Archiv der Kategorie: Allgemein

Weather forecast perspective change

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One of the first things you learn when coming to China is that you no longer check the weather forecast in the morning but the air quality index, especially the pm 2.5 value (The amount of particles smaller than 2.5 µm that are able to get very deep into your lungs ad causing lung cancer, isn’t it nice.) We were very lucky, when we came to Beijing having a few days of good and moderate conditions, but the rest of our time in China we spent in rather unhealthy ‚weather‘. It can feel it a little in the lungs (especially when you already suffer from asthma) and their is something brown and smily that you cough up from time to time.

Bejing AQI of the last 30 days. Luckily we have been south during the last week.

Bejing AQI of the last 30 days. Luckily we have been south during the last week.

Where it comes from? Mainly from coal-fired power stations, we heard. However, in general people don’t seem to be to bothered. The fewest are wearing masks and people are burning the garbage everywhere even in the city on the street. I fear this is mainly due to lack of knowledge, because there exists a working recycling system.

Guangzhou local waste management.

Guangzhou local waste management.

Anyway, the most irritating fact about the smog in China is that it fucks up nearly every landscape picture. I got a little choice for you from the non processed pictures (and we didn’t encountered the worst conditions a recently in Beijing).

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Great wall – you could barely see the second mountain in the row.

A sunny day in Pingyao.

A sunny day in Pingyao.

 

 

 

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Guilin’s hazy cast mountains.

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Sunset in Hongkong. The sun is gone half an hour before sunset.

Pinwin English

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I think everybody is aware of, that the highest percentage of the Chinese inhabitants have some troubles with the English language. However, we found our selves in the comfortable situation that most sign directing you somewhere, prohibiting something or warning you to do something were translated into english. So even though you don’t understand a bit of the written or spoken Chinese we traveled safely and sometimes quite amused. The following is a little choice of the signs we encountered in the last four weeks. We hope this will spread a little smile.

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Train toilet form Xi’an to Guilin.

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Xi’an park area around the terracotta warriors.

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Park area in Guilin.

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Fire extinguishers in a hotel lobby.

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Underground train Guangzhou.

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Train station Guangzhou.

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Rice terraces Tiantou.

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Walking path to the great wall.

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On top of a cast mountain in Guilin.

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ATM in Guilin.

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Stairs t the city wall in Pinyao.

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Top of a cast mountain in Guilin.

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Craftworker shop for signs in Guangzhou.

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Park area in Nanning.

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In front of a construction side in Nanning.

Into the central mongolian wild

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We unconsciously started preparing for this trip already in Irkutsk, where we bought two sleeping mattresses and a little gas cooker. In UU we bought the almost cheapest and lightest tent we could find. And in UB we finally stocked up with a cooking pot, a map, a water filter, new walking boots for Tom and a lot of food before heading to Tsetserleg in central Mongolia.
We planned to walk to the blue mountain lake. Our first day should be simple. South out of Tsetserleg and than following the river to Bulgan. However, we already missed the right road and ended up on the wrong side of the city. So we tried to find our way over a small hill, stupidly ending up between the arms of the river (is a water rich valley). Getting out of our boots (and thoursers) we made our way through and spent a very windy and rainy night on top of a little hill 1 km from the river.
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We saw a great deal of rain and this beautiful hairy Yaks during the first day.

Next day shopping in Bulgan (we had the impression that the whole village came by the little shop to have a look at the funny tourists) and then following a tiny valley. This night we were surprised by the cold finding ice crystals at the walls of our tent.

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Into the wild, no gets anywhere near to be seen.

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It got pretty cold, after a shower in the river and sunset.

On the day three we were prepared to head out into the wilderness (no paths on the map), however even though the area is far from any settlement you will always find a tiny path caused by a horse, a yak or a goat. Anyway we had a tough time getting up the pass that connected two valleys and finding space to walk through. When we at the end of the day recocnised we haven’t seen one single soul that day a little truck containing five mongolian man stopped next to our tent.

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We exactly, did we decided to this here?

Day four and a little hill later rewarded us with the most idillic valley we have seen in whole Mongolia, the warning of bears in the national park and some nice cheese made by the park attendants family. Of course a broad valley does not come without wet feets.
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The most idyllic valley, we found in Mongolia (not that we found that many).

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Usually I envy all these people that post pictures of their tents somewhere in nature.

