Life is Good, Vol. 2

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Hello
I hope you are doing well.

My last days in Thailand were, great. I love that festival. The last day of Songkran was unreal. The streets were packed. Vehicles, scooters, bikes could barely move. I could move faster by foot and that gave my/us the upper hand. Music was being played from everywhere and people were dancing in the streets. Huge blocks of ice were thrown in everyone's barrel of water so that cooled things off. Some had bottles of whatever and would give you a drink/ pour it over you mouth, if you wanted it or not. It was a party that lasted all day and went all night.
Chis and I went with our friends who run the guesthouse. Pon and Tip and the others. Their thai names are long and hard to pronounce so they prefer Pon and Tip. Sisters.
We all went out again. Same place to start. Remember that one singer i spoke of. Yeah. She gets done rockin and comes down and starts talking to tip, right next to Chris. He usually hangs with tip. And i with Pon. She walks away and Chris and I jump Tip's case. You've been holding out on us....What the hell.....You never said you knew her. What is that ????
So, anyways, we got to hang with her later. Met and had a drink. It was a good night.

Funny thing and only in Thailand. We were outside late one night watching a replay of an English Premier league soccer game. (Chris is from north London) Sitting on some wooden chairs with tables around, right there by the street. We are watching and i reach over to grab my water bottle and this girl is looking at something next to me. I look over and right there, a foot away, is a small elephant. Just standing next to me. Yeah.......Crazy.
He hung out there with us for 5 minutes or so. You could touch him and check out his ears and trunk. Then his owner i guess leads him down the street. Simple as that.

I found a great place. With great people. Chris was really cool. He grew up in a really rough neighborhood in Northeast London. I learned a lot of cochney slang. I can't wait to be in London at the end of the summer. We were just one of the locals. My friends are good people and only wanted for us to have good times. We would eat at their place a lot and at the guesthouse would feast and talk and laugh together. We had such a good thing there. I will miss them. It was sad to leave.
I may be back and they may visit America. You never know i guess.
I roll on

My flight from Thailand to china and then to Mongolia was easy.
I really like it here. It is different from anything i could've dreamed of.
There are 2 seasons here. Winter and Summer. My first 3 days were very cold but today, It broke. It's very dry and sunny here. It feels like the plateau in the spring. I love the feeling i have just being outside. It just feels right.

The whole of this main city, Ulaanbaatar (UB) has the Soviet Union written all over it. Ugly, cement and brick square buildings with no asthetic beauty at all. There are ger (yurt) camps mixed in among the run down buildings. People i think just try and endure the brutal winters here. I mean the harshest conditions you can imagine. Then things happen in the summer. This city is striving to westernize. You can see it with the people. Mongolians have no love for the 2 super powers who sandwich/landlock them. Outside of the city (1 in 4 Mongolians live here) the simple small villiage or nomadic lifestyle endures.

It's funny. There are no phone boothes. There is a guy standing on the corner bundled up holding a phone. A regular corded phone from the house. I love it.

The black market here is great. You can buy anything here. Lots of things are smuggled here from China. I got a North face coat today for 13 US dollars. yeah. I hadn't needed a real jacket till now. I am glad i waited. Super warm too.

I left the city and spent a couple of days up in the mountains north of here. It was really great. You sleep and eat in Gers (Yurt) with the locals and ride horses all day. I went up into the mtns and then raced back across the valley to our camp. It just felt good to be out again. Wide open spaces. It reminds me a lot of inner Nevada. Craggy, rocky mountains with little vegetation and water. I will go back there and trek the hills and camp. You wouldn't believe the stars last night. I can't do it justice. No words...

The similarities with the Navajo and the reservation are amazing. Connection i say...
More on that later. Thanks Dezi.

I am back in town. I and a few other solo travellers are planning a journey down into the Gobi desert and then into western Mongolia. Maybe 12 days? No public transport exists here to the places i want to see and access. So a Jeep with a driver who knows the dirt roads of this country must be found. (Pavement ends about 30 miles from the capital in all directions and there are no road signs in the outer areas either) . Any road can go anywhere so hiring your own ride is out. So, we will supply up and figure the logistics out. It shall be great

This land is not on the tourist thoroughfare like thailand was.
I will love it here.

I hope you are doing great.


Love
Jonathan

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