Blogs from Mongolia, Asia - page 79

My sleep was troubled and filled with visions of horses, yaks, camels, sheep and goats, all laughing loudly and displaying a rather strong stench. I awoke from those visions of horrors with a jolt and a sense of relief at it having only been a dream, only to be faced with Stinky smiling at me wildly with all of his 6 teeth and gesturing to the outside world. It was 9 am on my 20th day of travel. I pushed Stinky away from me, made a slalom through the empty bottles of vodka, made a mental note never to drink vodka again, banged my head on the ridiculously low doors and stepped, mumbling and grumbling outside. This time round, the experience was more pleasant. The Ger where we stopped was on top of a hill overlooking ... read more

Early morning (and painful) wake up for us, but we feel excited at the idea of heading out into the wilderness. Xinthia, the Australian girl I mentioned earlier, was also meant to leave this morning for the Gobi but due to the fact that the girl she was supposed to travel with found herself a boyfriend during the night and wished to remain, she asked to come with us. Xinthia (aka: Snaily, in regards to her carrying everything she owns on her back) joined us at the start point at UB guesthouse. We saw three huge army jeeps engulfing their loads of tourists; we were rather keen to get one of those monster jeeps but eventually our car turned up: a battered old Toyota, barely holding itself together. We were informed that all the jeeps were ... read more

I am writing this from the Mongolian Stock Exchange. I never even considered there was one here. Benedict and I happened to walk into it by mistake. A security guard tried to stop us at the entrance, I gave him a big grin, said hello sweetheart and strolled straight past. What fun. I am now overlooking the actual exchange room: there are a grand total of 7 people working here, most playing cards or watching TV. I have the feeling the local stock exchange is not as busy as it could be, one nearly expects the brokers to have arrived to work by Yak or horse. I just noticed that the big board containing the times of the cities around the world informs me that it is 15:15 in Ulan Bataar on the 5th of May; ... read more

I left Irkoutsk on the evening of Friday, the 1st of July, for once making it at the train station in ample time. I very much liked Irkoutsk for its charm, old wooden houses and grand stone buildings. The only reservation I would have about it is that the mosquitoes are the size of Mig 29's and do just about as much damage. Before leaving, I filled up on provisions as I had been warned that there was no restaurant carriage on this leg of the journey, mainly cans and packaged products (been told to avoid fresh fruits and lettuce) I was, by chance, on the slow train which takes a couple of days to reach Ulan Bataar. I left at 15:10 Moscow time (actually 20:10 Irkoutsk time). The Mongolian train is not quite as smart ... read more

The streets, buildings and people of Ulaan Baatar form a riotous assembly, a motley crew. The days when one would charge down the main street astride a galloping steed, loose a few arrows then decapitate your brother-in-law with a double-headed axe are largely gone. These days the chariot of choice is the automobile. The great Chinggis Khan, were he alive, would understand as well as anyone that you cannot conquer the largest empire mankind has ever seen by respecting traffic lights, zebra crossings or even the direction of traffic flow on dual carriageways. The next kamikaze Japanese game show will feature the amiable, over-excited contestants traversing the roads of U.B., from Khongor Guest House to the nearest internet cafe, to the ATM at the Trade and Development Bank, gaining extra points for each limb that remains ... read more