Ten Top Places to Stay

It's our birthday! On the road for a whole year now! So to mark this milestone I've decided to think about considering perhaps writing some articles. Here's the first one, my favourite ten places we've stayed over the last twelve months. So, in no particular order...

Nikita's Homestead, Lake Baikal, Russia

Half way up Lake Baikal's west coast lies Olkhon Island, a small rock which has only been connected to the power grid in the last five years - and is still not not connected to the Russian telephone network.  This is the place ex-Russian table tennis champion Nikita elected to open his guesthouse and bring tourism to this remote part of Siberia.  After the extortionate rates we had paid for sub-standard accommodation in Saint Petersburg and Moscow, we could hardly believe the reasonable prices Nikita charged. Even more incredible was the fact that this was inclusive of three hot meals a day.

The 'homestead' itself was set in a bizarre kind of compound of traditional Siberian wooden buildings and Mongolian style yurts. We shared a two-bedroom cabin with Benoit and Amandine, a French couple we had met before in Irkutsk on the way to Baikal. The facilities were understandably very basic, with a chemical toilet and no running water (despite the fact that we were a mere stone's throw from the world's most voluminous body of fresh water). Each morning we were given a bucket of water for cleaning teeth and washing hands; there was no shower - major ablutions were in the 'banya' - I refer you to a previous article for more details on this.

Despite the lack of modern comforts, our cabin was warm and cosy. The well insulated wooden walls kept in the heat provided by the central hearth so despite the freezing Siberian nights, we were never uncomfortable during the nights.

Our cabin also had both a porch and living area, the only cabin so endowed as it turned out. We made good use of this, inviting all the other travellers we met back to our cabin for drinks and peanuts (or, rather, vodka and pickled tomatoes) each evening. Half of them, like us, were heading across Russia, through Mongolia and into China, the other half were going the other way, heading through Russia and back to Europe. This always ensured a good mix of nationalities and an interesting selection of travel anecdotes. There was a real feeling of being part of a travelling community, such a diverse mix of people, but all united by a love of exploring the world. Lots of good memories.

Leo Hostel, Beijing, China

For me perhaps the benchmark by which I measure all other hostels, Leo Hostel in my mind is inextricably connected with the sounds, smells and general bewilderment of our arrival in Beijing, the capital city of an uncompromisingly foreign country. After successfully navigating the easy to use and super efficient metro system, found ourselves in Qianmen, just shouting distance from Tiananmen Square. After working out exactly where we were supposed to be heading, Florine and I, along with a couple of other backpackers with whom we had taken the train from Mongolia, set of in search of Leo's.

I remember the walk clearly. We were surrounded by busy Beijingers on all sides, going about their business and for the most part oblivious of us strange foreigners with our enourmous bags on our backs. We passed open fronted shops decorated with traditional red lanterns, selling Chinese sweets, teas and other strange things we couldn't identify; street vendors used recordings on loudhailers to advertise their wares in a repetitive wail of incomprehensible noise; and at frequent intervals, delicious-smelling street food was being cooked, meat and seafood skewers, sweetcorn and other things we didn't recognise, all imploring me to stop and try. At one point our noses were assaulted by a vile stench which I put down to a pile of uncollected refuse or something similar. Much later I learned to recognise this aroma as the malodourous presence of a 'stinky tofu' vendor, in fact a very tasty snack; but at this point I was a very 'green' China traveller and such things were still beyond my experience.

This was the disarrayed state of my mind when we finally arrived at the doors of Leo Hostel, situated down a wonderfully atmospheric 'hutong' (a kind of old narrow street). Once we had filled in our forms, one of the numerous members of staff led us to our room. First we passed through the bar area, a large area, dimly lit with more red Chinese lanterns and occupied by long tables, couches and even a bed arranged around a large projection screen playing DVDs. The decor was perfect and the place exuded atmosphere. Once through the bar we found ourselves walking through a much more peaceful courtyard, again decorated in traditional Chinese style with more of the ubiquitous lanterns, lots of green plants, Chinese furniture and lattice work. This was a hostel on a different scale from anything we had experienced and maybe even imagined. Hostels before Leo's had included at best a small social area with a television, a small kitchenette and, primarily, a bed. Leo Hostel was conceived with much grander ambitions and the sense of excitement at being here was an almost physical sensation. Finally up to our rooms and we found that in addition to our bed, we had our own personal locker - which even had a power socket inside so that we were able to charge our valuable electrical appliances without leaving them alone in the room! The people who opened this place had really thought about what they were doing!

