Blog entry Middle of Mongolia:

This is out of order but i am just trying to get caught up on postings!

I am sitting on a bed in a ger (pronounced gear) kilometers from civilization. We are visiting a Mongolian Nomad family. They have three grown children who have moved away and one adopted son who is 15. He is staying with the family this winter instead of going to school because, as you all know, winter is coming. And it is supposed to be a cold one so he is helping to make it through the winter. One typical family needs two cows and three goats or sheep to last the winter. They need enough feed stored for the animals. Yes they are Nomads and they have moved down from the hills where the grass was good to winter out on the side of this mountain. Nomads move four times in a year following the grasses. We have stayed in gers the last two days too. Follow along and I will illustrate the trip. Marna says I can’t call it a vacation at this point. Notice the solar panel and satellite dish. There is a HDTV (small) and cable box inside that runs on DC power from a car battery. A few LED lights help the ambiance.

So here is a shot from the Trans-Siberian Train. I quickly opened a window to get this. By the time I finished four shots my fingers were numb.

Entering Ulaan Bataar we thought it was very rural since there were just shacks and gers until we rounded the hill and saw the sky scrapers. We were told it is the fastest growing city in the world right now. They have 97% literacy and everyone in the city spoke English quite well.

As the train rolled to a stop we noticed a young local holding a sign that read “Tulley B.” She and her driver helped grab our bags as we brought them off the train and put them in a van.

We went straight to a bank to change our Chinese Yuan to the Mongolian Turgik. Our guide was most helpful us in the bank.

The hotel was next. We were supposed to go on a city tour but something got mixed up but we were so tired that some down time in a nice hotel sounded great. Once we got in the room we decided we needed to purge our warm gear so we could travel lighter. We left shorts, shirts, socks, shoes and underwear, anything we didn’t need through January. That didn’t reduce the number of bags but it did lighten the load. We still have way too much but we are working on it.

Joyce wanted to sleep so Marna and I decided we would go find dinner at an authentic local place. Mongolian food. Yum! Asking the receptionist got us a place nest to the hotel. But we wanted to do a little walking so we opted for her second choice- BD’s Mongolian BBQ. Perfect. It was about three BIG blocks away but we were dressed for it. I marked it on my phone map which works with GPS and does not need a connection if I downloaded the maps ahead of time. I think I have them all for the trip. There was this Modern Nomads place next to the hotel so we looked at the menu. It was good but already dressed for the walk we were not going to stay there. There were a lot of people out walking in the freezing cold. I mean so cold the moisture on your lips freezes and cracks when you smile. It was 4 degrees F according to my phone in my outside jacket pocket. There are very few lights in the city. Nothing like the US. The sidewalks were bumpy and had steps and did not go straight. Crossing the street is better than China but cars have the right of way here too. On the way we saw Ghengis Khaan Square which was lit up nicely.

Once we arrived at the location marked on the phone we found a restaurant, walked in and noticed it was the same Modern Nomads chain with the same menu. We walked back outside and looked around but could not find the one the receptionist had showed us and we even had her Google map printed out. Oh well. We continued around the street which actually loops around and headed back to the hotel. We stopped a local and asked him if he could direct us to a good local place. He told us to continue down the way we were headed and in less than a kilometer we would find a good one. He pointed it out on the map and walked us a way down until we could see the sign. We thanked him and walked to the third Modern Nomads chain restaurant!

OMG! We could even find any other place on the way. That was it. Modern Nomads #1 or #2 or #3. We gave up and headed back to the hotel to eat at that one since it would be easy to get to the hotel without donning our extreme winter gear. BTW It is just fall and all the locals are telling us it will get cold next month. This is nothing. Winter is coming. Where have I heard that before?

That night we determined that we do not know how to turn down the heat. There are no windows to open. The AC says “Cool” and it is set to 16 degrees C, the lowest possible setting and turned on the fan. Nothing made the room cooler and we were too tired at his point to even think about calling the hotel desk for help. We just sweltered.

