K14.5.17
I've decided I'd set up my own travel pages. Not to write accurate descriptions of what I've seen but to keep an account of my reactions to things we experience. Some of it will, no doubt, be venting if things get annoying.
28/05/2017
Now that we're safely on our train heading for Irkutz, here are some thoughts of what has happened so far.
Regarding our Beijing airport experience:
I've decided I'd set up my own travel pages. Not to write accurate descriptions of what I've seen but to keep an account of my reactions to things we experience. Some of it will, no doubt, be venting if things get annoying.
28/05/2017
Now that we're safely on our train heading for Irkutz, here are some thoughts of what has happened so far.
Regarding our Beijing airport experience:
- Never assume that immigration offices don't keep records of past misdemeanors. With computer records, information can be kept for a long time.
- Singapore Airlines staff were wonderful at negotiating on our behalf. They convinced Chinese immigration to allow us to purchase onward tickets to Mongolia rather than having typo go back to Singapore. They also persuaded Air China to sell me tickets to Mongolia even though I didn't have the bus tickets to Russia with me (they were with Kenneth beyond the immigration security barriers) and also convinced them to check in our luggage sight after I bought the tickets, hence I didn't need to go to a hotel to spend the night before getting back to the airport early morning to check in. They seemed skillful at problem solving and negotiations, great at communicating with us and never rushed us to make decisions more quickly.
- Always have a functioning sim card in your mobile phone. I still had my Aldi mobile card in my phone when I cleared immigration at Beijing airport to buy tickets to Mongolia. I forgot that I didn't have my amaysim card with me to swap to (Aldi sim cards don't do international roaming) as it was in the carry on bag with Kenneth. So I had no way of communicating with anyone once the Singapore Airlines staff left. Not a good feeling.
- Always keep your bottle of drinking water with you. I left mine in the carry on bag with Kenneth, thinking that getting the ticket and checking in would take a maximum of half an hour. It took much longer -- Kenneth reckoned it was at least two hours. I was thirsty but needed to be constantly on the go throughout that time. Again, not a good feeling.
- When things go awry, it's better not to separate in your travels. Kenneth had suggested that I just clear customs, go into Beijing to our booked apartment, then meet him on Saturday in Ulan Bator. I didn't like that idea, thinking that when things start going wrong, even more things can go wrong. Given the situation with my lack of sim card, I made the right decision.
- It's much more lively and seemed to have a higher level of prosperity than I anticipated. The young people seemed confident like the Chinese young people.
- The motorists seemed to hate pedestrians who dared cross the roads. The seemed to be a disregard for pedestrian green lights, though in the end, I figured out that it was only the turning motorists that you really had to watch it for when you crossed the roads.
- The garbage trucks played jolly tunes very loudly as they collected rubbish.
- You can get vegetables in restaurants in Ulan Bator. In fact, that's the safest bet as the meat dishes aren't too good. Neither are the noodle dishes.
- Mongolian fruit beer is very nice. We had the mango and peach beer.
- Lambs and camels can approach you and be very friendly. Goat kids are skittish and never let you get too near them; they're cute but standoffish.
- Gers are comfortable enough to sleep in but having to venture out into the dark to get to the toilet block isn't fun. I'm glad I bought the cheap head torch before we left Australia.
- Air bnb hosts in Mongolia network effectively with each other to make movements smooth for their guests.
- Despite travellers' horror stories, you can get very polite and patient Russian immigration and custom officers. The two who we met were very nice.
- Cafes and restaurants are everywhere in Ulan Ude but not that easy to get English speaking restaurant staff or menus that have non Cyrillic script or photos. So at lunchtime we were hungry but couldn't find a place to eat in the centre of the city. I've decided that my Russian language learning should focus on food words from now until I get familiar with the food vocabulary.
- Despite warnings about the abruptness of Russians, we've met quite a few nice and helpful people who did smile.