Wandering Fractal

Church on Blood in Honour of All Saints Resplendent in the Russian Land. Yes that's the official name. It was built were the last emperor of Russia, Nicholas II was executed. Yekaterinburg, the fourth largest city of Russia. I spent a day visiting the city and it's many churches. It's a lovely place, but I didn't spend too much time there. It was more to take a break in the long train ride from Asia to Europe. Pigeon It took 35 hours to go from Krasnoyarsk to Yekaterinburg with the train. It is the longest time I have ever been in a train. While most of the Russians doesn't like their train, I found them very comfortable. You can drink tea in the traditional glass while admiring the view and trying to chat with  your Russian neighbor.

The vast forest of the Stolby nature reserve. After seventeen hours of train I arrived at Krasnoyarsk. The city is pleasantly build along the huge Yenisei river. But the main reason I stopped here was to go see the Stolby nature reserve. It's only 10 km from the city and can be reached with a city bus. I went there with Louis and his dad, Malcolm from London. I met them in Ulan-Ude and by coincidence we were in the same train/hostel in Irkutsk and Krasnoyarsk. That's one of the crazy thing about the trans-Siberian, you always meet the same people again and again on your journey. In the bus, we met Aptem, a local guy who was also heading to Stolby to hike. He became our guide for the day. He showed us the best spots. We also met three Ukrainian tourists and they came with us. They all shared their food with us poor westerner who didn't bring anything. It was a wonderful day and more than the beauty of Stolby, I will always remember the hospitality and generosity of ...

Sunset over the Baikal. View from Listvyanka. My first stop on my trans-siberian journey was around the lake Baikal. I first went to Ulan-Ude and hiked the east shore of the lake. Then I went to Irkutsk and hiked the west side of the lake. The Baikal is impressive. It's so huge that when you look at the longest side you can't see the end. My first impression when seeing it, was that it looked like an ocean. It's a beautiful place with nice hikes. The east side is more flat and sandy whereas the west side is more steep and has a Mediterranean vibe. If you are there don't miss the Omul. It's a fish found only in the Baikal and it's delicious. You can eat it smoked, baked or fried, but my favorite dish was the Omul Sugudai. Raw fish with onions and lemon (it's similar to ceviche). The water of the Baikal is so pure you can drink it without filtering. Snowy mountains on the east side of the lake. Autumn colors were starting to pai...

Rock formations of the park. Only 50 km from Ulaanbaatar you can find the Gorkhi-Terejl national park. It's a bit less wild than the rest of Mongolia (you will find tourist camps a bit everywhere), but it's easy to reach from the capital and offers some beautiful landscape. I took a public bus to go there. It was already the low season and the number of bus per day went from 2 to 1. I didn't have any difficulty to find a Ger to sleep during the night. I just went to what looked like a tourist camp and asked. The next day I hiked some more in the park. I really enjoyed the sensation of freedom. You could walk to any place that looked interesting. To go back, I had already missed the only bus to Ulaanbaatar so I hitchhiked. Luckily the first car that came by stopped. It was a group of Korean Christian missionary. They were so nice they even invited my for a late lunch at a Korean restaurant on our way back to the capital. Ariyabal meditation temple.

You feel tiny when you're standing on the endless steppes of Mongolia with a 180 degree view on our galaxy. People say of Mongolia that it's the Land of blue sky and it is true. But it can also be bright red at sunrise or sunset. And it can have thousands of stars. You never get bored looking at the sky. The trusty Toyota Land Cruiser that took us all around the Gobi desert. Sunset.

Khongoryn Els. A huge stretch of sand dunes. It's 100 km long. Some place in the Gobi are more arid than other. They often offer stunning geological formations. My favorite was the sand dunes of  Khongoryn Els. Climbing the tallest sand dune and then having the view over the sand, the mountains and the steppe was  breathtaking (literally and figuratively). On one side of Khongoryn Els is a small river. It makes a great contrast between the green around the river and the beige of the dunes. On this picture you can see the sand stretching to the left, but you can't see the end. The place is often called the "Singing Dunes", because of the sound the sand makes when blown by the wind. I didn't really heard them "sing", because it had rained in the morning and the sand was still a little wet. We walked to the top of the highest dune at more than 300 meters. It was exhausting. For every two step forward, you would slip one step back. The...

