Patagonia Trip Coming Soon

I apologize for being dirt slow on updating these stories. I'll start posting all good times in Argentina. Oh yes, Leavitt and I heading to the deep south in the wild Patagonia!


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Yekaterinberg

We survived the 54 hour train ride. I know what you are thinking, how on earth are you able to not go insane living in such tight quarters for two days? It's easy when you do a flashback to the 1980s. I'm not even kidding you, if the guys aren't wearing Adidas tracksuits they are wearing clothes that were cool in the age of the Material Girl. The women are not exempt from this massive fashion faux pas. I'll just leave you with this image in your mind: leopard spandex, tight neon shirts and hooker heels.

We asked the local guide here in Yekaterinberg about some of the style choices. Here was the conversation:

Keri: What do you call this hairstyle?
Russian Guide: It's called "modern"
Keri: So a mullet is modern?
Russian Guide: Yes.

This conversation right there epitomizes Siberian fashion.

My birthday got surprisingly more interesting. First off, thank you for all you Happy Birthday emails. I get really excited when I get a new email that isn't spam or one of those gushy forwards that I am the bazillionth recipient-- so thank you :)

I have no idea how Leavitt did it, but she and Nat managed to sneak a birthday cake on to the train without me knowing. In fact, she was so sneaky that when we went to different cathedrals around Irtusk she bought a prayer candle. I thought, "Oh if Leavitt buys a prayer candle maybe I'll pick up some religious goodies." So I bought a card with a saint who was holding a book. I figured it could be the patron saint of Twilight, since Nat and Keri have desperately been looking for New Moon.

Little did I know Leavitt used the prayer candle for a birthday candle. As embarrassing as it was, the whole tour group sang Happy Bday to me and just when it came time to blow out my prayer candle-- SPLAT!-- Nat totally creamed me with a second cake right across the face. Oh that sticky goodness was a complete shock to me. The only thing I did was retaliate adn smeared some on her face and then Leavitt. It was the funniest thing ever! We were picking cream out of our hair over the next few days.

One of the more entertaining things we've started to do was write songs. The ukulele has been central to our songwriting and so we've been writing songs about different people in our tour group. We've insinuated (ok, flat out accused through song) that they are drug runners and fugitives from Australia. That was a big hit-- I foresee it going platinum. Then we wrote one about Quarantine Girl and it was just quotes from her. She makes Eerore and Grumpy Bear look like a picnic. Our musical writing is definitely keeping us busy on the long rides.

Our eating habits are all about snacking. We munch on cheese and crackers and I have been taking a liking to Pringles. Some how the chocolate gets eaten first and the fruit gets left on the train once we arrive, hmm... The babushkas (old ladies) are the coolest ever! They have these pre packaged meals that you can buy from them. One lady was limping around the train station on one of our 20 minute town stops. Then, like the majestic olympic torch in her hand, she held up fresh carrots from her garden. I have never seen Leavitt move that fast out of our cabin train. I think she scared the poor babushka once she caught up to her.

After all the lack of showering, long days in the train we arrived to our 4 star Yekaterinberg hotel. Leavitt and I bunked together and were amazed at such luxuries as heated bathroom floors, warm showers and the most comfortable imaginable. Leavitt was bouncing off one bed into another. Unfortunately, inertia plays a large roll in this and she went head first into the wall-- it was soooo funny! Of course I had to test out the beds as well and managed to splat myself on to the wall as well. I love Yekaterinberg!

I would write all about our day in Yekaterinberg-- it was very Romanov! But I'll save that for another day :)

We're all doing fine and well in Mother Russia and I'm surprised at how fast this trip is flying. This time next week we'll be heading back to Namerica. We leave tomorrow morning for a 24 hour train ride to Moscow where we will be for a few days. I'll make sure and post an update then.

Talk you all soon!

Czarina Emily

Our transition into Russia has been a good one. After our 36 hour train ride, we got to the beautiful Lake Baikal town of Irtusk. Since we don't know any Russian, we've been looking to find ways to remember how to say things. We found that if we said it really loud and fast it would somewhat sound like Russian.

