The art of eating (from Russia to China)

When you travel, specially to far away places where you don't speak the language, each  new meal can be a true adventure. On this trip (between Russia and China) we had, for the most of the time, someone advising us what to eat so our chances of getting it wrong was a bit smaller but, nonetheless, we still brought back a few stories to tell.
The experiences I had alone in Japan I will leave to another post, just because... well, it deserves a post of its own! Just wait and see ;)

So here are some of the things we ate/stories we've been through along the TransSiberian trip:

RUSSIA
On our first lunch in Russia we had our first "Yes, you're out of your country!" experience. We were told that we should ask for a business menu that was generally less expensive. So, when we could no longer bare our roaring  stomachs we finally chose a restaurant that had one of those menus and went in.
None of the waitresses knew how to speak English and the menus... well the menus were like this:

There was no English menu

After a while (more than 10 minutes, I'm sure) trying to translate the menu using our little guides with a few words of Russian we could understand that there were salads and soups on the menu, but no more than that. As we had to chose one among three options for "Soups", "Entrées" and "Main Dish" and we were three, we asked for one of each. Perfect Solution! Fortunately, the food was great... or maybe we were just very hungry! The point is, we were satisfied at the end! I guess we were lucky :)

We just remembered to take a photo of the food half way through. We were starving!

I was the only one that liked one of the soups, so I ate most of mine and the rest of another one!

On that same day, for dinner, we decided to try a Russian fast food place. How can you tell the franchise was Russian? Because the logo featured a big potato (they eat everything with potatoes). It was basically mashed potatoes with something. It's a good thing that we all like potatoes!

Mashed potatoes and... something else

Russian fast food. Of course, with a potato on the logo!

On the train the menu varied between whatever we could find on the platforms (see Baboushkas post) and the noodles that we had brought we us! It was our first time trying these instant noodles that, apparently are a big thing both in Russia and Australia!

Instant noodles before the hot water

But of everything we ate, nothing tasted better than the home-cooked food at Lake Baikal. Maybe because we were all so fed up with "train food" after 4 days that a plate of soup was just awesome. But then again, after two days, the food was still great, so...

Home cooked food... hummmmmmmm :)

MONGOLIA
We don't have that many photos of food in Mongolia. For some reason we always forgot to take pictures. It was the only place where the food gave me... well... an urgent need to use the bathroom. One of the main ingredients they use is fat, mutton or beef fat. Big chunks of fat! For those used to light meals, Mongolia can be a true challenge. In here too, we ordered things that we didn't know exactly what they were, and didn't get lucky as often... But we survived, I think... at least until this day :P
Images are better than words so I'll post here the (little) photos we have. They were taken during our stay in the gers so it doesn't get much more traditional than this ;). This was how our dinner for that night was cooked. On top of a dang heated furnace and with an additional heat from hot stones. And it was good... Much better than most of the other dishes we had in Ulaanbaatar.

The preparation of the (huge) bowls of meat being cooked

The grey things are hot stones (heated in the furnace) that are essential to cook the meat just right

CHINA
Remember the food you eat in one of the numerous Chinese restaurants in your country (at least in Portugal)? The food here is way different, at least in Beijing. Spicier, not that many vegetables, dumplings (that I've never seen in Portugal) and a few other... well, just plain weird things and tastes).
One of the main attractions of Beijing are the "bug streets". Streets where you can find all sorts of insects (among other animals) that have just been stir fried. And of course, I tried one of them (just one, for the experience!). It was a small scorpion and I was actually surprised 'cause it was actually okay! Not the best thing ever... but perfectly edible, after you get over the fact that you are eating a scorpion, of course!

These ones were still alive on the stick. Afterwards they would  be stir fried

And it was one of those that I ate. As you can see it looks like I was being pushed from a cliff or something similar. No, it was just the scorpion...

Large scorpions, starfish, slugs... you just had to choose.

Apart from that it was a big part of the experience in China to try different things. Which were mostly good! And I even got to drink a bubble tea on the first day! After that we couldn't find them again despite our best efforts (we even tried something that looked similar but... it was not... and it was not a great drink either!). And of course, always eating with chopsticks is a challenge, specially to those among us who were not that used to them (I'm not going to say their names :P).

After bargaining for hours we tried this place where everything was written with Chinese characters.  Thank God for the power of images! It was actually good!

On the same dinner Isa ate dumplings. Here she was trying to figure it out how to eat  such big things with chopsticks :P

This actually looks like a few dishes that we can order on a Chinese restaurant. But it was way spicier than anything I ate in those.

Here Nuno looks like a pro with his chopsticks! On the bottom left corner it is possible to see the kettle for the tea. Most meals go with tea!

