Mongolia!

Sign on the way into the city.

Sheep heads and plastic containers in the back of a truck.

We arrived in Mongolia on Saturday, November 19^th. The bus from Ulan Ude, Russia to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia runs everyday and takes about 12 hours. It even waits for you to cross the land borders between Russia and Mongolia, which are no joke. Once at the border we first had to exit Russia, which meant taking all of our stuff off the bus, getting it x-rayed, letting the drug or bomb sniffing dogs smell our luggage and then let the customs agent stamp our visas. Then we loaded up the bus again, traveled about a half a mile, and did the same thing on the Mongolian side. The whole process took about 2 hours for our entire bus. Not bad, just a little intense.

Statue of Chinggis Khan in the main square in Ulaanbaatar

Once inside Mongolia, the bus ride was amazing. Spectacular view after spectacular view. The road was a little sketchy at times, but our bus driver did a great job navigating the icy road. We were able to sit back and enjoy the views. We arrived in Ulaanbaatar at night. Once we got oriented, we were able to find our hostel. We got a good night's sleep and were ready to take on the city in the morning. 

On Sunday, at the hostel we met some Peace Corps Mongolia folks. One of them took us to a good breakfast spot and we ate pancakes and omelets and discussed all things Peace Corps and Mongolia. She gave us some good tips and we were appreciative for her time and for American style breakfast! We had a relaxing day, saw the big central square in the city, did some shopping for supplies and took a few photos. We also booked an excursion through our hostel that would start on Wednesday.

The artist from China and us posing for a photo.

Monday and Tuesday we enjoyed the city, viewing museums and souvenir shops. We ate at some good restaurants and were surprised at the availability of vegetarian food. We went to the Zanabazaar Art Museum to view Mongolian art. There were some nice historical pieces that pleased Dad and other interesting works depicting Mongolian life. In one room, there was the opening exhibition of some works by a Chinese artist. He happened to be there because it was the opening day and so we were able to get autographed programs and our picture taken with him. Our celebrity tour continues! 

Khakhorin

Our first ger camp.

As much as we enjoyed our time in the city, getting out into the countryside was what we really wanted to do. Our excursion left on Wednesday to Kharkhorin, the ancient capital during the time of Chinggis Khan. There are no ruins now, but they built a monastery on the location and supposedly they used some stones from the ancient city. Our Land Rover (complete with driver and English speaking guide) left the city for a 7 hour drive out to Kharkhorin. Once there, we toured around the monastery and then settled into our ger (Mongolian yurt) at a ger camp for the night. It was our first ger stay and it was cool. They heated it with wood and so we were nice and toasty. Bathroom trips in the night were met with a sky full of stars because there's no light pollution out in the middle of nowhere.

Reading in the ger. 

Our jeep and a spectacular view.

View of Kharkhorin village.

Monastery ruins.

Riding a motorcycle in -4F without face protection.  Yikes!

The second day we were on the go again, saw a Buddhist religious ceremony and more spectacular views of the countryside. We also saw a monastery which was built on the grounds where a previous monastery stood, but had been destroyed during the time of Stalin. We arrived at our new ger for the night where we stayed with a local family. There were seven of us so it was a bit tight, but we made it work. The next morning their son took us out for a camel ride which was really cool. At the end of the ride, the camels started to trot a bit and I thought I might fall off. Luckily for me, I was able to hang on!

Dad and me on our camels.  I had the feisty one!

After the morning camel ride, we drove a few hours to our next destination. It was another family ger, but this time it was an extended family with four gers together. Most nomads don't usually live in groups, but they are expecting a bad winter, so they decided to band together. We were greeted with hot milk tea and some homemade fried dough. There we rode horses and “helped” the family herd some sheep. We had our own ger that night which was heated with animal dung. It burns cleanly and there was plenty of it, as they had many sheep, goats, horses, and cows. We missed the morning slaughter as our guide and driver bought a sheep from the family. 

That morning we drove back to the city. Before getting to the city, we stopped at a national park where the last breed of wild horses lives. They were wiped out in the sixties, but luckily some of them had been taken to zoos years before, where they had been bred in captivity and were re-introduced to the wild in the 90's. We were able to see some of these beautiful creatures and snapped many photos. They are doing well in the park and there are now about 200 or so.

