When Lindsey and I were choosing flights to Mongolia, the cheapest flights had layovers in Beijing. So we decided to add a mini-trip onto our bigger trip and chose the longest layover available and we ended up with 22 hours in Beijing. This was perfect as China allows for 72 hours of visa free travel for layovers. Unfortunately everything did not go according to plan. Our flight out of Mongolia was delayed for 30 minutes. We landed and then the flight attendants made the announcement, "Welcome to Tianjin" and that is when we started to panic. Tianjin is not where we were supposed to be, Tianjin did not have visa free travel, and Tianjin did not have the great wall which we were scheduled to see in the morning. Luckily all was quickly explained. Due to bad weather in Beijing we had been rerouted and once the weather had cleared we would go back and land in Beijing. We were originally scheduled to land in Beijing at 9:00PM, we finally arrived at 11:30. From there we had to wait for hours in line immigration and then we wandered around Beijing for an hour at 2:00AM trying to find our hostel. We finally were able to sleep at 3:30AM.
The next morning we had scheduled going to see the Forbidden City right when it opened at 8:00, and then to go to the Great Wall at 10:45. It was a very rough morning waking up but our only Chinese meal in China, delicious noodle soup, made up for it.
We unfortunately got lost walking to the Forbidden City so in the end we did not make it inside and instead had to basically sprint back through the city to get back to our hotel in time for our Great Wall Tour. We were able to catch a glimpse of Tienanmen Square
And the outside of the Forbidden City.
One of the things I hate most in this world is the use of umbrellas in crowds, especially when being used for sun protection. Please people, just wear sun screen!
I also was running through the streets of Beijing with what I believe to be is a broken toe. If you look at my first toe in the picture you can see that it is black and blue at the joints. I accidentally kicked Lindsey because a homeless man grabbed my arm and I was trying to get away. It was extremely swollen and sore. My Korean co-teacher was so concerned and wanted me to go to the doctor to have x-rays taken. But its only a toe, I'm sure its fine right?
And then we made it to the great wall!!!!! Lindsey and I just kept squealing (this seems to be a common occurrence) and saying how surreal it was to be walking on the great wall. To get up to the wall we took the chair lift, thank goodness that I have been skiing before or this would have been terrifying.
We kept joking that we had switched sides as the Great Wall was built to keep out the Mongolian invaders.
Not only is the wall extremely impressive, the mountains surrounding the wall take your breath away.
It is so cool to be able to follow the wall snaking over the mountiains for miles all around. In total the Great Wall of China is 13,000 miles long and was built over 2,000 years by different dynasties and through many different periods.
We were extremely pleasantly surprised by China. Neither Lindsey nor I had any desire to travel to China before the layover option had presented itself. It always seemed so dirty, loud, and crowded. We found it to actually be very nice. When we were on the wall there were not many people and the air was cleaner than the air in Seoul!
The parts of the wall that tourists climb have been restored in the last 500 years but if you look just beyond on the next ridge of the mountain you can make out the dilapidated parts almost completely taken over by trees.
At the top of each ridge there was a guard hut, and thank god for these huts. It was so hot outside and on the wall there is zero shade, so these huts provided a reprieve from the heat. I was a hot sweaty mess! At one point this group of tourists stopped Lindsey and were like, "oh so pretty can we take your picture?" They however took one look at me and were like no we don't need yours.
Getting down the wall turned out to be the best part. What better way to get down a mountain than by going on a giant slide?!
There was a photographer at the end of the slide just like at the end of roller coasters. This photo just captured our joy so perfectly that both Lindsey and I bought one, and the man behind us just adds so much.
And then suddenly our time in China had come to an end. China was more than I could have ever hoped for and now it is definitely on my list of places to see more of.
We continued our amazing trip with a daytrip to a temple. Again the scenery was just breathtaking everywhere we looked. On the drive we were talking about places we wanted to visit and Russia was mentioned at one point. Then our host said, "Oh if only you had brought your passport we are really close to the border and could have spent the night in Lake Baikal" If only Russia had 30 day visa free entrance! Oh well we will save Lake Baikal for a different trip. The temple itself was very strange with weird sculptures of hybrid creatures (think a snake with an eagles head) but the grounds were stunning with paths up the mountain side and carvings in the rock face.