Does your ass fit = Welcome

Bin Laden Fishnets = Thank you

Does Freed Anya = Good bye

We have been doing a homestay, which means we've been bunking with a family. Leavitt and I stayed at a family who has just been so kind to us. On the first day she asked what we don't eat and so I mentioned i wasn't a big fan of fish. I didn't think that it would kill off 80% of Lake Baikalan cuisine (we had chicken that night). I did end up trying some fish, it was ok. The smoked fish or ulma tasted like bacon bits.

Lake Baikal is huge. Then again, it's the largest freshwater lake in the world. It seriously looks like an ocean and the water is pristine clear. They said that it had been an especially cold summer and so the water it is only 8 degrees celsius-- so in the 40s maybe? Was that going to deture us from swimming? Heck no!

Leavitt, Nat, Keri, Quarantine Girl and me went down to the lake's edge. I really wish it could have been warmer, the lake is full of so many cool things than any other lake I've been in. They have these weird coral looking things, neat species of fish and freshwater seals. When we went to the museum they had two seals there and they seriously looked like fat little butterballs with button eyes swimming around! They we're pretty adorable.

Leavitt and I did the "1, 2, 3"and ran into the lake. It wasn't bad at first, then the sharpness of the cold goes through your body and it's piercing. Your feet are the first ones to suffer, after that you become stiff with cold. We got back and shore and collapsed on to the rocky shore. Nat and Keri went in next and then Quarantine Girl. Nat and I then went back and I wanted to do a hand stand. It wasn't so bad, but I had to open my eyes to see where to place my hands. I have never felt my eyeballs freeze before. It's a really weird feeling.

Quarantine Girl challenged Leavitt yet again, to another competitive thing. You would think that after losing to archery and then something else she would give up any sporty challenges. Nope. The duel was to stand in Lake Baikal the longest.

Leavitt had already been walking around in the lake, it was hardly a challenge. After a few minutes, you can see the silent struggle Q had internally. Leavitt propped herself against a rock and sensed that Q was ready to give in. She perked up and Q waved her off. Leavitt was like, "Oh I thought you were getting out, I'll go sit up against my rock then". It was easy to guess who won. I wonder what the next challenge will be.

It was a great day. I love Siberia-- ok, at least in the summer. One of the things that threw us off was when it was 9pm and we were dog tired. Leavitt and I looked at each other and were like, "Is it time to go to bed yet?" We've been used to China and Mongolia where their sunset times are closer to 8pm. It didn't even get dark in Siberia till around 10:30 or so. We'll be entering white nights soon, so that should be really interesting.

Our next leg of the trip is the worst, it's a 54 hour train ride to Ekaterinburg. This is where the Romanov's were murdered. We'll be spending 2 nights there and I'm looking forward to that. It's been a great few days, I am really surprised how the trains are really not that bad. It does help having Keri around, she stirs even more life into our train cabin. It's a lot of fun.

For my birthday today, the group got me a Lake Baikal shirt and all signed it. It was very sweet of them. Then Natalie was kind enough of to regift the hotel slippers I slipped into her bag. Keri gave me the Raisinettes I was coveting. We'll be opening those up tonight on the train! I am definitely loving it here. The best part about it is that the mattresses keep getting softer the further west we go!

I'm glad you are liking the emLogs-- I'll talk to you soon or really, in about 60 hours :)

Emily the Siberian Tiger Wrestler

Life in a Mongolian Ger Camp

Greetings All!

We started our rural Mongolian experience yesterday by traveling to the Terelj National Forest about an hour and a half outside Ulaanbaatar. It's probably one of the most beautiful places I have seen. Green rolling hills with statuesque granite boulders that are more like building blocks for giants. Ger camps are dotted here and there with herds of horses, goats and cows wandering all over the country side. I could seriously live here.

