out he was a officer in the army or something, anyways, he pulled out this huge bag of food, bread, sausages, tomatoes, cucumbers, boiled eggs, home brew beer. Man, we haven't eaten that much since I don't even know when. Apparently it's traditional on the trains though for Russians to share their food.
We gave him a nectarine. (and some cheese)
So Murmansk was nothing special. Just way north, that's all, near 69 degrees. We were there on a Saturday night, lotsa sailors and their girls walking about. We stayed up playing crib (oh yeah, we started counting in Russian playing crib on the train. I'm not sure if the officer was impressed or going to shoot us at the butchering of the language) trying to stay up until it got dark, but because it was cloudy, it got dark at around 1:30 and bright at 3:00. I think if there were no clouds that the sky would have been white the whole night.
Well, we arrived in Moscow, walked through the train station (with our big packs), walked to the hostel, got a room, walked to the subway, took the subway here (even had to change lines) and not once were we mugged, approached or looked at by any mafia types. The whole thing has been blown way out of porportion by the western media. Of course, they're driving around in cars with big corporate expense accounts, it's no wonder they're targetted. It's no more dangerous here than any other big city, if you walk around counting your money in dark alleys while drunk, you probably are asking for trouble. (Not that we didn't do that in St.Petersburg, although we were just using the alleys for pit stops, and we never walk out of bars with money). So we're not in danger from Mafia thugs.
We'll give an update later this week, we're here for at least five days (till Aug 17) after that we're going to the non-technical expanse of Siberia. So if you want to send a message to us (hint, hint, nudge, nudge, knowwhatimean, knowwhatimean?) if you send it by the end of this week, we'll pick it up before we get to Beijing.
Love
Eric and Gerry (or Gerry and Eric, you know who you are)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)