Leo's was the perfect base from which to explore the Chinese capital, with the red t-shirted staff always there to help, offer advice or just chat whenever we felt like it. We also loved the street where we were staying. One step outside was enough to remind us that we could be nowhere else in the world but China. Opposite the hostel were two restaurants specialising in Beijing's famous dish, Beijing duck, and one of the restaurants seemed to employ an old man with and incredible voice to just sit outside the restaurant and shout all day. I remember waking up each morning to the distant cries of 'Beijing kao ya' and each time smiling to myself as I remembered again that I was in China.

So many fun times at Leo's, so many stories and so many new friends. There is no way I would ever stay anywhere else in Beijing - I've already been back twice since my first time and both times I was warmly welcomed back by Leo's great staff. Just be careful of Leo's special vodka!

ฺBig Brother, Qingdao, China

A small hostel on the coast of China's Shandong province, Big Brother easily made up for its small deficiencies by having fantastic staff and just by being such a fun place to be. The rooms were fitted out with brand new Ikea style furniture and included personal lockers and everything else we needed. The only problem was the small common area - but in the end this turned out to be a very minor problem indeed. We spent many hours in there chatting with other travellers and the staff, drinking cheap Qingdao beer and baijiu. It felt as though we were at somebody's house.

The great atmosphere was enhanced by the different themed evenings Liza, the Hong Kong born owner, organised for us. We took advantage of the seafood night, for example, where a selection of local shellfish was cooked for us and served at a long table, a great opportunity to test local specialities without the risk of food poisoning from dodgy mussels, and also a good chance to meet some of the other people staying at the hostel. On other nights when the hostel wasn't busy, Liza even closed the doors and everyone went out together for dinner in different restaurants around the area.

I couldn't talk about Big Brother without mentioning our accommodation for the last part of our stay. We left the comfort of our Ikea beds for the tatami room, essentially a large converted attic space covered with tatami mats where we slept on the floor with whoever else was staying there at the time. A unique and much more intimate hostelling experience. A big thumbs up for Liza and her Big Brother. I wouldn't consider staying anywhere else in Qingdao and look forward to seeing the team again next time!

Wada Hostel, Guilin, China

One of my absolute favourites; I haven't chosen a top three but I think Wada would have to be a strong contender for a spot if I had. A brand new hostel when we arrived, only open for two weeks, they have a bar, TV and DVD room and above all the lovely 'bamboo garden' where you can sit and chat or read with a cold bottle of the local Li beer.

After a long and hellish overnight train journey we arrived late in the evening in Guilin and could only think about checking in and going to bed; but so welcome did I feel that I couldn't resist staying up for a couple of drinks and a chat with the staff before I finally made it to our room.

What I loved above all about this place was the staff, the fact that they were so happy to speak to us or play pool or help us learn a few words of Chinese, and it really felt that they were almost as happy to be there as we were. It was also quite clear that they really listened to all our suggestions on how to improve their hostel. I remember one day I told them they needed a pool table. I was shocked, then, the very next day when I went into the bar to see them unpacking a brand new table which had just arrived! In the end it turned out that the pool table had already been ordered and it wasn't actually my idea; but everything else we suggested, they acted on with astonishing speed. I mentioned that the security level was not quite good enough. The next day I saw a member of staff labelling the new padlocks they had rushed out to buy. Florine mentioned there weren't enough bins. Within a day, there was a very tasteful bin in every corner. And my favourite, before we left to go to Nanning, we told them that they should buy a barbecue and put on barbecue nights for the guests. A week later when we returned from our trip, I was told there was a special surprise for me. That evening they opened up the new barbecue which they had ordered online and we had the honour of being able to attend the first Wada barbecue night, an instutution in the making! And for us it was all free because it was our idea! (But shh! don't tell anyone else that because the others all had to pay about 1 euro for unlimited delicious barbecued chicken, lamb pork and all kinds of Chinese veg.).

I loved all the people at Wada, I miss them all and I can't wait to go back to see them all again next time I'm in Gangxi.

Traditional Mongolian Gers, Gobi Desert, Mongolia

One of the more unusual places we slept was when we stayed with nomads in the Mongolian desert. The ger is the traditional felt tent of the Gobi, circular in shape and held up by two central posts within. In one 'corner' of the ger there is normally a buddhist altar and on either side of this the nomads arrange their furniture. In the centre of the ger is a stove which doubles up for cooking and heating purposes. We were shocked at first to discover that the fuel for these stoves is none other than dried animal dung, from either camels, sheep or goats. In fact, on further reflection, this is only logical, being the only combustible found in abundance in the desert; it burns very well and gives off a lot of heat and, surprisingly, there is no bad smell at all.

