Holiday in Cambodia

Koh Rong Island, Cambodia 6.11.2014

We arrived in Phnom Penh after a 30-hour travel. We were really tired but got some energy from the nice warm air that welcomed us while stepping out of the plane. We took a tuk tuk ride to the hostel which we had booked online.

We spent only two days in the city and mainly rested. We visited the Russian market. It is the cheapest market to find clothes, shoes, souvenirs. One must bargain on every item. But our objective was the beach. We booked a bus trip to Sihanoukville and left the same day with a boat to Koh Rong Island. We left early in the morning and the bus trip took five hours. The boat took another two hours. Once arrived we were really happy because the beach is wonderful. White sand and crystal clear water. There are no roads or cars on the island. Mainly there are guesthouses, bungalows and restaurants.

On the island there is nothing to do which suites us perfectly. The east coast where the ferrys come is the busiest and most alive. Lots of party places too.

Sunday we decided to check the east side of the island and trekked through the jungle following a path. It took about 50 minutes and was quite a hike. We saw a monkey and big butterflies. We ended up to a 7km long beach which was even more beautiful. No loud music or other people just the sounds of the jungle behind the beach. On the other end there was a village and on the other just one guesthouse with bungolows with no electricity or running water. We decided to walk back, take our backpacks and come to a seaview bungolow for a couple of nights. We took a boat from the west side to the east and after some technical problems we arrived for the sunset on Long Beach.

When it became dark everything felt extreme and was really exciting. The bungalows had open windows and were located between the jungle and the sea. There were huge spiders on the roof, biggest was the size of a plate. There were also really big geckos in the roof, about 40-50 cm long. In the night we heard geckos, monkeys, squirrels, birds, rats, lizards... Monica didn't sleep so much. Johannes either. But it was worth it.

The next day we walked the beach from end to end and back, total 14km. The village on the other end was small and called Sok San village. There was one luxury resort at the start and then a really poor village next to it. We had lunch there and talked with the owner that he is looking forward to the high season. We were the only ones there that day.

In the evening the generator stopped to work because the gasoline was finished. It had been so windy for a couple of days that the guesthouse didn't get any supplies in. The boat service doesn't run with windy / stormy weather. The second night was better than the first. But the morning was ... breathtaking. Johannes woke up around 7am and went to the bathroom and saw a black tail going behind the door. He jumped out and then he saw it was a snake. It quickly went to a hole in the corner of the bathroom. We both waited behind the mosquito net if it would come out but it was too scared. We went to check if it was still there and we saw its head constantly. We started packing our stuff and for a couple of hours it stayed there in the corner. We left the bungalow and told the staff that there is a snake in our bathroom. They were excited and went quickly to get it out. They even got a video of it. And they discovered that it was a 120cm long King Cobra.

Now we are back on the east side and this feels luxury. We are enjoying the beaches, the sea and the sun. and food is good and cheap. Just relaxing :)

Yesterday night we went to a midnight swim with another couple from New Zealand. We met them when we were having a barbeque meal on the beach. We drank few drinks together and decided to go and see if there is some plankton that shines in the water between 11pm and 1am. We were lucky! It was almost full moon so at first we couldn't see it. But when swimming we saw all these tiny shining points. It was like swimming in the sky with million stars.

Now we will probably stay on the island for a couple of days more and then head to the south. The visa is valid for 30 days so we still have three weeks time.

Beijing

Koh Rong, Cambodia 5.11.2014

We arrived in Beijing in the late morning of the 24th of October by train from Ulan Bator. The journey took 30 hours. The most interesting part was changing the rails of the train vagons because in China they use a different distance between the rails. This process took about six hours. The border control was pretty quick and easy. The view after the Gobi desert changed totally into mountains and rivers that was very beautiful. We got to see some countryside of China.

Beijing Railway Station was not so busy in the middle of the day. We had googled our hotel and headed straight to the metro. It was simple to use the metro and the metro stops were written also in our letters. In every station there is a security control. Once in our supposed right metro station we started to walk towards the hotel. Quite soon we realized that we hade googled the hotel too broadly. We had no idea where we were. Everything was huge and continued everywhere. We only had the address on our letters but we should have had one in Chinese letters. Taxi drivers can't read our letters. After three hours of walking with our backpacks one taxi driver called the hotel himself to find it. He took us to the hotel and we were totally in the wrong place. Our hotel was the cheapest but located near to metro station Shilipu on the east side of Beijing. There should have been English speaking service but there was not at all. The first feeling about the city was that it is huge. Just something too big. In the area of the hotel there wasn't any other tourists or hotels so it seemed a real Chinese suburb. We were starving so we went looking for a restaurant. Any of them had an English menu. We chose the one with most people and a menu with pictures. Smiling works internationally and the food was great.

