08.39 Our first full day here in Ulan Ude had a splendid start. The room, the beds, the pillows and the shower here at Hotel Victoria (http://myhotelvictoria.ru) is of top quality. The hotel feels very new. Everything here shines and nothing is worn in any way. Good sleep strengthens the worn-out souls.
09.26 The morning continues. We have filled up with breakfast. We will now discuss the time we have left in this city and in Russia. This is the last stop on a very long journey in Russia, from the Finnish border to the Mongolian border. The only problem we have right now is that it is difficult to open our door.
10.27 We have walked in and seen many Russian cities on this summer trip. Now we are going to go out and get in touch with yet another.
10.35 Once again the door refused to let us out. What are we doing wrong?
10.42 The door eventually let us pass and we have since then left it behind us and walked downhill towards the city centre. Ulan Ude is the capital city of the autonomous republic of Buryatia and has a population of approximately 400 000 inhabitants.
11.00 Our bench has the colours black and orange. It can be found in the shade of a few fountains where the water spouts with varied pressure. Sometimes it spurts high and sometimes low. Regardless of the water pressure, it is +30°C today. We have walked into a part of the Park Memorial Pobedy after following the main avenue Kommunisticheskaya Ulitsa.
Hotel Victoria in Ulan Ude.
Kommunisticheskaya Ulitsa is the name of this avenue.
We are stopping by the fountain near Memorial Park Pobedy.
Wooden buildings in the oldest part of Ulan Ude.
Interesting creation.
Christer is walking through Ulan Ude.
11.21 During the last half-hour, we have confused wandered around on various streets in the vicinity of the Центральный Рынок (Central market) before we realized that we misinterpreted the city map. We have seen people selling blueberries and lingonberries, met large groups of Chinese tourists on sightseeing and admired the beautiful old wooden houses. This part of the Ulan Ude is the oldest and is not built during the Soviet times as the upper part of the city.
11.36 Are we at our last Traveler's Coffee? Will there be any more after this visit? It is a genuine and stable coffee chain that is primarily found in Siberia. It will be missed. At the large glass walls, we can read about places that are reminders of the previous summers. It says Peru and Indonesia.
12.30 Black, good coffee and fresh pressed juice, what more do you need? Sirens are spread over the surroundings as we are currently doing a bench break in the dry heat.
12.39 A lady with a yellow fan in her right hand just passed us. An obelisk with Russian letters, Chinese signs and the hammer and sickle is more solid. It is a monument to communism and outside the department store Центральный Универмаг (Central department store). We've moved to a new square along the street of Ulitsa Kirova.
12.57 People, locals and others, stroll back and forth, here and there along the pedestrian street Ulitsa Lenina (Lenin Street). Today we travel short distances. The city is wrapped in dry hot air. A car alarm is heard and the store Sunlight is actually in the shade.
13.12 We have just passed the triumphal arc Tsarskiye Vorota, which was erected in connection with Nicholas II visiting the city in 1891. It was dismantled by the communists but was erected again in 2006.
13.25 We looked at Lenin and then went to Churchill. We are in the pub/grill Черчилль (Churchill). The beer has just landed. We are waiting for the food. It will be nice with a bit of cool air. It is warm today and we are sweating heavily. It feels like we are walking against a big hairdryer. The temperature has now risen to +33°C.
The last visit at Traveler´s Coffee this summer.
A monument to communism in front of the commercial activity in a small shopping center.
Ulitsa Lenina, a pedestrian street in the city center.
A hot summer day in Ulan Ude.
The city´s own triumphal arc, "Tsarskiye Vorota".
14.44 We left our lunch restaurant ever so pleased. Christer enjoyed mixed sausages and I had spare ribs. Out on the Sovetov square, we saw the world's largest Lenin head, erected in 1970, the year that Lenin would have been 100 years of age. The head is almost 8 metres high. Here we also see some cars which seem to wait for a bridal couple. There is a certain heat in the air and we need to make an economic calculation. How much rubles do we need? We might wait with the ATM visit. Now we want go home to get cooler.
15.20 Thoughts were gathered and we made a cash machine visit. With money in our pockets we decided to head home. We went to the convenience store next to the hotel before entering the hotel. A funny thing is the fact that our small backpacks were actually welcome to the store.
16.01 We both had a shower before stretching out on our comfortable beds. We are here and try to solve various problems. Suddenly the door opens and one of the staff looking briefly look inside before closing the door. What did she want? Why didn't she knock? Why did she open the door and what the heck were those problems that we had to solve? That is forgotten now.
