The final days…

Almost six weeks has elaspsed since Nick and I made that rather frenzied departure from Uppsala, and I know it’s cliched to say, but what a journey!

As a friend of mine (who is all too aware of Frick’s unfortuante habit of missing trains) remarked to me today, “you’ve done well, you’ve made it all the way without missing any trains or anything.”

And it’s true. We made every train (except for the very first one!), found every hotel, managed to traverse three (or four if you count Hong Kong) depsite our complete incompetence at the local lingos and, most importantly of all, without even having had a single argument of consequence between each other. Sure, there have been disagreements (and plenty of them, but wouldn’t it be boring without them!?), but testament to Nick’s patience and acceptance, nothing has got between us. In fact, it’s a journey that I think has cemented a long and good friendship!

But enough of the emotional drivel!

How have the last few days been?

Well, in the last update canvassed our first few days in Beijing.

Since then we have taken three more trains: an overnight sleeper from Beijing to Xi’an, a high speed service from Xi’an to Shanghai and our final sleeper from Shanghai to Hong Kong.

All trains were very efficient and comfortable. The sleeper trains saved us a night of accommodation, and the high speed train (for me at least) was an undeniably one of the highlights of the trip. The feeling of flying as we zoomed through the Chinese country side on newly constructed high speed rail overpasses was wonderful. And the quick check in and easy embarking/ disembarking of the train made it superior in almost every way to a flight on the same route. I could continue, but for the sake of brevity let me just say Chinese high speed trains are great!

On our last day in Beijing we visited the Beijing Railway museum (Nick was very patient to visit yet another one of these!), which highlighted the importance of railways in China’s history especially over the last 50 years during the boom. The almost alarmingly rapid growth of the Chinese high speed rail system was heavily emphasised with a proud tone in the writing of the museum currators, and it is impresive. Over the last decades over 22,000 km of dedicated high speed rail has been constructed, linking just about every major Chinese city with fast, low carbon transport. Winner!

After a night on the air conditioned (thank god, it was still 38 degrees outside!) sleeper to Xi’an (during which we witnissed a mega thunderstorm lighting up the sky from our train window**) and arrived quite fresh for two days of sightseeing in Xi’an. Unfortunately, there was no escape from the unrelenting heat that had characterised our time in Beijing, however we braved the heat and cycled around the ancient city walls of Xi’an. Back in the day, Xi’an was one of the world’s first and largest cities, and these walls protected the Emperors from invading forces. The views from the tandem Nick and I rode around the wall on were framed by oodles and oodles of apartment towers, but we also gained glimpses into beautiful temples and of the lush linear gardens around the moat of the outer wall.

We needed some chill (literally!) time after this and returned to our hostel for a cold shower and quiet game of pool before heading out to an authentically-spicy noodle restaurant. My dish brought tears to my eyes and was quite painful, and I don’t think I’ve ever had such a thirst-quenching beer in my life!

Next, it was time for the trip out to the famed terracotta warriors. At this incredible World Heritage Site, terracotta sculptures were made to be buried with China’s first Emperor Qin Shi Huang to protect him in his afterlife.

There are over 8,000, and for an archaelogy or ancient history scholar would be fascinating. All were individually crafted and painted. The enormous halls they are kept in were absolutely rammed with Chinese domestic tourists and we passed an enjoyable afternoon marvelling at the historical sculptures and people watching.

Following our speedy journey on the high speed train to Shanghai the next morning, we passed an excellent day being spoilled rotten by Nick’s friend Jeffrey’s Mum. They picked us up from the train station and gave us a private tour of the city including a short punt across the Huangpu River which afforded us excellent views of Shanghai’s picturesque skyscrapers, dinner at a delicious vegetarian restaurant, haircuts (because apparently we were looking a bit shaggy after so many weeks travelling through Siberia!) and most pamperingly of all, a 2 hour foot and body massage. We felt like roughians, emerging from the wilds of the world to the sophisticated and slick ultra modern city of Shanghai who had been sponsored by Jeffrey’s mother to smarten ourselves up.

The next day, they showed Nick exactly where to buy a suit jacket and bargained a decent price for him.

After a brief tour around the only museum open on Mondays, the Shanghai Museum (very busy but with some excellent pottery, jade and caligraphy displays) it was time for our final sleeper train to Beijing. We had the compartment to ourselves and slept very well.

Our final day of the trip in Hong Kong was very brief because our train did not arrive until mid afternoon, and by the time we had done the necessary shopping and packing, it was time for bed.

And so here I am in the airport waiting to go home after an incredible 6 weeks and year. It’s a surreal feeling, but despite how much I miss Sweden and Uppsala, I am looking forward to returning home to Melbourne.

I would love to lather you with more details of the last few days, but my carbon-spewing flying machine is about to leave from gate 210 of Hong Kong’s enormous international airport, so it’s time for me to skadaddle!

So, on behalf of Frick, thanks for reading this blog!

We hope you’ve enjoyed following our updates as much as we’ve enjoyed writing them!