Before arriving to the city we contacted Yob, a Dutch friend living there now for last few years. In the evening we went to meet him. We were excited of finding the area and the place we were supposed to meet after the hectic morning "orientation gone bad". But we found the place right away and enjoyed some Chinese brewed beers with our friend. After this the city seemed a little more okay. We spent the whole Saturday with Yob and went to a music festival in Dirty Monster Club out of the center. There were nice Chinese bands and also some expats too. Locals didn't speak English. Great experience.

We planned a trip to the Great Wall on Sunday but we slept late. And weekends are the busiest time there so we postponed it to Monday. Instead we went to the Hutong areas, Lama Temple and Tianamen Square. Lovely shopping places in the hutong areas. The Temple was huge and something nice  and quiet in the middle of the city. We arrived in Tiananmen before 5pm and just as arrived something startes to happen. Lot of guards started to push all the people away to close the street. Even the locals seemed not to know what was happening. The guards just shouted to us in Chinese. We thought some politically important persons would come out or pass the street. After maybe half an hour souldiers came out and took the Chinese flag down from pole. That was it all about. Hundreads of people were looking and taking pictures. The road in front was totally stopped. It had eight lines. Sunday was different beacuse the air pollution was at lower level. Since our arrival there was really bad smog and the top of buildings disappeared even on a sunny day. You can feel the pollution in your lungs. But when the wind came from Siberia all the smog went away and the whole city looked different.

Monday morning we woke up early to get to the Great Wall. We took the metro in the rush hour and it was something unbeliavable. In the day time the metro was so easy. In the morning we waited like 25 minutes and five trains before getting in. Monica took the earlier and Johannes the next after. We couldn't fit in the same. People were pushing more people in but it was unuseful. The vagons were already so full.

We thought of going by train to Badaling (takes only one hour, costs 6 yuans) but it was sold out. So we asked the staff how can we go there and they had a little book where they showed instructions to tourists because they couldn't speak any English.

The bus leaved from Xizhimen and there are fake bus signs next to the metro station. We took the bus 877 that goes straight to the Wall. They say some companies take tourists also to other stops and make them pay extra. We ended up in the right place and in the bus there were only two other tourists. Other were all Chinese. A Chinese wanted a selfie with us. The bus was pretty fast and went straight to Badaling. That part of the Great Wall there is from the 13th century but is reconstucted well. Three kilometers are open to public. The Great Wall was beautiful but not as like in pictures it was crowded and the area before entering the wall was full of shops and loud music. Peacefullness was far from there. We walked to the hardest part and there weren't so many people. The Great Wall was worth visiting.

After the visit we headed back to the hotel and took our stuff to the airport. This flight to Kuala Lumpur we had booked in advance from Finland but we bought online from AirAsia a flight straight to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Travelling was long but the night flight with Malaysia Airlines was really good. Finally we arrived in Phnom Penh on Tuesday. It was +32 degrees.

Mongolia - Ulan Bator surroundings

Ulan Bator 21.10.2014

Mongolia is a very big country and it has only three million habitants. About one third of the population lives as nomads in gers around the country.

We decided to do something special and booked a 3-day trip from our hostel. It was all-inclusive. We had with us Dandr our driver and Tuul our guide. And we drove with a UAZ Soviet Jeep.

During the first day we visited Chinggis Khan's statue which is the biggest of its kind in the world. Then we visited a meditation center on the mountains. In the afternoon we arrived to the nomad family who hosted us for the evening and night. We left almost right away to ride horses for one hour.

Panorama was breathtaking. We literally rode to the sunset.

The day went by really quickly and we sat a lot in the car. The main roads were fine but others made us appreciate the jeep. We even crossed a river with the car.

The nomad family was friendly and consisted of the father, mother and a 5-year old boy. Two older children were studying in the city. They had horses and cows. Even they host tourists their nomad life style was genuine. We ate together and the father offered us some self-made milk vodka in the evening. After one cup they already joked that we were celebrating our marriage. Same humour as in Finland. We took quickly another cup.

The sky in the night was so beautiful with its million stars. We saw the Milky Way as ever before. It was warm in the ger which was heated with an oven full of dried horse poop. It didn't even smell. During the night we heard dogs barking and cows noise. In the morning the family told us that during the night some wolves came and took one of the little cows. We just saw many eagles and other birds eating the rests/bones. The family was of course sorry for the loss of property but they thought it is part of nature.

