Водки поезд (The Vodka Train: Beijing to St Petersburg)

The trans-mongolia railway. It spans the entire width of Asia. Beijing to St. Petersburg over 6,000 kms. Setting foot on that train was pretty exciting. Looking at the locals and others on the train I was kind of surprised not to see excitement on their faces. "Don't you know that we're on a train to Mongolia?". Despite the fact that we had booked our tickets months in advance and had a schedule and itinerary for when we arrived in Ulan Battur, to me it still seemed like a great adventure into the unknown.


Our initial stretch from Beijing to Ulan Battur was about right though. It takes about 36 hours. For a journey of this length leaving in the early morning is definitely the way to go. By the time the excitement wears off it's time to go to sleep and by the time you wake up and have some pot noodles you have arrived.

In general though life on the train is, well long. For some reason it sounds a lot better in the brochure. There is a certain amount of romance and adventure that comes to mind when you think of the riding a train the entire breadth of a continent. But there is a certain amount of tedium that accompanies being stuck on a train for a prolonged period of time.

For example, there is no "on board entertainment" so you are obliged to make your own. For us is was cards. A$$hole to be specific. It's funny that almost everybody, with only minor rule variations, knows how to play this game so...we played...and then...played...

and then took a pot noodles break...

and then...played a bit more...then a break for some instant mashed potatoes...then some interaction with the locals...then mock the hostess who seemed obsessed with straightening the runner carpet that spanned the carriage and would get rumpled or crooked from people walking on it but would be straightened almost immediately.****

Once cards got a bit boring I managed to go 5-0 and retire the undefeated Trans-Mongolian Railway Chess Champion. Although I only played 2 opponents and one of whom wasn't entirely 100% sure of the rules. Still chess champion. Not bad considering I probably hadn't even thought about chess since I last played in a pub in Iceland 3 years ago.

Some Like it Hot

The trains don't run on coal any more, what is this the 19th century? No the trains run on diesel. The boilers for hot water however do run on coal. Yes, that's right. Every carriage has it's own coal fuelled boiler that provides hot water for tea, coffee and pot noodles. And a main part of the hostess' job is to keep the fire going and ensure there is lots of hot water.

Funnily enough, even though there is a massive coal powered fire generating enough heat to bbq a yak, the heaters for the carriages were not radiators but electric base board heaters. They too seemed to have just the two settings. So even though it was the middle of winter in the Gobi desert we were all more than comfortable in short sleeve tshirts***

As you would expect with a coal fire there are two temperatures, extremely hot and evaporated into steam hot. Luckily the area between the carriages are not burdened with electric heaters, or heaters of any kind, so if you want to cool down some boiling hot water to drinking water about 90 minutes in -20 degrees does the trick.

Crossing into Mongolia

The border crossing from China into Mongolia involves changing the train carriages from Chinese gauge* to Russian guage. The tracks are wider in Russia than in China (the russians having built the mongolian railway in exchange for, well whatever they had at the time). So at about 10 at night after around 14hrs we stop, pull into a big hangar and they make the change.

This process is notable for two reasons,

1) They physically lift the carriage of the Chinese chasis while you are inside. It is actually as cool as it sounds and is all the more impressive because they are so good at it that if you were'nt paying attention you wouldn't even realize it was happening.

2) For the several hours it takes to change over an entire passenger train no one is allowed to use the toilet. This makes sense when you consider that the toilets empty straight out onto the tracks and that we were in an indoor hangar surrounded by workers...

The second thing led to a near emergency and one of our group had to sweet talk the guards to use the toilet on the strict condition that the toilet was not to be flushed until we were back under way. Even though there is not a lot to do on a train and you have to make your own fun and stuff, standing around guarding the restroom door so that once we got underway again you are the first one in to flush your....um.....

Anyhoo, time is measured in short intervals between pot noodles and instant mash potatoes, card games and books, then chapters then pages of books.

It was almost lucky then that I had hung some laundry up to dry (freezing cold Beijing hostel rooms aren't the best for drying laundry) which then reminded me that all this free time would be a great opportunity to mend a hole in my pocket and replace a button with my trusty needle and thread.

It wasn't long though before Jenny, one of my cabin mates had had enough of my poor sewing technique and took over for me. She did a hell of a job too as that button is still on.