Further, we hope this blog is an inspiration to you to pursue your own low carbon adventures! Everyone needs a holiday (and adventure!) every now and then, but there’s no reason that holiday needs to cook the planet. Hopefully this blog is one tiny piece in the puzzle of helping to begin the process of creating the cultural change required in the developed world to decarbonise our society. Of course we’ll still be working on the big stuff, like fighting Adani in Australia and getting our institutions to divest from fossil fuels, but we feel it’s important to lead by example where possible to fight the climate crisis!

And, just as important as fighting climate change, if you want a seriously fun and intersting experience, I can’t recomend a trans-Asian train trip highly enough!

If you have any questions about planning one, we are more than happy for you to contact us!

One day we hope to do the whole thing again (in the other direction!) so maybe you can join us!

For the final time on this adventure I say toot-toot-toot-a-loo!

/Fred on behalf of Frick

 

**if we had caught a plane on this route, it would have been delayed due to this electrical activity, another win for trains!

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Beijing by borrowed bicycle! And a train to the Great Wall of China

The large minute hand on the clock of Beijing Main Station shuddered to a halt on the six dial and, a few moments later, our train from Ulaan Baatar, with a similar jolt, stopped at platform 8. 
And so, just like that, our roughly 8000 km adventure traversing Russia, Mongolia and China by train terminated!

While we still have three legs to go to Hong Kong (an overnight train from Beijing to Xi’an, a high speed train from Xi’an to Shanghai two days later and then one more sleeper train to Hong Kong from SH where the non-flying component of our journey ends), it was nonetheless a poignant moment as our we shared a high five of congratulations that we had made it all the way from Uppsala to Beijing without drama on 7 separate long distance trains and one boat!

But there was little time to dwell too much on that as we were swept by a throng of Beijingers out into the forecourt of Beijing Station. While standing out here, the term ‘mega city’ resonated very strongly with me!

With Beijingers jabbering away in Chinese, pushing us towards the pedestrian footbridge, cars buzzing along around us and general smog, noise, heat and lurid advertising bombarding the senses, it was at that moment that it really felt like we’d left the relative tranquility of Mongolia and Russian Siberia far behind. 

The sun was partly obscured by a thick haze but the heat radiating down on the concrete jungle was still very powerful. Immediately, both of us started sweating profusely, something we have pretty much not stopped doing since we arrived in China!

After dropping our bags off at the hotel, for the afternoon we decided to try to hire bikes to explore the city. We navigated to three separate places which supposedly hired bikes. However, our wanderings came to no avail.

We found no places to hire a bike, aside from the the ubiquitous bike share cycles. These bikes are absolutely EVERYWHERE in the city; on footpaths, driveways, alleyways, even occasionally on the side of the road, poking into car lanes!

On a side note, it turns out that bike share has taken off in a big way in China. Well, when something becomes popular in a city of 20 million, it will tend to be fairly big!

It’s a relatively unique concept, different from other share schemes: there are no docking stations. The way the system works is that users download the smartphone app and make an account, linking their payment details. Then, they simply search on the map the location of the nearest share bike (or just walk outside, you’re almost guaranteed to see one within a few steps) and scan the code of the bike with the app. The code to unlock the built-in wheel lock appears on the screen and you ride away. Each trip costs around 30 AUD cents a day apparently, so sometimes people don’t even bother locking the bike when they’ve finished using it.

Or at least that’s my understanding of the system. Because neither Nick or myself have used it ‘officially’ through the app. Instead, we have spent a lot of time combing Beijing’s streets in search of the sometimes elusive unlocked share bikes, left there by the good citizens of Beijing who don’t bother locking the bikes. While it’s not technically stealing I must admit, finding an unlocked bike gives you a bit of a dopamine hit! It’s actually quite fun (so long as you’re not in a rush because Murphy’s law states that invariably you won’t find one if you’re in a rush!)

It is, however, easy come, easy go, because the bike is probably not going to be there when you come back to it. For users of the app, that’s not an issue because they can unlock any bike lying around.

However, for us, we have to be a little more patient to seek out the unlocked bikes because we can’t use the app (no Chinese ID or SIM card).

While the system has its flaws (it leads to bikes cluttering up Beijing’s streets, some bikes are stolen rather than borrowed with the in-built locking mechanism removed etc), despite these things, I love it. It makes cycling so easy for people, and is a good way at increasing rates of cycling in a city otherwise choked with cars and their associated air pollution (believe us, its bad!)

So, I’ve been loving experiencing this disruptive, sustainable urban mobility system revolution first hand!

On everyday so far in Beijing, we have used these bikes to get around. As such, we have developed a keen eye for finding those left unlocked. They have helped us get around Beijing in true local style.

While the trafic is sometimes scary, there is safety in numbers (there are many cyclists) and most roads actually have very wide cycle lanes. 

I think in Beijing, cycle infrastructure was not developed by the Government by choice, but by necessity. 20 million people in a densely populated city like Beijing simply cannot all own/ use private vehicles. Cycling and good public transit are the obvious solutions and are good, convenient, cheap and healthy ways to get around the city. Winner.

On these bikes we have visited some of Beijing’s premier sights including Tiananmen Square, the Lama Temple (a Tibetan style Buddhist temple), the Olympic precinct (including the architecture wonders of the National Olympic Stadium/ the Bird’s Nest and the Aquatics Centre/ Water Cube).

