Saynshand : on a desert trip


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October 6th 2008
Published: October 7th 2008
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SAYNSHAND - DAY 3



After a pretty good nights' sleep and an easy morning devouring another chapter or two of my book, we walked over to the museum at around 10-ish, as we were going to meet Sara at 11. First stop of course was 'The Castle', where we bought some food and the much needed fluids for our desert trip. Sitting outside the museum catching the first rays of October, we met a fellow traveler, quite a character acually, who was also planning to head over to Khamarin Khiid.
His plan was slightly different from ours though, since we were planning to come back... Apparently he wanted to stay at the monastry for 2 whole weeks!

So with the three of us and what I would say, a very handsome driver, we set off across the plain that surrounds Saynshand.
It took us about an hour to arrive at the monastry, which looked like a small community in the middle of absolute nowhere.
Here we walked around a bit, after handing over the French speaking Belgian into the care of the monks.
Quite a nice spot, very desolate though.

We had to wake up the driver, who was lying in flat out sleeping mode. Poor bugger, having to take these foreigners to this place in full mid day sun... He drove us a bit further, where a massive (copper?) bell hung in a wooden structure on top of a hill.
From there it wasn't far to the actual thing displayed on mugs, posters and other paraphernalia in the art shops in Saynshand;
A collection of 101 blindingly white stupa's, arranged in a square. Its location is absolutely stunning, striding the edge of a hill, looking down on the plain that extends towards Saynshand. Amazing views, it felt like you could see from one end of Mongolia to the other.

We drove back via another 'route' (read: sand track), heading to to so-called 'Black Mountain'. The exact importance of this mountain and its location, unfortunatley I don't know anything about, all I know it's one of these places where the Mongolians come to 'sacrifice' a bottle of spirits, rice and candy. The local residents, a couple of incredible fat goats, were being fed with cookies, candy and uncooked rice. (The offerings, basically)
On top was a big heap of stones, like you'll find all over Mongolia, draped in these mostly blue silk scarfs. This particular one was covered in a layer of bottles and candy.
Again, the view from up there was stunning... Unfortunately I couldn't share my joy with Kerstin. Apparently women aren't allowed to climb up Black Mountain. Wonder why...

Along the way we stumbled across a herd of camels, not the wild type I'm guessing, but amazing nevertheless. The place we saw them couldn't have been better. 360 degrees views, and table mountains in the background... Mongolia at its best I reckon!
A bit further up the road a young fella was hurding a flock of white goats on his horse, but we were afraid to ask the driver to stop again, so the foreigners could take another photo. We did though when, just outside Saynshand, we saw a herd of horses in the distance. Beautiful, absolutely beautiful. There must've been a hundred or so of them, all grazing in that light brown-ish kind of steppe that you see on photo's of Africa too. It was a great day and I reccomend if you're ever there, to contact Sara at one of the two museums, she can arrange the trip for you. (But I'm sure, if you ask one of the local taxi's, that they'll be able to take you as well.) With the three of us, we paid 20.000 Teghrik a person, which is about 12 Euro's.

That evening we had to hang around a bit to wait for the 02:00 train that would take us back to Zamiin Uud, so we checked out the local 'club' with the original name DISCO BAR. Inside there was this really cool mural of dinosaurs with a skyline in the background in 3D, so it looked like the dinos were coming out of the wall. So cool, to have this place in the middle of nowhere!
Although we had heard two different stories about the border being closed during the Chinese National holiday, we figured that 2 days for the Chinese was enough, so the border should be open again. We could've taken a night train to Hohhot, and then we'd still have Friday at home....

ZAMYN UUD DAY 4



Think again... After we arrived at 07:30 we quickly found that the border was closed until Friday. That would've meant that the earliest we could have been back, was Saturday afternoon. Oops, our classes started at Saturday morning...
Fortunate travelers we are though, we met a lovely woman called Boogie that offered us her helping hand. She told us about the international Ulaan Bataar to Beijing train that would arrive at 19:00 that evening, on which we could TRY to get a seat across the border to Erlianhot. In case that wouldn't be succesful, we could stay the night in a yurt outside her house. Wow! That really was a welcome offer, seeing that our money was running out FAST! Actually we wouldn't have made it until Saturday with our remaining budget...

So there we were, a whole day ahead of us in the tiniest of towns, with nothing better to do than sleep, read and dream about the imported foods for sale that we couldn't afford any longer.
Oh well, there was still half a bottle of Mongolian Vodka left, which we had planned to drink sitting on top of a hill just outside the town. Whilst having a stroll, we saw a bunch of horses that we wanted to take photo's of, but they were walking away from us, and that's when we saw that lovely inviting hill. And so we walked over to it, not realising we were on our way to China. The actual border is a kilometer or two from the town, and that's where we were heading.
Suddenly we heard shouting and when we looked back, this soldier was running towards us waving his hands about.
''Pass, pass'' Right OK, change of plans then, after we were escorted to the military base where our passports were checked and we were told not to walk towards China.

YES! With the help of Boogie, we managed to get a 'hallway seat' on the international train, which was packed with 'foreigners'.
It's so weird to see so many westerners in one place, after having lived in Hohhot for so long. So nice though to meet some fellow travelers and be able to chat in your own language.
On the train station Mongolian soldiers took our passports and returned them an hour or so later, after which the train started rolling towards Erlianhot. I reckon the distance can't be more than 10 km's. We arrived quickly, and there it was the Chinese soldiers' turn to take our passports. Kindly we informed the border guards that the both of us were NOT going to Beijing, instead we were going off RIGHT HERE..... ''Wait please, wait please''

Aaargghh...!!! Suddenly the train started going back towards Mongolia, passing this massive structure, fully lit with people walking around the place, and that's when it hit me; WE WERE GOING TO CHANGE WHEELS!!
I could not believe they hadn't let us off right there, instead leaving us on that train for what turned out to be nearly 5 hours!
It was still a nice experience to see for yourself how it works, after having read about it on route66.com many times, but come on! 5 hours for 10 kilometers!!! Chinese efficiency at its best?

We found a 60 Yuan room for the both of us, and a barbeque next door, so al was forgotten quickly. Especially after a nice cold beer, contemplating the past days abroad, we were content on going home again.
The next morning we took a bus back, since we decided that the dinosaur museum could wait till next year.
Over all, it was a short but fantastic trip, and I reccomend checking out Saynshand for yourself. One of the most original places where I've been, to say for myself.

BY YAR TAI!


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A very, very long 10km trip


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