Our first stop was to this hill that by tradition you throw a rock on to this large pile of rocks and walk around it three times. You're supposed to make a wish for a safe journey or something. I got about half way around the rock pile when I saw that you can hold an eagle! Yep, we totally held an eagle! The bird dude put the leather arm piece on us and we held up this gorgeous brown eagle. I didn't realize how large they were till it was up close (within pecking my eyes out range). Leavitt, Nat and me were the adventurous ones on that.

As our little bus continued on we came across some camels. They apparently come with 2 humps here. Leavitt got into overly eager puppy mode and we stopped to ride those. It's seriously like an outdoor Disneyland for us here! In India they say the camel represents love. I guess if you can love a camel you can love anything. Seriously though, these things are dog ugly and smell bad. Needless to say, Leavitt has lots of love.

Our eye opening experience is when we drank this Mongolian drink. It was good until we drank it. Apparently it was fermented mare's milk. Geez, does every culture ferment something? Keri said it best, it tasted like cat vomit.

Our ger camp was nestled back in this hillside. In our ger we had 4 beds which we shared with us and U.K. Keri. We dropped our bags immediately and headed for horseback riding. The Dutch's, Quarantine girl (she was in Chinese quarantine for a week, I think her name is April), Leavitt, Nat and me went to do a 2 hour ride.

My favorite horse is a buckskin and I saw this Mongolian looking buckskin horse. He was beautiful. The horses are a little smaller than the ones back in the U.S. but are still pretty awesome. The guide kept warning me saying that he is a little more frisky. I told him it was fine and I want him.

I didn't realize until we got on the trail that he wasn't really frisky, it was more like he liked going fast. He would go into a trot just to stay ahead of everyone else. I called him Alphahorse or later, just Alpha. Leavitt got one that she named Biff, who was a bit on the sluggish side. She ended up getting a tree branch and wacking him on the side to move along faster. Nat's horse was the biter of the group, she was just mean that way.

After I got a bit more comfortable with Alpha and knowing that our guide could careless about me going into a gallop, Leavitt and I cut loose a bit more. I loved it so much. The terrain is grassy with rolling hills and to gallop along hillsides and stuff was absolutely liberating.

We wanted to go back for a run today before we left Terelj, but we didn't have any time. I walked down to Alpha this morning and our horse guide was there. He saw me and gave me a big thumbs up and smiled at me. I guess he was okay with my horse handling :) As it turns out, my horse used to be a Mongolian race horse, which would make sense that he was always on the go.

To top of our evening we did some archery. Our tour guide G said that she has never seen anyone hit the target before. It's 30 meters away and the bow is a recurve one and its a little tough to shoot the arrow because the arrow has to rest on your hand. The first to hit the target was Nat! She totally hit it from 30 meters. Not to be out done, everyone else went through again and again and then Leavitt hit it as well. So gold and silver medals in archery went to Canada. Tonight we'll be eating Mongolian BBQ again and heading to the train station after wards. We'll be taking a 36 hour train ride across the border and over to Lake Baikal. The trains aren't that bad, it really does help when you have fun people to share it with.

I'm looking forward to Siberia, but I will definitely miss Mongolia. It has definitely been more my speed than all the busy cities we've been to. Since we'll be on train for the next few days and I'm not sure what the next leg of our trip will bring, I will be officially in the communication black hole!

Talk to you all soon!

Emily the Mongol Horse Rider

emLogs #09 - Sore Throat Singing

I must say, I do like Mongolia a lot. The capital isn't very pretty and it's definitely got Soviet accents to the architecture, but the people are very cool. They are friendly here and respect one another. Sure, we've got the pick pocketers (which one of our cameras fell victim too-- oddly enough at a Buddhist monastery). But the general vibe is a good one.

Yesterday Leavitt picked up one of those weird witchcrafy things-- bones? It's where you have four bones that you roll and it will tell you some sort of fortune. Kind of like that creepy witch lady from Pirates of the Caribbean can do. We've been asking it all sorts of questions.

