Mongolia

OK, if you missed it on my livejournal blog, here is the account of my travels in Mongolia. Over the next few days and weeks I shall be updating my blog more as I now have time, what with being in Australia and all...

(14/10/2006-25/10/2006)

The unplanned train journey to Mongolia with Nina and Luca, with Miia and Chris the Canadians in the compartment nextdoor, was fairly uneventful, but as I was travelling with others for a change it was not so boring, even the 8 hours it took to cross the 5km between the Russian border check and the Mongolian one weren't so bad. When we got off in Ulaanbaatar we were surrounded by people trying to get us to go to their guesthouse, but we'd already decided we'd go to the Golden Gobi guesthouse as it had been recommended to us, and they had a free pickup for us too.

Once there we asked about tours we could do and discovered that Sally, the Australian I'd met on Olkhon, was waiting for others to go on a 10 day one to the Gobi, so that we were able to have it all organised before the afternoon to start the next day. That sorted, we got our train tickets for Beijing for when we got back, ate, and went to the black market, a huge place full of pretty much everything, although all I got were some gloves, the two girls got some pretty cool Mongolian boots.

The tour was for 10 days with the driver Tsengel and the guide Tsenguné a.k.a. Cowboy Clint in a Russian jeep-van-thing, but I don't have the time or energy to give a blow by blow account, so instead here are some of the highlights: on the first day, and quite frequently afterwards we could see some huge birds of prey, eagles, hawks and condors, not far from the road. Also on the first day we stopped at some very impressive rock formations that would make a good setting for a Western. We'd often see heards of various animals, sheep, goats, cows and horses weren't that exciting, but on the second day we saw some camels, and on the third Cowboy Clint yelled out "Yak yak yak yak yak!". The third day was the first really interesting stop at a place called Bearded Vulture Canyon, and then at a salt lake where we discovered some bones which we could only assume to be the remains of a Ninajoelosaurus Rex and a Sallysaur. After that we had some fun when Tsengel spotted some gazelles a while after sunset and drove of the road to chase them in the van headlights.

The fourth day featured the joys of camel riding. At first this wasn't much fun as the camels were stupid and slow so to reach the sanddunes before sunset they had to be tied together and rushed along so close that my shin kept banging into the bony arse of the camel in front. On the way back though I managed to get mine to gallop, which was great fun. We then saw the Flaming cliffs, where lots of dinosaurs were discovered, a ruined monastery pony trekking in some mountains to a waterfall, and finally Kharakhorum, Chinggis Khaan's ancient capital, although there is nothing left of it. Instead there's a new city and a Buddhist monastery with temples built in Chinese, Tibetan and Mongolian styles, and plenty of very violent and explicit paintings that undermine the hippy stereotype of Buddhism as a peaceful religion. And on the last day, as we all suffered from the vile cheap Mongolian vodka of the night before, we saw Turtle Rock and Penis Rock, which looked as you would expect them to.

Apart from one night in a hotel, all the others we spent in girs, commonly known as yurts in the West. They have a stove in the middle which heats it wonderfully, but if you forget to get up in the night and put more wood (or coal, or dung) on it then gets bloody cold. Another interesting experience was driving. Like Olkhon, out of Ulaanbaatar Mongolia has very few real roads, and those that do exist are in a terrible state, so everyday we would have about 300km of rollercoaster like driving. But it wasn't scary because you soon realise that Tsengel knows exactly what he's doing and you're probably safer than on the roads in the UK. Even when things break, such as the front right suspension did on the seventh day, ten minutes with a bit of rope was all he needed to fix it and it was fine right back to Ulaanbaatar.

The main problem in Mongolia was the food, as 4 out of 5 meals included mutton. The food was very nice, even camel (which tastes like beef), but mutton soon gets very monotonous, and I never want to taste it again in my life. The cold was also getting quite bad by the time we left, so even though that was by far the best and most fun part of my trip so far, I was still glad to be moving south to China.