18.28 Our time in Ulan-Ude and Russia begin to move towards its end. During the four weeks, we have made it from Vyborg in the west to here in the Far East. You can cover a lot during the 30 days, the time which tourists can stay in the country. For longer stays other types of visas are required.
19.34 Soon we will begin our last Russian evening walk. What temperature will we encounter out there? One thing is for sure, it is hot.
Peter is leaving our lunch restaurant Churchill.
Christer is havinmg lunch at the pub Churchill.
Christer is trying to be outside the photo when a funny sign is being photographed.
The world´s largest Lenin head can be found here in Ulan Ude.
It´s a wedding in town.
20.07 There was actually no problem to open the door to the room this time. The heat welcomed us when we stepped out. Now, we walked down towards the city centre and in to the restaurant Tengis. At the time of ordering we were asked if we wanted bread. The answer was yes. OK, do you want white or dark? Dark please! OK, white. Who did wrong? Tengis is a restaurant with style, a part of the hotel Baikal Plaza (http://baikalplaza.com).
21.23 To dinner, it was tasty buuz, a kind of Buryatian dumplings with various fillings. A waiter came when I was about to finish my coffee. He had a bottle of wine and two glasses. He asked in English if we had ordered wine. We said no. How did he know that we were not Russians? It is so obvious, or had he heard us talk?
22.20 A short stop was made at the supermarket Sputnik (http://g-sputnik.ru) for some purchase before we walked home. Now we have counted the money we have left and know what we have tomorrow.
23.48 The last Russian evening beers are being consumed. In addition, we will set up a schedule for tomorrow. Everything is fine and we will if all goes as planned; wake up, take showers, eat breakfasts, preparing backpacks, check out, leave luggage, going down to the city centre, have lunch, shop, pick up baggage, go to the railway station, board and depart. All this provided that nothing fails. How it is we´ll see tomorrow.
Peter is eating buuz at Restaurant Tengis.
Sunday 30th of July
08.30 During the night, the Swedish football ladies lost 2-0 against the Dutch ladies in the UEFA European Championship. The two of us have mostly slept here in our room. Today we're going to transform last night's plans into reality. Hopefully everything will go as expected.
09.13 Now we will have breakfast here at Hotel Victoria. What will it be today? We do not want to go out. A small downpour, a rainfall has parked itself over the city. The rain is accompanied with lightning and thunder. It is good that the heavy warm air is cleared though.
09.41 Both the breakfasts and rain are now over and past. We do not want to have them back right now.
11.24 We have killed time in our room and packed the last possessions. Now it is time for the next phase and action. We are about to leave the room and need a place to store our big backpacks here at the hotel while we do the last chores down in the centre.
12.08 The key card is returned and the backpacks will rest in the storage room. We are now downtown here in Ulan Ude. We have stopped at a music playing fountain. My writing was just interrupted by a young man. I think he wanted something of me, probably money.
12.28 It got too hot out in the sunshine. We are now in a small park/courtyard with flowers and a bust of an unknown person. Imagine, in the beginning of the stay in Russia, it was wet and chilly. Now it is dry, almost too warm for it to be bearable.
This sunday started with rain.
A pink tram moves through Ulan Ude.
Here you can buy the russian drink kvas.
In the hot sun near a musical fountain.
We´ll have our lunch at the uzbek restaurant Ali Baba.
Christer is waiting for his lunch.
13.02 Now we are waiting for the lunch at the Uzbek grill restaurant Ali-Baba. Of the three orders I made at least two were wrong. I pointed wrong on the rice order and ordered a non unfiltered beer. Honestly, I'm not so sure that the order of the main dish was right either. During the wait on our food, we should consider what we need to take with us as train food.
13.13 Some days are just brilliant. The main course I ordered has run out and the rice as well. Luckily there is beer.
14.38 The dishes were served and consumed before we completed our lunches with coffee. Before we left the central parts of the city we made new purchases at Sputnik supermarket. The cashier dispensed and spoke in an incredibly high tempo. Now, we are back at the hotel. The backpacks are picked and packed, Soon we´ll go on towards the railway station.
15.00 Some train information is being called out. We are at the railway station and are looking for information about which track we shall leave from. Christer saw a train out on the track which it read Ulaanbaatar-Moscow on. It seems promising. Hope it goes in the right direction.
