Cheng Du, China

Couchsurfing hosts became less numerous as we continued south in China, and we feared we would be confined to hostels from here until Singapore. Mix hostel was a nice place to stay though, and had good information on the things to see in town. They recommended visiting a nearby Buddhist temple to hear the monks chanting at 6pm. We went for a walk and decided to have a look at a Buddhist nunnery beforehand.

They were chanting already, and it was a beautifully sonorous sound. Dani and I stood mesmerised as we watched them sway and perform acts of worship.

The experience was so unexpected and amazing that we decided not to visit the temple, and went for dinner instead. We continued our exploration of the cheap eateries that locals visit daily, but as usual, our only guide was a list of chinese characters and prices on the wall, which let us know it was around our budget: 70 pence / $1 per dish.

To communicate our dietary needs, Dani copied this Chinese script out of a phrasebook, and so far we have not been given anything meaty. However, we had a time period of continually getting boring noodle soups, so have since had to add more script about fried noodles and spicy sauces.

Cheng Du is home to the Panda Breeding and Research Centre, which actually seems to be doing a lot of good in terms of in situ (within captivity) work, but we saw nothing of their acheivements ex situ (in the wild), which is surely where the most important work needs to be done. Nevertheless, the large site had none of the cheesiness or disneyfication that we had seen elsewhere in China, instead opting for subtle enclosures and growing forests of gorgeous bamboo.

It was as funny to watch the Chinese tourists as it was to observe the pandas, as the animals are held in the highest esteem. I joked with a guy on the train that maybe we could taste some panda in Cheng Du, but he explained that this would never happen, because the Chinese love them too much. They are the perfect example of a flagship species - wildly popular with the public, and therefore useful as a ralling cry to conservation.

To see a pandas life-cycle, it became very obvious why they are so critically endangered; mating so infrequently, producing so few offspring, and having such incredibly vulnerable cubs that of the two normally born one almost always perishes, and frequently both die when very small. We got to see this one-month old cub in an incubation chamber, removed from it's mother because it was the second of two cubs.

The teenage pandas were the most fun and lively, constantly playing and fighting, and with a penchant for climbing trees. These two noiselessly battled for 15 minutes, rolling down the steps, mock-biting and chasing each other.

 

The adult pandas on the other hand were generally sedentary and only interested in eating. We anthropomorphised this one into a fat slob on the couch, stretching for food just out of reach but never getting up.

While in Cheng Du we also explored the beautiful tea gardens located in People's Park. A group of musicians who had met up to play gave us their rendition of Auld Lang's Syne, and bizarrely, Jingle Bells, all played on traditional instruments. We really enjoyed watching the Chinese relax and drink tea as they whiled away the day.

Xian, China

Xian is famous for the Terracotta Warriors, but we had heard mixed reviews of the site and did not want to go just because it is on the tourist checklist. It was also ludicrously expensive compared to the cost of everyday living, like many of China's sights. As it turned out, there were lots of warriors all over the city, at museums, parks, and the city wall.

It was good to see some examples of them, and also be as close as we wanted.

The city wall was an impressive piece of engineering, and gave an insight into the historical wealth and paranoia of the inhabitants. We tried to walk around the entire length, but it was too long and hot for us.

The moat and area just outside the wall is now used as parkland, and provided an oasis around the city.

 To get a better understanding of this ancient city - once the biggest in the world, we visited the Xian musuem, which was very well done, and free if you show your passport / ID. The model of the city as it stood 500 years ago was particularly interesting, showing the rich merchant houses around a central courtyard, the pagodas and peasant plots.

Xian also felt like it was very proud of its history and culture, even employing people to stroll around in traditional garb and talk to the public at key sites like the wall.

For us though, it was a city of amazing food. We visited tiny eateries, judging them on atmosphere and popularity with the locals. One of our favourite dishes was this peanut sauce on rice noodle.

Near our couchsurf host's place, outside the walls but still within the busy metropolis, I relished shopping at a phenomenal indoor market for dinner ingredients. Everything was loose and I took exactly what I needed for the meal, including a thimblefull of spices that the shopkeeper thought easier to give away than to try and measure.

 Having a large Muslim population, the city's food and culture was even more diverse than we had experienced in Beijing.

Our amazing couchsurf host, who grew up in the Muslim quarter, showed us around this amazing area on a Sunday. We toured various food and goods markets, watched as a kitten was sold for £3.50 / $5.00, and were given no less than 7 street snacks to try, from egg omelette-crepes to a fried mashed persimmon. One of the least familiar though was these rice cakes, made from finely ground rice flour and a jam flavouring, then steamed until the consistency becomes extremely glutinous.