As close as we could get to the horses.

We're back in the city now and leave for China tonight. I got my Chinese visa yesterday which we had been waiting for all week. Sad to leave beautiful, serene Mongolia, but it's getting cold here and it's time to move on.  I'm afraid this blog post doesn't quite capture how impressed we were with Mongolia and what a neat place it is, but hopefully you can see that from the pictures.  Not sure what the internet situation in China is like, so this might be our last update for a while.

Ulan Ude to Irkutsk and back.

       When we last left you, we were headed to Ulan Ude from Chita. We had a quick overnight train ride and arrived in Ulan Ude in the morning. Had difficulty locating our hostel due to lack of instructions and signs, so we ended up staying in a different hostel. Once situated, we set out to tour the city. The first stop was the square where there is reportedly the world's largest Lenin head statue. Being somewhat skeptical, we had to check it out. The head did not disappoint!

Lenin's noggin in Ulan Ude

Log church at the open air museum

After that we got our bearings in the city, found a pizza place, checked some internet and made a plan for the next few days. The next day we headed to the open air museum, and although it was -4 Fahrenheit, we still enjoyed our day outside. The museum featured a bunch of different dwellings from Russia's unique indigenous people from various points of time. The park must be great in the summer, but we found it just as enjoyable in the snow. 

 We decided to walk a ways back to the stadium and another datsan before catching a van back to the city center. Once in the city center, we dined at the “Irish Pub”. There we made another 

friend, Dima, who wanted to practice his English with us. He was very curious about America and he asked us many questions in English and Russian. He suggested that we spend the next day going to the area's Buddhist datsan about 30 minutes from the city.

Buddhist datsan outside of Ulan Ude.

We went to the datsan the next day. We got in the van and took it to the end of the line as we were told. Then this man in the van asked if we were going to the datsan. I replied that yes we were, and he said in Russian, “follow me”. Normally, I wouldn't follow strange men, but he seemed to know what he was doing, so we got in another taxi and proceeded to the datsan. He asked questions, told me my Russian was “not bad” and we found out he was another railroad colleague of dad's. He got out before us, but told us where to get out of the taxi. We've met a lot of helpful people on our trip, and things would have been more difficult without them!

We toured around the datsan, which was pretty. The area around it, the countryside was also very beautiful. We came back and returned to our old pizza haunt, and then packed for another night train to Irkutsk, which is our last stop on the Trans-Siberian. We arrived in Irkutsk quite early in the morning after another short train ride. We booked a hostel online and took a cab there. It was a little difficult to find (they're not big on signs here). Once inside, the woman explained that they were doing repairs and we couldn't stay there. She said we could stay at another guesthouse, but the owner only spoke Russian. She called the woman to say we'd be coming and gave us a map with directions. We walked over to the guesthouse, but when we knocked on the door the woman inside replied that she wasn't taking in any guests. Frustrated and cold, we went to look for a hotel lobby to sit in and plan what to do. We found a hotel quickly and just decided to stay there for a few nights. It was a little more expensive than we were used to, but the convenience was worth it!

Once showered and rested, we set out to see the city. Irkutsk was really beautiful with a lot of old architecture and many beautiful churches. There was yet another Lenin statue to view as we got ourselves oriented to our latest city. Went to the regional museum and learned about local life. We had delicious dinner of local fish from Lake Baikal called the omyl.

One of many Victorian era buildings in Irkutsk.

Lake Baikal after the sun came out.

The sun hitting snowy Lake Baikal.

The next day we headed to finally glimpse Lake Baikal, the largest fresh water lake in the world. The day was gray, cold and windy, but our spirits could not be dampened. The lake was one of the places we had the highest expectations for. After our one hour van ride, we finally spotted the lake. We were in the town of Listvyanka which can be very touristy in the summer, but now there was almost no one around. We walked along the lake, dipped our hands in the water and found a few rocks and pieces of sea (lake) glass as mementos. We then walked to the museum dedicated to the lake, where we learned some facts about the lake, saw wildlife specimens and viewed the aquarium. At the aquarium we were able to see the famed nerpa seals that are found only at Lake Baikal. They had a sad, smallish tank, but we were mesmerized at how torpedo-shaped they were and what graceful swimmers they were. As sad as it was, I was glad for the chance to see them. After the museum, we had lunch at a small hole in the wall overlooking the lake. We had some smoked omyl and some Russian peroshki which are filled vegetable or meat pies. There wasn't much else to do in the town, so we decided to catch the next van back to the city. Had another great dinner of local fish prepared in “Baikal style”, with egg, sauce, carrots and spices. It was delicious!

