Update to the update

By steve on August 18th, 2004

Steve here. When we told the guides our plan to skip Mt. Ot, they got very sulky. Neither had been there before and they were disappointed to have driven 1500km and not go the last 40. So Kate and I had a private pow-wow and decided that they should go. So today Kate, Tsogo, and Ganba are driving up to the mountain, while I’m staying sequestered at lower elevation. I’m spending the day exploring the town, reading, and wasting some time on the good old internet.

My stomach is feeling a lot better today. I even had some huushuur for lunch, which is a deep-fried mystery-meat pastry.

The place we camped last night had another incredible view (pictures #80-#82). It’s worth bouncing around for 8 hours a day just to set up camp in such glorious places every night.

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Quick Mongolia update

By kate on August 18th, 2004

Very quickly… Steve’s stomach bug went away, possibly with the help of some cipro that we were kindly given by a fellow traveller. He is, however, suffering from some altitude sickness so he’s not up to par yet. I’m still doing OK (but for a minor cold) so I can take care of him.

We’re near the big mountain (Otontenger) but will probably skip it because of Steve’s altitude sickness.

Recent pictures here (#70 – #80).

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Hello from Moron

By kate on August 15th, 2004

Yes, we’re currently in a town called Moron… but don’t laugh, it means “river” and is pronounced “Murun”.

Unfortunately, Steve got a nasty bug and got sick in the middle of last night. He hardly got any sleep and threw up several times. Instead of a long day of driving, we drove 2.5 hours to Moron and splurged on a hotel room rather than camping. Now (the afternoon), he is resting in the room while I do errands. Luckily, I’m not sick at all so I can take care of him.

That illness aside, we’ve been having a great time. We have been up around Lake Khovsgol, and went on a two-day horse trek. It was about 5 hours of riding a day, and by the end we were both really good at handling our horses. Steve got a pretty lazy horse (this was backed up by our guide), so I got to gallop more than he did, but we both had fun riding through beautiful pastures and valleys. However, our back- and under-sides are quite sore today. 🙂

We were camping at a guesthouse yesterday and were able to see them slaughter a sheep for dinner. I found it pretty interesting, as icky as it may be. Steve thinks that his illness might have been a psychosomatic symptom of watching the butchering, though. Later last evening, they cooked the mutton in a rough pressure cooker over a fire while all the tourists watched.

The roads are pretty rough in Mongolia… anytime you go from place to place, you’re guaranteed hours of jouncing and jostling. It’s too bumpy to read or do much but look at the landscape and think. We bought a few tapes from the meager selection in UB: Radiohead, Run DMC, Madonna, and Westlife (a boy band – our guide’s choice). Trust me, that was the best we could find. They did have lots of Yanni but we gave that a pass. Like the rest of the world, Mongolians mostly buy CDs these days, so there aren’t many tapes around.

The biggest surprise for me here is that it’s not nearly as hot as we expected. The nights have been quite chilly (OK because it means less bugs) and the days fairly comfortable, in the 80s. It might get hotter as we head south, though.

Pictures start here (#33 – #69).

Assuming Steve is better tomorrow (the signs are positive), we’ll be heading next to Mount Otontanger, one of the highest mountains in the country, which has snow year-round. We’ll probably take two days to get there, or maybe more if we meet up and hang out with a nomad family.

That’s about all for now. I’m not sure if/when we’ll get to another city with internet access, so you may not hear from us again until the end of the month. Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of Steve.

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Leaving UB

By steve on August 9th, 2004

Well, all the details are set and we’ll be heading out of the capital in a few hours. We’ve hired a guide, Tsogo, who is 23 years old and teaches English at the University. He’s a bit shy and has only been working as a guide for a few months, but we get along well. Our first mission will be to find Tsogo’s wife, Dao, who is guiding a trip near where we’re going. He hasn’t seen her for a week and wants to say hi before he disappears for two weeks on his own trip. They’re newlyweds.

We’ve also hired a car and driver. We haven’t seen the car yet, but it’ll be something fitting the description of “Russian jeep”. Our driver doesn’t speak any English, but seemed friendly enough when we met him two days ago.

Yesterday we went to the store to buy groceries for the trip… rice, bread, vodka, etc. Their selection of spices is incredible! Incredibly bad, that is. There was salt & pepper, and then a bunch of “seasoning packets” that were in Russian which Tsogo couldn’t translate. I was hoping to find some cumin, but no luck…

Our plan is to be on the road for 18 days. We’ll probably be in a town every few days, but the odds of finding an internet cafe are slim.

We booked our trip though the UB Guesthouse. The owners are Mr. Kim and Bobby (a woman). We booked everything through Bobby.

