The Land of Blue Sky - UB

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We arrived at UB train station at 8am and were met by a guide and driver from Black Ibex. They took us to our hotel - Ulaanbaatar Hotel - we were amazed (and delighted) that we seemed to be staying in the poshest hotel in the city! George Bush has stayed here and while we were there, the Korean Minister for Security was also there.

We checked into our luxury pad and Orla got excited about the free shampoo, shower gel and toilet roll. We've only been travelling 9 days so can't imagine what she'll be like after a year!
We had time before the tour started, so we went for a walk down the main thoroughfare, Peace Avenue. It was a bit run-down and not much of a main street for a capital city. There were colourful stalls selling fruit and veg which was strange because, as we later discovered, no one in Mongolia actually eats fruit and veg! Maybe it's just for the tourists!
We walked for 20 mintues trying to find a cashpoint, only to discover there was one right opposite our hotel. Typical.

We spotted our first differences in lifestyles as we wandered around the streets. Missing manhole covers mean you don't take your eyes off the road in front of you. There were men and women sitting on the side of the street with telephones - home-style phones, not mobiles - selling their use to customers, via satellite. There are weighing scales on the street where you can pay to be weighed. There are lots of pinenut sellers and some aggressive child beggars. Lots of people wearing face masks as protection from pollution and most people were stylishly dressed, much more so than in Russia where the clothes people were wearing were pretty awful. The traffic was busy and we took our lives in our hands crossing the roads with manic drivers all around us.

Back at the hotel, we met the rest of our tour group and our guide for the next 2 weeks. There were 4 Americans, the quietest Americans we've ever met, a Chinese girl and her German boyfriend, and an English bloke who currently lives in St Petersburg. Our guide, Gana, took us to lunch in a place called 'Modern Nomads'. One of the group explained she was vegetarian. "No problem", Gana said. The other meals arrived first. We each had a plate of meat, piled high. Just meat. Our vegetarian had to wait a little while. When it arrived, it was a smaller plate of meat. We found this really funny but then funnier still, she ate it!! She was an 'American vegetarian'.

Next on our itinerary for the day was a trip to the National History Museum. We got there and it was closed!! A great start to the tour. Instead, Gana took us to Zaisan Memorial on top of a hill overlooking UB. It was built by the Russians. There was also a Shaman mound here. Gana explained you have to walk around it 3 times and throw an offering onto the pile of stones - either stones, sweets, anything really - for good luck. We followed his instructions in the hope the rest of the tour would go smoothly!

We had dinner in the hotel that night and the British contingent from the tour went to find the pub! We tried the home brew in Khan Brau then spotted the Irish bar across the street, called 'Grand Khaan's Irish Pub'. We couldn't quite figure out the link between Khaan and Ireland but the Irish get everywhere so no doubt there is one! We were really tired by then but there was football on tv in the pub (Chelsea v Liverpool) so Steve was glued to the chair! He wasn't impressed when a live band started playing and he had to make do with the pictures. Still, seeing football at all in Mongolia was a pleasant surprise so he couldn't complain too much.


Next day (18th Sept), we were up early to drive to Middle Gobi. The group split into 2 off-road people carriers. Our vegetarian gets car sick so insisted on sitting in the front (most comfortable) seat. What kind of car-sick vegetarian goes on a driving tour for 2 weeks in a meat-only eating country??!!! Started out from Ulaanbaatar and things seemed very normal - nice vehicle, nice scenery, good roads. Then the road disappeared and the driver seemed to be going in any direction he wanted, although he did appear to be following 2 vague tyre tracks! And it was bumpy as hell!!!!

We picked up our first Mongolian words. Our driver, Jack, when he lost sight of the other van would use his walkie talkie to shout, "Beno, Beno", followed by "Yessa". We decided the other driver was called Beno. Turned out later that "Beno" is 'hello' on the telephone, and'"yessa" is 'what's up?'. These were the only words of Mongolian we learnt. It's an impossible language. Even 'thank you' was beyond us.

