Kharkhorin - Ulaan Baatar - Beijing - Home

We escaped the beetle plague in Tsetserleg and headed for Kharkhorin, popular tourist destination due to its 13th century status as capital of the Mongol Empire: Karakorum. On the site of the ruins of the great city of Karakorum is now the large monastery of Erdene Zuu (whose construction began in the 16th century apparently using the stones of the ruins). In Kharkhorin we settled in a ger hotel where, as night approached, we became increasingly worried about beetle infestations and wondered about our choice of accommodation in the breezy ger. Our fears were assuaged when the hotel manager told us we could sleep on the restaurant floor if ever the bugs got out of control (that's what they did last year with the foreign tourists who complained). But we slept peacefully, the bugs having not yet migrated as far east. After Erdene Zuu Monastery, the city's next tourist destination is Kharkhorin Rock the holy phallic rock that apparently keeps the area's monks celibate. In recent years an even larger penis statue (complete with flaming testicles) has been built on the hill next to Kharkhorin Rock. From Kharkhorin we used public transportation for the first time in weeks, catching a bus to Ulaan Baatar. We had a few days of relaxation in the capital until our 30-day visa expired, we spent it shopping for souvenirs at the huge Naran Tuul Market (also known as the Black Market) and counting down the days until we could eat something other than Mongolian food.

We also took in a performance of the Mongolian National Song and Dance Ensemble. Our border crossing into China was no less chaotic than the one into Mongolia (although this time we had purchased train tickets ahead of time to get us to the border). Arriving at the border early in the morning we hired someone to drive us in to China (a mandatory border crossing-requirement). He managed to get himself up to the front of the queue of the hundreds of run-down Mongolian jeeps lining up to stock up on Chinese goods. Nevertheless, our crossing dragged out over many hours thanks to Yann and I who were held up by border guards who wanted to confiscate our antique Mongolian teapots. Who knew the metal detector was functional?

Throughout the teapot detention, our jeep driver who had worked so hard for his prime position in the jeep queue, huffed around threatening to abandon us at the border if we didn't abandon our teapots. Luckily it seemed that the border guards were not allowing him to do this. After much patient resistance (which I didn't think I was capable of), the border guards took photos of our items, send them to an antique expert in Ulaan Baatar, who several minutes later sent back the ok to leave the country with the two teapots in our possession.

Over the border, we had a little bit of trouble securing bus tickets to Beijing due to high demand. My broken Chinese and overly assertive tone attracted the attention of two fellow travellers, Neil and Mike, retired high school teachers who were also trying to get to Beijing.  They were extremely positive and good-natured and were a great contrast to the unhelpful ticket dealers (and me). We ended up securing four spots on that evening's sleeper bus to Beijing and we set off together.

In Beijing, our new friends joined us at our favourite hostel where we all booked rooms. Neil and Mike enthusiastically set out every day and came back every evening with hilarious stories (always telling them with an extremely positive spin). Yann and I mainly lounged around waiting for our flight home, but we did take the time to see some of the city's sights that we had skipped (or did not exist) on our previous visits; the trendy 798 Art District and the Olympic Village and the National Grand Theatre. As always, we savoured the cheap and delicious Chinese food (which was even more delicious after 30 days in Mongolia) and Mike and Neil even treated us to Peking Duck at one of Beijing's most popular restaurants. We finished our trip in style and comfort, a 35-hour trip home, with a night on the floor of the Leonardo Da Vinci Airport in Rome.  

Italy to Inner Mongolia

From Rome we had a flight to Beijing via Doha on Qatar airlines. We were actually a little bit excited for our 10 hour stopover in Qatar, having read good things about hanging out in its luxurious terminal. What we had failed to read was that the Doha airport actually has two terminals. So to our disappointment, we were ushered into the economy class terminal, where we spent our layover in a crowded, run-down building. The only saving grace was the "sleeping room" where I managed to snag a chair and nap for a few hours while Yann guarded our bags.

In Beijing we booked our train tickets into Inner Mongolia. The train heading directly to the border was not for a few days, so we opted to head to Hohhot, the modern capital of the province where we hoped to get onwards transportation  to the Mongolian border.  

We arrived in Hohhot at sunrise and made our way to the ticket counter to get our next ticket. Hoping to leave that same afternoon, I exited the line with a ticket leaving 3 days later. Purchasing a ticket in Chinese is a somewhat stressful process, and by the time I realised that there wasn't a daily train I was already holding the tickets that would have us stranded in Inner Mongolia for the next three days. After considering briefly to return the tickets and take a bus, we decided not to attempt such a tricky ticket operation and to give Hohhot a chance.

