Oh my god!
Are you fucking kidding me?!
I just landed in Beijing in China
and this is where I'll be starting my Trans-Siberian Railway adventure.
Behind me, of course, is the very famous Tian An Men Square Gate.
I'm here with lots and lots of people, can you see?
This is my very first time in China.
I've made a conscious decision to never come to this place. I don't know why.
Maybe because I don't trust that the food here is real because of all the documentaries
that I've seen online but you know what, that's a very insular way to think.
How can you expand your mind if you don't actually get out of your bubble and comfort
zone and actually explore the world and experience it for yourself firsthand?
There's so much culture, there's so much history...
China is quite the force to be reckoned with and I just cannot believe I'm standing here
at Tian An Men Square.
Probably the largest square I've ever set foot on out of all the places that I've been to.
What a great way to kickstart my Trans-Siberian Railway adventure.
This is my guide, Pao.
He's also a foodie and he's taking me around the streets of Beijing and we took 2 trains
to come to this small little district for jian bing, which is a type of pancake.
This guy has scored every single jian bing in Beijing and he decided that this is number 1.
And we're queueing up at this dodgy little back door.
You can't even see how they're preparing it, it's very mysterious.
There's no tourists here at all, just locals who are in the know.
Wow.
There's also other forms of meat.
Look at that.
All kinds.
I'm here at the Great Wall.
There's a bit of a break and that's where we'll be starting our hike from,
all the way up there.
As you can see, zero tourists.
It's the only part of the Great Wall that was broken through by a bunch of peasants
who were revolting against the then king.
You can't do Beijing without doing the Great Wall.
So you get up the wall through a little hiking path.
Oh my god, so beautiful...
and so bloody steep!
Guys, I've only just started!
Holy shit!
I totally understand why there are no tourists here.
This is a really, really steep part of the wall and I wouldn't recommend coming here
without a guide.
At the worst, at the steepest, it was about a 70-degree angle with no stairs, by the way.
And I wore hiking shoes and even then I felt like slipping backwards all the time.
Still have that much more to go and that's only the hump.
This runs across China, guys.
This runs across China.
The Great Wall of China spans from east to west of China and I have only covered a fraction
of a fraction of it.
And I've seen enough.
It is amazing how the people actually built it back in the day.
As a tourist, just climbing one teeny weeny portion of the wall, I'm feeling exhausted
already.
I think after an hour in, I've seen enough.
I'm ready to go back.
How are you, Jack?
Huh? Good! Haha
I think I'm gonna slide all the way down to the carpark, guys.
Time now is 6.30am and I'm here at the Beijing Railway Station.
This is where I'll be departing and embarking on my Trans-Siberian Railway adventure.
Oh my god, I can't believe I'm doing it!
So I'm gonna go from Beijing all the way to Russia via Mongolia and Siberia and I'm pretty
much just waiting to board the train.
My train mate, Liz.
Hello!
We were told to go back and forth because 2 conductors can't seem to get their shit together.
Commotion. Fighting, fighting, fighting. Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight.
So second class cabin is a four-bedder.
And here's a tip, you wanna get the lower beds because then you have access to the table.
So far there's no one sleeping above us and we hope that it stays that way.
We're also issued pillows and sheets but the pillow, as you can see, is super fucking gross.
You see, like saliva stains and all that.
Liz is like "I'm eating, I'm eating!"
And then we're also issued sheets which I am absolutely not gonna touch.
And then we have these covers that are super useless because they're a bit stained but
I had no choice so I kinda lined my bed with this mattress cover.
I'm probably going to sleep on my backpack.
Oh my god, we are moving!
This is so unreal!
Okay so this is where the toilets are.
Oh my god!
Are you fucking kidding me!
You are kidding me!
2 hours on the train, time for some food so I'm making my way to the dining cart right now.
Tadah, this is my snack stash.
The train journey can be quite long, so I was advised to bring some snacks on board
so I can swap them with fellow passengers.
So I've decided to bring Bee Cheng Hiang bak kwa (BBQ pork jerky). These are individually
wrapped so I can share them with passengers from outside of Singapore.
This is my favourite buy.
I bought this when I was in Scandinavia.
These are like tea in a bag that doubles up as a kettle.
See, just brew in the bag, and then it kinda strains in the bag and then doubles up as
a kettle and you can kinda pour it out in a cup.
So it's about 8pm right now and in about 3 hours, we'll be swapping dining carts.
Currently we're on a Chinese train with a Chinese dining cart.
We're gonna be swapping out to a Mongolian dining cart and this whole changing of carts
will take about 4 hours.