After breakfast we drove to Kharkhorim, the ancient capital. We spent almost all day in the car. We took most of it and looked out for all possible animals. We saw eagles, horses, camels, cows, foxes, goats, sheeps, dogs, an owl, cats. And the landscape was like from a story book.

Arrived in Kharkhorim we settled in a ger with our guide and driver. Soon a musician came to our tent and asked if we would like to hear some traditional Mongolian throat singing and playing. Of course we did. The man was 60-70 years old and performing so well. Playing Mongolian instruments made from wood and horse hair. Throat singing was also something new for us. The show was very nice.

In the morning we visited the ancient temples and summer palace. Countless paintings of buddhas and other gods hundreds of years old. Some remains of the city were around the temples.

We headed to the sand dunes for a camel ride that was hilarious. While riding hundreds of wild horses ran close to us and stopped to look at who we were. It looked pretty funny. Afterwards we start our journey back to the city and arrived in  late afternoon.

We were happy of the trip because we saw the true Mongolia and its nature. Even just a small part.

Mongolia - Ulan Bator

Ulan Bator 21.10.2014

We have been in Mongolia for a little bit more than a week now. First we planned that we would have left to Beijing Sunday the 19th but the Russian train was sold out. So our stay in Mongolia became longer and good that it did.

Mostly we have been living in the city and walking a lot as every city holiday make people do. The first impression of Ulan Bator / Ulaanbaatar was that the city was kind of small. The more we've spent time here the more we understand that this city is huge.

For locals the city is just something they have to deal with but the majority would like to live in the countryside near their tribes. Most of the city is just apartment blocks where people live during the working week. The traffic is shocking because there is no infrastructure. The city grows quickly but the infra can't follow the development. Also as a pedestrian you have to be alert. I don't know which one is more secure, passing with the green light or red.

People in the city seems well-being and good looking. You don't see extreme poverty in the streets. There are not so many tourists / people from western countries either. Of course now we are here during the low season. High season is in summertime during July-August. Many people have told us to visit Mongolia again in summer.

We have visited the National Museum of Mongolia which was nice and covering well also the history of the last two decades. It seems that democracy and the 1990 are an important base for building Mongolian national identity. People are really proud of their democratic system. The national identity seems to be built on the time of Chinggis Khan and religion has a big role. Especially now after the ateistic socialist time.

The Museum of Political Prosecution was very interesting but shocking. This museum is not so advertised but well worth visiting. We walked also to the Russia-Mongolia friendship monument which is a nice place to look over the city. It is built after the second world war when The Soviet Union and Mongolia fought together.

The monument was massive but the view even more. From there we saw how huge was the city but also all the suburbs that here are gers. A lot of construction is made but at the same time there are not enough apartments for normal working people. But a lot fancy office buildings.

Food in Mongolia is very good and cheap. People eat a lot of meat. We've eaten also in local fast food kiosks but we didn't get any stomach problems. Menus have usually pictures or English help phrases so ordering is easy. A meal costs about 2-4 euros and beer 1 euro. There are also much more expensive places but we've skipped those. And a few western restaurant. I would like to visit an Italian restaurant but just for curiousity!

The weather is sunny but not as inquinated as many guide books let understand. After few days you notice that dust gives a little cough. Temperature vary a lot between day and night. During the day it has been from 4 to 15 degrees. In the night from 0 to -15 degrees. Houses are warm inside.

Ulan Bator surprised positively especially after checking the pictures on Google streetviewer.. Easy living :)

Trans-Siberian train / Trans-Mongolian route

Ulan Bator 14.10.2014

We left from Moscow with the Chinese train (nr 4°) that goes to Beijing on Tuesday the 7th of October at 23:45. Lovely friends from Moscow came to say goodbye from Yaroslavsky train station :)

The first impression of the train was that train staff was Chinese and didn't speak any English. They took our train tickets and showed our compartment. We were the only ones in ours. There wasn't any information about the facilities on train but we found the water boiler from which travellers can take hot water during all the trip. Every vagon had its own toilet (a true train toilet) and a water tap. No shower. No toilet paper provided. We checked the restaurant vagon but it seemed quite expensive (i.e. borsch soup 250 R/ 5 euros) and not worth it. The train stopped the first few days more often than in the end of the road. It was possible to buy groceries from small kiosks next to the platform. No wifi.