Holding a small pamphlet for a Mongolian family's guesthouse that we had grabbed in our Beijing hostel, we left the train station on foot. It took us over an hour to track down the small guesthouse which turned out to be a great place to lounge while waiting for a train. There were many interesting guests, including Sarah and Doriane, a sweet French mother and daughter pair who we spent a lot of time with. Guesthouse aside, Hohhot is not the most beautiful place to visit. It is hot, dusty and definitely not a showcase of Mongolian culture. In typical Chinese Government style, Mongolian culture appears to be valued for nothing more than its potential for mass domestic tourism. Unlike Tibetans, whose cultural assimilation by the Chinese has generated much international attention, the Mongolians of Inner Mongolia as well as many other Chinese minority groups have been waging battles far less visible in the media. Check out www.innermongolia.org Despite the somewhat depressing atmosphere of Hohhot, we made an effort to visit the three cultural sights listed in our guidebook: the Five Pagoda Temple, the Dazhao Temple and the Hohhot Great Mosque. However, the highlight of Hohhot was the Inner Mongolian cuisine, eating out was a pleasure. Our best meal was a "Mongolian Hotpot", a garlicky broth in which you cook your own lamb and vegetables. After what we had heard of actual Mongolian cuisine, we made sure to savour every meal we had in China.

Bologna Afternoon

On one of our last days in Italy, we accompanied Yann's dad Mario to Bologna on a business trip. Most of our visit was actually spent visiting a university hospital where Mario was meeting a colleague. We were given a guided tour of the hospital, which included a visit of the impressive collection of old books and images of early medical practices. We especially liked the mural depicting life in the New World, complete with a baby being chased by an alligator. We left Yann's parents and took a bus into the Bologna city centre for a pleasant uncrowded exploration. With only a few hours to visit, we did typical “old Italian city” activities: we climbed towers (two famous towers and the symbols of the city), we visited the basilica (San Petronio). We finished the day (and our touring of Italy) sitting on a patio in the central square, drinking prosecco with Yann's parents - ending our relaxing two weeks in the country. Thank you to our amazing hosts, Yann's parents Nicole and Mario who we love so much and hosted us so generously while we toured Italy. To Yann's sister Eve, who did most of the planning for our day trips to Florence, Rome, Assisi, Gubbio etc. To her patient husband Mathieu who enthusiastically accompanied us everywhere. And finally to our wonderful nephew Laurier, who did his best not to cry too much while we paraded him around Italy.

Rome & Vatican City: Speed Touring

We visited Rome and the Vatican City on a day trip from Perugia. To save time, convinced by Yann's sister, we purchased 10 euro "hop on/hop off" bus tickets to speed around the city. There are tons of competing bus companies, we were approached right off the train by touts from whom we bought tickets. On a hot summer day this service proved to be useful but for the hour spent on the bus in afternoon rush hour traffic.

The first stop of the day was the Colosseum which was impressive and very crowded. We waited almost an hour to purchase tickets and be admitted onto the sight. This gave us time to admire the hoards of modern gladiators, most clad in elaborate costumes roaming around looking for unsuspecting tourists to pose with, and charge for their services of course. Sadly, since we've visited, modern gladiating has been banned by the city of Rome. No photos of gladiators in this blog, we're too cheap. Directly across from the Colosseum is Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum, one of the city's most ancient districts. We wandered around the beautiful grounds for the remainder of the morning, admiring the vast collection of ruins and enjoying a picnic lovingly prepared by Yann's mom. After lunch we took our tourist bus to St. Peter's Square, where were were met with yet another impressive crowd. The line up to enter St. Peter's Basilica was enough to discourage Eve and Mathieu (Yann's sister and her husband) who decided that the hours spent waiting to get into the basilica were better spent elsewhere. Yann and I opted to endure the wait, but with only a few hours remaining before closing, we had to choose between visiting the basilica dome or the Cistine Chapel (two separate equally long lines). I'm not sure if we realised that they were two lines until well into our wait in the "dome line" so ... we saw the dome (which, along with the views from the basilica roof, were well worth the wait). After an eternal 3 km bus ride from St. Peter's Square we were dropped off at the "Trevi Fountain stop" and we headed off in search of the famous sight. We sped walked through narrow streets hoping for some sign of the fountain whose location we couldn't quite make out from our tourist map. It took a few minutes before we found it, along with every other tourist in Rome. Now running very short on time we didn't mind spending no more than 5 minutes at this impressive, but absurdly busy landmark. We completed our day at the Pantheon, whose front facade was undergoing renovations. This made for a nice, speedy visit with the highlight being the inner view of the roof. We caught up with Eve and Mathieu at the central station, with just a few minutes to catch our train. We finished our turbo day eating dinner on the train, which was appreciated by all our cabin mates.