Crossing into Russia
Since the tracks are the same in both countries then a mere border crossing should be a mere formality right? Right? No. Say whatever you want about Russian political and economic reforms but state desire to control everything is still prevalant. Two examples:

1) When handing out the customs forms, which are sequentially numbered, the hostess skipped over one of our group. She was adamant that she had distributed the forms correctly and that Andrea had lost hers and under no circumstances was she allowed to issue another one. This is where Mike's lawyerly skills came into play (not for the first time either) and he gathered and presented the evidence to her in such a way as to prove her wrong conclusively and obtain the much sought after customs declaration.

2) When we got on someone mentioned something like "oh ya and watch out for people stashing things in your cabin." Things? What things? What people? It's not drugs is it? Oh man if someone tries to stash drugs in my cabin they are going to get the beatdown of the century.

No it wasn't drugs.

It is unclear what the duty restrictions are on cheap goods from China being imported through Mongolia (it must have something to do with Russia considering itself part of Europe) but I guess the rules are quite strict. So more than once someone tried to stash a pair of shoes or just generally enquired about the possibility of stashing stuff in our cabin. We politely declined.

When we arrived at the border however and opened up the hatches to prepare for inspection what did we find but another pair of shoes. Sneaky buggers. It worked too. Whomever's palm needed to be greased at the border obviously was and a smug looking Mongolian lady collected her inventory once we were safely across the border in Nauski, Russia.

If there is a town that is a stereotypical one-horse, border town it is Nauski. We had quite a long time here. This was evident because in the middle of the night, a uniformed Russian border guard in a surprisingly short skirt and high boots took our passports and hadn't yet returned them and didn't seem likely to any time soon. Also because our now one carriage train was resting on the track outside Nauski station all by itself, unattached to any engine or any other carriages.

From this we garnered that we weren't going anywhere anytime soon.We took a wander around town. And I literally mean we walked the entire visible circumference of the town which has maybe 100 houses and a few businesses. We really wanted to replenish the supplies but none of the "stores" had signs.*****Eventually, I thought that there was just too much traffic going into this unmarked building for it not to be a store so I walked in "If I don't come back tell my mom I love her". It was indeed a store and not just any store.

A store where we could pick up some cups, you know to drink stuff out of. There wasn't a lot to chose from. "I call "Lion cup" I said. Hey, I called it. Trevor got the monkey cup, and Andrea had to settle for the stupid kitten cup. Normal rules, you snooze you loose. But then again if you make a big enough deal about it then you actually win. So Trev got stuck with the pussy cup.

Siberia to Moscow - The Longest Train Ride. Ever.


I know I'm an accountant and all but the only thing I can think of when I hear that something is going to take 76 hours, is that it is a hell of a long time. Especially when it is continuous travel in a train with all there is to look at out the window is birch forests and more birch forests:

Too bad for Russia that birch bark isn't a global commodity or they would be uber-riche.

Three (+) days on a train leaves you with a lot of time to think. You ponder a lot of things. Some questions big, "Should I have stayed with my girlfriend and not bothered with this round the world trip?" and some not as profound "if you put a fresh layer of deoderant on overtop of 3 days of previous layers does it actually make a difference?"

It also brings to light a few cultural differences. Example: The hosteses are allocated an office, for taking care of paper work and a cabin for sleeping. The cabin for the hostesses is denoted thus:

as opposed to the rest of the cabins which have a number. The hostess cabin is the smallest cabin imagineable for two people but is probably reflective of the fact that generally one of them is working at all times so there's not a lot of time when they are in the same cabin at the same time.

Why then, would they come to me, about 1/2 an hour into a 76 hour journey and ask me to switch cabins because an old lady and a separate family of three, one of whom was an infant were crammed into the two person hostess cabin, while the hostesses (I found out later) were two people comfortably situated in a four person cabin) and that if I didn't switch I would be a total dick.

I'll be honest. At first I didn't mind. I felt like I was helping out. Then I felt like I was being taken advantage of especially when the Novisibirsk army got on at 2 am and the snoring colonel from hell joined my cabin. But then I remembered about the existence my good friend vodka and his second cousin beer and all was well. Oh and also their distant relative, ear plugs.

Except that is until the three straight 5am stops when the hostess would banging ice from the underside of the carriage with the shovel.

Sleep comes really easy on a moving train. It is one of the most relaxing things ever. A steady clickity-clack. A gentle rocking but not like on a boat where you need to be sick. It was when the train was stopped and I checked the gps and we were still 2,200kms from Moscow and moving at 19kmph that time really seemed to drag. Also when a baby was crying or 9 inches of ice was being cleared from directly below your cabin by a 50kg woman with a shovel at 3 in the morning.