Okay so they changed the dining carts, it's the Mongolian cart right now and seriously,
the interiors are sick!
Look at the details!
So this is what happens when the train goes from China to Mongolia, Siberia and then Russia.
The dining carts change according to the regions we travel into.
So there's breakfast, omelette with onion...
Launch... which is a cabbage salad with steamed beef...
and borscht with cream!
Oh I'm having borscht.
Food on the Mongolian dining cart.
Just reached Ulaanbaatar.
Welcome to the city of Ulaanbaatar.
And here's a fun fact: 8 out of 10 cars here in Ulaanbaatar are Toyota Prius.
Look! Prius, Prius, Prius...
They're everywhere.
By the way, the city of Ulaanbaatar is our first stop in Mongolia.
Tomorrow morning I'll be going to the National Park and staying in a ger with a nomadic family.
I'm here just outside of Ulaanbaatar and behind me is a towering statue of Genghis Khan.
This is the tallest statue in the world, taller than Christ the Redeemer in Rio and it's put
together 10 years ago by 500 engineers.
I've finally arrived at my ger in the Terelj National Park.
Oh my god, so beautiful.
Just getting a taste of what it's like to be Mongolian and to be amongst nature and
I love it.
I'm in a tourist ger camp, this is not the most authentic experience but you know what,
I forgive because we're in this valley right now surrounded by stunning mountains.
I am just grateful.
Really, really peaceful.
I am ger number 16.
Stepping inside.
This bit here is kinda like the kitchen stovetop. You can use it to heat up the tent or you
can cook over it like a barbecue and stuff like that.
And this bed that directly faces the main door is where the head of the household sits at
or sleeps at. Because that's the most honourable spot.
That is where the guest will sit.
And to the right would be another bed if this was an authentic tent, and that's where the
women and children will sit.
And here would usually be the cooking and firewood area.
So you turn these wheels clockwise and it's said that it will erase all your past wrongdoings
and mistakes.
Who am I to contest something that's been going round for centuries?
So I just visited the meditation temple.
Ever since I went to Bhutan I believe in good vibrations.
Being on top here surrounded by nature, whether you're a believer or non-believer, believe
me, you will receive.
These days, nothing makes me happier than hiking.
It's just so good for the soul.
So my guide just gave me this.
This is like a flower.
But what actually is it?
Wild onion! It's like a spring onion.
Wow it's actually very sweet.
This is so good!
Foraging, guys. Foraging.
So what is this?
Where can you buy this?
So I see that there's some black bits in there. What are they?
This one is grass.
Grass?!
In the milk?!
It smells like there's very gamey meat in it.
You know what, it's not so bad now.
It's sour, it tastes like cheese. Like goat's cheese.
And it tastes like...
there's mutton in there.
Liz, your turn.
Liz: Oh no.
Tastes like gone-off yoghurt. I don't hate it.
She likes anything with alcohol.
I'm 1/3 of the way into my Trans-Siberian train journey to Moscow.
Can I just say I am so glad that I've kickstarted this trip from Beijing.
I've stayed away from China all these years on purpose, no thanks to all these videos
on YouTube that show China selling fake food. From fake eggs to meat made from cardboard,
so of course I got paranoid because food is life to me.
But you know, I decided that this year is all about getting out into the world, outside
of my bubble.
To see the world with my own eyes for what it is instead of just settling for secondhand
news. And you know what, I fell in love with the city.
Not a fan of the smog, but oh my god, the city has some beautiful architecture and it
helped that the food was next-level amazing.
My expectations of Mongolia were pretty high.
I mean I expected stunning landscapes and pretty good food. Well, I did get stunning
landscapes, I mean they were everywhere - breathtaking.
People were lovely and warm.
Unfortunately, the food was a huge dealbreaker for me. The Mongolian diet consists mainly
of bland, boiled meat.
I just can't deal with that. They don't really eat green leafy vegetables as well, which
is a huge problem for me because I love my vegetables and I can't live without them.
I tend to make big life decisions around food so I think it's safe to say that I will not
be coming back to Mongolia for a long time ever.
I'm sorry.
Tomorrow morning I hop back on the train, this time to Irkutsk in Siberia, it's like
a Siberian border town.
Not sure what to expect but I'm ready to set foot into Russia.
It's always been my dream to go to there.
If you want to follow my journey, you can do so on Instagram, I'm at @heyrozz.
If you haven't done so already, download the clicknetwork app, it's absolutely free. And
you get to watch the videos up to a month ahead of its YouTube release so get it, get it, get it.
Yeah, I guess I'll see you in Siberia, bye!