Ulanbataar

Hotel Mongolia - Satellite TV is down, phone lines are down, no DVD, no WiFi. Breakfast was just some dry toast (which we protested and promptly got some ham and fruit). It dies look pretty though.







Our ger






Inside the ger






With Helen at Helmut Sachers Kaffee, a really good german cafe in ulan bataar.







Sukhbataar

Beijing to Ulan Bataar

Our 2-berth cabin













Hours of nothingness






Our view






Changing of wheels at the Mongolian border






Mongolian kids selling stuff






Paul and Cathy Cotton from Ottawa, Canada.






We met a Singaporean on the train! Ngiap Heng is a photographer who will be doing a 5 and a half month trip. Cool!







Helen from Switzerland who's a primary school teacher. We bumped into her again in the national history museum in ulan bator.

The Great Wall

Our welsh friends from western Australia. It was so much fun to climb the great wall with you guys!


We took a trek from Jinshanling to Simatai. It was tough! But great way to experience the great wall!

Beijing 101

Xiangshen on the walkway to Houhai bar district. Think these guys are really good. Their audience was huge and everyone laughed out loud.












Badminton, shuttlecock, all kinds of games people were playing just outside the Houhai gate.












Gate to the Houhai bar district












Yunnan food in Beijing












Tiananmen
We got asked if we were selling shoes cos you couldn't get into Chairman Mao's masouleum in flip flops. Haha! Anyway we got asked cos we were carrying a huge bag of shopping which we gonna send back by mail.












Guards changing shift












Inside the forbidden city












Our favourite junk shop in a hutong near Qianmen












Same hutong












Children playing in the hutong












Qianmen gate












Peking duck













Panjiayuan antiques market




We loved Nanluoguxiang.

For good practice in bargaining, Silk Street is a must! We even resorted to buying the salesgirls ice cream for extra discounts.

Kelly's Courtyard

Here's the entrance of the Hutong that leads to the hotel.



1st turn



Beautiful foliage along the way.



2nd turn



Final walk-up



When you finally get in through the front door



The courtyard



Our room

As we were walking there, i almost thought we'll just stay one night and cancel all the other nights. But we were charmed when we got inside. What a great find! It doesn't get any more authentic than this.

Our neighbours in Kelly's Courtyard:




Friendly fellas! Bruce and Florence from Canada, Roland and Elda from Kuala Lumpur. That's Jane, the innkeeper in the centre.




Janine from Sydney. She's here for 2 weeks on her own.




Alastair and Kate from Edinburg. They're also going by train on to Ulan Bataar and then Moscow and then Europe. Except that they're doing it with 2 little kids and 2 bikes.

Train from Xi An to Beijing

We got a deluxe 2-berth on the train from Xi Anto Beijing. Boy was it worth it!










It even has a private toilet in the cabin!

This train is much newer and cleaner than any other train we've been on. The cabin has little cabinets, a safe and bedroom slippers provided.

There's a VIP on board in the cabin right next to ours. There was such a commotion as he was boarding the train. We were trying to peep out on the platform to see him and got pushed into the next dining car with the door closed on us.

All the train attendants look extra smart and alert. They served him a special tray once he came onboard and even saluted before they entered his cabin.

We're now poking our heads out our cabin door every other minute to see what the train attendants plying the cabin corridor are doing (and they seem to have a lot to do!)

A walk around the Muslim quarters

We went to the Muslim quarters for dinner and some shopping. Found some really great prints and even got to meet the artist himself! Professor Ding is renowned in his specialty of woodcut prints. He has tons of newspaper and magazine coverage about his art.

He is really friendly and also keen to visit Singapore one day.