Our plan is to drive to a few days to Lake Khovsgol, spend a few days there, then proceed in a counter-clockwise direction around a central mountain range called “Khangai”. Although we’re intentionally keeping our itinerary flexible, our general sequence of stops is going to be:

Erdenet
Moron
Lake Khovsgol
White Lake
Otgontenger Mouynain
A bunch of stops south of the mountains
Some waterfalls in the Orkon Valley
Kharkhorin
Back to UB

We should be back in UB on the 27th. If you don’t hear from us by the 29th, then we’re probably going to miss our train back to Beijing!

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Greetings from Ulaan Baator

By kate on August 8th, 2004

We made it to Mongolia! It’s been something we’ve been dreaming about for years, so it’s exciting just to be here.

The 30+ hour train ride was actually very nice. We had our own cabin, with two bench-type seats that also served as beds. No AC, but with the breeze blowing in the window, it was comfortable enough, at least when we were rolling.

We were stopped at the Mongolian border for nearly 6 hours, though. First, it was Chinese immigration. Then, Chinese customs carefully inspected the train (for contraband, I assume). Then, each car of the train had to be lifted off its wheels and put onto new wheels (because the gauge of the track is different in Mongolia and China).

Finally, we stopped again about a kilometer later and went through Mongolian immigration and customs. All of the immigration and customs was done by inspectors who came on the train. It may have taken a long time, but at least we could relax in our cabin.

The next morning, we awoke to see a herd of camels out of our train window – a good way to know we had really made it to Mongolia.

Now, we’re staying in UB, which is a fairly dismal town due to the derelict communist architecture. It looks almost like a slum on the outside, although the insides of the buildings are much nicer. We had a reservation at a guesthouse, but because it was full, the proprietor put us up in a friend’s apartment. It’s great; better than the guesthouse by far, and we have the friend, Gamba, to talk to. There are two other couples staying in the other bedrooms there, but there’s lots more space than at the guesthouse. His family (parents and younger siblings, I think) are staying at their summer house outside the city at the moment.

Pictures here.

We have made arrangements for a car, driver, and guide. We’re hoping to get all our provisions today and head out to the countryside tomorrow. Our guide, Tzogo, is a cute, kind of shy kid of about 19 or 20. His English seems pretty good, and we hope to draw him out of his shell on the trip.

First, we’ll head to Lake Khovsgol in the north, and then do a loop around the Khangai mountains.

We’re getting a break from the heat. Today is cool and cloudy (in the 50s!). In fact, we’re thinking we should maybe pick up a sweater before we leave.

Last night, we had our first real Mongolian food: buuz, which is basically ground lamb steamed in dough. Tasty, but greasy.

Not sure when we’ll be online again, although I hear that the provincial capitals sometimes have internet access.

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Beijing!

By steve on August 5th, 2004

Hello everyone! Today is our last day in Beijing before we take the train north to Mongolia. I’m feeling a little under the weather today — probably too much Peking Duck last night — but still trying to put in a full day of shopping. Need to bulk up on groceries for the 30 hour train ride!

Yesterday we visited the Great Wall. It was nice. A little pricey, and the bus ride out there was pretty long. All the walking and climbing is wearing me out, and I’m still not quite adjusted to the time change, so I went to bed early and Kate soon followed. We’ve been getting up pretty early in the morning, because of the time change, and that’s actually worked out quite well for us. People here tend to get up at the crack of dawn, to beat the heat.

Great Wall pictures here.

The food has been good so far, although as I said I’ve picked up a bit of tummy trouble. We had Peking Duck at the oldest Peking Duck restaurant on Beijing (aka Peking) and it was actually pretty good, although eating all that fatty skin is probably why I’m sick. The day before we stopped into a random little restaurant on the western side of the city. We had fun drawing pictures with the owner, and flipping through the translations in our guidebook, and eventually he brought out something like Kung Pao Chicken, and then a VERY tasty beef, onion, and chilies dish with cumin and cilantro. It was REALLY tasty and I ate the whole thing and that might be another reason why I’m not feeling so well today… 🙂

I’m looking forward to some cooler temperatures and cleaner air in Mongolia, although we might not see that until after we leave UB.

We had an interesting mishap today. We were sitting in the hotel lobby eating breakfast (buns from a bakery) and suddenly the glass table between us fell to the floor and smashed! We hadn’t touched it — it just fell on its own. Hopefully, it won’t appear on our bill when we check out tomorrow.

Anyway, time for lunch! I think plain rice is on the menu for me today. Later today we’re heading up to the shopping district for more shopping, and then tonight we’re going to try to catch an acrobat show. Tomorrow morning, we get up at the crack of dawn to catch our train. It’ll be a few days before we’re back on email, probably. Talk to you then!