Classy white fish "Baikal style"

We awoke the next morning for our last day in Irkutsk. We spent the morning at the city history museum. Many great photos and artifacts from different time periods in Irkutsk's history. Afterward we did some souvenir shopping and had our last true Russian blini (crepe-like pancakes). We saw the open air market, bought some fruit and then made some preparations for our upcoming train/bus ride to Mongolia.

Another view of Baikal from the train.  

Us on the train to Ulan Ude with Baikal in the background.

The next morning we woke up early and headed to the train station to catch our last Russian train. We decided to take a day train back to Ulan Ude so that we could see the lake from the train window. The train route hugs the lake for about 250 kilometers, providing a really picturesque ride. Arrived in Ulan Ude at night, spent the night at our same hostel and woke up early for our 12 hour bus ride to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The bus ride was better than expected and offered some amazing views of the Mongolian landscape. Will update you on our Mongolian adventures soon!

Khabarovsk to Chita

The city of Khabarovsk.

          After Vladivostok, we took an overnight train to Khabarovsk. We were both surprised at what a beautiful city it was. We especially enjoyed the boardwalk on the river Amur. There was one snag though, when we arrived in the morning to Khabarovsk, we had no accommodations. I had looked for hotel rooms beforehand, but everything was booked. I figured we could find an apartment to rent for a few nights without a problem, but the woman at the apartment desk didn't think she could rent to us because we were foreigners. She was nice enough to call a hotel for us and got us a place to stay. Thinking it wasn't too far, we decided to walk. It ended up being over a mile of walking with our really heavy backpacks. 

View of the River Amur in Khabarovsk.

         We arrived at our new resting place sweaty and tired.  After resting and showering, we took a walk around the city. There was the River Amur, and some beautiful churches and old buildings. We found the Harley Davidson bar, and while we were snapping some photos in front of it, we heard a lot of commotion. A group of Communists marched by, with signs for the return of communism. It was interesting to see such an open display of opposition to the current government.

         The next day we walked around the city some more, saw the bazaar, and went to the regional museum. The museum was a pleasant surprise with many old photos of life in the area, a sizeable collection of WWII artifacts, and numerous sections displaying different periods of the region's history. There were geological pieces, flora and fauna and even a woolly mammoth tusk that was found in the 1950s.

          The next morning we got up early and caught a taxi ride to the train station. Initially, we wanted to go to a city called Birobidzhan, but time did not allow. Birobidzhan is the main city in the Jewish Autonomous region in Russia. During the Stalin era, this region was designated for all of the Jews in Russia to move to. Nowadays, the population is about 11% Jewish and the train station sign is in Hebrew and Russian. Unfortunately, the bus schedule to this town and our train schedule didn't match up, so we didn't get to go there. We did change trains there, but didn't have enough time to snap a photo of the sign. 

           Our train from Khabarovsk to Chita began one of the most memorable parts of our trip thus far. We went kupe this round, so we had two beds in a four bed compartment. We had only one bunkmate who was an Uzbek national, who spoke very little Russian. He had a friend who was in another compartment who was also Uzbek, but spoke good Russian. His name was Sasha and he became our best friend for the next 42 hours to Chita. Sasha acted as a roving ambassador on the train and we never knew what collection of passengers Sasha was going to bring to our compartment next to open and finish a bottle of vodka. He passed the day drinking and telling others that there were Americans on the train. In the middle of the night, we were joined by Fyodor, dad's railroad colleague and our traveling guide. He drives passenger trains here in Russia and he and Dad had much to talk about with me acting as translator. He was on his way to Lake Baikal to enjoy some fishing with an Army buddy. Our train companions were mostly male, and in this part of the world, men talk with other men so Dad was a celebrity and I was much in demand only to serve as his translator. It seemed as though every 5 minutes someone was asking me to tell my father this, or to translate something for Dean. 