On the last night I had a kind of a meat skewer. It had a strange taste, not bad, just strange... all I'm gonna say!

The city of chaos

True, there are many chaotic cities... in traffic, population, overall (visual, audio and air) pollution, in many different aspects and I've already been to some of them (of course I believe that are a LOT of them that I still don't know), but Ulaanbaatar is, I believe, special.

Half of the country's population lives here (over 1,300,000 people) and in the past 25 years the number of its inhabitants doubled, which means an average of new 26,000 people per year. With no time to built the necessary infrastructures and urban planning being a strange foreign word, the city grew and it grew in its one way. What does this mean? 

It means that you can have a modern glass building, next to an old sovietic neighborhood, next to a set of gers. Or having a huge abandoned building with one of the most visited museums hidden on the back in a discrete building (it could be a 2 story apartment building)!

It means a chaotic traffic where you can get stuck for a loong time and not even be surprised by it. And a traffic where the drivers are kind of... well... crazy. They drive fast! And don't often brake because of someone crossing the street, which makes this a very challenging and risky activity. Even locals always run when crossing to the other side. And yes, even on the cross walks. It's an adventure! 

It means that the pollution level, with many factories and a power plant just at the entrance of the city, is way beyond what it should be.

It means that many old buildings that deserve a special attention (with a reconstruction of the surrounding area, and of the building itself) are second priority to the demanded construction work of new dwellings.

It means a lot of things...

But to show you better, here are some photos... A general overview of the city, with comments!

A modern apartment building and a ger on its surroundings

A high voltage power line in the middle of the city

Apparently this building burnt a while ago. The Intellectual Museum, one of the biggest attractions of the city (and a really cool one, I can add), is behind it and it's a bit tricky to find.

This path (that looked a bit abandoned), in the opposite direction led to the Gandan Monastery. On the back, beyond the city, it is possible to see the untamed mountains. 

The prayers are done by spinning them. On each one is written a prayer. The Gandan Monastery was a place where I forgot all the craziness of the city and felt at peace.

There were MANY pidgeons on the Monastery grounds, like, MANY MANY

The one with the big hat is the master(?) buddha

And there, among the confusion of restaurants and Karaoke places, there were a few hidden treasures like this french bakery. The pictured boy is the son of the bakery's owners (the painter is the mother)

Why is there a monument to the beatles in Mongolia in the shape of an apple? I have no idea!!

My feet and the main square :p. This must be a rare photo because it is actually forbidden to seat on this ledge

The statue in the middle of the main square dedicated to Sükhbaatar, a local hero 

And Chinggis Khan. We were told that every best thing there is labeled as "Chinggis Khan"

Just near the main square, you kind find plenty of men playing chess. All men, no women.

The doctor's appointment and google translator

There are those things in life that are very hard go through but that, at the end, bring great rewards! It was the case of my huge burst blister!! No nothing very deep, only a blister! A big, nasty one that I've made on the walk to the dry lake (the one with no water in Lake Baikal). The big problem with it was that I couldn't exactly stop walking. Walking is something that is usually necessary, but when you are travelling it becomes even more imperative as your body (and your belongings) won't move themselves alone.
So yes... I had a burst blister that made itself noticeable every time I gave a step. But things were not so bad until the time it started to look funny,... funny as in "almost infected". And it wouldn't get better with normal Betadine.

I never took a photo of the blister itself but here is how it looked with the bandage on top (the yellow thing is the Betadine)

That was why we decided (I say we because it was something that was actually discussed during one night) to try to find something for it. Next morning we (me and Isa) went to the pharmacy.
They spoke no English (and Portuguese even less) and our Mongolian was no better.
I take off my tennis, my sock and show them the wound (by this time it looked like one). They gave us something that ressembled Betadine (which we already had). After a few minutes of "this is what we recomend" (should be read as "Ahasfjq spguahaf najf") and "But we already have that, we need something better" they point us to a Hospital that was just around the corner.
We go there... again... no English, of course! The girl at the reception asks for the passport (which I understood at the 5th try) and Isa starts to rub her hand trying to explain I have a wound. It seems that the girl understood (I had my doubts) and writes a number, 209, the room number where we were supposed to go.
We climbed up the stairs and... its the Dermatology section (which was even written in English!). We look at each other and laugh but I go in anyway. Better a dermatologist than nothing!