On Tuesday we braved the stiflingly hot weather and smog to see the Forbidden City, the ancient Palace for the Emperors of China until the revolution when the Qing dynasty ended in 1912.

For 500 years it was off limits to the the average citizen before it was opened to the public in the 1900s.

It is the world’s largest palace complex and is compromised of hundreds of stunning examples of ancient Chinese architecture. The distinctive and ornately decorated halls and gates are captivating, and getting lost in the labyrinth of the enormous complex was great fun. However, the omnipresent humid heat and push of domestic Chinese tourists all morning did see us move on to the Lama Temple by the afternoon.

Following this beautifully decorated Temple, we visited the station where Nick endured a long queue to pick up our rail tickets to Xi’an and Shanghai for the next legs of our journey. Meanwhile, I waited on the other side of the road guarding our unlockable bikes!) 

Then, Nick and I cycled to a vegetarian restaurant for an enormous (and delicious!) meal.

I’ll call it an oasis of sorts, because the cool tranquility of it was relieving after a day on the bike and in tourist Mecca. Both of us have developed coughs from the oppressive pollution and we were covered in sticky sweat. I suppose that is the drawback of cycling in Beijing at the height of summer! 

But it did make me angry on behalf of the citizens of Beijing that they must withstand these unacceptably high levels of pollution all so their economy can continue its ‘grow now, clean up later’ model of development and so that we in the west can have cheap (and often useless) consumer goods…

Anyway, today, Wednesday, was a great day as we ventured out by train to the Great Wall of China by, you guessed it, train!

The Wall was spectacular. Sometimes tourist attractions fail to live up to their fame but I at least was not disappointed by the Great Wall. We arrived later in the afternoon after moving to our new accomodation took longer than anticipated. However, this was not so much a draw back but a win because the train out (which can be ram-packed in the mornings) was pretty much empty. And, by early evening, we had the wall pretty much to ourselves as we puffed up and down the steep steps. 

The enormity of the wall (all to keep the Mongolians out!) and its preservation was impressive, and the views of the lush green mountainous terrain quite ethereal in the smog spreading from Beijing.

One unfortunate aspect of the experience was the large number of taxi and tour touts and scams at both ends. We took the train to Badaliang from Beijing and were told by scammers that the wall would be “closed” when we got their because the train (which costed only $1.10 aud each way) was too slow and so we would be much better off paying for a taxi instead, despite the abysmal trafic! Or another when we were told that the road we needed to use to loop back to the station, (clearly marked on our map) did not exist and it would take “2 hours” to walk back to the station we needed. Again we should have taken a taxi apparently.

Well, Frick have already fallen for one taxi scam this trip and we weren’t about to do so again, so we politely refused and, low and behold we had a fantastic day!

We were sad however to think that people are desperate enough to try and trick tourists in this way, because it really damages the reputation of a city and country.

Anyway, tomorrow will be our final day in Beijing. My plan at least is to continue the train theme of the trip and head to the Beijing Railway Museum before we board our overnight sleeper train to Xi’an.

We will spend two days there before heading on our first high speed train of the trip which will zip us to Shanghai in a few hours on Sunday morning. Then it’s the final leg to Hong Kong on Monday evening before we fly home on Wednesday.

While the end of the trip draws closer, we will be soaking up all that the fascinating country of China has to offer for the next week before heading back to Australia after a year abroad for both Nick and myself.

That’s all for now!

Toot-toot-toot-a-loo! 🚆
/ Fred on behalf of Frick 

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Magnificent Mongolia and the Glorious Gobi Desert: an account of our 7 day Mongolian Desert Tour

So it’s been a little while between posts, sorry everyone!
But Frick have been offline for much of the last week, exploring the Mongolian Gobi Desert!

Despite the heat, the often alarmingly bouncy van rides and the many somewhat-monotonous hours spent traversing the enormous Mongolian landscape, the tour has undoubtedly been one of the highlights of our trans-Mongolian journey!

I say this for a few reasons. Firstly, the sunsets. And I hope I don’t lose you here as you scoff ‘seriously Fred, the sunsets!? Were they the unrivalled highlight of a 7 day tour? I see sunsets all the time, why should I take a train 8000 ks from Sweden just to see a sunset!?’

However, let me just say that these were no ordinary sunsets. Check out the photos and decide for yourself, but I rate them as the best I’ve seen in my life.

Maybe it was just that we were relieved that the sun and all it’s heat were finally disappearing below the horizon allowing the cool cloak of darkness to engulf our yurt camps, or maybe these really were special sunsets. A particularly memorable one was where a storm passed over nearby. We were far enough away not to get wet or be threatened by the lightning but close enough to see the dramatic scene unfold. Even better, we were bathed in an infusion golden red light, which made for absolutely beautiful photos as the red of the rock cliffs illuminated by the sun contrasted with the dark grey cumulo-nimbus storm clouds overhead.

Not something we’ll forget anytime soon!

Or, another highlight was seeing the wildlife, like the extremely athletic gazelles stride at 60 km/h + away from our van across the Gobi. Or eagles soaring gracefully overhead and swooping down to fetch prey only their beady eyes could sound out. Even the humble mountain goat with its nimble feet and agile ability to scale rocky desert cliffs to nonchalantly graze meagre pastures!