I think it's safe to say we were more relieved than anything to arrive in Moscow without having killed one another or anyone else.


Photos 1) View out the back window of the Gobi desert enroute to Mongolia from Beijing. 2)3) The corridor. Note the straightness of the rug. 4) Hanging out on the train. 5) With these cards I'm going to be President. Again. 6) Mmmm. Pot noodles. Hey, I had to get at least one shot of me eating with chopsticks! 7) TRANS-SIBERIAN CHESS CHAMPI-OOOOOON! 8) Coal burning fire. Probably could have waited and taken one of our hostess shoveling. 9) Ultra-hot pot noodles that make you cry anyone? 10-11) Changing guages. 12) A little light reading. Got maybe 1/2 way through. Even when you're bored on a train reading can be a chore. 13) "Jenny" sewing up my buttons! 14) The team boarding the train to Irkutsk. 14) Whose shoes are those? Not mine. 15) "I call lion cup!" 16) The team boarding the train to Moscow. 17) Birch bark city 18) When will this train ride end? 19) Ummm....why is this "conductor" logo on my door? 20) Ok. We're here. Can we shower now or what? 21) The team boarding the train to St Petersburg. The easiest one yet. Board train at 1am. Sleep. Wake up at destination. Kind of a waste of a Saturday night but whatever.


*Note that they don't actually say all aboard and all indications are that they could really care less whether everyone was aboard or not. The train leaves regardless. Nothing like a little paranoia about being stranded in the Gobi dessert or Siberia to make you stick pretty close to the train during stops!
**Actually I looked it up and it appears that China uses standard gauge and it's just the Russians who use a narrower gauge.
***If you are the big fat Mongolian dude then just walking around in your underwear was fine.
****Pride in the appearance of the carriage was unique to the Mongolian hostesses and while it was amusing at the time we were grateful for it especially the cleanliness of the toilets which were spotless and a marked contrast to the trashed loos on overnight trains within say China for instance.
*****We, and by we I mean I, had already mastered the Cyrillic for super market - Супер -super маркет -market) so had my eyes open.

Сибирь (Siberia)

Siberia in March. It was the element of the trip that I'd been trying to mentally prepare myself for since I noticed that it was -40 when I happened to check the weather in January while on the beach in Thailand. It had warmed up a bit since then but when we arrived in Irkutsk at 12:30pm Moscow time* it was still a brisk -12.

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Temperature aside, crossing into Russia after two months in East Asia was most notable for its culture shock. Russia considers itself part of Europe. Irkutsk itself has the nickname "Paris of the East" and the architecture and infrastructure have a notably more european flavour (especially compared to Ulan Batar). When you consider though that Irkutsk is further east than Nepal, Burma, Singapore and even Bangkok and has shared borders and interacted with China and Mongolia for thousands of years it would seem natural that there be some eastern influence.

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So probably the biggest surprise is Siberia's lack of ethnic diversity. Everyone there are Russians and they look like it. So while we still stood out from the crowd due to the wide eyed, camera toting, general touristy behaviour, we were no longer noticeable solely because of the colour of or eyes or skin or hair (especially with my regrown beard, which was rapidly becoming awesome again, I could have easily passed for a Russian). This was a stark contrast to China and Mongolia where I would look like an outsider no matter how well I knew the language customs or culture.**

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I didn't really care about fitting in but I was more intrigued by how instantaneous the change was. In my many travels between adjoining countries I've found that the change between them usually seems more subtle due mostly to language, tradititon and politics than overt ethnic differences. So in this way our first stop after Mongolia was unique.

Geographically, Siberia is also unique especially when compared to the steepes and Gobi Desert from where we had just come. To be honest though I thought it looked a lot like Canada, with an abundance of rocky hills, lakes and forrests as far as the eye can see. Even the types of trees are similar to Canada and provided a nice air of the familiar.***

Did I mention lakes? I did. Excellent. Because the most of the non-travel time spent in Eastern Russia was around the village of Listvyanka on the shore of Lake Baikal. Baikal is notable for being the world's largest freshwater lake by volume*** - home to more water than all of the Canada's Great Lakes combined - and in the winter (in Siberia winter includes March and April and sometimes even May) it is frozen over.