Jousting in Arezzo

We timed our visit to Arezzo to catch the totally wacky local event: The Saracen Joust (Giostra del Saracino). Qualifying it as wacky may be a little unfair, the event is deeply rooted in the city's history and once served the important task of training Arezzo's young men for battle (Saracino = Muslim). Although not quite as serious as it may have been centuries ago, the whole city seems to take part in the festival's activities with a certain air of competitiveness.

We had a vague idea of the day's events but we arrived early in the morning to make sure not to miss anything. While we did arrive three hours early to a pretty empty city, we guaranteed ourselves a prime spot for watching the "battle proclamation", the day's first event. The proclamation is read from the steps of the 800 year-old Basilica San Francesco and followed by a procession of various medieval-costumed men, each representing one of the four Arezzo city quarters (named after the four city gates: Porta del Foro, Porta San Andrea, Porta Santo Spirito and Porta Cruciferaa). Acne-faced teenagers marched through the streets in colourful leggings and chain mail - we wondered if they had volunteered enthusiastically (and marvelled at the thought that they very well may have). City residents sporting their quarters' colours and coat of arms cheered as their team paraded by. Vendors lined the streets hawking a selection of toys and clothing showing off team colours. To fit in, I bought a Porta del Foro bandana which I wore all day around my neck (I liked the lion on the coat of arms). Yann found me somewhat embarrassing and balked at the cost of my newly purchased item but I strode around with confidence. Yann's parents joined us in the late afternoon, in time to catch another, more elaborate procession. This time the actual jousters were on hand to be blessed on the footsteps of the cathedral by the local bishop (seriously). Yann and I already knew the jousters from their full page feature in the local paper.  We struggled for a view of the blessing amidst crowds of people, some tourists, but mostly locals. We were able to follow the jousters through the streets of Arezzo on their way to the city square turned jousting arena, the central Piazza Grande. A dirt mound runs transversely across the square, surrounded on two sides by stands and the other two sides by standing room cheering sections. Beautiful old homes surround the square and residents crowd the windows that look out onto the jousting pit. We rushed ahead towards the arena hoping to get good "standing spots". Fans are divided into the two viewing areas by team colours (two quarters in each area). Despite sporting my Porta del Foro lion bandana we ended up in the wrong viewing area, surrounded by blue and yellow. It didn't really matter because the four of us looked so out of place as it was (for one, because we were the oldest people there - anyone over the age of 18 was sitting in the stands).

Our standing area got more and more crowded as the evening went on and we did our best to watch the acrobatics show preceding the joust as blue and yellow smoke bombs exploded around us. We seemed to be the only people in our area who cared about watching the warm-up act. When the jousting actually began the crowd quieted down a little bit, but mainly when waiting for the judges' scores to be announced. Residents watching from their balconies would announced the scores in advance to the crowds below (from watching simultaneous broadcast on their televisions). The maximum score a jouster can get in one round is 5 points; by hitting the rotating dummy (Saracino) without being hit by its spinning arms. Depending on the positioning of the hit, the jouster receives anywhere from 1 to 5 points, if the jouster gets whacked by the spinning Saracino he loses points. Each quarter is represented by two jousters and at the end of the night the team with the highest combined score receives a golden lance (and probably some cash too).

Early in the competition one of the riders was given a score of 3 after what appeared to be a fairly decent slamming of Saracino. His teammates, feeling that he deserved a higher score, rushed the judges' table and began throwing punches,  prompting a hilarious brawl of leggings-clad fighters. We couldn't figure out if this type of antic was staged for the audience, by the weirdness of the event we wouldn't have been surprised either way.  Nobody seemed overly concerned with the fighting and the competition continued without much of a delay.

We watched a few more jousts from our crammed standing area, without really having an actual view of what was going on. We decided to head home before the end of the joust, after a great, but long day of bizarre entertainment. We left the competition to the people who seemed to really care about the results: the teenagers of Arezzo.

Our Brief Guide to Umbria & Tuscany

This won't be the best "guide" for the budget traveler - we spent two weeks in Italy staying with Yann's parents who were living there for the year. Although we can't factor in costs of accommodation, we should say that we found food and transport costs to be cheaper than we had thought (especially the food).

Yann's sister Eve had been in Italy for almost two weeks alone with her parents when we arrived and was totally desperate to get out and see things. Eve completely foiled our plan to do nothing, but we were happy with the itinerary that she had lined up for us. We can only give you our superficial impression of the places we visited, because we never spent more than a day anywhere, but here are our summaries:


UMBRIA

We landed in the Umbrian capital, Perugia, on a Ryanair flight, which was pretty awful, but incredibly convenient and cheap.

