I arrived in Hong Kong at 11.30pm on Wednesday night which just happened to be ladies night! I decided to go straight to typhoon from the airport and meet everyone! I got some very funny looks rocking up to a bar with a backpack but it was lovely to catch up with everyone and have some free vodkas!! I didn't realised how much I'd missed everyone and being in HK. I was only there for one full day but decided to spend it at Shek o beach and dinner at bubba gumps on the peak. This meant that the next day was a big rush to repack and sort bank stuff out. I made it ok and after saying a sad goodbye to everyone, Ben and I made it to the train station on time to meet Jen.
We boarded the train but I was in a different cabin to Ben and Jen as we had booked seperatly. Luckily we were next to each other and the journey was pleasemt. I even liked the food in the dining cart! 25hrs later we arrived in Beijing and took the bus to the Red Lantern hostel and ate lovely chinese food. The next day we did a reccy to the visa office before having lunch and going to see an acrobatic show which was brill.
As we knew where the visa place was, we got there very early on monday morning only to find it was closed! Luckily the window opened and we could fill in the form but our visa would not be ready until tuesday - the day we were supposed to catch the train! arrgghh! We decided to go to the station anyway to see if there was another train we could buy tickets for and after a 4hrs we found the place that sells international tickets. Luckily there was a train the day after our visas would be ready - I told the ticket man that I loved him!!
It was a rare clear day so we went up to the gate of Tianamen Square where you can look down onto the square. I felt just like Mao! We then decided to walk to a park at the back of the forbidden city where we walked up many steps to see the suset and stunning views of the forbidden city. We finished off the day with some well deserved beer and pizza.
After shopping for hats and gloves and eating some peking duck we boarded the 36hr train to Ulaan Baatar. The journey was actually good despite the border crossing taking over 5hrs. I even liked the food in the dining cart! The views through the window changed loads . When we woke up, there was masses of snow covered land and montains. I was worrying about the cold a lot! We finally arrvied in Ulaan Baatar and checked into a dodgy hostel which actually turned out to be nice inside - it was warm too! After eating some Mongolian food, which mainly consists of lamb, we went to a traditional mongolian show with contortionists and throat singers. It was very bizarre but actually quite funny and an expereince at the least!
Tomorrow we are going on a week long trip to the Gobi desert where we will stay in gers with local families. Im looking forward to it but we are all worried about the cold and the fact that we cannot have a shower for four days! Hopefully I wont have frozen to death and will write about it soon!
xxx
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