Or maybe it was getting to know three wonderful and friendly francophones and our beautiful Mongolian cook/ guide, Paula and her friendly husband, Iggy. Iggy and Paula successfully and skilfully navigated a maze of insubstantial and occasionally extremely rocky and dangerous desert tracks that made the trip run very smoothly . Meanwhile, their bubbly daughter kept us entertained and seemed to have boundless energy despite the heat (or maybe that was from all the sugar she seemed to eat! A side note here is that Mongolian supermarkets in the desert seem to stock an obscene amount of processed, sugary foods).

So if you think a desert tour is too boring to contemplate (as I admit, I was thinking to myself before we started), you’d be half-right. There were many monotonous hours in the van. But you could read, nap or chat so they passed fairly easily. And then when you eventualllg reach the incredible desert landforms and see the spectacular sunsets, that will more than made up for the long hours in the van!

Moreover, the food cooked by our Mongolian guide Paula was excellent, all prepared on a camp stove, plated up and cleaned in an hour or so.

Also, staying in Yurts was a real novelty. They were generally lovely: bright from a sky light and the circular form made for an excellent atmosphere where we could all sit on our beds and talk to one another. They weren’t crummy, dilapidated or scungy.
And while we didn’t have any internet for the week, there was a real sense of being out in the wilds.
Overall, a great tour and one of the undoubted highlights of our trans-Mongolian trip!

So, if you’re interested, we organised our tour through our guest house the day we arrived in Ulaan Baatar (UB) from Irkutsk. If you’re in UB with some spare days, consider it’

Next, it was time for the final leg of the offical trans-Mongolia journey, from UB to Beijing!

Once we returned to UB we had one last meal at our favourite vegan restaurant with our tour buddies before departing UB early the next morning for our 30 h train trip to Beijing.

The Chinese border crossing was far more efficient than the Mongolian one, and was made more interesting by a mid-route bogie change (this is because Mongolia and Russia use different rail gauges to China).

Entering China things immediately felt more populous, verdant and developed. We woke up to find that our compartment which had only had Nick and I in it to the border crossing where we fell asleep had two new occupants.
Around 90 minutes out of Beijing the train left the Chinese tablelands and started a spectacular descent through narrow mountainous valleys before reaching one of the world’s great mega cities and the capital of the world’s most populous country: Beijing.
The city was far more developed and organised than I had been anticipating (at least from the train window). Maybe the train just passed through some particularly leafy regions of Beijing or the city really has come a long way over the last decades, probably spurred on by the hosting of the 2008 Olympics.
Arrival at Beijing Station was one of those moments where it hit you that you were in a city of millions. The feeling of being part of the sheer mass of humanity was palpable, especially after a week in the deserted Mongolian desert!
We will update more on our experiences from Beijing over the next few days before we make the onward journey to Xi’an where the current maximum temperatures are in the 40s…
Again, we have to apologise for the lack of photos to really show you what the desert was like, the Internet here in Beijing is extremely slow!
Toot-toot-toot-a-loo! 🚆
/Fred on behalf of Frick

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Arrival in Mongolia and Ulaan Baatar

Today we were rather rudely awoken by our provodnitsa (carriage attendant) at 04.30 am in preparation for our 6 am arrival. Given we had already packed our bags and were pretty much ready to disembark (bar putting on clothes for Nick) we considered this an unreasonably early time to be stirred from sleep. Nick lay sprawled across the covers in an undignified sleepy stupor, hairy legs and bum facing the door, and snored on as she tried to rouse us for the first time. I told Nick once she had left that he had presented a less-than-welcoming sight for our provodnitsa, and Nick replied with an emphatic ‘GOOD – I didn’t like her anyway!’

Carriage attendants are generally well respected, but have a reputation for being stern and rather austere. Our carriage attendant seemed to downright detest us. She initially thought we were American, and the sour first impression seemed to last for the entire journey.

So, what else was remarkable on this journey?

Well, unfortunately it wasn’t the generosity of Russian strangers giving us food and vodka, or the stunning views. While the journey around the southern edge of Lake Baikal is supposed to be some of the prettiest of the entire Trans-Mongolian route, unfortunately it was dark when we traversed this section.

It was remarkably slow. Our route was quite indirect, skirting Lake Baikal before stopping at Ulan-Ude and then at the Russian border post for 3.5 hours for customs and border checks. Then again at the Mongolian border for the same process. So it was around 7 hours stationary in a hot, stuffy and extremely sweaty compartment.

But, as usual, we passed the time with reading, resting and recuperation, as well as some interesting conversations. We had the compartment to ourselves for most of the journey, so could also play music and stretch out.

While it might not sound like we had a great journey to Ulaan Baatar (UB), our day here today has more than made up for it!

First stop was the Gandan Khiid Monastery, home to the largest monastery in all of Mongolia, as well as a rather large proportion of fellow Australian tourists (much older than us). The setup inside its walls was an array of temples, with the main one containing a 26m copper statue Ayush (the Buddha of Longevity), built in 1911 by Bogd Khan in the hopes of restoring his eyesight at the time (it didn’t). In fact, it was later dismantled by Russia in 1937 and allegedly melted down to make bullets, before being rebuilt thanks to donations from Japan and Nepal. The statue even contains 27 tons (yes you heard it right) of medicinal herbs, 334 Sutras (gods) and two million bundles of words (just in case he forgets the words once or twice one would imagine!).