Buddhist temple. The Mongolian practice a version that is close to the Tibetan Buddhism. One of the highlight of our Gobi tour was to discover the lifestyle of the inhabitant of the desert. They live mainly from livestock: sheep, goat, cow, camel, horse. They eat the meat and the milk of the animals. I could even try the Airag, fermented horse milk. It was sparkling and sour. I'm glade I could try it, but I didn't ask for a refill. The skin and fur of the animals is used to make clothes and the Ger (yurt). They also sell their animals to make some money and buy what they can't get from the land. It's a harsh way of living with little water, extreme temperatures and having to work 365 days per year (no break when you take care of the livestock). But the nomad we met were always smiling and had an incredible sense of hospitality. They would always give us the best food they had, even if it was something very rare and expensive for them. One of the local family ...

Skull of a dead goat. The Gobi desert is full of animals bones. I've spent 6 days in the Gobi desert in the south of Mongolia. It's a place of all the extremes. Temperatures can have 80 degrees of difference, from -40°C to +40°C. It can be completely dry for months then heavy rain can occur, rivers forms and huge floods cover the plains. It's a desert but it's not completely dead. It's full of plants and animals, but life there is harsh. Food and water is scarce. Climate is extreme. Hiding from predators is hard on those huge flat plain. The Gobi is a fascinating place. We were lucky to spot a lot of wild life: a corsac fox, some gazelles, lizards, but the most impressive was to witness a golden eagle hunting down a young gazelle. It was a bloody fight for life. Butterfly chrysalis. It was raining during summer, so part of the desert was green and full of flowers. The pink flowers are wild onions. Goat with her newborn baby. It was beginn...

The endless Mongolian steppes. In the morning I boarded the train K23 at the Beijing train station, direction Ulaanbaatar. The trans-Mongolian railway cross Mongolia from the south to the north, from China to Russia. This time I didn't had to get out of the train in the middle of the night to pass the border. The officials of China and Mongolia will board the train and come check your passport. Another thing that happen at the border is the switching of wheels. Mongolia use the Russian standard for their rails track gauge, but the Chinese use the smaller international track gauge. Instead of having passengers change train at the border, they change the wheels of the train. The wagons are brought to a hangar, elevated and the wheel block is switched. You can stay in the wagon during the process and watch the workers. It's interesting to see it from your cabin. Be careful during the passport control and wheels change the toilets are closed. It will last during five hours...

Fish pond in the Forbidden city. We stayed a week in Beijing, capital of China. We went to see the Forbidden city. The number of entries per day is limited. You can buy the tickets on the spot, but we wanted to be sure to have a ticket, so we booked them. The issue is that the web site is only in Chinese and only accept Chinese credit cards. We had to go trough an agency for a small fee. It did save use the queue at the entrance. The palace is impressive and you could spend a whole day walking inside the massive compound. On another day we went to the National Museum of China. It's close to the Forbidden City on the Tian'anmen square. The gigantic communist style building host artifacts from all over the country and from all its periods, from the prehistoric age to today. It's one of the most impressive museum I have seen and it's completely free ! If you stay in Beijing, don't miss the Hutongs. They are traditional quarter of small brick houses. ...

The walled city of Pingyao has retained it's old architecture. Being there feels like you have traveled to ancient China. The main roads are full of touristic restaurants and shops, but you can also go away and witness locals playing majong in front of their house. If you are there, try the local vinegar. I found it had a taste akin to balsamic vinegar, even if it's made from completely different ingredients.

Xi'an is one of the end of the silk road. This position has given the city a multicultural vibe. A friend of Switzerland joined me in China for a week and a half. We stayed in the Muslim quarter. It's inhabited mainly by the Hui people. They are the descendants of the Persian and Arab merchants and still practice Islam. Since they where well integrated into the Chinese culture and marriage with the Han were frequent, it's hard to differentiate a Hui from a Han if it wasn't for their clothes. Men's wear white caps and women wear scarfs. They also have developed their own cuisine and it's delicious. The Muslim quarter is always bustling with people and I would really recommend staying there. Another attraction in Xi'an is the wall that protected the old city. You can walk on it and go around the city. But of course the main reason travelers come to Xi'an is to see the Terracotta Army. The site is located outside the city and can be reached by publ...