Room 209. Dermatology section

Inside there is the doctor. English? Of course not. Again, I take off my tennis and my sock and show her the wound. She doesn't seem to understand. And this was when Isa had a stroke of genious!! She saw the computer and thought that maybe it had internet. She asks the doctor if she can use the computer and goes to google translator!! Brilliant! We write (we because Isa wrote half and I wrote the other half - we were both on top of the doctor's sit) that I have a burst blister and try to translate it to Mongolian... So... Malaio, Maltês, Norueguês..) wait, where's the Mongolian??... There was no Mongolian!! I think we all (doctor included) spent about 2 minutes looking for the Mongolian on the list, until the doctor (bless her!) points to, "Indonesian"!

No Mongolian on google translator

We finally could communicate although the doctor preferred gestures to google translator. At the end we got out of there with a couple of photos, a prescription for 3 different things and a bill of 4000 Tugriks (less than 4 Euros).

The doctor advising me how to protect the blister

A new friend in Ulaanbaatar

To get the medicines we went to the same pharmacy that had pointed us the hospital. When I handed them the prescription their expressions were something like "Oh, so this was what they were looking for!!"

A pack of antibiotics and 2 balms for the next days and, finally, we went back to the hostel to begin another day!

The presciption

Life in the steppes

Mongolia is well known for its remoteness. In fact, watching the never-ending steppes through the window leaves us a feeling of humbleness and respect for what we are seeing. This feeling was not completely new to me; in Patagonia the landscape is somehow similar and also very impressive. But there is something about Mongolia. Maybe the fact that I knew that this is the less densely populated country in the World; maybe witnessing how far away from everything the nomads lived in the past centuries, and continue to do so nowadays.
Fortunally, we could witness how these families still live nowadays. Yes, it was a turistic thing to do, but this particular family only receives 3 tours per year, which I guess allows them to maintain their own way of living.

On the way to the Ger family

The roads were curvy, bumpy and, sometimes, almost non existent (this was a good part)

Even in the middle of nowhere you can find prohibition signs!

On the way there (more than two hours) we saw a lot of animals but the ones I appreciated the most were the horses. The ones we saw up close were domesticated but it was great to see them running freely around.

But at some point we stopped because someone had spotted some of the wild horses (the Przewalski). All geared up (it was cold and windy) we walked up and down, up and down the hill to see them. There was also a group of deers that could be heard from a long distance, they were incredily loud! And it was this group that we saw first. A huge number of deers, that were running up hill (a little after that they went out of sight). Despite the distance, that was very big, it was amazing to see them and we could even witness a fight between two males. Amazing!! :)

The Przewalsi were a bit more shy and only after a while we could localized them. However, at the naked eye, they were little more than moving points on the hill.

Trying to see the Prewalski and the deers behing multiple layers of protection

The hill where the deers were. The wild horses were a bit more to the left.

After the stop, time to go back and finish our trip to the ger family. In the way we made our bus (there were two) the party bus by singing/shouting and dancing crazily to the sound of musics like Gangnam Style... This is what sleep deprived people do!! (I will upload the video as soon as I get it).

Finally, the Gers... 

A set of 4 "tents" and a common toilet 100m away from everything. Another one that basically consisted of nothing else but a whole on the ground with some kind of box on top of it. The particularity of this one is that there was no light so, in case you felt the call of nature after the sunset, as it happened to me, you had to take some light with you. Up until this day I still don't know how they do to bathe themselves.

But all of this was fine. It was part of the adventure and I was prepared for that. What I was not counting on was the freezing part. All gers are warmed by a stove in their middle. It gets pretty warm and in the one where we got together and ate the temperature was really nice (around 20ºC when outside was getting closer to 0ºC). The problem was that the ger where we slept was only warmed up little before we laid down. So, after a couple of hours of sleep, the heat from the short fire was gone and we all woke up shivering, even with the 5ºC sleeping bags (well, I heard some people snore, so I guess a few of us were able to sleep). And the shivering continued all night long. I added an extra layer of clothes but it only helped for half an hour or so... it was tough... Now in a distance I am able to call it an adventure and one more story to tell, but in that moment, I remember I cursed myself and wished to be back on my own bed. 

And this was only the beginning on the Autumn... Life is not easy around here...

Arriving to the ger (check the solar panel on the left)

This is the stove (the fuel is dried dung)

The main way of transportation are horses which they use quite often

And there he went...

There was a small creek near the camp (maybe the answer to my bathing question?)

The smoke comes from the "communal" ger that, in this moment, was also the cooking ger

And I can say that, all in all, we all loved the experience! So different from what we know and, somehow, so fulfilling.

I had tried archery before, but this was way more difficult... And I was not very good at it!

The landscape inspired the explorer side of Nuno

It was the horse that appeared beneath Isa, it was not her fault (private joke, people, sorry for that :p)