Not the frozen over that you might associate with a world in tumultuous climate change which might mean a small bit of ice on the surface for a few days a year. No. It freezes over properly.

Estimated ice thickness exceeding 1m****being sufficiently stable that you would trust it to keep your Mercedes from falling through:

and a thickness that would take you a good hour or more to cut out a small triangle even with the proper tools.

Why would you want to spend an hour cutting a triangular opening in the ice on freezing cold March morning? Some ice fishing perhaps? Nope. Guess again.

Ice diving was never something I would go out of my way to do but as it was right under my nose I became quite excited when I thought I might be able to try it. After all I even had a mask, snorkel and underwater camera housing that I was still carrying around in my backpack (don't get me started on the Mongolian post office related reason why i was unsuccessful in mailing them home to lighten my load) so getting underneath the ice would have been a real and unexpected thrill.

Unfortunately I never even considered that the opportunity to go ice diving would ever come up in the first place so I didn't book far enough in advance****. I guess the nature and amount of the dive equipment required to say nothing of the crew and tools necessary to cut the hole (triangle) and tend the safety lines, limits the number of divers they can accomodate in a day.

Compounding the issue was the fact that it was a long weekend in honour of Women's Day (which is apparently celebrated worldwide but is an actual holiday in Russia in a manner similar to Mother's Day which I'm unure if they also celebrate) so all the dive shops were completely booked up with long-weekend holiday maker types. So after getting my hopes up and coming to terms with the price (about USD 75- not bad when you think about it) I was pretty disappointed to then be denied the opportunity.

In lieu of diving though, we did get to spend lots of time exploring the the surface of the ice.

The lake was nice and smooth (although with a few cracks) for skating and considering how cold it was there were a surprising number of people enjoying the oudoors, the holiday weekend creating a friendly, family atmoshpere.

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I guess when faced with a harsh climate you can either embrace it and get out and enjoy the winter or sit inside and wait it out. If you live in Russia and you chose the later you wouldn't get out much. So there are a lot of activities and though we couldn't do everything we did get a bit of a taste of dog sledding.

I wouldn't say 8 minutes is much more than a taste, but it was enough to get a feel for it, get the GPS up to 28kmph and take some cool photos. It was also just long enough for me because my my feet were starting to get cold and after Argentina I was under strict doctor's orders (and mom's) to keep my feet warm.

Speaking of keeping warm, we got to learn first hand one of the ways Siberians keep warm in the depths of winter. One word: sauna.

This was an authentic Russian sauna, so in addition to sitting in the sauna working up a good sweat and then cooling down with some icy water or a roll in the snow, there was the added element of a "massage" with pine bows.

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Massage is a term used loosely in this context because it basicaly consists of being thrashed with sticks. The trick is that the pine needles soak up some ice cold water first to soften up and the result, while not really to my liking, is an interesting sensation - sweating in a sauna, being smacked with sticks by a nearly naked Russian dude with prickly needles which are actually soft on the skin accompanied by the aroma of pine and then needle bits that find there way into your shorts. Like I say, it was good to try once, and I do like a good sauna, but the whole pine bow massage element is not really my thing.

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Besides sauna there are other ways that Russians keep warm:

but for method number two I had to settle for just looking at the sign so ended up opting for the third way of staying warm during the depths of Siberian winter:

After an hour or so out on the ice testing out the new tripod (obtained from the silk market of course!) and experimenting with photographic settings to try and make a frozen over lake more interesting, nothing quite warms you up like a shot or two of Russia's finest.

Then, in the spirit of the holiday weekend, we went out for a night on the town (the very very small town) where, although not much was happening, it occurred to us that we might have to make our own fun so when someone obeserved that"hey, it's cheaper if we get our vodka by the bottle." We did. And good times were had by all. Just about everyone slipped at least once on the ice on the way home. At least one glove was lost. Trevor may or may not be married to a Russian bride. And more than one person said "I'm never drinking vodka again" the next day.