Dad, Sasha. Roma. Fyodor and Mischa in our party kupe.

        Several hours before our departure from the train, we had a party of 8 people in our 4 person compartment, and a few others out in the hallway. The party was in full swing, and even though we were not drinking, there was plenty of vodka and beer being passed around. Our new friends knew that we would depart the train in Chita at 3 AM. They insisted on staying awake to see us off. They carried our bags out of the train, there were hugs and handshakes, and a few photos were taken as well. They were worried that we would be bored on the rest of our trip without them, and we worried that they might be right! 

Marchabara (our Uzbek compartment-mate), Fyodor, Sasha and Dad.

        One of our train friends, Mischa, said good-bye to us at about midnight because he was tired and wanted to go to bed. An hour later, he was back in the hallway with a beer, ready to see us off. In a calmer moment, we exchanged autographed money from each of our countries. He has a dollar with our signatures and we have a 50 ruble note with his and Fyodor's signatures. A nice memory of our run in with celebrity status on the Trans-Siberian.

         Once in Chita, we spent a day orienting ourselves to the city. We got a late start, due to our 3 AM arrival that morning. Chita is not an overly beautiful city, but it has some architectural gems, a grand orthodox church and even a Subway sandwich shop! The next day we wanted to see some Buddhist complexes, called Datsyns, with temples, a monk's training school and other buildings of the local Buryat people. We had to take a 2 hour van ride out to a village called Aginskoe. The terrain out to the village offered some spectacular views of mountains lined with birch and pine trees and many grass covered valleys.

Our celebrity status as Americans continued on the van ride to Aginskoe. Two more Russian railroad colleagues of Dad's were in the seats behind us. It was about 9 AM, which was not too early for them to be drinking beer. Once again, my role was relegated to translator for my father. Frequent shoulder taps were followed by requests to translate questions or anecdotes for my father. At one point I took the liberty of answering a question without translating to my dad, and was quickly told that the question was not for me, but for my father. 

Aginskoe Datsan

          In Aginskoe, we found a taxi driver to take us to the datsan, who would wait there while we poked around. It was really beautiful and unlike other architecture in the area. We saw a few Buddhist monks and heard the prayer bells. Once back in the village proper, we went to the village museum, and were given a personal tour of the upstairs. We learned about the Buryat people, and saw pictures from 1991 when the Dalai Lama came to visit the village. Caught the van back to the city, and found a nice Georgian restaurant and ate some tasty eggplant dish for dinner.

Gate to one of the Datsans.

\\The log church in Chita built in 1771.  It also houses the Decemberist Museum.

          

          Spent our last day in Chita at the bazaar, art museum, log church, and the Decemberist museum. We leave on the train tonight to Ulan Ude, where we plan to take in more sights on our way to Lake Baikal.  That's all for now, and I'll try to keep you posted of my travels as translator for Dean's celebrity tour of Eastern Russia. 

Vladivostok

       Our seven weeks of travel has begun.  I met my dad at the Moscow airport on November 1st.  He was nervous that somehow we wouldn't find each other in the massive airport, but we managed to meet up at the gate to our flight to Vladivostok. Not long after we met up, it was time to board our 9 hour flight from Moscow to Vladivostok, in the eastern most part of Russia.  We arrived at about noon on Wednesday.  There was a long cab ride from the airport to the city, including a traffic jam, which our taxi driver navigated with ease.  He safely deposited us at our hotel.  Our hotel was a weird structure that has been built into the side of a cliff.  All you can see from street level is the doorway inside.  Each room has a balcony overlooking the Amursky Gulf.

The view from our hotel room.  Construction site and then the gulf.

 We spent most of our time touring the streets, looking at statues and architecture.  We also admired all of the improvements they are making for a summit of world leaders to take place in September of 2012.  Yesterday, we took a tour of Fort Number 7.  It was one of 16 underground forts the Russians built from the late 1800's to the 1920's.  This particular fort housed about 400 soldiers and allowed them to patrol the nearby waterways from the coast.  Our guide, Gregor, was a character in every sense of the word.  He gave us lanterns to light our way through the dark and damp tunnels in the fort.  He pronounced America and Russia to be friends and we left there with a new buddy.

