Wandering Fractal

Tallinn, capital of Estonia. The Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Three small countries with a lot of charm. When I first arrived in Tallinn, I felt like arriving in Switzerland. The city was small and uncrowded with a beautiful old town. Next I went to Riga in Latvia. They also have an old town, but it was my least favorite of the three Baltic capitals. Instead I went to Jurmala and the Gauja national park with a Russian I met there. He had a rental car so we went to the beach town of Jurmala in the morning and walking in Gauja in the afternoon. After Latvia, I went to Vilnius in Lithuania. It has an ancient university founded in 1579 and an artists' quarter. This gives the city a student and artistic vibe. To move from one country to another, I used the bus. You can cross countries with the train, but you need to change at the border. With the bus it's easier. You stay inside the whole trip and there is rarely any passport controls. Bird flying ...

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 ...

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...

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. ...

Giant Buddha statue carved from the cliff. The city of Leshan, south of Chengdu, host the world largest Buddha stone statue in the world. Carved in the cliffs of the Minjiang river, the Buddha sits peacefully. It's size is awe inspiring and the fact that it was constructed more than 1200 years ago makes it even more impressive. To go there, I took the first bullet train from Chengdu to Leshan (booked the day before). It was too early for the subway and I had to take a taxi to the train station. After taking a bus from the Leshan train station, I arrived at the Buddha just for the opening. It wasn't too crowded and the air was still cool. I had plenty of time to admire the statue. After that, I walked in the park, where they have tombs and temples. To go back to Chengdu, I took a bus from the terminal next to the train station. It was a perfect day trip from Chengdu. Stairs leading to an old abandoned house. A dying caterpillar dangling from its thread. Mol...

The roaring Jinsha river. On the second day of hiking I finished the trail and arrived at Tina's guesthouse. It's the place where you can catch the bus back to Lijiang and also the starting point to go down the gorge. You can take a free shuttle at Tina that will drive you to the start of the trail. You need to pay a small fee to local people that maintain the trail. It's a steep way down to reach the river. Until now I only saw the river from fare up. Getting close make you realize the size and power of the water that has carved the gorge. You can walk along the river and then go back up by another trail. The way up is though, especially after a day and a half of hiking. I got back at Tina's guesthouse and had a cold beer  while waiting for the bus. One of the best thing about this hike is that you meet other hikers on the way. Even if some goes faster or slower than you, you will bump into each other many times, sharing a meal, a beer or the place you are stay...