Next stop was a quick tour of the ‘Central Museum of Mongolian Dinosaurs’, where an extensive collection is slowly taking shape as Mongolia was once home to an abundance of dinosaurs ~65 million years ago. The main artifacts are now being discovered in the depths of the Gobi Desert, where fossils have laid undisturbed for millions of years waiting for paleontologists to discover their beauty. Definitely worth a visit as the collection grows and the US starts to return some of their ‘borrowed’ artifacts.

Last stop before lunch included a history lesson at the National Museum of Mongolia, where an abundance of rooms shed light on the long and complex history of the country from the Mongolian empire, to Genghis Khan (not such a great guy after all), the communist/socialist ideology that was emulated from Russia during the Soviet era, to modern day politics and how Mongolia is starting to become a ‘democratic’ and free-market economy (dragged into the evil jaws of capitalism like most others struggling to get by). Nonetheless this was a great museum and we highly recommend it. PS: everything is even in English!

We then proceeded to enjoy an amazing lunch at a local vegan restaurant suggested to us by Lonely Planet, Luna Blanca Restaurant. It was so good that we even returned again that evening for dinner, who knew saving the planet could taste so good?

The afternoon was much more relaxing as we wandered around the main city square, home to the Government Palace (containing a huuuuuggggge Genghis Khan statue) as well as the Sukhbaatar statue (a brave fighter whom the city is named after) and then we organised the rest of our time in Mongolia by booking a 6 night/7 day tour of the Gobi desert, where we will be stopping at iconic spots such as the Flaming Cliffs and exploring the mountainous terrain that Mongolia truly has to offer. Speaking of which, the tour leaves tomorrow at 9am sharp and it is currently 2am so toot-toot toot-a-loo! The updates from our hectic tour will be posted in around 7 days as we reenter society, a place whereby the world wide web consumes us for better of for worse.

/Fred and Nick on behalf of FRICK

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How not to take a Taxi and our final days in Mother Russia: Irkutsk and Lake Baikal

So, the first section of our journey on the trans-Mongolian through the  Russian Federation have almost come to an end!

Tonight we will be boarding the 21.00 train from Irkutsk bound for Mongolia’s capital city, Ulan Batar!

The last few days have slipped by rather quickly. Here’s a brief overview:

Our long (36 hour) trip from Novosibirisk to Irkutsk was rather uneventful in comparison to the previous journeys. Our compartment buddies this time were quite reserved and quiet. This, however, allowed extra time for the three Rs which have characterised our Russian train journeys so far: rest, reading and recuperation.

Perhaps we arrived in Irkutsk a little too groggy from all of this sleeping and reading, because our transfer from the station to the Hostel was less than ideal.

Bleary eyed and travel-warn, we stepped out of Irkutsk station, blinking in the sunlight and decided (in a moment of weakness!) to take a taxi to the hostel instead of trying to navigate (the admittedly confusing) trolley bus system.

However, we paid very dearly for this little slip up in our sustainable travel endeavours.

We fell for the oldest trick in the taxi scam book, and failed to negotiate a price for our 2.5 km cross-town journey. I’m a bit embarrassed to admit it, because we have both learned this lesson before in other countries.

The driver was an absolute nut, speeding past traffic on the wrong side of the road, getting ‘lost,’ and then, when we finally arrived after having done at least one full circle around the city, demanded 3000 Rubles (around $80 AUD) for the journey.

“BUSINESS CLASS!” he screamed, locking the doors and threatening to drive us to who knew where. Whatever the service had been it was nowhere remotely close to ‘business!’ This was especially given the banged-up exterior of the car and the general disregard for the other motorists’, pedestrians’, and our own safety.

The situation seemed to be escalating rather quickly as he moved the car while Nick still had the door open and foot out the door during our argument…

We seemed to have no choice but to give in for the stupid ploy, and so with a sour taste in our mouths and a defeated glare at the driver, we handed over wads of cash and checked in to our hostel.

The journey should have cost around 1/10 of that price. Lesson learned. Again.

Thankfully, our more recent experiences in Irkutsk have been great. We have seen the city’s sights and yesterday visited the beautiful Lake Baikal where hiked along a section of the Great Baikal Trail. It was humid and very sweaty, and while low cloud obscured some of the view across the lake, it was a great day’s hiking!

I even had a brief submersion in Baikal’s pure yet icey waters! It was as cold (if not colder) than a Norwegian fjord!

And today I am celebrating my 21st b’day! So far, a highlight has been calling into Triple J where I managed to speak to Dr Karl (a personal hero of mine) who answers science questions every Thursday at 11 am Melb/ Syd time.

Here’s the link, listen from 10:50 in:

https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/dr-karl-on-triplej/id73331325?mt=2#episodeGuid=scienceontriplej_4693792

 My question was one I came up with on the train with Nick (who has been borrowing my headphones a little bit): are pimples in the ear canal transferable?