We stopped after several hours driving for lunch. Everybody out of the vehicles heading in different directions looking for a small hill or bush behind which to do their business!!!! Of course, we had already stopped at various points on the journey as the Chinese girl, Le Le, called out "Pee Pee" every 40 minutes!!!! After a while, she got fed up walking 3 miles to go behind a small bump in the ground and made her German boyfriend, Alexsander, stand in front of her to hide her while she went! Steve would not agree to do this for Orla!!

Late afternoon, and with our bones having been completely shaken, we arrived at a deserted monastery, closed when the Russians bought communism to Mongolia. We were just glad to get out of the car and stretch our legs. There wasn't much left of the monastery and you had to have a very good imagination to see what it was like before!

Luckily our beds for the night were a short distance away at a place called Byanbulag. We found our 'ger', a lovely, traditional round wooden framed tent! It was very cosy inside and we were pleased with it. We went for a stroll up some rocky outcrops a little away from the camp to get some views of the surrounding area. Dinner - meat again!!! And then a nice sleep in our ger.


Up early on the 19th. Thought yesterday was a long drive - oh no, today we drove and drove and ........ you get the idea. There were some goats and huge herds of horses to break up the flat monotony of the Middle Gobi landscape! Sorry, I lie, a couple of gers in the distance as well. It was amazing to see that, in the middle of nowhere, most of the gers have satellite dishes attached so they can get tv. Alot of nothingness for miles and miles, which was fortunate as our van sprung a serious dust leak so we could hardly see anyway! Dust was pouring in from somewhere near the wheel arch and we were all left coughing and spluttering and completely coated in dirt. Got to camp, bones shaken and stirred and looking tanned from a coating of dust; a place called Khanbogd. We don't have to get up early tomorrow, hooray!


This morning (20th), we visited Eagle Valley - stunning place except the wind was bitter! We walked through the valley for several miles enjoying the scenery and got to a place where there was still ice (not surprising really as it was brass monkeys!!). We were keeping our eyes peeled for Black Ibex or rams but only managed to spot a few Prariedogs diving in and out of their holes. After our walk, we went into a small museum displaying dinosaur eggs that were found nearby.

Got back to camp and had lunch - meat. After lunch we started our drive to the sand dunes of the Gobi. We had only gone a short distance from the camp when our guide, Gana, and the driver, Jack, exchanged heated words. We obviously couldn't understand what they were saying but the tone said it all!! The van stopped and they continued the argument outside, while we were wondering what was going on! The other vehicle was now out of sight. It turned out that Gana the Guide had wanted to go a one way but the drivers had decided on another route, much to his disgust. Gana said he was in charge so they should do what he wanted. He must have said something offensive to our driver because Jack was very angry, and drove like a lunatic for the rest of the journey. I didn't think it was possible to get all four wheels off the floor with 7 people and all their luggage inside but Jack prooved us wrong. A white-knuckle ride for everyone - free of charge - however I'm not sure anyone would want to do it again. Got to camp, called Juulchin Gobi II - what a relief!!

The area around the camp was flat desert with the sand dunes rising in the distance. We were now in South Gobi. At dinner that evening, Gana told us we would be riding camels the next day and he relayed a story about a weeping camel. Apparently, a camel rejected her baby so her owners brought in a man to play the traditional horse-headed fiddle to her. It made her weep and she bonded with her baby afterall. We laughed at the thought of crying camels and accused him of making it up but he insisted it was true and said there is a film about it. We still thought it was a wind-up until Nancy said she had seen the film! Steve kept Gana amused with his impression of a weeping camel saying, 'Get off me, you're too heavy!'

We chatted to other tourists at the outdoor bar that evening. We met 3 American guys who had just finished a hunting trip. They paid US$35000 to shoot an ibex! And apparently that was cheap!!! One of the guys then said he was a vegetarian! We were a bit confused about how a vegetarian could kill animals but then he explained....... he only eats meat that he has killed himself!!! We don't really get the American version of vegetarianism!