In general we preferred touring Umbria over Tuscany, its touristy neighbour. Not that Umbria didn't have any tourists, but never in the uncomfortable numbers that we encountered in Florence and Rome. Perugia was where Yann's parents were living, so we were among the minority of passengers on the Ryanair flight not moving onwards to a bigger tourist centre like Rome or Florence.

Perugia
The region's provincial capital has a lovely old centre perched at the top of the hill on which the city sits. The old city centre is entirely closed to vehicular traffic and open-air restaurants line the cobble-stone streets. In the evenings, especially warm weekend ones, it seemed that all of Perugia has made their way up the outdoor escalators to stroll around or congregate in the main square. We could count the number of tourists on one hand. Perugia was our base for the trip (Yann's parents were living in an apartment a few meters from the base of the outdoor escalators). We spent most of our time wandering around eating gelatos and drinking cappuccinos which might be why we enjoyed the city so much.

Assisi
Birthplace of St Francis of Assisi and major tourist draw. As easy as it was to find wall-to-wall St Francis souvenirs it was just as easy to find a quiet side street free of vendors and other visitors. St. Francis himself is buried in the lower section of the monumental church bearing his name and visible from kilometers away. He is guarded by a Franciscan monk who, when we were there, seemed to have given up completely on enforcing the photography ban as pilgrims snapped away wildly at the modest tomb. The city is dotted with dozens of smaller but no less lovely churches and life in the city seems to be little disturbed by the tourist presence. A highlight of Umbria.
Mount Subasio
Because we can't go anywhere without a walk for which we are ridiculously unprepared, we ended up on a hike to the summit of the local Mount Subasio (1280m). Our original plan had been an 8km walk between the towns of Assisi and Spello, but by the time we had purchased a trail map it was noon and we had thrown an extra 8 km to the hike including a 950m climb up and then back down again. It was a Saturday afternoon when we did the hike and in 6 hours we crossed paths with two people (other than those at St Francis' Hermitage which was on our path and accessible by car). Maybe locals knew that the hot summer weather would obscure what would have been otherwise unparalleled views of Assisi and surrounding countryside. We would recommend this activity with the following changes: wear proper shoes, leave early in the morning, do the hike in autumn or on a clear day.

Castigilone del Lago (Lake Trasimeno)
Lake Transimeno is a large lake less than an hour's drive from Perugia. We visited the village of Castiglione del Lago on recommendation from our guidebook. The tiny village is on top of a hill looking out over the lake. We arrived on a Wednesday just in time to catch the tail end of the weekly market. The village deserved more of a visit than we gave it, but we had planned a day of lounging by the water - where we found a spot by the lake, with a little bit of sand and grass to lie on.

Montefalco
This small village is surrounded by vineyards growing Sagrantino grapes the only grape used in the production of the local Sagrantino di Montefalco wine. We stopped for a wine tasting at the region's only vineyard open to the public, Arnaldo Caprai. Our visit coincided with the trip's hottest day and we didn't last very long in the vineyards. With most locals hiding from the afternoon heat, we had the village to ourselves and we wandered peacefully through it.

Gubbio
Gubbio is a small medieval town dramatically set along along Monte Ingino in Umbria's Apennine Mountains. We wandered through the empty streets on a rainy day, admiring its dark, angular gothic architecture. The highlight of Gubbio was riding Gubbio's funicular, dangling in bird-cage like structures, wondering if the ageing machine would get us safely the top of the town. At the top of the funicular is the Basilica of Sant'Ubaldo, unique in that it houses the mummified body of the thousand year old Saint Ubaldo, patron saint of Gubbio.

TUSCANY

Florence
If you plan on visiting this famed city in June then plan on visiting along side lots and lots of other tourists. We arrived at 8 a.m. giving us the chance to visit a few things before the tour groups invaded. Florence's main sight is the cathedral, its splendid facade and its gigantic duomo (dome). I made Yann climb both the dome and the tower facing the dome, it was the first thing we did it in the morning and the views were spectacular and the stairways not too crowded yet. But in the afternoon the plaza surrounding the cathedral as well as pretty much every inch of Florence sidewalk was overflowing with fellow tourists.

Siena
Siena was our favourite Tuscan city. It was far less crowded than Florence and arguably as impressive. The bright central plaza was our favourite Siena sight, especially when viewed from its clock tower (taller than Florence's). Although its cathedral dome is not as massive as that of Florence's, the ornate interior is the most beautiful we saw in Italy (and we saw lots of church interiors)

Pisa
Pisa is really more spectacular than its leaning tower. The tower is interesting for a few minutes, but it is the neighbouring cathedral and the baptistery that are the more captivating sights.

Viareggio
It wasn't quite beach season yet (so we got a discount on umbrella and chair rental). The water was clear and warm, the perfect place for our baby nephew to dip his feet in the ocean for the first time.