Blogs from Gobi Desert, Mongolia, Asia - page 6

…I reached into my backpack and found a marmot eating all my carrots, so to calm my nerves I sipped a red bull and played tic-tac-toe, while listening to Mongolian radio…I awoke, half blinded by the brilliant blue sky, from this nightmare of sorts to find I was in the middle of a Gobi desert steppe surrounded by mountains that had mouths, I wrestled out of my sleeping bag to consider how I came to be here… It started a long time ago (billions of years ago I’m told); but to me let’s say 26 years, 239 days, 3 hours and some minutes and seconds and so on that I shan’t conjure up out of my imagination to bore you so, and in all this time the only hope that stays consistent is that it doesn’t ... read more

Pictures from oiur travel through russia, mongolia and china... read more

samstag, 23.08.08 jetzt sind wir erst fünf tage unterwegs und ich muss schon tage zählen, um rauszufinden, welcher wochentag heute ist...! am letzten sonntag hat, wie ich ja schon im blog geschrieben hatte, die tour durch die mongolei von imaginative traveller angefangen. tourguide ist die 34-jährige engländerin jess, ein bisschen der aussteigertyp, der sich unabhängig von einem maximal zu erreichbaren einkommen, ihr leben in der natur verwirklicht - eine eigenwillige, aber sehr liebenswerte und offene persönlichkeit... obwohl für mich etwas zu krass, habe ich sie sehr schätzen gelernt. sie ist sehr geduldig, lebt nach 'mongolian time', so dass mit ihr ganz interessante gespräche zu stande kamen. die weiteren beiden touris ausser mir sind mima und hayley, 33 und 32 jahre alt, engländerinnen aus london... ich bin ja mal gespannt, wie sich die doch recht ausgesprochenen stadtm ... read more

Me again, Michelle and i have both been a bit lazy since our return from camping for 12 days around Mongolia. Easy to let it lapse when you don't have an internet connection ( or phone reception etc) We did a south west loop around central Mongolia, the exact loop can be found at http://www.imaginative-traveller.com/trips/ATMV It was a small group, 8 people in Russian vehicles getting bogged, breaking down and having a great time around Mongolia. I think we were both ready to have something organised for us with so much being independent prior to that. It was a great group too, all quiet young and all got along well. We started by going south to Baga Gazin Churu, a mountain stop with the first encounter of the tents. Better than we expected and fairly easy ... read more

Nine days in a WUZ with six other people! And showering just twice during that time. Twenty-four hours after leaving Beijing I woke up in the middle of the Gobi Desert: sand everywhere, especially across the train tracks. We reached Ulaan Baatar by lunch time, and I had already seen everything one comes to Mongolia to see: stocky horses, sheep, goats, yaks, cows, sand, gers (traditional tent-houses) and lots of sand. Nevertheless we spent a day buying up supplies for our proper crossing of the Gobi. A WUZ is a large 4x4 Russian Combivan. It is as tough as a tank and will go anywhere: which is just as well considering that outside of the main towns Mongolia has no roads. It forded wet and dry rivers like a lizard, climbed cliffs as if it were ... read more