31st January 2009

Hello everyone.....sorry my blog is late yet again,

Well we made it to Mongolia safely! but this time we got the plane with Miat Airlines and as I told you the Mongolian presedent was onboard we did not get a good look at him as he came on with about 50 people! and sat in first class....bit disappointing, we didn't feel there was ever a right moment to get pictures with him but he delayed the plane for about an hour when we were finally onboard the flight was lovely they had TVs and food plus it was only an half hour flight.
We finally landed and some people from the hostel came and picked us up it was a really nice hostel and we've got a room with a double bunkbed and a single ontop..how cool.  Well the day after we arrived we started with a wander round Ulaanbaator which is the capital of Mongolia.  It was so cold it's been - something everyday.  It's not a pretty city and has the maddest drivers in the world I think !!  We discovered there was a monestry in the city so off we went trying to find it when we came to the bottom off a hill...oh yes a hill ...we finally got to the top and the monestry... inside was a crowd of pigeons and sparrows..so we bought some food and fed them and then we went into the big temple( the main bit ) and there was this massive gold statue of buddah with a walkway around it with prayer wheels and mini statues and prayer flags everywhere.  And they burn lots and lots of insence so it smelt funny.  We saw some monks there too.
As soon as we got back to the hostel we started looking for a trip we wanted to get out of the city and into the counrtyside...and we found one that was 4 days long and it works out cheeper if more people go luckily some lads wanted to come with us so we made plans to leave the next day.
Early we set off together in a van with our guide Alma and our driver Jigmi, the trip has alot of driving in it and in Mongolia there's only 100 miles of tarmac !!!  So alot of it was off road and very very bumpy, but after 6 hours of driving we got to our first stay with a nomadic family in the middle off nowhere at night time.
We were staying with an old man called Bor in his gur ( a tenty housey thing ) with his family !  It was so nice we got there and helped cook our dinner and their granddaughter was so interested in us!! and they gave us milk tea with fresh milk from their cows! and for dinner we had ricey stuff but the meat eaters had goat and horse dumplings !!! ( poor defenseless animals !!) after dinner we all slept together in thier ger on the floor in our sleeping bags it was so fun.
The next day was even cooler we woke up and look around and there was miles and miles of nothing !!! just wide open space.. Bors wife got up early and got the fire going, milked the cow and collected more poo for the fire ( they use animal dung as fuel in the counrtyside all before 7 in the morning and we all had breakfast early beacause we had camel riding to do.  Bor has got 2 of them so it was 2 at a time me and mum went first, the camels are so cool they're really woolly I called mine fluffpot and mum called hers woolly.  We plodded around the rocky counrtyside and after everyone had a go on the camels I had a go at horse riding ( on a lead rope of course ) it was really good they have small saddles and its not all that comfy but really fun.  We soon had to go on to our next stop.
After another longer even bumpier drive we made it to another camp except this time we stayed in a seperate gur to the family so it wasn't as good as Bors we did all have a bed though.  The very next morning we got dressed had another filling breakfast because we were all going on a horse ride to a waterfall, but because it's winter all the rivers are frozen so was the waterfall.... we did not stay there long so before we new it we were trotting back but even though the horse riding does sound fun there was 5 of us tied together ( literally really shoved together ) and the stirrups were digging in to our legs and things but a boy called Josh had a partially blind horse so he was off ( and I was the only person who had riden before... but we made it back and then we had to go we were off on another bumpy drive  and came to our last destination the old capital of Mongolia called.....called well anyway it was the old capital!  As soon as we got there we were put in another seperate gur and the guide kind of left us all there ( but she was getting some dow ready ) so all the boys decided to go to a pub with Jigmi and me mum and the guide Alma made dinner we were making dowballs ( vegetarion of course ) with potato carrot and onion it was fun Alma rooled out the dow for us then we stuffed the mix in and seeled them up then Alma cooked them they were yummy and when the boys got back they made goat ones...yes goat dumplings.
The next morning we went to a monument it was 3 stone walls in a circle but on the walls was 3 different maps with pictures with mosaics of the land the Mongolia conquered when Gengis Kaahn was their leader, he was a Mongolian tribal leader who united tribes all over Mongolia and even defeated the Chinese and got past the great wall.
It was so cold and windy about -28 or 30 but still sunny ...
Next we went to another buddist temple and watched monks performing a chanting cerimony.  Some monks of differnt ages with shaved heads and big orange and red robes chanted and played instuments it usually goes on for 2 hours but we left early.  Monks no longer live there they just come and chant everyday.  There was lots of other smaller temples to look around but that was the end of our trip and we had another 8 hour bumpy drive back to Ulaanbatar !!
I was the first person in the shower !!! after no running water for 4 days it was a real luxury.
Our guide Alma took us to a vegetarian restarant for dinner called Luna Blanca.  We had the best veggy food and smoothies and they run meditation classes which mum of course booked us on.  The next day we spent at the Interlectual museum, you know how much I love museums but this one was really fun.  It's all about puzzles, impossible ones.  Some of them if you can do them you can win thousands of dollars but of course no one ever has !!! even though the lady there can do them really easliy..she practises every day.  Then today we went for our meditation class and Alma came too.  We got picked up and went to a flat where a lovely lady called Diane showed us how to meditate and I could join in. Afterwards Diane cooked us lunch and gave us a CD of her daughter singing as she is a famous singer here in Mongolia.
Mongolia is really great I can't wait to see what we are doing tomoorow xxx