On the 21st, we walked up the highest sand dune and, oh my God, was it difficult!! We just kept sinking into the sand. The 800m sand dunes are called "singing sand dunes". Near the top, the sand combined with the wind makes a noise like an aircraft humming when you stand on it. We took a board up with us and sandboarded back down. We fell off half way then Orla decided to go it alone for the rest of the slide, and managed an even more spectacular sand dune explosion as she avoided a shrub. There was sand EVERYWHERE!! In her ears, up her nose, even in her pockets!

After a quick brush down, we clambered onto our camels for a walk across the dunes. They were 2 humped camels and quite comfortable to ride, although Le Le screamed when she got on hers. They were pretty high up. We nick-named Steve's camel 'Posh' as she kept pouting all the time. That naturally meant Orla's was called 'Becks'. Gana taught us how to tell our camels, in Mongolian, to sit down. Becks ignored Orla but Posh was putty in Steve's hands!

Gana told us camel humps are very upright when they're healthy but ours had floppy humps so we felt a bit bad. Orla gave the camel family some money though, by buying a smelly camel hat for her sister, Deirdre, who has a funny hat collection. Since receiving it in the post, Deirdre said she only had to wash it 4 times to get rid of the whiff!! (John Moore won't be impressed!)

The little girl in the camel family had blonde hair in big pink ribbons! We were surprised as Mongolians tend to be very dark but Gana told us it's quite common for children to be blonde, going dark when they get older.


We stayed at the same camp that night but moved on the next day, driving to the 'Flaming Red Cliffs' where a lot of dinosaur remains were found. The cliffs were more orange than red but impressive just the same.

We continued our van journey; the atmosphere between Gana and Jack STILL frosty. Gana tried to speak to Jack a few times who completely ignored him and Jack wouldn't let us have the tape recorder on. This guy knows how to sulk!!

We stopped for lunch at the Turtle Restaurant, shaped, you've guessed it, like a turtle. There was a basketball hoop outside the restaurant so the men of the group had a 'Mongolia versus the Rest of the World' contest. Mongolia won 17-13.

After lunch. we drove onto our camp for the night (Tsagaan Ovoo), next to Ongii Khiid monastery ruins. This was the biggest monastery in Mongolia before the communists demolished it. There is renovation work going on now and a small temple in use. We walked round the site with Gana. Just outside the ruins, a nomad family was cooking 'bodog'. They had beheaded a goat, pulled out its innards and put red hot stones inside the body to cook the meat from the inside. Meanwhile, they were using a blow-torch to burn the fur off the outside! It was fascinating to watch. Gana explained they were having a big family get-together. The smiley old man of the family then offered us some airag - fermented mare's milk. We were keen to try it as we'd heard so much about this traditional Mongolian beverage but when the dirty bucket appeared, with black bits floating in it, we weren't so sure. The old man stuck his finger in it to give it a quick stir and fished out a cup for us. It's rude to refuse so what could we do??! We tried a sip each. Not bad at all. Tasted a bit like apple sours or some sort of alcopop. Gana wasn't keen on us having too much - worried for the tourists tummies - but then glugged back 2 bowl fulls himself.

Back at camp, we had dinner then played pool.


On the 23rd there was more driving to be done. Luckily, the basketball game from the day before had brightened Jack's mood a lot so he was back to his cheery self. We were allowed to have music back on - but only Jack's tapes. There was some suicidal Mongolian music and 1 western band - Modern Talking. We'd never even heard of them but Alexsander told us they were an 80s German band (I think that says enough!) We now know all their songs by heart.

We left the Gobi and headed back into the steppe. No more camels but saw quite a few eagles. The coutryside was beautiful and we started to spot yaks by the river valley as we headed north. We stopped at Erdene Zuu Khiid (monastery) at Kharkorin, Chinngis Khaan's original capital city. The monastery was vast although a lot of the temples had been destroyed. Outside the site's walls, we walked to see an area of excavation of the old city but there wasn't much to see. Just a stone turtle, a sign of longevity in Buddism, and a lot of souvenir stalls. It was late afternoon by then and the wind was cold so we were glad to get to our next camp, Anar. It was surrounded by lovely mountains, a river and valley and was very beautiful.