We also had our hosts 85 year old grandfather climbing the mountain with us. I am terrified of slipping and falling so I move at a snails pace going down. At one point, the 85 year old reached out his hand to help me down. That put me to extreme shame of myself and in complete awe of him.
The road to the temple was closed for construction so you could either walk to pay these guys to drive you on their motorcycles. We opted to walk into the temple but as I had never been on a motorcycle Lindsey and I chose to ride the motorcycles back. The ride itself was extremely fun, but when we were dropped off Lindsey and I were in the super awkward situation of just standing in front of a group of 15 Mongolian men who didn't speak English trying to figure out who we were supposed to give the money to.
The rest of the group decided to walk back to the car so Lindsey and I had time to kill while waiting so we sat on the grass next to the parking lot. These two little girls just kept walking back and forth in front of us. Everytime they would pass they would say, "Hello, how are you? See you later!" It was so cute seeing them so proud of the few English phrases they knew.
We also had time to become experts in being in multiple places at once in a panorama shot.
I love how it looks like he's telling us, "everywhere the sun touches is my land" a la Lion King.
And then we went to the camels!!!!!! My students taught me that Iphones do a super cool thing where they make movies with your photos so while I encourage (and will force my family) to scroll through the photos individually, the video with "epic" music (yes you get to choose what theme you want for the music and epic seemed to fit the best) is also pretty awesome.
The camels were not at all what I thought they would be. First of all they were extremely fluffy! I expected them to have hair similar to a horse or a cow. Their fur was instead similar to a curly sort of rabbit. Secondly they were very, very calm. I love horses but horses in general are just anxious animals. All of the camels we saw just seemed to go with the program not bothered by anything around them.
The third and most surprising thing about the camels was that their humps are soft and almost blubbery. Lindsey and I had a lot of fun making the humps jiggle. Some of the other camels humps had sort of flopped over.
The boy in the blue was our guide and we were riding his camels. I'm so used to my Korean students and how their parents keep them in such a protective bubble. Its fun to travel and see these kids in charge of giant animals.
Although it looks like we are in the Gobi desert, we weren't able to make it that far this trip. We went to a national park called Elsen Tasarkhai. We drove for about 5 hours outside of the capitol city past huge green plains and green rolling mountains and then suddenly boom, sand dunes.
The clouds also participated beautifully to give us nice photos.
We have taken up the Korean art of posing in photos. Here we were trying to make the heart the Koreans always make. We were told it looked more like a potato.
We were even treated to a rainbow!
You have moments in life where you feel like this can't possibly be happening, it can't possibly be real. Riding camels, in Mongolia was one of those moments for me. Lindsey and I kept saying through the entire trip, amid a lot of squealing, that we never ever envisioned ourselves sleeping in a ger or riding a camel in Mongolia. It is truly amazing what I have been able to experience so far in my life.
Another surreal, although not so magical, moment on our trip was when we tried horse milk. Now if you think about it, it is strange that we find it strange to drink milk from other animals than cows. Why? Drinking cow milk should be just as weird as drinking any other animals milk, but I digress. Horse milk is extremely sour, slightly carbonated, and if you drink enough of it alcoholic. Lindsey hates cows milk to begin with so drinking horse milk was a struggle for her.
Because I saw her reaction, I knew what to expect and so could control my reaction better. At the end you can hear me just say, "its ok, its ok." That is me convincing myself that I am fine.
Our last afternoon in Mongolia, we were able to try horse meat. Again, it is strange that we find it strange to eat certain animals and not others. It basically tasted like roast beef.
Our time in Mongolia was amazing. Somehow this trip was adventurous and relaxing at the same time. A mix of serenity and adrenaline, the perfect combination. That all ended when our plane took off, because the next 24 hours were the craziest of my life, but for now I will just continue to stare at these photos.