22nd January 2009

Hi everyone,
My blog is late yet again we have been so busy since my last one.....where to start.
We are still in Irkustk and its not that interesting after a while but its been good, we went to lake Baikal on Sunday and its not completely frozen yet which shows the've had a warmish winter!!!!
It was very pretty but quite cold so as soon as we got off the mini bus we went into a cafe called Shury Mury and had a cup of tea, I saw some people walking on a part of the lake and I was desperate to go on so we wrapped ourselves up and ventured outside.  It was quite windy but we had our salipets on so we were fine the ice wasn't that slippery because it had a layer of snow on it so we were ok, we did not deside to rome around much as it was so cold so we did not spend to much time there.
The next day we had a lot of things to do we were in a very exspensive hotel and we had two beds between the three of us!!!   So we went to a hostel and met some lovely people! and made alot of friends! ( if you are going on a trip like this I would recomend a hostel to meet people.) and all the people so far speak English! but that's not all we did we went to the Mongolian embassy to apply for our visas and they are really nice and spoke English and there was a flight offer so it would be cheeper to fly than to get the train which takes 2 days ! and the mongolian president will be on the same flight as us so guess which one we chose....that's right we got the flight the lady said to book we had to go to the airport straight away so we got the tram and off we went, we got to the airort but you have to book tickets in an hotel...I dont know why but we went to the hotel and met a man and he took us to his office and we had the tickets. 
We have not done much since then except roming around but we did one big thing which a few of the people at the hostel did it was dog sleading it was amazing Benny went first and then me and mummy went together sitting down !!   It was really fun they had bumps and hills it was great we were dogs first ride in the day so they were really fast and plus it was -28 and the dogs love the the cold -5 or 6 would be to warm for them !!  So it was really fun and you went half way in the forest and turn around and have a go standing up ... I didnt because children can only sit but Mummy said it was really good and she steered and everything but while Mum was steering I had a go on the snow mobile only on the back but that was really good and it was really fast but I prefered the dogs, me and Mummy wanted to sit again because we liked it being together more so we sat in the sled again.
That's my journey so far off to Mongolia tomorrow ...can't wait xx

16th January 2009

Hi everyone,
We have finally reached an internet cafe.  We are in Irkutsk which is in siberia and it's -13 here.  We have just got off the train after another 3 day trip.  After St Petersburg we went to moscow not as nice as St Petersburg but was quite nice.  We went to the Kremlin which is full of cathedrals and churches.  We looked around some of them but most of them were closed... never mind then we went to Red Square and there was Lenin's tomb.  He was a Russian leader and they have him in Red Square for you to look at him... but it was also closed ..and there was an ice rink but we did not have a go because we'd rather go on a lake so we just watched for a bit and the next thing we new we were on the train again.  We had our own compartment wihch is really hot which was good as it was so wintery outside, we saw miles and miles of snowy forests but now we're in Irkutsk and we have not done much as it's our first day but we went and had dinner at a somthing like Macdonalds...... I hate Macdonalds ..that pretty much it for today I must go and have a shower.

11th January 2009

Hello everyone, I'm sorry my blog is so overdue but I have not been able to get to an internet, the last time I blogged I was in Riga, but since then we have caught the sleeper train to St Petersburg.  I was not so keen on the train at first but I quite liked it at the end.  It was cosy and quite fun as we played card games !!!  When we got to St Petersburg it was kind of the same as Riga but much much bigger and more busy.  First we went to the hermitage museum and met some people from Moscow.  We started to have a look around it was ok it was in part of the winter palace and was full of paintings and big rooms of silver plates we wanted to see some faberge eggs but could not find any.  The next day we went to yet another musuem !!!!  Which was also ok untill I saw all the animal skins and furs I did not enjoy that one as much...  We then went to an English book shop to find some books on where we are going when we fianally got back to our hotel we went to the fitness room and they had a gym a jacuzzi a swimming pool and a sauna so we had a pamper.  Today we went to the museum of curoristy which had lots of history from differnt counrties and pickeled heads !!!!! really...   We also went to the catherdral where Peter The Great is buried and the last tzar and some of his family who were murdered in 1918.  We walked along the pathway by an icy river and I built 3 snowmen 1 was called frosty and we made a song about him I would write it for you but most of you know it already as it is so popular !!!!  We are now waiting for the night train to moscow I've have a nice time in St Petersburg.   xxx

8th January 2009

Hi everyone,
Have had a lovely time in Riga but we are leaving early on a train to St Petersburg.  Although there is not much to do here we have kept our selves occupied, we found this really cool ice slide in the park that is just a hill and all you need is a plastic bag to sit on and you can go at lightning speed crashing into the snow.  Got to watch out for the lamp post and tree though !!!!  We found the Riga war museum and I'm sure you know how much I love museums.  We've been to double coffee cafe and they do the best hot chocolates.  We've had loads and loads of snowball fights try and guess who won ???  Went to the market today it's one of the biggest in europe we didn't find anything there as it is very expensive here.  It's 77 Latvian pence to one of our pounds.  I've had a very nice time in Riga can't wait to see what St Petersburg is like.  xxxx

7th January 2009

Snow Angel

6th January 2009

Hi everyone,
We got to Riga yesterday and snow was everywhere, well I say everywhere but they have to clear the roads so they scoop it up so there are piles on the side of the road but there is still alot of snow which has made it great, although it is very cold.  We got here very late last night because we got lost but we got a taxi and eventually got to the hostel which is very nice and has really comfy pillows.
We went out on an explore today first we visited St Peter's Cathedral and went up the top of the tower it was very windy but it was worth it for the view we could see loads and all the snowy roof tops and the river which was completely frozen over you could see by the footprints people had been walking on it but I wouldnt dare.  We then went to the house of black heads museum and I'm not a big fan so it wasn't that interesting to see but it was ok and then we just wandered around there's also a lovely park near our hostel and it's got a canal that we're hopefully going to walk on tomorrow and I want to make snow angels !
Riga isn't the best place for things to do or sight seeing but it's worth it just for the snow I had a great day.
Tree x