Chinese trains don't have 3rd class so we travelled in 2nd class. We heard that Russian trains have the open vagon 3rd class which is cheaper and more common to Russians. The 1st class in our train was not anything luxorious but it looked like ours. The only plus was a shower and more space. Also from 2nd class it is possible to have a shower if you pay the staff a little. But once in the train it didn't matter!

Sense of time vanished pretty quickly. The first day went by just resting and looking at the autumn colors passing by. We ate when hungry, mostly noodles and bread. We should have bought more food with us. Now we consumed maybe 1e per day per person! At least we stay in the budget. We bought more food from the kiosks at some stops.

Soon we got to know other passengers and evening activities were clear. Vagon 6 became the party vagon. Mostly we got to know some Chinese, Swedish, Australian and British people. We also met another Finnish couple travelling around the world. Also one of the train staff joined our party by creating a drinking game. It was so cool because after the first cold impression of him he became a really friendly and smiling guy. After this icebreaker we got some help from him also afterwards. Time went a lot faster with hilarious company, beer and vodka.

The landscape changed a little bit every day but the best ones were from Irkutsk ahead, from day 4. We passed next to the Baikal lake and near the Mongolian border the landscape changed again a lot. One night we saw it was snowing and at some point it got really cold. In the train it was still warm all the time.

The border control took altogether about four hours but went smoothly. Mongolians spoke English much better than Russian or Chinese staff.

We arrived in UB Sunday 12th at 6:35am with a temperature of -14 degrees. Thankfully we can think of the future hot months that are ahead of us :)

Moscow

Moscow 6.10.2014

One note about Moscow - it's huge. We have been walking in the neighborhood of our hostel near the Red Square / Kremlin. Behind every corner there is always a beautiful house or an Orthodox church. One thing that catch one's attention are the majestic buildings built by Stalin. There are a few of them and nowadays they are offices or universities or hotels. They are also known as Stalin's teeth. In addition to these buildings there are a lot of big majestic houses or Soviet constructions. Still, Moscow is also very modern as the new business center with skyscrapers shows.

We are really lucky to have some friends in Moscow that drove us around the city! Driving us in the streets of Moscow and taking to places that didn't seem real.

Moscow is also pretty expensive. There is such a big selection of places that one must look a while for a more economic option. Cheapest meals are around four-five euros and there is no upper limit. Also groceries are quite expensive because they are situated in Moscow.

Staying in a hostel is quite cheap, one night per person is about 10 euros. Moscow's high price level is also seen in our hostel where the majority of guests are Russian. They probably work here the weeks and go home out of town for the weekends. Of course there are also tourists and guests from other countries but we were surprised of the amount of Russians.

Moscow is an easy city to get oriented with. We have been using the metro much. Especially young people know English very well and otherwise we have survived well with sign language :D Knowing the Cyrillic alphabet helps a lot since all the signs are mainly written in Cyrillic. We got our train tickets to Ulan Bator, Mongolia yesterday. Our friend Victor helped us at the ticket office so it went easily. Probably the ticket seller didn't speak any English. But it was simple to buy the tickets, just show the passport and pay. The price difference in Trans-Siberian train tickets is huge compared to the ones sold in Finland. Now we paid around 250 euros per person in 2nd class. In Finland the same tickets were almost 700 euros.

Today we drove around the most beautiful metro stations. It took us about three hours and every metro station impressed us. It is indeed one of the most beautiful metro in the world and metro stops usually are decorated with marble, mosaic and impressive chandeliers. The subject in stations is usually Russian art and mighty Soviet Union.

Tomorrow we continue our trip to Mongolia which will last until Sunday by train :)

Helsinki - Moscow all night long

Moscow 2.10.2014

Think about what would a train going to Moscow be like. It's better.

There is not anything special to say about this trip except that we were very positively surprised. Nice clean cabin and good friendly service. The staff did not speak English but we managed to understand. We didn't checked the restaurant wagon but we got coffee and sandwiches served on table (Coffee costs 100rb ~2 euros). After the Russian border WiFi-connection worked fine and we checked the instructions to our hostel by metro.

The train left at 17:52 pm and was on time, we arrived in Moscow at 8:24 am. Just in time to get on the metro in the morning rush. By metro it was easy to find our hostel and we got checked in before the official time. We left our backpacks and took a little walk around. In five minutes we were in the middle of the Red Square.

After some grocery shopping we came back to our hostel and we feel exhausted of all the tension. We are starting to feel that we are on the road. The stress of the last weeks due to quitting our jobs, moving and packing is finally disappearing. Feels like we can breathe again. Now we just have to understand that we are not in a hurry and just enjoy freedom.