15.14 The platform was full of tourists who had been let out from the train and who now took the opportunity to buy supplies and stretch their legs. It was painless to board the blue and red Mongolian train. However, we got seats 3 and 4 instead of 1 and 2 as it said on our tickets. We believe that the staff reside in the cabin with the beds 1 and 2. Someone brought out two large egg cartons from the compartment before we entered it. In addition, we have as usual received the linens and towels by the train staff. Outside, it has started drizzling. From the speakers, we hear something that sounds like Chinese music.
Christer is heading for the railway station in Ulan Ude.
We found the right train.
Peter is prepared to leave Russia.
Now it is time to depart from Ulan Ude.
15.58 Our train has begun its journey to Mongolia. We have a private compartment in 1st class. We are having such compartments on our final two long trips to and from Mongolia. The standard is very good. Our only enemy on these trips, is the boredom, it's tough to travel so far and so long.
16.36 In order to get rid of coins, I´ve been out and purchased coffee. It was instant coffee and the mulatto coffee, i.e. coffee powder with milk powder and sugar. How is the coffee in Mongolia? Do they have coins too? A long piece of cloth has been pulled out of the corridor carpet. Right now, one of the staff nails the fabric.
17.23 A steppe landscape passes outside the compartment window. We sometimes see some cattle.
18.13 The steppe journey has taken us past two lakes. The landscape is wild and beautiful. It is partly flat and partly hilly. Now we pass yet another lake.
20.04 Recently we filled in the entry card and customs documents. We are approaching the border between Russia and Mongolia. The train has stopped in the border town of Naushki. A young lady just entered our compartment. With a smile she pulled down the curtain. We are not allowed to look out when we are here.
20.34 Now things are beginning to happen. The wagon sways, a customs officer was more interested in our small backpacks than the big ones and another man walked right past with his dog, looking for drugs?
Peter is writing in his journal here in our private compartment.
Landscapes in Buryatia.
The views look less and less Russian and more like Mongolia.
A lonely car by Lake Gusinoye.
20.48 The border guard looked into our compartment. He took our departure cards, asked me to take off my glasses and checked the passports in any possible way. They were swiped, laser scanned and checked with a loupe before they stamped them. Then he said "do svidaniya", see you later. Soon we can say the same thing to Russia.
21.03 We were asked to leave the compartment, and an agile Asian looking man quickly checked it. He climbed around, lifted the mattress, and looked under the beds and on the luggage shelf. Wow, the wagon rocked. Everything seems to be ok in our compartment.
21.45 Finally the train started to move again. Goodbye Russia! We will see you again at some time.
MONGOLIA
22.36 We are in Sukhbaatar, the border station on the Mongolian side. Two Mongolian female border guards have fetched the completed entry cards and passports. Now it remains to see how long it takes before all the bureaucracy at the border is finished.
22.55 Customs documents are viewed, signed and returned. Now I am starting to get quite tired of paper works.
23.16 The passports have finally returned. Now we must wait until everything is clear with all the other passengers before the journey goes on. When everything is ready, we should try to sleep before the train is to arrive in Ulaanbaatar early in the morning.
Monday 31st of July
00.04 I've been away and washed off some travel dust. Christer had a visit from a young lady during my absence. She wondered if he wanted to change money. There was no need for that. It is mainly rubles, which is important to get rid off and we succeeded well with that in Ulan Ude.
00.16 Finally our train has started to move again. It is painstakingly challenging with border passages. Now we are going to sleep, to rest. We'll get up early.
05.49 We have woken up. The Mongolian steppe is still there outside our window. We have travelled by train in another country. It remains about an hour of our journey to the Mongolian capital.
06.18 Out from the elusive morning haze has yurts, houses and horses appeared. Yurts are the typical tents that are common among nomadic people in central Asia. They are removable but works like real homes when they are on site. The predawn light make us see more and more of the fifth country on this trip.
06.55 We have arrived at and stepped out in yet another capital city and nation. We are in the Ulaanbaatar (Ulan Bator), Mongolia.
Morning inside Mongolia.
Christer has left the train at the railway station in Ulaanbaatar.
07.20 It was an easy walk from the railway station. A polite taxi driver nicely asked if we wanted a taxi, but we'll be staying at walking distance from the station. At check-in here at Voyage Hotel (http://voyagehotel.mn/voyage/) it was a changing of the staff. The girl who took over from the man who had worked during the night handed us the key to room 307. She didn't want our passports or some money, at least not yet. We are in a new country, for me it is the 116th and for Christer the 113th we have visited. In addition, Ulaanbaatar is a new capital city. It is the first and only capital city with the letter U that we visit. It is also considered to be the world's coldest capital city, wondering which one is the hottest? The pre-paid tickets for Beijing which were supposed to be delivered to the hotel have not arrived yet, at least not to us.