Beijing and Great Wall, China

Our time in Beijing began with days of sun through the smog. Though we missed seeing blue skies, the smog gave interesting backdrops to the city.

One morning we set off early to visit Tiantan Park where older men show their skills on the Chinese yo-yo (diabolo). After displays of their talent they would often help out younger apprentices.

The sound of Chinese pop music rang out over the park as crowds participated in dance classes. They seem to be daily or weekly classes as everyone knew the dance steps.

In the park's covered walkways people played games, hung out and enjoyed their pastimes together.

One of the gaming areas was designated for a version of scrabble with English letters and words.

At the centre of the park was the Temple of Heaven. It was an impressive building, with stunning colours as a backdrop, although Sam grew impatient being the model instead of the cameraman.

Our home in Beijing was in the Hai Dian district. The back streets in the area were particularly busy in the evenings, with shops and restaurants opening up on the pavement. Our favourite place to eat was this grill where we could choose sticks of food to be cooked up, covered in flavourings and put in a bun (for only 10p/15c a stick).

We decided to visit the painting of the big man and upon arrival were greeted by a large-scale water and music show, the rainbow added perfectly to the Disney-fication.

One of the few major tourist sights we did want to see was the Great Wall, and it didn't disappoint. We walked the section from Jinshanling towards Simatai.

Walking the wall allowed us to appreciate the structure itself and the stunning surroundings; misty mountains in all directions.

The wall itself was more complicated than we expected, with tunnels, passages and towers. Some of the towers were three floors high and used to house the people who guarded the wall.

Sections of the wall were remarkably flat, whilst others were steep; it felt good to be working our legs hard again.

Later in the day the mist and thunder subsided, and the sky turned blue. It was wonderful to look back at where we had walked, and to see the towers stretching into the distance.

As the sun came out it shone on the trees, showing the autumn hints of yellow and red.

Visiting the wall was one of the best days of our trip so far, as the numerous photos show.

Ulan Bataar, Mongolia

We arrived in dusty, chaotic UB early in the morning, but were helped by friendly Mongolians to negotiate the bus and ensure we found the right stop, near the edge of the city in the ger district.

The ger, or yurt, is a felt and canvas tent supported by an ingenious system of collapsible walls and poles leading to a central circular support. We had the opportunity to help prepare our couchsurfing host's ger for winter by taking it apart and adding extra layers of thick felt as insulation. It was a fascinating way to see how everything fit together.

The children of the family warmed to us quickly, as they are very used to having couchsurfers to play with, and I soon became a climbing frame.

Our couchsurfing host made us feel very welcome, and his wife made us a traditional breakfast of bread rolls and orom -a thick cream they had produced from their dairy cows. We tagged along one day as he walked the cows to the hills nearby to forage on the wild grasses there.

We soon felt like part of the family, and really enjoyed making dinner one night on the hearth. I usually make enough for 7 when I cook for 4, so this time I made enough for 12 when there were 8. Luckily, they invited the grandmother and a couple of neighbours around to help finish it off.

The children were very talented, and treated us to a few Mongolian dances.

And we also got to listen to the horsehead fiddle played by the eldest son.

As for the city itself, many travelers we met did not like the dust, the sloppy footpaths and messy construction. We thought it was an interesting place, though our experiences in the ger district certainly influenced our views. There was a lot of history and culture to be seen, like these guards staring unflinchingly into the sun in Sukhbataar, the main square.

It was also fascinating to see the layers of history in UB, with new skyscrapers being thrown up with mining money alongside gigantic buddhist statues and communist relics.

I really liked this communist mural with fantastic views over the city. The Mongolians don't seem to harbor any bad feelings towards Russia, with the written alphabet they introduced still being used today.

What really made the city though, was staying with this kind and generous family. The great-grandmother would drop by and even slept over one night. When I asked if I could take her picture she dressed up in her finest clothes.

Our last night we spent with two new couchsurfers who had just arrived in Mongolia. There were 12 of us in the cosy ger.

Terelj National Park, Mongolia

The day we left UB, we were extremely surprised to find it snowing, and only on the 26th of September. It was extremely beautiful though, and we were treated to some beautifully dusted countryside as we made our way out to Terelj National Park. The trip was booked through Ger to Ger, (review below) which is a social profit enterprise, because independent travel is extremely difficult, and we really wanted to stay with nomads without abusing their hospitality.

