Our companions, from Wyoming, on the train between UB and Beijing, were Erin and Sam. Charmers though they were (hi guys!) they have seriously dented our amour propre. Our hitherto heroic (-seeming) crossing of a continent has been knocked into a corner, pipped to the post, dwarfed, cut down a peg (more idioms for you Iouna!) by their enterprise.
While we have Scrabbled, potnoodled, and gazed somnolently out of the carriage window at the passing scenery, they have been toiling through it on bicycles! They left Kazakhstan in August, and by circuitous routes aim to reach Prague by the early spring of 2010! Snookered! Buggered even.
Why are they on a train? It's apparently very troublesome crossing borders on bikes (officialdom can't cope with cyclists) and besides the Gobi is an inhospitable place at the best of times and in winter unpitying. Only a shaggy camel would survive. As it is we enjoy their company, share cakes and tales, and rejoice together in Obama's victory (they had tippled at the US Embassy in UB the night before).
The Gobi was uneventful, mostly flat with distant swells in the landscape, and quite awesome; I was glad to be watching it unfurl from behind glass. Eventually we passed into China, the military who checked our papers smiled and chatted a little in English to my great surprise, we followed sections of the Great Wall as we breakfasted, went through a series of monumental gorges to debouch into the plain of Beijing.
And here I am at the Bamboo Garden Hotel (Internet in every room) about to walk through the ornamental gardens full of gingko and fruiting persimmon, for a copious breakfast. Then perhaps the Forbidden City.
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Aww, them's generous words, you make biking sound so much harder than it actually is. It's easier than walking and certainly less complicated than trying to catch trains on time. Your delightful company on our route south eased our stress brought on by confined spaces and border patrols, it was truly a pleasure berthing with you guys and we're eternally grateful for the dose of fresh reading material - we have yet to find English books in Beijing. BTW, I tried to access your blog several times earlier today and when the "access denied" page repeatedly popped up I thought you'd been espousing some unmentionable opinions (unmentionable because I want this post to go through on my local server) and blocked from my view - but yay, here you are, but also experiencing indicators that something is filtering your internet. We wish you all well, and a safe onward journey! - Erin and Sam
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