The next day we made a little effort getting up early and take the walk through the valley. It wasn’t as complicated and at five in the evening  600 m up hill, exhausted we reached the blue lake (seeing it from the distant it has actually the same colour as the sky, in our case blue).
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The indeed very blue lake.

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And it was thaaaaat cold.

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Why is it that water and sunset go that good together?

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We spent the whole next day recovering at the lake, sleeping, washing some socks, making bread from baby mush and hoping somebody would come by and offering us a lift. But it was indeed not a very populated place and nobody came by.
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I guess, we won’t by this baby mush again, even though the bread was great. Even had garlic inside.

Since my health did not improved (got a nice cold) and we were running out of food we made the way back to the valley. At one of the few gers Tom used the old Chinese trick to get us a driver back to Tsetserleg (calling somebody who speaks English and Mongolian). We stopped by the park attendant to say god bye and ten car break downs and diverse filling ups of the radiator water we arrived back in Tsetserleg and got a big meal, a nice bed and a lot of sleep.
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The ranger and his wife. He was so nice warming us up with mongolian vodka and handing us bread with about 1 cm cover of butter, which was solo good.

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And this friendly guy with his unreliable jeep brought us back to Tsetserleg, while his wife used the opportunity for a shopping trip.

I pack my suitcase and take with me …

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During the last weeks we discussed in forth and back how we want to travel and what we want to bring with us.

The first idea was to buy a little bus and simply drive, than wouldn’t have to think about what to pack but just stuff everything into it. However, how to get the bus across the pacific and the atlantic? we dropped this idea pretty fast. Than we discussed taken the bikes, but this is soooo limiting, so we decided to do it the classical way and to travel with a backpack. This decision resulted in the big challenge what to pack. We forced us through several travel pack list, excluded the tent and the cooking equipment (just to heavy and too easy to buy, when you need it), but included the sleeping back (I kind of like my own and spent a lot of time selecting it) and came up with the following things. I will give you the full list including the purpose of things and if I am not to lazy you will get a the same list with the real use of things at the end of our journey.

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Content of Steffi’s backpack.

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Content of Tom’s backpack.

 

Steffi (Tom)

Talisman                                                         For all the challenges waiting on our journey.

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Two protecting angles, two naughty owls and a small version of our travel destiny that will remind us of friends and family.

1 pair flip-flops                                               Short city walking in warm weather and
showering.
1 pair trekking boots                                      Long and cross country walking and for cold
conditions.
4 pair trekking socks                                      Going together with the trekking boots.
1 pair long trekking trousers insect tight         Colder conditions and as insect repellent
during the evening hours.
1 pair short trousers (trunks)                          Warm conditions (hopefully 90% of the time).
1 pair short sport trousers (same trunks)        Strength exercises and running on the beach
3 shirts (merino wool)                                     24/7, light, fast drying and odourless
1 fleece jacket (shirt + Softshell jacket)           Warm and cosy for any cold nights in
Mongolia.
1 rain jacket                                                   In case its raining.
1 pair rain trousers                                         In case its raining heavily.
2 jogging bra (Tom only brings one).               Useful for every action also riding an
elephant in Cambodia.
5 panties (boxer shorts)                                  I guess you can get what they are used for.
1 Buff (merino wool)                                       For the chilly wind in Siberia.
1 Cap                                                            I case I freeze on my ears.
1 Bikini (still the same trunks)                         All the sandy beaches.
Sun glasses                                                  Sure we only travel under summer conditions.
Travel towel                                                   To have something to lay on at the beach.
Electronic tooth brush & accessory               Brushing teeth ;).
Hairbrush (nothing)                                        I grew rather long hair after all.
Shampoo                                                      You know the commercial, where sweaty girls
arrive in some village, wash their hair, turn
around and all guys look at them. Kind off.
Face creme (nivea creme)                             For the days where the sand from desert Gobi
drys out our skin.
Wet wipes                                                     Sure there are some days without a shower.
All this Deo and similar stuff                           Try to stay in some form civilised.
3 credit cards (the same number)                  1 to withdraw cash, 1 to get lost, and 1 get to
get locked by the bank
1 passport + copy                                         Including Visa to get in all the communistic
countries.
2 ID cards                                                     One as back up, and an old one to fake a
wallet for thieves.
1 drivers licence                                            Rent a car for travelling.
1 international drivers licence                        Goes together with the real one.
11” Notebook                                               Writing this blog for you guys and watching
movies in silent nights.
eBook reader                                                Killing the hours in trains and busses.
iPhone                                                          Replacement cam in case the big one gets
stolen.
Nothing (really nice camera)                          Taking pictures of everything so you can get
envious ups sorry inspired.
Nothing (2 x Backup drive)                            To safe all the nice pictures
Nothing (Rasberry pie)                                  Just because we (Tom) can.
World adapter
and all the charging equipment                     For charging all this electronic stuff.
Knitting stuff (see electronic equipment)        Knitting small animals for the sweet kids we
will meet in the transib.