Keri the Brit asked: Will I be a high powered CEO in the next year?

Answer: With no obstacles.

Dutch 1: Will I be pregnant in the near future?

Answer: You will have everlasting life

Leavitt: Will Hedrick get married in the next year?

Answer: Try harder

As you can see, it's all a load of crap :) But we've been having a blast with them. Everytime our guide G asks us what we want to do, we consult the bones. Tonight we went to a Mongolian culture show. It's funny, they played all these traditional instruments and all the stringed ones had only 2 strings! People really need to not tease me and my 4 stringed ukulele anymore. At least I have twice as many strings!

That was definitely a highlight of the trip-- especially to listen first hand the Mongolian throat singers. They use their mouths as an instrument, but where it gets tricky is when they can sing two notes at once. We've resolved to master throat singing so Keri, Nat, Leavitt and me have banded together and started practice on our throat singing quartet. Leavitt goes super low and sounds like a cow mating, Nat goes more soprano and sounds like a sparrow and me, well, I'm just trying to actually not bust out laughing every two seconds.

I'm really digging the Mongolian food too. For lunch we actually did this mix of foods-- Indian and Mexican, so Indi Mex. Keri was craving nachos or "nachos" as the case may be here. Nat and I did the korma dish and it was all like 3 dollars or

so!

Which brings me to something that keeps screwing us up, the money thing. They use high denominations, so a meal would cost us 12,800 mongolian. That's just too many zeros. I keep mixing up 1,000 and 10,000 notes, which probably isn't the best

thing.

Tomorrow we head to the ger camp and will be hanging out with nomads! I'm looking forward to this part of the trip. I'll be out of contact for a wee bit, but I always enjoy everyone's emails (I feel more connected).

It's been such a great day with the rain and all. I love rain, its been a nice relief! Hopefully it will clear out a bit for our nomad weekend!

Talk to you all soon!

Emily the Horrible Throat Singer

emLogs #08 - I Ate Mr. Ed

We made it to Ulaanbataar, Mongolia in one piece. Ragged, but in one piece. We

took a 28 hour train ride north and across the border.

Actually, the story starts before we left for the train station. Leavitt, Nat and me

spent our last night in Beijing going to see the Chinese Acrobats! It was the coolest

thing EVER!! They did things that only Spiderman or Mr Fantastic could do. The

girl acrobats could do this weird crazy contorted thing that was a little too creepy.

But then they got more daring and 15 piled on to one bike and cruised around on

stage. It was very cool.

The guys totally defied gravity and would do all these flips 30 feet into the air landing

on to some little chair held by a go on stilts. I don't even know if I'm painting

this picture very well-- suffice it to say, it was well worth the 160 yuan!

Afterwards we hopped on the subway to go to the bug market. Thats where you

find things that people that should just not be on a stick. This aint no corndog or

popcicle. We saw: silk worms, centipedes, scorpions, snake and even a tape worm.

The guy would bang on the counter and the scorpions would wiggle with a stick

through them. I wont lie, it was gross. We didn't eat them.

The train wasn't that bad. The three of us shared it with Keri from the U.K. In fact,

she's my hotel mate now. She's very funny and has a quick wit. We're really liking

her and have a blast hanging out together.

We walked around Ulaanbataar or UB and I must say, I love it soooo much more

than China. I feel a though Mongolia is more my speed. It's not as crowded, people

are nicer and we don't get anyone doing sneaky pictures of us. Not that the pictures

were a huge problem, I would shamelessly pose for all of them :)

UB itself reminds me of a cross between Comodoro, Argentina and Beijing. So basically

a concrete jungle with unrecognizable words. As we came in from the outskirts,

it's like everything you see in movies, large grassy landscapes with horses

crowded around a yurt or the Mongolian Ger. We'll be staying here in the capital

for a few nights and then head to the national forest where I will begin my black

hole communication part of the trip. So be prepared to be bombarded with emails!