The view of the bay from Fort Number 7

Dad and our guide Gregor at the entrance to the fort.

Inside the one of the fort's many underground passageways.

Dad at Nicholai's arch.

Today, we walked around some more.  Saw the World War II monument, took the funicular up a hill to get some nice city views and ate some really terrible pizza.  It started to rain a bit, so we headed to the hotel to get some wi-fi and plan other legs of our trip.  We leave on the train tonight to Khabarovsk and will send another update the next time we get internet.

Wall listing names of soldiers who died in WWII from the Vladivostok area.

View of the city.

     

I think it's gonna be a long, long, time...

Dear Readers,

I said goodbye to Petropavlovsk on Tuesday, the 25th. The emotional toll of saying goodbye to friends, fellow volunteers, and my students was heavy. It was raining when I left, and a friend told me that Mother Nature was crying about my departure as well. Following my last 31 hour train ride, in Kazakhstan at least, I arrived in Almaty. I'm now going through the Peace Corps' Close of Service process (paperwork, giving stool samples, etc.). It's crazy to think that my service is coming to an end. There were times that it went by really slowly, but these past two months have flown by.
After a few days here, doing paperwork and visiting friends and my old host family, I'll board a plane bound for Russia on November 1st. My dad and I will meet in Moscow at the airport, then fly immediately to Vladivostok to begin our trip on the Trans-Siberian Railroad, on through to Mongolia, and then further south into China. Following seven weeks of travel, we'll land in Boston on December 21st. I'm overjoyed to go back to the U.S.; the land of bagels, Mexican food, English speakers, and free speech, where I haven't been for more than two years. However, the thought of leaving here and not knowing when, if ever, I will return has been sad to think about.
I've moved several times in my adult life, but most of those places are easy enough to get back to. The possibility always remained that I would go back and visit friends and favorite haunts. I have both of those things here in Petropavlovsk, but the likelihood of coming back and the logistics make leaving here seem very permanent and final.
My students and colleagues at the orphanage kept asking when I would go back to America. I told them that I would leave them on October 25th. They told me I should come back, but if I don't they'll write me and maybe one day visit me in America. I hope that comes true. Of all the things I will miss in Kazakhstan, it is the people that I will miss most.
I have been really busy these last few months, and have been bad about updating this blog. As I got used to life here, it was harder to find topics to write about. Also, blogs are blocked here and it was difficult to gain access sometimes. Excuses aside, I hope you have enjoyed reading my posts, and maybe I will include some updates from our trip. Thanks for reading and hope to see you stateside soon!

I'll leave you with a list of things I will miss and things I'm looking forward to.

Things I will miss:
- the craziness of public transportation
- speaking Russian all of the time
- local friends and Peace Corps Volunteers
- being a celebrity, just because I'm American
- Russian food/Uighur food

Things I'm looking forward to:
- being able to drive myself places
- speaking English
- family and friends
- blending in
- real vegetarian food!

Where Is My Mind?

      

      Here it is, the blog post you've been waiting for!  Yes, it's that time of year again.  Time to shed all fears about the cold, having wet hair outside, catching pneumonia and dive in to the frozen Ishim River.  Yes folks, I'm talking about Kreshenya.  Loyal readers (all 3 of you) may remember a post from last January about some crazy volunteers and local folks who jumped in the river in -30 degree weather.  Around these parts, that day is known as Kreshenya.  It's a religious holiday for those in the Russian Orthodox faith and is supposed to act as a "re-baptism".  Believers do it once a year on January 19th.  The water is believed to be holy on this day and folks who don't take the plunge take some water to keep in their homes for the year.  They use it to calm crying babies, ward away sickness, etc.   

The frozen Ishim River on Kreshenya.

       A lot of local people who are not of this faith also participate in the festivities because people do believe that dipping in the river keeps you healthy for one year.  In past years, volunteers have invited other volunteers from around Kazakhstan to participate in the fun.  I did the same, and found 8 brave souls willing to make the trek up to Petropavlovsk.  They helped out at my orphanage and did teacher trainings so that their time up here would also be work related.  My students really enjoyed having them around and I'll post soon about that.  