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One of the little cute animals.

Coffee Thermocup                                        For the cold days in Mongolia, where you
want to keep your coffee warm.
Documents                                                   Bus and train tickets for the first week of
traveling to get started somehow.
Travelsheet                                                   For all the situations where blankets in Hostels
are kind of disgusting (Insectshield, so Tom
does not have to worry about Mosquitos).
Sleeping bag                                                Because Steffi still dreams about a walking
trip in Nepal, where they would be handy.
Swiss knife                                                   This is always handy, when you don’t have a
kitchen to prepare your sandwich.
Lighter                                                          I case we get lost and need to switch on a
bonfire.
Plastic box                                                   We got one that you can close tight to
transport some not completely dry food stuffs.
and it can be used as a plate and a bowl.
Spork                                                          When you have soup in your box you might
prefer a spoon instead of slurping.
Rope                                                           In the cases you need something to hang up
wet cloth.
3 pens                                                         For writing notes
2 note books                                               To have paper for writing notes.
Safety belt (Neck wallet)                              To store credit and ID cards while exploring a
city. (Make it harder for Tom to loose his credit
card.)
Licorice                                                      Got it as a goodbye present and will probably
irritate some russian people with it.
Danish coins                                              I heard russian people collect forge in coins and
euros are jet so boring.

And our travel pharmacy that needs it’s own section.

All the stuff, that we hopefully won't need.

All the stuff, that we hopefully won’t need.

Sun protection
Something hard against Mosquitos
Some vitamins
Probiotics (Chr. Hansen)
Clean syringes and needles
Tape for wounds and bandages
Gauze bandage
Elastic bandage
Desinfection tissues
Sterile pads
Blister tape
Gold folie blankets
Triangular bandage
Thermometer
Fenistile Creme against Mosquito bits
Creme against fungi
Beatisadonna and Bepanten for wounds
Voltaren against pain
Aspirin against fever
Further pain killers
Pills against diarreah
Malaria pills
Broadband antibiotic
Bonbons against sore throat
Dros against inflamed eyes
Drops against inflamed ears
Nasal spray
Personal medicine
The whole pharmacy weighs about two kg, anyway I hope we won’t need it.

Steffi, Tom and Tommy

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yellow dots - Steffis wish list blu dots- Toms wish list red dots - recommendations

yellow dots – Steffis wish list
blu dots- Toms wish list
red dots – recommendations

Who are we and where are we going? We are Steffi (a little over thirty, analytical chemist and always wanted to travel the world but was either lacking the money, the time or a companion), Tom (a little more over thirty, software developer, and always wants to travel to snowy mountains to snowboard), and Tommy (one and a half year old, travel-sheep and going to show Steffi and Tom the world).

Tom and Steffi

The travel sheep

The travel sheep

We are all germans (actually we met Tommy on the ferry from Roedby to Puttgarden, so we guess he is half german half danish), until now we were living in Copenhagen, our destiny is Germany but we decided to take a short round about. The master tour plan includes Russia, Mongolia, China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Chile, Peru, Cuba, USA, Canada and some more place you need to see before you die. Anyway we booked three nights in a Hostel in Moskva and a train ticket from Moskva to Kazan, since we despite all prejudges are not very good in deciding and planning a head. So if the ticket seller in the Russian train stations are willing mean we might end up stuck somewhere between Siberia hugging brown bears.

But whether we end up partying in the vodka train, hanging out on the beach Thailand, enjoying the silence of the peruian walking tracks, riding the champagne powder in Canada we definitely want you to know and be a bit envious. That’s what this blog is going to be for. So we hope you will take the time once in a while and travel a short part with us, even if it is only in your thoughts and if you get inspired you can check out where we are and come by.