Tonight we did the Mongolian BBQ thing and it's just like you would see back

home, except with one exception-- you can eat horse! I totally did! It was great, but

it felt almost wrong. The odd thing is, there isn't a McDonald's on every corner-- in

fact, I have yet to see one.

One thing that is kind of weird about this region of the world. Is that at the country's

borders you have to stop for about 2 hours while the border people change the

train wheels. I guess the wheels in China are different for Mongolian tracks. We sat

there at midnight waiting for these to get changed out. Then we got woken up at

1:30am to hand people our passports. It was an interesting night.

Despite being on the train that long, it was surprisingly not bad. I passed the time

by watching House Season 5 and playing my travel ukulele. In fact, I got the Dutch

girls to sing along! It was awesome, we have definitely livened up the place.

Well I better get some laundry done. I need to clean the China out of it! Talk to you

all soon enough!

Emily Khaan

emLogs #07 – “No, diarrhea”

Greetings from Beijing!

      

Nat has been teaching us some basic Chinese here and there. Mostly to fend ourselves off from overzealous vendors. My biggest phrase is, “Boo, shiu shiu” which I probably spelled wrong. It means “No, thank you” however, if I say “shiu shiu” with a slightly different pronounciation I just told people, “No, diarrhea”. I’m still wondering how many vendors are laughing at me trying to speak Chinese or if I told them no about diarrhea.

 

The last few days have been a lot of fun. We’ve met up with the tour group and everyone seems to be getting along rather nicely. I think it’s mostly Leavitt and I and our charming personalities J It’s a great group with fun personalities. Very dynamic and I’m really enjoying traveling around with them so far.

 

Yesterday we headed to the Great Wall that extends from horizon to horizon. Leavitt created a stir when she asked someone about a fan or something at one of the stands. She opened up the capitalistic Pandora’s box and we were suddenly swarmed. Thank you Leavitt!

 

I took a different route to the top i.e. the gondola. There was no way I was going to spend my time hiking up to the top, I was going to be up there taking pictures and walking the wall! It was great though, I headed from tower to tower along the wall. The steps are a bit dodgy because they aren’t very tall, but they are wide and so you can’t take long strides across or go in a set rhythm along the wall. This made walking a little more tedious—having to watch your step and all that. Besides, I really wasn’t in the mood to biff it in front of the vendors. My self esteem couldn’t handle that.

 

We had a few options of getting from the Great Wall down to our bus. We chose the most fun route via toboggans! Totally serious, we had these little sled things and a really fun chute that we would go down. Unfortunately we had these old French ladies in front of us that were especially brake happy. Other wise, we were always being told to slow down or slamming into the back of one another! Crappy French ladies!

 

Today we did the Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City thing. Tiananmen Square is huge, I guess you can fit a million people there. It’s mostly a peaceful gathering place for festivals and things. The only thing that popped in my head was, “Where is the place where the tanks came through?” It’s a very large square though and with Mao’s mug hanging in the middle.

 

The Forbidden Palace was pretty awesome. The movies make it look larger than I had thought it would be. It was still mighty impressive though. They said that the weather was going to be 37 degrees Celsius (I have no idea Fahrenheit), there was a nice cool breeze that helped alleviate the dry heat. Our guide Kevin, told us that he’s been taking tour groups through here for 6 years and this is only the tenth time where he had blue skies—we had been very fortunate!

 

Most guides that take you through any place we’ve seen in China so far, have these obnoxious megaphones and flags that people follow. When we saw our local guide Kevin, we immediately pounced on him telling him, “No flag!” We couldn’t emphasis that enough. Instead he would walk around with his water bottle which looked a little less stupid.

 

Tomorrow we get up crazy bright and early to head on the train to Mongolia. We will take the train for just over 24 hours to the capital, Ulaanbataar. We’ll be crossing the Gobi desert and hopefully not getting too much cabin fever. Leavitt is itchin’ to ride a camel. Apparently they have 2 humps, so why not?

 

I’ll do my best to get a full report of Mongolia soon! Cheers!

 

E