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Published: June 18th 2008
(Day 73 on the road)I am back in Ulaan Baatar after my trip to Gobi, and am taking it very slowly. A bit of leisurely sightseeing, sleeping, chatting to fellow travelers, watching some movies from the extensive DVD collection of the hostel, getting a Japanese Hot-Oil-Massage and body scrub (amazing!), hitting some balls at the golf driving range, partying the night away and so on. It is very nice to slow down a little, and as my train to China left only about a week later, that gave me enough time to catch my breath. The hostel I stayed in was called Golden Gobi Guesthouse, and is in my opinion the best place to stay in Ulaan Baatar. It is well equipped (including two comfy lounges) and family run, and the atmosphere here is just perfect.
I also had to go back to the Chinese Embassy to apply for my visa again, as the last time they had asked me to provide some additional documents, which I have now prepared. I arrived at 0900 at the embassy (it only opens from 0930 to 1200 three times a week), and there were already 20 people in the queue in front of
me. At about 1130, the security guy opened the door and said that he would now let the last batch of people in. There was a mad rush as everybody tried to storm in, and about ten Mongolians from way back of the queue rushed past us and into the embassy. It happened so quickly that the Americans and I, who were standing together, had no time to react. Before we knew it,. the door was shut again, and were standing there dumbstruck. We banged on the door and complained fiercely to the security guard. With success, as at about 1200 he let me and the Americans in - the last people to enter the embassy that day.
There were a good 30 people still waiting outside who were turned away. Inside, the security guy then took me aside and tried to get a bribe off me for letting me in. Off course he got nothing from me. Great job, my friend.
Anyway, after handing in all my documents they asked me to come back two days later (third time) to see if my application was successful, and it luckily was! I received the Chinese visa and can thus finish
the Transsib, great! So I will be leaving for China next Monday. Interesting fact on the side: The visa fee for Mongolians is 43$, for all other countries it's only 30$, but for Americans it is 130$! Guess the Chinese don't like the Americans that much, wow...
One evening, I met up with Eva and her boyfriend Bayar, a good friend of my ex-colleague Hannah at Deutsche Bahn in Berlin. Eva works here in Ulaan Baatar for the German organization GTZ ("Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit",
), a government-owned company focusing on sustainable development around the world. It was a highly interesting evening, both to learn about the work the GTZ does (might have to check this out after I have finished my trip) and to get some further insight about living in Mongolia.
Finally, the Saturday clubbing-night with the two owner-sisters of the hostel I stayed in, their friends and Teresa, a very nice Irish girl I met in Ulaan Baatar, deserves a few lines. The club we went to was ultra-modern and funky (Metroplis, mostly house music), and I must say I haven't seen so many gorgeous women in one place for a long time. When this place one closed at around 0530h, the next club we went to was a bit more downmarket and a nice way to end the evening. There were five of us still going strong at 0800h in the morning, so we decided to catch two taxis to a cafe to get some breakfast.
As it turns out, the drivers of the two cabs tried to rip us off big time: Three of us had just gotten off the first cab and started arguing with the driver about his ridiculous demands when the girls of the second taxi tried to get out of the car as well. Noticing that they weren't going to get the money they asked for, the second driver accelerated the car with screeching tires, forcing the girls to stay in the car. We didn't know what was going on as it was happening so quickly, but all in all it took them close to 45 minutes to get back to us! The driver had taken them on a furious drive around town, ultimately driving them to a graveyard to scare them and get more money off them, in which he succeeded in the end as the girls were very scared (one of them had a seven months old child). In the meantime, the other driver stayed with us and just kept asking for more money, becoming more and more aggressive. When he finally realized that we were only going to pay the normal fare, he took our still have-full vodka bottle - I thought ha was going to hit us, but he "only" smashed it against the wall on the opposite side of the road before taking off. All in all a very unpleasant ending to a great night!
I also had another unpleasant experience one other night: I had gone to a Chinese restaurant to get some takeaway and on the way back to the hostel a young boy, maybe eight or nine years old, approached me and grabbed the bag with the food, shouting "food, food". I instinctively pulled the bag away and over my head. He jumped after the bag and followed me quite a while. I felt very uncomfortable, and looking back, I definitely should have given him the food. I find it very hard to deal with poverty, never really knowing what the right reaction is. There are countless beggars, I can't give to everyone. But whom to give to, how to decide? The apparently desperate ones (how to judge), or every tenth person, or...? I find it very difficult.
Next stop: Beijing (China).
To view my photos, have a look at pictures.beiske.com. And to read the full account of my journey, have a look at the complete
book about my trip at Amazon (and most other online book shops).
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Henry Y
non-member comment
Congratulations to your Chinese Visa finally
Finally, you got it with such uncomfortable experience. For me, it's a shame as I am a Chinese. However, it is quite understandable that Chinese government has tightened up the application of Chinese Visa for security during Olympic games. I was really worried about it if you were turned away from here, so as my patents did. Here you go, congratulations to you and enjoy the Games in Beijing, Ben. All the best and miss you.