08.29 I am wet in the hair and on the body. I have just stepped out of the bath tub. It is actually the second tub bath on the trip. I don't think I managed with baths during the same journey before. Now it starts to almost become the overdose of statistics.
10.14 We are mostly sitting still, let things slowly happen. Everything just feels so hard right now. Weeks of travelling wears on an old man and it require energy and enthusiasm to step out in a new country with a new language, new currency and all which come along.
11.51 The energy level remains low. How long will it take to restore the body after a long train journey? What is needed to get the energy back? When it returns, we'll check if our pre-ordered train tickets have arrived at the hotel front desk. This must in itself be questioned no matter if we get a bit of stamina or not.
12.50 We asked about the train tickets at the reception. They had still not arrived. The lady there made a call and Christer got to talk with someone at the railway station. Things did not become much more obvious. A new call was initiated and Christer got to continue to conversation, this time to the travel agent from which we had bought the tickets. A lady promised us tickets. They will be delivered to our hotel. It was, unfortunately, not possible to exchange money in the reception. Now it is time to see more of the tour's sixth capital.
Voyage Hotel in Ulaanbaatar (Ulan Bator).
Newly arrived we are resting in our room.
This is the view from our balcony.
13.38 This is a chaotic city if you are pedestrians. There is plenty of redevelopment of the sidewalks and the traffic is dense. It is tricky and awkward to pass the streets. We have reached yet another city that has too many cars on the basis of its size and layout. We have, however, managed to get to Naran Mall and there withdrawn Mongolian currency in an ATM. After examining various options it will now be lunch at the German grill restaurant Ku´Damm. In the kids menu, there are actually meatballs as an alternative, meatballs written in Swedish.
14.46 We were served perfect sized portions of delicious meat. They had lunch specials at great prices. We have also tried the Mongolian beer Chinggis Beer. Now, we are on location at The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, an American coffee chain, we previously visited in Malaysia. Christer ordered and got a buzzing plate. It hums when his order is ready. The coffee here is actually more expensive than the beer we drank at the restaurant. The café and we are inside the Naran Mall. When we stepped into the mall we were greeted by a humming sound and a small car. There were a few children playing with their cars on the floor.
16.18 After a short visit in a small supermarket we are home again. Just recently, there was a knock on the door. Was it possibly time for the delivery of our tickets? A lady opened, looked inside and left. Why knock and then just open? We have been through this behaviour before at various hotels.
18.21 There was nothing wrong with the train, the compartment, the bed or even the sleep tonight. You are not fully rested when you are in motion though. This has resulted that we feel slow in body and head. Though we can't be on top all the time? The question is how often we are there at all?
Ikh Toiruu is the name of this street.
We´ll have our lunch at Ku´Damm Steakhouse.
Swedish Köttbullar (Meatballs) could be found in the children´s menu.
Chinggis Beer, a beer from Mongolia which got its name from Chinggis Khaan (Djingis Khan).
The first meal in Mongolia was delicious.
19.33 Christer has brought life to our TV and found the news channel CNN. Now it is as it usually is in the summer. It is a bit of a tradition to follow world events on CNN or the BBC. In Russia it was other channels that mattered. A few more missions remain today/this evening. We should check if the tickets have come, arrange with the dinner, find out about breakfast. Is it buffet, served in the room, or nothing at all? Thereupon awaits an evening beer or maybe even a balcony beer.
20.11 They speak French at the neighbouring table in the hotel's Mongolian restaurant. A group of elderly French ladies are sitting there. Here at the hotel you can choose between two restaurants, a Mongolian or a Korean. Tonight we choose the Mongolian. Two bottles of Golden Gobi beer was just brought in and some of the contents were poured up in our two glasses. All that remains are the dinners.
21.25 We are pleased with both food and beer. We are not pleased with the fact that the tickets still have not arrived. In the darkness, rain falls and there are lightning. Rain at night is good for the potatoes and also for us. Breakfast will be served in the dining room tomorrow morning.
23.45 Now all that remains are our balcony/evening beer. Then we will go to bed. The first hotel night in Mongolia waits. Christer has also e-mailed the travel agent regarding the tickets in order to get things going.