I found myself with one a few days ago, and Nick told me he gets them “all the time.” I suggested that maybe Nick had given it to me, but Nick vehemently denied the accusation.

So, what did the ultimate gospel of scientific truth, Dr Karl, have to say?

Well you can listen to it for yourself from the link above, but in brief, he said it was “very unlikely” to have been Nick who caused it from sharing headphones.

So credit to Nick, he was right on that one!

For the rest of today, we will see some more of Irkutsk’s sights, have a birthday lunch and get ready for our journey to Mongolia!

We’ll update you again soon once we have departed Russia and arrived in Ulan Batar!

Toot-toot-toot-a-loo!

//Fred on behalf of FRICK

PS: We will upload photos when we have a better internet connection, today it is not allowing us to!

 

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Heading East: Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk

Having now officially crossed into the Asian region just prior to arriving in Yekaterinburg, the real Trans Mongolian has now began!

If there is one thing I have learned so far, it’s that I love a late night wander after a long train journey.

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Photo: Yekaterinburg by night.

So here is a quick overview of the cities we have visited so far and what we managed to check out!

Yekaterinburg

A mining city made up of ~1.5 million people and home to Russia’s first “democratically” elected President, Boris Yeltsin – Yekaterinburg is also Russia’s fourth largest city and the political capital of the Ural Mountains.

First off was a very well planned 5.5km route around the city, marked clearly by a red line that is drawn on by motivated locals looking to showcase their formerly closed off city (was opened to visitors in 1991 following the fall of the USSR, previously visitors could only peer out the windows as they travelled by on the train). It is simple gestures like this that could be easily emulated in other cities (take the hint Australia) and make visitors who may not necessarily speak the native language well enough (aka FRICK) to be able to still currently explore all that the city has to offer. Stops during this adventure included the main squares, history museums (mainly in Russian), the biggest keyboard in Russia and abandoned Soviet buildings. This was followed up by a trip to the Vysotsky skyscraper for an amazing view over the city!

Our next experience was not a pleasant one (although it was somewhat anticipated given the reckless driving of some in the inner city of Yekaterinburg, much to Fred’s displeasure). This involved witnessing our first car accident. Luckily everyone was okay and walked away uninjured. From our perspective at least, the main negative was that we didn’t get to keep the numberplate that had been torn off in the process (hehe).

Our evening was capped off by a visit to the amazing Boris Yeltsin Centre, definitely a must see if you ever visit Yekaterinburg. It regularly organises exhibits and conferences about Boris Yeltsin’s life and work, as well as on Russian and world history at the end of the 20th century. A very interesting history lesson about the ever-unstable Russian political situation, especially during the 1980s and 1990s.

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Photo: Big Bad Barry (aka Boris Yeltsin)!

Next up was Fred’s time to shine as he eagerly insisted on checking out yet another train museum. However, much to his dismay the exhibit was only a couple of lonely ‘Communist Expresses’ (below) and not the almighty museum that he had envisioned. This included consistent quotes of “surely this can’t be it” and “it must be in this building”. Not to mention the amount of train headquarter buildings that we were easily able to infiltrate without question. But not all was lost as we ventured off to the Verkhnyaya Pyshma military museum, which was full of Soviet fighter jets, trains, tanks, trucks and boats (rather impressive actually).

We all know that we are here to explain how low-carbon travel can be adventurous and fun. Well this next one is an absolute cracker! On our train from Yekaterinburg to Novosibirsk we had the pleasure of sharing a room with a former Russian special ops army personnel; now an expert train technician. A rather stocky lad (as you would expect), we had a great conversation over translator before he started to bust out all the food and bottles of homemade vodka…well all that we can say is that we had a ripper night and a not so good next day. We definitely found ourselves between a rock and a hard place on that one….rookies! But we arrived in Novosibirsk all in one piece thankfully.

Novosibirsk 

A quick stop in the capital of Siberia and third-largest city of Russia meant we needed to decide what to do, and quickly. However, much to our surprise, the city, often described as a quiet and calm place amid plenty of car traffic, was exactly that.

There is not that much to see and do but is definitely worth a visit once in a lifetime. It just so happened that we managed to stumble across the city on its 124th birthday celebrations! Activities included visiting churches, the Novosibirsk zoo (also spurred on a debate as to weather zoo’s are ethical or not, and if they deserve a place in our society. Should we profit off species who are facing extinction? And how would we like it if that was us in the cage?), USSR museum and you betcha…ANOTHER train museum! This one was no ordinary train museum though…this one did exist and had trains, much to Fred’s enjoyment! (It was like taking a little kid to the theme park that’s for sure!). We almost didn’t get let in, because we had run out of Russian Roubles, but the age-old tactic of ‘stand at the ticket booth and look awkward’ worked and the unsmiling museum lady relented and let us in for half price!

And now, as I wait for Fred to return from the grocery store bearing only but the best snacks for our 36-hour train to Irkutsk due to depart in ~5 hours, I am excited to brace the shores of Lake Baikal. Being home to the largest freshwater lake in the world (by volume), containing an impressive ~23% of Earth’s fresh surface water, I can only imagine that this is a limnologists (the study of inland waters), biologists or perhaps a budding Environmental Scientist like myself’s dream!.

Anywho, smell you later!