We had a long drive the next day. More gorgeous scenery as we drove through the mountains. We stopped in a town to get some parts for the van. We had a look around and spotted dog fur being sold from freight container shops. Gana told us that Mongolians eat any meat going. Who knows what we were eating while we were there! We then drove to an extinct volcano near our camp. The 'roads' on approach to here and our camp were just volcanic rock flows so we bounced about in the van even more than usual. The journey was worth it though. Our camp was by a big lake and was lovely, although we didn't have much chance to walk around and appreciate it.

That evening, Gana taught us to drink Mongolian style. This involved having a large measure of Mongolian vodka and knocking it straight back. We obviously grimaced, Gana drank it like water!


On the 25th, we thankfully only had a short drive to camp at Jargal Jigur. The camp was set in lovely countryside. All the camps were pretty quiet as it was the end of the season.

That afternoon, we went horse-riding. It was a slow walk up a hill for a nice view. The sun was strong so I'm sure the horses were glad they didn't have to gallop anywhere. There had been some sort of horse racing festival on the hill and all the litter was still thrown all over the ground. One of the horses slipped on a plastic bottle and got spooked, causing Tricia to slip from the saddle. It was very scary as she could easily have been trampled, although the guides soon got the horse back under control. Tricia was luckily unhurt but shaken. Made the rest of us a bit wary, although the guides were more conscious of the litter after that.

Back at camp, a group of us (Orla and Steve with John, Alexsander, Le Le and Gana) decided to use the spa pool. The camp owners pump the water in from a natural hot spring. The spa was just a small, outdoor concrete pool but it was toastie hot and blissful! We even had beers brought to us. As many other camps had no hot water or luke warm trickles, this was heavenly!!

Did we say earlier that the camps were quiet? Not that night. We were awoken at 3am with female screams. There were lots of footsteps to-ing and fro-ing outside our ger and we could hear the voices of a man and a woman. Quiet then more screaming. Other voices. Then a dog yelping. Orla was frightened and Steve got dressed and thought about going out to see what was happening/tell them to shut up, but when you don't speak the language, it's more daunting. We decided to stay put and hope the fighting stopped soon. Then a car engine started and ran for a while, then at about 5am it finally went quiet. Orla without sleep - not happy!!


Next morning, we had a word with Gana, who was late getting up. He said there had been a birthday party for a girl working at the camp and lots of locals had come for it. He was at the party too and seriously hungover. He wasn't much up to guiding that day and slept most of the journey. We kept winding him up by waking him to ask him questions!

After a very long drive, we finally reached Lake Huvsgul. We had to drive down a wet, muddy track to camp (Huvsgul Dalai) and nearly got stuck once or twice. The van drivers certainly earn they're money.

It was really cold at the lake. We had a fire in our ger which was a life-saver. It was a bit of a sleepless night again with the camp's dogs barking and growling all night. Gana said it could have been wolves!! We woke up to frost on the ground and the water in the bathroom was unbearably icy! We hadn't really packed for cold weather so had to wear every layer we had, then Mark also leant Orla his banana-yellow leather jacket.

Those who wanted to went in Jack's van on a search for the reindeer people - us included. What an adventure! The scenery was fantastic. Bright blue lake, yellow-orange pine trees and snow. The reindeer people head further into the mountains this time of year, looking for reindeer food. Gana asked various locals where their camp was and no-one really knew. Some said they had already left, others sent us back the way we came. We searched for a few hours and began to give up when Orla spotted a tee-pee just poking out from behind a tree. Jack drove to it and there was the reindeer family - but no reindeer! The nomad man told Gana the reindeer were 3km away, in the mountains. He squeezed into our already full van to show us the way.

We drove about 5km along a forest track going up the mountain until the van couldn't go any further. Turns out nomads don't actually use the measure 'kilometre' so the man had just plucked a figure out of the air. The nomad told Gana is was just another 20 minute walk. Orla thought, 'That's ok. He's quite an old man. His 20 minutes is probably our 10'. How foolish! We walked for 20 minutes and reached a steep snow and tree covered slope. The old man shot up the slope like a mountain goat and we lost him. Instead, we resorted to having a snowball fight. It was great fun but didn't help our reindeer hunt.