The people we stayed with are true nomads and move several times every year depending on weather conditions. They are herders, and therefore keep only animals with a herding instinct - in this case, horses, yaks, cows, sheep, and goats.

Because we were guests, no-one would ever ask us to help out, but there was little to do besides relax and enjoy the stunning scenery, so I helped out with some poo shoveling. It is not glamorous, but needs to be done, and I was glad to help this old man because it was pretty tough work.

The National Park is absolutely stunning at night, with clear skies and no light pollution whatsoever. We were also lucky to have timed our stay with a full moon, so it was very bright.

This lack of cloud cover really made the temperature drop though, and Mongolia proved its reputation as being brutally cold. There were hard frosts every night bar one, and ice even settled on the dog.

On what was the most surreal of my birthdays, we travelled to another nomadic family, using the ancient but reliable ox cart as our means of transportation. It was not the smoothest ride, but a really nice pace to see the landscape go past, and so quiet.

We tried to help out with chores when we could, with Dani assisting in the making of aarul - curdled milk that is pressed and dehydrated in the air and sun. It basically has no expiry date and is important for winter as the cows stop producing milk.

Mongolians have an interesting mix of spirituality, religion and superstition. One common sight were these ovoo's, which are a mix of Buddhist and pagan nature-worship. It was a great place for quiet contemplation, and the surrounding landscape was truly epic in scale.

As part of our trip, we went on several horse rides, which was the best way to explore the area. It was really interesting to see the different personalities of the stocky little horses Mongolia is famous for, and see how our horsemanship improved, though we always told the nomads we couldn't ride at all for fear they would give us a half-wild horse that would gallop and prove uncontrollable. Autumn was already in its late stages, but there was still a lot of rich colours around.

Our expectations of Mongolian countryside were of stereotypical steppe, with large herds of horses running nearly wild and being chased by people on powerful steeds. Amazingly, this is exactly what we saw, and it felt like the wild west, with the thunder of hooves alerting us to their presence.

Even by the middle of the trip we felt really at home in gers, lighting the fire, relaxing and reading inside their cosy shelter.

Another aspect of nomadic life we quickly got used to were the outdoor squat toilets, which were almost always three-sided open-air constructions, often with amazing views and facing the morning sun.

Because there was not too much to keep us occupied, we often played with the smaller children, as most teenagers go to UB for school with relatives. We introduced many of them to frisbee, and just generally mucking around. The had very cute faces.

Dani was able to learn traditional techniques for Mongolian sewing and was very envious of the hand-machines almost every family owned.

There were always dairy products being made, as animals are milked twice a day and Mongolians rarely drink fresh milk. This is a batch of orom, which we ate almost daily while in Mongolia. Unfortunately, we were both violently sick from seperate dodgy batches. I think the problem was that the milk was left at a warm temperature for more than 24 hours before eating, and our stomachs lack the powerful bacteria necessary, which Mongolians have had many years, and generations, to produce.

One day we practiced archery, one of the three sports of Nadaam. It was quite difficult.

On one of our final mornings we woke to snow, which had melted by midday but was a sure sign that winter was coming.

We helped move a ger to a winter camp, as the weather was progressively getting colder. My job was to hold the centre again, while Dani had to keep the children distracted.

Before catching the bus back to UB we helped herd our nomad's cows into the right area for the day, which basically entailed making a lot of noise and making sure no individuals tried to escape.

Review of Ger to Ger trip - Terelj Horseback riding to Princess Temple

The trip was certainly good value for money, as many companies charge much more per day. The proximity of Terelj to UB was also crucial in reducing the cost, as we did not have to hire a private jeep.

The itinerary supplied was a very vague outline, which may have been correct at some point but was not for us. We didn't mind not staying with family A on day 1 and were happy to be flexible, but as a result we did miss out on some of the activities described. We also had to press the nomads to take part in some of the activities, so less bold travellers may have missed out entirely.

Except for the activities it is unlikely the nomads will ask you to do anything. My advice would be to amuse yourself by playing with children, reading or playing games, or be very proactive by asking in Mongolian if you can help with chores.

The packing list was also a bit spurious. We nearly brought a tent from Scandinavia because we thought we would be staying in one most nights, but we were actually in gers. A very good sleeping bag is needed for all but the summer months, which Ger to Ger may or may not be able to provide. In the same vein, serious layers of clothing are needed because it is really cold. Bringing puzzles, games and other activities to do yourself or share is vital, because there are many hours to fill, even if you like taking photos and going for walks.

Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed it, but it could have been much better had we known some of these details beforehand.