/Nick on behalf of FRICK

 

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The longest train journey we’ve ever taken

So, last night we officially crossed the Euro-Asia border to arrive in Yekaterinburg, a city some 1,800 km and 29 hours by train from Moscow.

The journey was long but perfectly manageable.

It seems that managing long journeys in good spirits is all about expectation. If you anticipate it to be long and prepare yourself mentally as well as taking a supply of things to keep you occupied, the time can downright fly by.

In fact, I found it to be quite meditative. With no internet for over a day, there is time to properly chill out. This means regular snoozes, punctuated with a stretch of the legs down the carriage while the train rattled through endless thawing Russian swamps and coniferous forests. There is time for thinking, ruminating, listening to music and reading. There are no pings from the phone and no study, running or anything else to do except read, think and relax.

Without internet, you feel disconnected in one sense, but more mindful in another. It’s quite a liberating feeling. I have started reading Naomi Klein’s latest work This Changes Everything and the first 60 pages are a ripper read. While the print is small and the book lengthy (465 pages) I hope to finish it by the end of the trip. I am also reading How Bad Do You Want It by Matt Fitzgerald, a present from my running buddy Emil from Uppsala which discusses the fascinating field of endurance sports psychology.

In terms of company on the train, we shared the compartment with two Russians: a friendly lady who scribed us very polite messages on her iPad translated from Russian to English ‘Excuse my curiosity, but where are/ from/ going to etc.’

She even asked us why we were not flying, which was difficult to translate back, but we tried! Hopefully she understood, because that really is part of the reason for publicising our travels on this blog, to empower people to know and appreciate that great alternatives to highly carbon intensive air travel exist, and are in fact fantastic ways to travel!

A little way out of Moscow, an equally friendly and inquisitive man entered the compartment for the evening, and although we could not understand a word that he spoke to us, there was plenty of smiling, nodding and laughter shared between us! I think Old Bud (as we called him) took a liking to us because he shared sparkling water (or ‘Russian Pepsi’ as he liked to call it), ice cream and other Russian treats. While we accepted all gratefully and attempted to say ‘spasibo’ (thank you in Russian) properly, it went a little too far when Old Bud withdrew a cured fish from his bag underneath the seat and proceeded to remove its head and insist we eat it.

Nick – who has a strong aversion to fish – maintained a constant diatribe in English to me (that Old Bud of course could not understand) of how the fish smell in the compartment was overpowering him and making him want to puke. ‘If I’m expected to eat this Freddo mate, then I think I might just vomit.’

Well, credit to Nick, he bravely took and ate some fish before passing it up to me. It was actually pretty nice (Old Bud had caught it himself apparently), and so far (touch wood!) we haven’t fallen ill!

And then, as the journey stretched into its final hours, Old Bud called a friend in Yekaterinburg to ask where our hotel was. It turned out to be literally spitting distance across the road from the station with large English letters scribing the name of our hotel, ‘MARINS PARK HOTEL’. It probably would have been impossible not to find (as opposed to some hostels in big cities) but the gesture was very much appreciated!

So, our first of a few 24+ hour journeys is complete, and both of us found them more than bearable.

Today, we are out to explore the city of Yekaterinburg, before hopping on another  26 hour train to Novosibirsk tomorrow evening at 22.10.

Toot-toot-toot-a-loo! 

/Fred on behalf of FRICK

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Two memorable days in marvellous Moscow!

We have arrived in (and will depart from tomorrow)  Russia’s famous capital city: Moscow!

Yesterday we spent the day exploring some of Moscow’s main sights: the Kremlin, Red Square and Vystavka Dostizheniy Narodnogo Khozyaystva (VDNKh) which is a large park with gardens which also hosts trade shows and has an amusement.

We enjoyed  exploring the city on foot and by the Metro. The architecture, people-watching and weather were highlights. Particularly bemusing for us was an old Russian couple who had attached magnets to the base of their walking sticks and were fishing out very small denominations of Russian roubles from the fountain.

Many Mosconites were enjoying the sunshine, riding scooters, roller skates and bikes around the Park. It was quite idyllic.

In terms of transport, the city of Moscow is very well served by an impressive integrated public transport network.

Trains arrive and depart at each metro station at less than two minute intervals for most of the day, and the network of cross-town and periphery circle lines, trolley busses, high frequency buses and even a sky monorail mean that getting around Moscow can be quite efficient. I say can because understanding Russian script and consequently which line and direction to take as well as which stop to alight at can be very difficult.

There have been a number of instances where Nick and I have simply jumped on the wrong train, got completely lost and been unable to work out where we are. The benefit of this is that we have visited a fairly wide range of Moscow’s metro stations which are actually quite beautiful with soviet-era decoration from frescos to statues and interesting lighting.

Our second full day in Moscow started a little later than planned, owing to Nick’s *extended* night out (for more on this, see the next post by Nick!)

We still managed to squeeze in a visit to the Russian Cosmonautics Museum and the 540 metre high Ostankino Telecom Tower, a distinctive feature of the Moscow skyline. Security to get in was tighter than we had ever experienced at such a tourist attraction – two full body/ bag scans and passport checks in separate stages of entry to the tower.

