Recapping 3 months of Mongolia

---

Oh lorday, where do I begin??? I've been postponing this post for sometime, but as it's my last day in Mongolia I can procrastinate no longer. The problem is that I am having difficulty portraying the events in a better than negative light, but, as a side note, I want whoever reads this to know that I came to Mongolia with full expectations of becoming hardened by the time spent in the most sparsely populated country in the world, therefore, all the interesting occurances I try to look back on in a positive light.
And so it begins....
As Conrad and I begin our third adventure out of UB, we arrive at the Dragon bus station at 7 am. The bus is a 10 hour ride to Tsetserleg, a beautiful town to the southwest. About 2 or 3 hours into the journey, I see a flipped car on the side of the road. We are sitting in the front seats on the passenger side so we have the largest view of any seats on the bus, and I see this car has fallen off about a 25 ft, 75 degree drop from the road. Two men are trying to flip it over, the bus stops, our drivers race out, conrad and I right on their heels, and with our help are able to get it back on it's wheels. That's when I notice a man on the grass, lying in a supine but awkward position. Just looking at him I knew he was dead, and when the police came they threw a coat over his face and began with the paper work.
Being the closest experience with death for me, I was picturing how Americans would differ in their reaction were they that day on the bus. Maybe some women crying, people perhaps losing their breakfast, shock and horror on their faces, you know, stuff like that. But the Mongolians features never changed for their typical stoic stare, people on looked for ten minutes then went and sat on the bus and proceeded as normal. And that was the most shocking part for me, was how these people must be so comfortable around these situations and see them with such frequency as to not stir up any emotional response. I said a little prayer for him; may his soul rest in a better place :<
On a less sad yet more frightening note, I have yet another anecdote. I was riding the bus 44 to the north side of the Loop Road, a typical day for me in UB as I head to the largest internet gaming cafe in Mongolia. I am excited to play League of Ledgends online with some of my Montana friends. We use Ventrillo to talk and I feel kinda like Im right back home. Anyways, the bus has some open seats, I sit in one of the back 5, and a man with a red Korean shirt on sits next to me. Nothing special. Maybe he was a little drunk. He rests his left ankle on his right knee, peels up his pant leg, and unstraps a 10 inch knife :0
He stomps up the bus and sticks the knife right in front of another man's face (maybe drunk too) and starts
yelling at him, waving the knife around. I don't think my adrenaline has ever spiked so quickly before. At first I wondered if he was hijacking the bus, then I thought how I was the only foreigner on it, sticking out like a sore thumb, but as soon as it happened, it was over. He comes back and sits next to me, and actually says "sorry" to me. Short story long, I made it away unscathed.
My trip in Mongolia has given me the opportunity to experience many otherworldy happenings, and for this I am grateful. I am stronger a man, more fearless, and always aware of my surroundings. I haven't been injured, and for that I am very grateful. But man am I excited to get to China.

---

Comments

[Sheryl Engelhardt]

If you are looking for life experiences, try Brazil!
Wonderful people, a mixing pot of every type of person you can think of, just a lot of them. Now that you are "toughened" up, you'll be on your toes for the same kind of experiences perhaps from Mongolia, but with beautiful women to cushion any wounds : )