3 April
Thankfully, a free day. Still plagued with the “Chinese Crud”, I flake out all day while others do some last minute China shopping. We had asked our guide to arrange tickets to a show to see the famous Beijing acrobats. While others attended, I continued to vegetate.
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A lovely free day! I meet Betty, Linda, and Jennifer at 9:30 to go to a market where I pick up purses and a bag. We return to the hotel to find that Chuck is still not feeling very well, so Betty and I head out to the silk market to pick up the clothes Chuck had made for himself. I got a super neat silk jacket embroidered with butterflies – blue, Betty got one in green. Later in the trip we wonder aloud on the dining car on the train if we couldn’t work up an act – perhaps we might sing something like, “We are Siamese if you please. We are Siamese if you don’t please.” Well you get the idea. It really amused a boy sitting across from our table. I’m not sure we intended to be a comedy act, but— I also got some more pearls – rings for Cindy and maybe Jeanette. Then we went back to the hotel and I packed for the train to Ulan Baatar. I took all the stuffing out of the purses and packed my warm weather gear. I also loaded in books and souvenirs which pretty well filled the bag. I then went out and bought a pair of jeans that fit as my plan is to dump the ones I brought along because they DON’T fit. Also picked up a couple of bottles of wine and I’m good to go. The Johnsons, Betty and Charlotte went to the Chinese acrobats’ show. Chuck is still not up to par, and I just took it easy, made up the tips for our driver, Mr. Han, and Linda, our guide. Fran
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4 April
Rise early, bus to the Beijing International Train Station, say good-bye to our guide Linda and we are rolling north for an overnight journey to Ulan-Baatar, Mongolia. We had been told that our compartments would be “two-bunk” instead of the sardine-like “four-bunk” that we have twice endured. Ahh, a pleasant surprise. Not only are they two-bunk compartments but they are clean and very nice. The toilets at the ends of our railcar are “western style” and clean. Plus, our rail stewardess kept them fresh and clean the entire trip. We all agreed, she deserved a healthy tip.
Our little group has started exchanging books. Due to weight limitations, each of us only brought a few with us. Now we are reading those chosen by others. I selected one from Fran’s collection; “Peace Like a River” by Leif Enger.
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We leave Beijing at 7:30 AM to Ulan Baatar through northern China. It is very dry many of the cities look very industrial. Lots of work on the railroad – hard manual labor. We see many brick works and what look like open landfills. As we move north, we see some snow and ice on the rivers and standing water. It doesn’t look like a prosperous country, here.
We started across the Chinese border at 7:45PM. all off the train at 8:00. Back on about 11:00. Then we enter Mongolia and it’s another hour or two before we get passports checked and get the customs things taken care of. So—late night. Fran