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Published: July 14th 2011
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Hello monsters are an interesting species. They thrive in the province of Bayan-Olgii of western Mongolia. As omnivores, they dwell in packs of 2-5 members, although larger numbers have been reported. Having adapted to urban life, they emerge in the morning, waiting for stray Westerners to wander into their traps, bombarding them with "Hal-lows" relentlessly. One pack alone can shout hallo over 15 times in 10 seconds, draining the foreigners and nourishing the hello monsters for the night.
Yet, during the night and wee hours of the morning, their nocturnal counterpart slithers in. The drunk zombies, unlike the hello monsters, are strictly male, their female equivalents hiding in gers, incubating a new litter of the monsters. Zombies stand approximately 3 times taller than the monsters, and have a swaggered gait. Fortunately, although they still thrive on hassling westerners, they can be defeated far more easily than the daylight creatures, for a brisk walk and a forward gaze will thwart even the most relentless zombie.
During our stay in Khovd, we meet Cameron and his sister Kailie. We ate some awesome Khosher and Goolash in a little Guanz by the black market.. Also drank some raisin juice. It was the
summer solstice and also Kailie's b-day so we went over to Cameron's peace corps flat for some cake. We played more basketball that day with our Mongol friends Jala and Agii. Later in the week there was a huge sale on plane tickets, where instead of 400 000 MNT for a one-way ticket to UB we only paid 105 000 MNT! We sat in the Mercy Corps office while a throng of Mongols fought outside. The employees of Mercy Corps watched us play cards while for some reason they played musical desks instead of sitting at one computer. Hmmm i thought. Jala had camped out since 11 the last night and we saw him there. Fortunately he was able to buy our tickets for us. The rumored Mongolian hospitality finds us again. Having found cheap transport, summiting the nearby red goat mountain, we wandered out of town and began our journey along the Buyant Gol.
Our plan was to reach the ethnically Khazak Aimeg of Bayan-Olgii, by waking the Buyant river from Hovd to Deloon, and hitchhiking from there to Olgii. That day the canyon was wide. We saw many goats, 3 trees, and what we decided was a
white washed former soviet hotel. After covering 22 miles along a dirt road in 7 hours and 20 minutes, we setup camp. Conrad's feet fared poorly that day, accumulating blisters on the balls of his feet., but mine were tough. A half hour into our journey the next morning, we stumbled into Cameron, Kailie, and Marvin's camp. We stopped just short the night prior but were too exhausted to continue. We stopped there and swam for a sec and soon continued our trek. The scenery was beautiful, steep canyon walls around a clear blue river. We stopped at our first ger our second day and ate the most delicious fried fish and drank some milk tea. They family was inviting and offered a spot to sleep but we continued walking to set up camp. On this trip we camped 5 nights and walked nearly 100 miles. There was only one point were the river was too deep and swift to cross, so we hiked some cliffs around it. At one point we took a wrong road and added a few hours to our journey. Able to see Deloon at the end of the valley we took a rest day to
strengthen up.
On the sixth day, just miles from Deloon, a jeep stopped and asked if we were going to Olgii. We replied yes, gave the guy 40 000 MNT and drove there, arriving around 9 that night. We had a military man from another jeep confiscate our passports a few hours, due to the proximity of us to China, but in the end they were returned. We found a hotel that night at the Bastau and enjoyed the comfort of real beds. In the next few days we meet John, Rhiannon and Toro, who we drove to the Tavan Bogd national park with. We spent 4 nights in the park, climbing the Glacier, seeing the ancient stone and staying by Khoten Nur lake. We had many breakdowns and about 20 km from Olgii on the last night we hitched a ride in the bed of a truck.
After this journey we spent 5 nights with a peace corps couchsurfer named Brian. He was from the midwest and we had blast staying with him and seeing the wrestling and horse racing of Nadaam. We cooked some good food and played some card games. But finally it was time
Ballin'!
In Khovd to return to Khovd to catch our flight to UB.
Now, we wait in Khovd, flying out tomorrow, resting before the next leg of our journey to Khovsgol lake to visit the reindeer people. The pine trees of the taiga will be a welcome change.
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