Tuesday, July 25, 2006

The adventure begins... Day1 & Day2 - Arriving in Ulaan Baatar and Drive to Bayanhongor

The adventure of Mongolia is about to begin, the training has been completed, our backpacks have been loaded into the van, the bikes have been collected, time to go! There are a huge amount of pics to get through, so I'll be loading them up gradually, so don't forget to come back and see what's new.

Time to catch the flight to Mongolia

The Mongolian country side.

The Mongolian mixed grill.. including some horse of course. :-)

The state run department store.

Down town Ulan Bataar

Our trust russian combi van.

A quick toilet break.

Time to setup camp, our first night under the stars.



Saturday, July 22, 2006

Hello from Beijing....

Well I've finally made it to Beijing! The fly over the city was amazing, the lights streched for miles and miles, and set on fire the imaginations of what lay install on the ground. the adventure is truly about to begin.

After my flight finally arrived, we headed out for drink, Coll and Tone are quite the guides, they had it well in hand. After a couple of beers and then a couple of cocktails, mixed with a few games of local dice (one all between coll and tone) I was well and truely ready for bed. We left the bar at 3:30 local time (5:30am sydney time), needless to say I slept soundly.

My firt day started slowly, and we brunched on dumpling and soup, it was a heart meal adn good fuel for the rest of the day. we tracked down a bie shop an hired our trusty steads or was that rusty? Somehow i don't think they would have passed the road worthy back home, but hey when in Rome! It's a great way to see the city, you really get up close and personal to the locals at times. you can see so much more of the city in a day. And with a culture of bike riding through traffic, there was a certain method to the chaos.

Well now that I've freshened up it's time to have think about dinner, gain my trusty guides Coll and Tone will lead the way. Cal and Michiel are arriving this evening to complete our travelling group.



Arrivals in Beijing International Airport


View from my hotel room

Picking up our set ot wheels.

Drum and Bell towers.


Tone and I

On my "Flying Pidgon"

A common sight in parks all around Beijing (and China) a vigorous game of cards.

A few select choices at the Night Markets.

One of the outer walls of the "Forbidden City"


Chairman Moa still keeping an eye on happening in China.



Tuesday, July 18, 2006

3 Days to go!

We'll the injections have been received, the visa's have been acquired, and the packing has begun... So where are we off too? To our ancestry homeland China and then to the lands of Genghis Khan Mongolia.

The challenge is a Mountain bike tour of Mongolia (Central Mongolia - Arkhangai). The training has been done, the legs are pumped, the heart is racing, time to hit the track! See you all in 3 weeks.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

9 Days to go! Woo Hoo.

Agtny bied gazar uz (While horse is strong travel to see places), this proverb will give you a hint where we're headed.



Well not long now to the BIG TRIP... D-Day 21.07.06 is approaching like a frieght train, not enought time to do everything at work so I'm busy prioritising as best as I can, busy worrying about what to take. I'm busily clocking up the km's on the road, I've even got my sister Cal out there too. Well I guess she'd better, she's coming along too. It's time to catch up with our other adventure partners Tone and Coll, "the john dory" is that they've been undertaking a rather intensive training reigme, but i think that might lose the fitness edge on they're 2 weeks break in Thialand. This is our chance to catch up.




Sunday, July 09, 2006