Gana started to call to the man. Eventually a voice shouted back from below us. The man had galloped to the top of the mountain and herded the reindeer down to the valley below us in the 10 minutes we had been playing in the snow. We slip-slided back down the mountain and finally saw the reindeer. They were lovely and so tame with soft fur and furry antlers. Some had antlers missing as they start to fall off this time of year, ready for re-growth.

We had missed lunch but it was worth it for our adventure into the mountains and the chance to see the reindeer and their owners.

We got back to camp at about 3pm and had a quick snack, then we went out with Tricia and Gana for a boat trip on the lake. No one else in the group had wanted to go but it was lovely and not as cold on the lake as we had expected. Very relaxing.

Just before dinner, Gana taught us the 'ankle bone game' which uses sheep ankle bones! It was such fun, we bought our own game!

On the morning of the 28th, we went for a walk by the lake before starting the 3-hour drive to Moron Airport, for our flight back to Ulaanbataar. Our drivers left us here to start their long journey in the vans back to UB. The flight was delayed by 2 and a half hours and there wasn't a lot to do in the tiny airport. The only shop was shut. Everyone was getting a bit fed up when Jack and Iggy, the Drivers, reappeared, bearing drinks and biscuits. We were saved!

Back in UB that night, we stayed at Hotel Kharkorum.


Next day (29th), we transferred back to the lovely UB Hotel. Orla could pinch more soap and loo roll! We visited the Mongolian National History Museum which had exhibitions on national dress and history from Chinngis Khaan through to communism and present day - it was well worth visiting.

After lunch, we went to Bogd Khaan's winter palace which was also worth seeing. People were restoring the frescoes which was interesting. Then we did a bit a shopping in the State Department Store, the only department store in the city. It's a pretty impressive building.

That evening, we went to the folk show to see traditional music and dance. The music sounded a bit Chinese style. We heard the horse-headed fiddle (of the type that made the camel cry) and throat singers. This was a really weird sound. One guy seemed to whistle without moving his lips, another sang with a deep growl.

The show ended and we had a farewell dinner with the tour group at BD's Mongolian Barbecue. It was a really good night. The drinkers of the group (Steve, Orla, Gana, John, Le Le and Alexsander) went for a drink in the Chinngis Club afterwards, where they brew their own beer. From then, we were left to our own devices.


The next day, we went to see Gandan monastery. At least we thought it was Gandan. It was quite small and run-down but still operational and we could hear the monks chanting. However, we've seen pictures of Gandan since and don't think we were in the same place at all!! We then moved onto the Museum of Natural History, where there are dinosaur skeletons and lots of school kids shouting 'Hello' to us and giggling.

After lunch, we visited Choijin Lama monastery museum. More temple artefacts but there was also a colourful exhibition in the grounds of clay horses painted by children depicting their thoughts on Mongolia.

Now that we were no longer on the tour, it was time to re-enter the world of back-packing so we moved out of UB Hotel and to Idre's Guesthouse. It was described in John's guide book as 'dishevelled' so we weren't much looking forward to it after the luxury of the UB but it was lovely and homely.

Steve was delighted to discover they had satellite tv and were showing the Chelsea v Aston Villa game, though delight turned to anguish as Chelsea scored after 2 minutes and the guy working in the hostel was a Chelsea fan!

Up early next morning for the 7:30 train to Beijing.

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Photos

Our room in UB Hotel
Backpacking??

Room with a view
From our bedroom window

View from Juulchin Gobi Tourist Camp
You can see the sand dunes in the distance.

Our humble steads
Posh and Becks!!

Flaming Red Cliffs
Steve showing that the 'reds' can be eclipsed!!!!

Mongolia vs The Rest of The World
Mongolia 17 - ROW 13

Toilet stop
Suddenly a bump in the ground was more appealing!

Lake Huvsgul
A stop on our boat trip

View at Lake Huvsgul
Our camp within the trees