Photos: 1) A lone figure sets out on a journey to cross the lake in a time when the world was in black and white. It is unknown what became of him but he may have waited 10 seconds and returned to look at the camera screen to check if the shot was in focus and make sure the tripod didn't blow over in the wind. 2) Overlooking the spot where the flowing river meets the frozen lake. 3) Frozen lake as far as the eye can see 4) Close up of ice 5) Where I'm from we take our boats out of the water in winter but whatever 6-7) I had my hood on and didn't hear him coming 2nd shot is on full zoom out. A bit scary at first but not so much that I couldn't take a cool photo. This guy and a pickup truck were doing donuts for about 20 mins. Got some decent video footage as well. 8-9) The tools of the trade used by divers to gain access to freezing cold, crystal clear water 10) A Siberian couple go for a nice romantic walk to the middle of the lake 11) Ice skating 12-13) the howling dogsled team. They went absolutely crazy when a horse drawn carriage passed by. They are somewhat high strung, Siberian Huskies. 14) Entrance to sauna. Note the pine bows hung up by the side. 15) I'm surprised there aren't more traffic accidents near the lake with signs like that. 16-17) Warming up Siberian style 18) It's cheaper by the bottle which really says all you need to know about Siberian nightlife.

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*Trains run on Moscow time which kind of makes sense since the long distance trains all head towards/away from Moscow anyway but is pretty confusing when you are 5hours time difference from Moscow and getting off the train in Siberia. - More to come in future blog on the train journey itself.

**It would be a fascinating study to see if this lack of ethnic diversity is a result of political choices in Russia (I get the impression that Siberia was not the most desireable place to go even if you were Russian during Soviet times ) or if maybe Russians and asians don't mix (pretty unlikely - I mean have you seen Miss Mongolia or Miss China - That's what I'm talkin' about).

***Familiar to me but not to my Aussie and Kiwi travel companions who rarely even see snow nevermind pine and birch forrests and frozen lakes.

****It's 5th by surface area - Lake Superior is 1st! - but 1st by a longshot by depth 1,642m maximum depth and as a result by volume.

*****Estimated by me from observation without precise measuring tools

******The same day that you find out about it not being really in advance anyway never mind far enough in advance

Genghis Khan and the Yak Attack

Genghis (pronounced by the locals Chingis) Khan is the best thing that has ever or will ever come out of Mongolia and the locals know it.* His warriors conquered 1/2 the world with speed and ferocity and his souvenirs (ie hats) are found everywhere and his likeness is on everything from brands of vodka to...um...other brands of vodka.**

One thing Mongolians do well though is stick to what they know. Around 25-30% of the population are still nomadic moving one or more times a year so their livestock can graze. Also, despite centuries of rule or influence by neighbours China and more recently Russia (who imposed the use of cyrillic despite the existance of traditional Mongolian script which sort of looks like a cross between Chinese characters and Arabic and is written downwards instead of accross), Mongolia has a rich and unique culture based around religion, family, Ger tents, the love of all things Genghis and...yes...vodka.

Take religion for example. Buddhism in general is a very superstitious religion. The version practiced in Mongolia is really really superstitious crossing Buddhist beliefs with nature based Shamanistic practices from times gone by. All of these rituals are performed because they are meant to bring "luck" or "good fortune".

Take spinning these things (I forget what they are called) usually located near or immediately outside temples. The canisters are said to contain sacred scrolls of knowledge which when spun bring good fortune or success. Wouldn't success be more likely if the people actually read or otherwise learned something from the scrolls to then apply to daily life?

Ulaanbaatar

We stopped just long enough in Ulan Battur long enough to marvel at the fact that this is in fact a capital city. It is quite small for one thing and quite noticably dirty looking for another and there is no Starbucks for another!!!. Some "highlights"include:

• All the cars and busses seemed to be hand me down versions of 15 year old Chinese or Russian ones.


• If 4 people are trying to cross the street then you take your life in your hands but if there are five or more then traffic is compelled to stop to let you cross.


• Every car on the road is potentially a taxi but none of them are marked as such.


• In an effort to mitigate alcoholism certain areas of the city will designate certain days (say the 1st of the month) to be alcohol free. This would be a great idea except that not all areas of the city ban alcohol on the same day so from the Mongolian BBQ restaurant where we had dinner (but no drinks) on 1 March it was a 5 minute taxi ride (in some random guy's vehicle) to the pub across the bridge which was allowed to serve.


• Unemployment is said to be somewhere near 30% and even when there were jobs I didn't get the impression they were that good so it shouldn't have been a surprise when, in broad daylight about 100 m or less from the hotel entrance Mike and Ana got mugged (but not hurt) for their pot noodles which they had picked up to take on the train to Siberia.
  

Ger Tents and Horses and Yaks (and Fuzzy Camels)! Oh My!