Waling single file on our short detour to the river.

    
     We gathered at around 11 AM to get the bus out to the river.  Some miscommunication with the conductor meant we got out about 2 stops to early.  No worries, we just added another 10-15 minutes to our journey in some pretty cold weather.  On the bright-side, my friends got to see a little more of my city.  We got a few stares from the locals.  It's not everyday that a giant group of Americans comes traipsing through your neighborhood. 



Waiting my turn to get some water. 

    We arrived at the river, and I was surprised to see a large number of people there.  Last year is was probably -35C or more.  This year it was closer to -27C/-16F, and so more people came to participate.  My counterpart from the orphanage had to work and couldn't make it to the river.  She asked me to bring her some water, which was our first order of business. 



Getting the water with bare hands. 
Makes you think twice about jumping in!



My Russian tutor Lena, and me.

    Once we had the water it was time to do the dip.  About 10 of us were dipping so we decided to go in shifts.  We needed to be quick bcause we knew once people had dipped they would want to get out of there quicly and go to the banya (kind of like a sauna).  I kind of handn't decided if I would really do this, so I was able to procrastinate a little more when I scored a spot in the second shift.  



    I prepared myself for the worst, and thought I would feel like dying when I got out of the water, so I was pleasantly surprised that this experience wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  My fingers and toes were not happy with me, but other than that, it wasn't that bad.  I was glad I participated, as this was my last opportunity to do so.  It was nice to share this experience with some equally crazy volunteers.  So, enjoy these frozen photos and leave some comments.  If this post doesn't generate some comments, I don't know what will!

This guy makes it look easy.

Waiting my turn...

Testing the waters...

Are we having fun yet?

Afterward, my feet wouldn't work.  I needed help to put my  flip flops on!



After the dip, some really cold volunteers got on the marshrutka  and headed straight for the sauna!  The look on Hannah's face (on the right) says it all!





Reflections and the Road Ahead

      Two updates in one week!  What is going on?  Well, there have been a lot of changes here in the past month and the upcoming months will yield a few more.  Thought I should keep you guys updated.  So after my family left in September, I attended a conference with my training mates at the Peace Corps office in Almaty.  We got to bring one person from our workplace and learned some new information to apply at our sites.  As always, it was good for the 9 of us to get together and here about the good work that everyone is doing.  It was also helpful for my work situation and I seem to have more freedom this year. 

     After the training, I went back to site ready to start work on some real projects.  I started this school year more confident in my Russian skills and with a greater understanding of what I wanted to accomplish in my time at the orphanage.  I got a few clubs up and running and want to start a volunteer group, but have had a few road blocks in my way.  My project will hopefully be successful, but is kind of on hold until December. 
    
      October brought a lot of changes.  Two of my site mates, Niall and Katie, had finished their two years in Petropavlovsk as Peace Corps Volunteers and have left the city.  Niall left early in October as he had some job prospects in the U.S.  Katie left at the end of October and she and I will travel together to Georgia, Armenia, and Turkey.  It is really hard to imagine Petro without them, but time will tell.  I moved into Katie's apartment and left my host family that I have lived with for one year.  That was really hard on all of us, but it was time to live on my own.  Those Americans and their love for independence...

      While I'm on vaction with Katie, the new group of volunteers will come up to their sites on November 7th.  In my city, we will get one new volunteer and two more volunteers in surrounding villages.  It will be nice to have some new faces in our neck of the woods.  It's hard to believe that one year ago, I came up to Petropavlovsk for the first time as a newly sworn-in Peace Corps Volunteer. 

    It's been a crazy year, but one I wouldn't trade for anything.  It was a dream of mine for a long time to join the Peace Corps and while it hasn't been easy, I have no regrets.  This has probably been the most challenging thing I've ever done.  It's difficult to describe what makes it so challenging, maybe it's the language barrier, the new surroundings, different culture, 24/7 work environment, who knows?  Regardless of the challenges, it's still a lot of fun: meeting new people, having crazy experiences, working with kids, exploring cultural differences and similarities, among other things. 

     So, I have one year left.  There is a lot I want to accomplish in that time so that I can leave here next November feeling like I made good use of my time.  Then I can return home to all of you and share my crazy stories in person!