When we finally emerged from the various security screenings at the observation deck we were offered spectacular panoramic views of Moscow. I found it fascinating to get a bird’s eye view of the large metropolis. Rather grim-looking soviet-era apartment blocks, wide traffic-choked arterials and grand public spaces dominated the view from the tower, but I was also impressed by the large tracts of forest which exist in the city. Industrial areas belching smog contributed to the evening haze but overall the view was quite beautiful.

Our final night in Moscow was supposed to be spent watching the Confederation Cup early round match between Chile and Cameroon, however it was unfortunately not to be. The Fifa website advised us to head to ‘Spartak Stadium’ at 9 pm for the match which is where we headed. However, when we arrived, we could tell something was wrong.

There was a small grandstand and football pitch, however it was not one that looked capable of supporting and international football match. As it transpired, there are two ‘Spartak Stadiums’ in Moscow, and in typical Frick style, we stuffed it up and went to the wrong one.

While we missed a unique opportunity to see a good match of football, in the end we saved some money and got home earlier, so I suppose it’s good to see the silver lining!

And that just about brings you up to date with our time in Moscow!

Tomorrow we will be departing for Yekateringburg at 13.50. The journey is our first on the traditional Trans-Mongolian rail route. It’s a 29 hour overnight journey, the longest single train journey both of us will have ever taken.

We’ll update you on how we enjoy the journey to Yekateringburg!

Toot-toot-toot-a-loo!

Fred on behalf of Frick

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Welcome to Mother Russia! Stop 2: St Petersburg

We have now arrived at our second stop on our cross continental tour: St Petersburg.

So far, not withstanding the initial hiccup on day 1 in which we missed our very first train (read more here) things have gone very smoothly.

It has been fascinating to see the transition in culture, urban form and price as we travel eastwards.

Our first stop on the boat was Helsinki. We passed a pleasant day soaking up the June sun as wandered the city on foot.

This time, we made the boat in good time and before we knew it, were waking up in Russian waters at one of St Petersburg’s cruise ship ports.

While initially thinking of taking a taxi from the port to our hostel we opted for the more sustainable option- the trolley bus. This option turned out to be just as convenient as a taxi and a fraction of the price. As we mutely handed over 45 Russian rubbles each for our cross town journey (around $1 Australian dollar/ 0.70 euros) we shared a smile that while we may have left the order and relative comfort of Scandinavia, we were at least going to get more bang for our buck from now on.

St Petersburg is a bustling, urban metropolis: full of noise, people and impressive monuments. We didn’t really stray beyond the central area but nonetheless spent two memorable days visiting a number of spectacular sights: St Isaacs Cathedral, the Church of Spilled Blood, Smolny Cathedral and of course the Hermitage.

 

We also squeezed in a trip to the Political History Museum (definitely worth a visit if you are in St Petersburg for its breadth and detail) and a number of well-decorated metro stations.

And, given the train-theme of the trip, I thought it appropriate to suggest to Nick we visit Russia in Miniature, an impressive 800 square metre model train layout which features different regions of Russia. I enjoyed reverting to my 8 year old self, and Nick was impressed by the attention to detail  – for instance the JCB logos on diggers.

Both of us noted the significant number of fossil fuel infrastructure included by the creators of the layout, from coal mines, plants and processing facilities, to oil drills and refineries. While there were a few windmills and one solar plant included, the emphasis was heavily on fossil fuels. This is in contrast to other miniature worlds such as Miniature Wunderland in Hamburg (the largest in the world) or Legoland in Denmark which included more renewable energy infrastructure.

While the current miniature Russia layout is likely an accurate depiction of a significant part of the Russian countryside and economy, I couldn’t help wondering if it wouldn’t it be better if the creators included at least on section of the layout which envisioned what a utopian, low carbon future society could look like?

Maybe that’s wishful thinking, but I think that it would help create excitement and momentum behind the societal decarbonisation push we need! Having said this however, awareness on environmental and climate issues seems relatively low in Russia, although that might be language barrier (we cannot read, understand or speak Russian!)

In any case, following this rather long day we boarded our 23.30 overnight express sleeper train to Moscow.

While it took a while to find the right platform, we eventually found the correct train and were ushered on by the rather austere-looking train guard. In practice though, she proved to be more of a hostess, delivering amenity bags, taking order for breakfast and generally maintaining the appearance of the train.

For the entire journey, the train was spotlessly clean and comfortable. Our two companions in our compartment were friendly, although spoke little English. The train was quiet as a ghost and smooth as a baby’s backside.

The only downside was wrestling our bags into the limited luggage space available. In the end Nick opted to sleep with his large bag at his feet which I thought looked uncomfortable, although he insisted was fine.

We were woken in the morning by the train hostess with pancakes as she told us we had 30 minutes before arriving in Moscow. We ate this in our beds, packed our bags and disembarked, squinting in the morning sunlight of central Moscow.

Both of us commented that the journey was better than flying. We travelled to/ and from the heart of the two cities, arrived well rested,  (saving a night of accomodation cost in the process) and enjoyed the smooth journey.

Perfect!

So, the trip is progressing well! Stay tuned for more updates as we continue the journey across Russia!

Toot-toot-toot-a-loo!

/Fred, on behalf of Frick

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