Sleeping in gers is not on my list of favourite places for the high level of luxury we experienced in the desert. The toilets were never more than a variation on the theme of a deep pit with two planks of wood to stand on, there were no showers, and the nights were very cold. When we turned in, we would always stoke up the poo stove with as much excrement as we could lay our hands on. The stove would then burn violently for a couple of hours so that we were all sweating in our beds. Once the poo burned down enough, we were able to get to sleep. Once it ran out, however, the freezing temperatures outside would seep into our tent and the last hours of the night were always spent shivering under piles of blankets hoping for someone to get up and relight the fire (which never happened) and waiting for the first warmth of the new day's sun.

What we enjoyed was the chance to experience the traditional nomadic lifestyle, even from a tourist's point of view. We ate the traditional food that the nomads eat themselves; we helped them herd their goats and tried to talk to them as much as we could. They live a hard life, deprived of most of the comforts we take for granted (although one ger actually had a black and white solar powered TV!), but the places they manage to subsist in, while undoubtedly harsh and unforgiving, are also undeniably some of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen.  After a week in the desert, though, I was ready to get back to some semblance of civilisation and a nice hot shower.

Mix Hostel, Chengdu, China

Another typical Chinese hostel in the style of Leo's, not on the same scale, not quite the same atmosphere, but an enjoyable place to be based for exploring the environs of Sichuan's pleasant capital. A good bar with cheap beer, TV and DVD room, table football, garden area and weekly barbecue. The first night there I ended up more than a little drunk playing drinking games with two Israelis, an American, a Dutch guy and some of the Chinese staff - at the instigation of Cai Cai, one of the girls who worked in the bar. AirCon in the bedrooms and even heated blankets in the beds. I couldn't believe it!

Taohuawoo Hostel, Suzhou, China

Another hostel I have a bit of a soft spot for and another very new one when we stayed there. I think they normally have a more Chinese based clientele at the moment, perhaps because Western travellers tend to opt for the older, more established hostels. I feel sure that when more people hear about it, they will have a more international crowd and they seemed to make a big effort to make us feel as comfortable and at home as possible.

The hostel is completely modern and absolutely spotless and the rooms are air-conditioned and comfortable. Downstairs they have a bar, with an outside terrace area; there's a pool table (where I won a free beer from the manager five minutes after we arrived) and even, unbelievably, a climbing wall! If all of this gets too much, there is also a large lounge area with sofas and tables and even a fake fireplace, a great place to sit and relax.

One memorable evening was after we went on a day trip to Tongli with two German girls we met. After returning to the hostel, we found ourselves outside on the terrace with yet another bottle of Qingdao. The hostel has a special deal where for every six beers you drink, you 'earn' a free one. Unfortunately, with four people, this is not a convenient number. So we had to buy another round to get our free beer. But that meant we had nine bottles and were only three short of another free one. And so on it went. By the end of the evening we had hijacked the bar and plugged our ipods into the surprisingly impressive stereo system, turning the place into a makeshift nightclub. At first, the four Europeans were the only ones dancing, but by the end of the night we had managed to coerce the bemused Chinese into joining us and it was well after midnight when the music finally stopped and we all made it to bed. Good times!

Train from Moscow to Irkutsk, Russia

Spending four nights on a train across the world's largest country with nothing to do but read or watch out of the window might not seem like much fun to some people; but believe me, in a year of travelling it still ranks as one of the best things we've done.

Most of the time I didn't even have time to read or gaze out of the window because so much was going on inside the train. There are two secrets to this trip. The first is not to buy the ticket from a travel agent before you leave. Just go to Moscow station and get the ticket there. I heard people saying they 'looked into' the trip and decided against it because it was too expensive. I heard people talking about figures like 'a thousand pounds' and so on. Our tickets for four days on the train cost us no more than about sixty euros. The second secret is to travel third class - and this is what made our trip. It took only twenty minutes for the first bottle of vodka and the accompanying jar of pickled tomatoes to come out and from then on it was a four day rolling party. Don't misunderstand me, vodka didn't feature as heavily as many imagine, but the generosity and warmth of the Russians were ever-present. Whenever anybody opened a package containing food, it was always passed around the carriage as a matter of course. We were given sausages, salted fish, beer and all kinds of other things; and of course we reciprocated, making many friends along the way.