By far the best part about Mongolia, other than getting a really awesome Ghengis hat which I wore everywhere and which was surprisingly warm for a souvenir hat, was heading out into the countryside and staying in Ger tents. It wasn't quite as rustic as I initially thought (one of the Gers had a satalite dish on the roof and there was a lady who came into our tents and stoked our fire every 3 hours***) but it was still a unique experience.

The tents are set up with a wood stove in the middle and beds all around. In an authentic Ger the man's side (tools, hunting weapons) is the left and the women's side (kitchen) is the right with a wood stove in the middle and you are supposed to enter the ger and walk around it counter-clockwise (for some reason - presumably luck related). Of course nobody told me this stuff until after I had walked in, turned right (clockwise) and selected the first bed (on the ladies' side). Oh well. I did remember to bring the vodka so all was good.

Speaking of vodka...by luck or good fortune (or maybe Buddha's intervention) we happened to be in Mongolia at the tail end of the Mongolian New Year. Mongolians celebrate by feasting with family for 3 weeks or something.

Near the camp where we were staying were some authentic Nomadic camps and we visited an elderly couple who were happy to have us and talk to us about their life and culture. The guy was a former Math professor at the university and tended to his cows while wearing a blazer (classic!!!). He only changed into "traditional" Mongolian garb after we arrived.

Apparently as part of the New Year celebrations it is customary to offer guests food and drink. It is also very rude to refuse. The food being delicious dumplings and the drink, initially being hot milky tea but soon enough the man, happy to have some drinking buddies, broke out the vodka.

So despite being quite hung-over from finishing off a bottle of vile Chinese vodka that I had picked up from the Silk Market while playing Mongolian Monopoly the night before, we were compelled to have 5 shots of vodka each before 11am. Just in time to go horseback riding.

The cold and fear of falling off a horse because we'd been drinking was enough to sober us up and good thing too because riding these small horsies was another highlight. I couldn't pronounce my horse's name so I just called him "Genghis Jr" and we ruled the plains (for approximately 45mins).

Collectively we had some trouble getting our horses to follow instructions. The main reason for this was that the instructions were in Mongolian, which is hard enough to pronounce at the best of times, but when the instructions aren't actually words but a kind of hissing sound, that makes it virtually impossible to get right. It was probably for the best though that I couldn't instruct my horse to gallop as, for obvious photographic reasons, I had ditched my safety helmet in favour of my Genghis hat.

One of the highlihgts of traveling generally is the opportunity to see weird animals. To the locals a Yak is just a cow and a fuzzy camel crossing the road is a traffic jam.

But to me a Yak is a crazy and exotic creature that I have never seen up close before with an awesome name.**** And a fuzzy camel with round snowshoe feet bigger than dinner plates crossing the road is a fascinating sight.

Going Postal - Mongolian Style

Unfortunately Mongolia wasn't only memorable for positive reasons. By far the worst part of going to Mongolia was my trip to the post office to send home some Genghis based souvenirs. This time I will actually spare the detials but suffice it to say that after going to the post office on a weekday afternoon, the ensuing frustration and chaos made me understand why alcoholism is such a big problem in Mongolia. A wee nip of vodka anyone?

Photos: 1)Genghis and Genghis Jr. Ruling the plains. (or steppes as the case may be) 2) Nothing beats Grand Khan vodka. And don't let anybody tell you differently. 3) Man in traditional Mongolian silk robes outside temple 4) Worshipers spinning those spinny things clockwise. NO. counterclockwise I mean! 5) Ger tents. 6) Inside the Ger 7) Warm and toasty outside ther Ger in new coat and Genghis hat. 8) Ger camp from up on the ridge 9) Blazer wearing nomad pouring some new years shots for breakfast 10) Genghis and Genghis Jr. 11) Yak 12) Fuzzy Camels 13) Parcel finally being weighed. Actually posted much much later.

*Although I must say that Miss Mongolia is not too bad either, eh?.

**I opted for the "Grand Khan" vodka because it came in a funky metal case but could have just as easily enjoyed "Chingis" brand which also looked delicious.

***This was a bit weird actually especially on the first night but as it kept the tents super warm it was service above and beyond. 12 and 6 I can see but the 3am stoking

****One of the best stories the old man told us was how a pack of wolves had taken down one of his Yaks (hmmm...I can't seem to write Yak without capitalizing it...well they are pretty awesome so that's good enough reason for me not to change it) on the other side of the mountain. It had everything, mountains, wolves, Yaks, death, wolves, Yaks, vodka....