During breakfast we were met by Baysa, our guide to the countryside and the next three days. Threw our gear into his SUV and off we went. Saw lots of wildlife on the way.

Stopped at the Mongolian equivalent of Costco.

Thought I might pick up a new book to read.

Then gas. Then 347 kilometers at 80 k/hr or 50 mph over bumpy roads.

Stopped for lunch. Food was good. Noodles and a lamb with black tea.

and a potty break.

The next stop was meeting a Nomad family and going on a camel ride. I was picturing a place like well never mind. Turned off the paved road onto a dirt trail. Drove for a mile and then turned around after our driver says, “Oh there it is.” Pointing to a flag on the other side of a wash. I saw nothing. Turned off the trail and just drove on the weeds and down a gully for a while until we popped up onto another trail and stopped at this two ger settlement. There were camels. We went inside the ger with the family and had hot milk tea with fried bread. It was good but they told us not to drink it all. It is hard to digest. It didn’t bother us at all.

We dressed really warm, scarves and wool everything and headed out. The wind was blowing a bit and made the sub-zero air bite. Climbing on was easy. Then lean back cause the camel tilt forward first. I will post video on YouTube when I have a proper connection. We rode for awhile with the man riding the lead camel and he had the lead to Marna’s camel. Marna had the lead to Joyce’s camel and Joyce had the lead to mine. We rode up and down sand dunes and through bushes until we stopped atop a hill and got off, walked around, took pictures and I thought we were heading back. But no. It was getting late and he had to round up the sheep and goats now. So he starts yelling and grunting and whistling. We think he is trying to find a young camel who followed us out of the ger area. Nope. He was yelling at the mixed heard of sheep and goats. The best part is that the way we were roped we could only turn left. So we did a lot of circles.  Eventually my camel decided to go on the other side of a tree so I grabbed the lead and took over with my own camel. He immediately decided to stop to eat so I had to pull him up and get him going again. He tried that several more times since he knew I was not the regular rider and he was not attached to the other group. We got along just fine after a bit and I got to trot him up and down a steep sand dune and head off some goats that decided they wanted to go somewhere else.

 

 

We were supposed to stay here at a “Guest House” (we thought that meant hotel. Ha ha ha. But we find out that the Guest House people already left for the winter. They are nomads, right? So we are headed to our second night’s accommodations which we had also assumed was a hotel. The Guest House thing again.

Day one in the ger. Now when we read the itinerary it said day three: Visit with a nomad family and stay in a ger (sleeping bags provided). Of course, we assumed (I know) that we would not be staying in a ger the other two knights. But no. That was not to be the case. We arrive at the Guest House in Kouratom only to see gers. Just gers. We are shown a very nice ger and where the outhouse is located. And it has electricity so we plugged in the phones and computers and everything else just to make sure we are fully charged.

They said a band may play here if the can get a few more guests to come. Sure enough, the band came to our ger and set up. Others came too and we all sat around and listened to traditional Mongolian music. See YouTube. There was throat singing which was very different.  The violin type instruments were made with horsehair strings. They said they last about five years. They played about 45 minutes and a gal told us about each song and what it meant. Once they were gone they came in and stoked up the stove and said they would be here in the morning to get the stove going again. What we didn’t hear was that the stove will go out and it will get F-ing cold during the night so you better wrap up tight and wait till they show up in the morning to get it warm again. Ha. We thought we were good until we realized that all the warm left when everyone from the band left through the open door. The stove never got the place warm again. OMG. We were getting clothes on and in sleeping bags with two big blankets each. We then put hats and scarves on over our heads. It was winter camping.

The next morning we luckily didn’t have any frostbite. We asked for more coal, yes coal and some split wood and we would handle the fire that night. Much better but it still was hot, too hot, hot, too hot all night. But we didn’t freeze!