A more varied cast of characters than we met on the train is hard to imagine. There was a father and his adult son who both worked in Moscow and who were travelling home to see their family for the first time in two years; we met a Chechen narcotics officer; at one point we were sharing the carriage with an ethnic Kazakh woman and her baby son; we were given bananas by an old lady who got on the train with us in Moscow and who blessed us when she left the train after three days, despite not being able to speak a word of English. And the list goes on.

The concept of time is a problem on the train. We crossed a new time zone every day and everyone who got on the train had a different time on their watch. The fact that we were on the train when the clocks went forward didn't help, and anyway, the trains run on Moscow time wherever they are in Russia with the result that nobody had any idea what the time really was. We found ourselves eating when we were hungry and sleeping when we were tired. After four days and nights we arrived in Irkutsk exhausted, smelly, utterly confused and desperate for a shower and a soft bed. If I ever have the chance to ride the train again I won't hesitate for a second. My only regret is that my Russian was so limited and that communication with these amazing, friendly people was much more difficult as a result.

The Golden Temple, Amritsar, India

In northern India's state of Punjab, lying an hour's drive from the sensitive border with Pakistan is the city of Amritsar, home of the Golden Temple, the most sacred site of Sikhism and heart of their religion.  The Sikhs are famed for their hospitality, which is part of their way of life and enshrined in their religion. Pilgrims are housed and fed for free - as are interested non-Sikh visitors in what for me is a shining example of what religion should be about but in practice rarely is.

We arrived at Amritsar train station having spoken to a friendly Sikh on the train who advised us to ignore the usual legion of rickshaw drivers and to take the free bus provided to the Golden Temple. Once there, we found our way to the spartan but comfortable dorms for foreigners where we wrote our names in the book and laid our claim to a bed each.  From here we found our way into the great dining hall where people sit in lines on the floor and are served unlimited amounts of delicious punjabi food by volunteers working at the temple. This was followed by a stroll around the sacred lake in the centre of which lies the Golden Temple itself, listening to the ritual Sikh music being played and sung within and broadcast around the compound and in fact around the world.

We spent four days at the Golden Temple, learning about Sikhism and benefiting from the Sikhs almost legendary hospitality. The Sikhs are an amazing group of people who made us feel so welcome and we leave with nothing but positive memories of them, their temple and their religion. This was one of the high points of our whole time in India.

Miyajima, Japan

We only ended up in Miyajima by an unlikely series of accidents but next time I am in Japan I will make an effort to go there again. Another place where a combination of beautiful setting, excellent atmosphere and good mix of people combined to create another memorable stay.

We weren't supposed to go to Miyajima at all. Miyajima lies across the bay from Hiroshima and on6th August 1945, people would have watched in horror as the mushroom cloud rose into the sky above their now famous neighbour. Due to coincidence and our bad organisation, our proposed visit to Hiroshima happened to fall on the 6th August, the anniversary of the dropping of the bomb. As a result the city was involved in putting on the usual array of ceremonies and memorial acts and as a result all affordable accommodation in the city was booked up weeks before. We had all but given up hope of finding somewhere to stay when Jojo, who we met up with in Tokyo, managed to find us a hostel in a small place nearby which neither of us had ever heard of.

Miyajima island is famous in its own right, having been described as 'one of the four most beautiful places in Japan' by a historical traveller. Our hostel was just across from the island on the mainland, right next to the ferry jetty.  The hostel was clean and efficient with a certain Japanese character. The common area was a tatami covered floor with a couple of low tables, the sleeping areas were large but well arranged so that we felt as though we were sharing with only four or five people instead of twenty or so which was the reality. Again, and this may seem to be a recurring theme, the single most important element wasthe barbecue nights, the chance to eat delicious grilled meat and squid with rice a noodles, washed down with plenty of Asahi beer. Good food, great company, excellent memories.

One thing I can't let slide, though - we were given special tokens for the shower entitling us to just FIVE minutes of water per day we were in the hostel. If we wanted more time, we had to pay. I thought this was a fairly 'unique' idea, more than just a little strange...

Comments

[Marie]

Great !
Why don't you write a travel guide or share your experience on tripadvisor.com ? I guess it would be useful for other globe-trotters !
Take care of yourselves.

[grenoulette]

happy birthday de voyage !!!