Mongolia

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It is a cold rainy morning in Shangrila, China. I just finished reading about Francis and Brett's adventures through this area and decided that now was a perfect opportuinity to contribute to the blog. Those two scoundrels are off on a wild adventure in the Mongolian countryside. Riding horses, catching fish and trying to stay warm. I left them after an adventurous ten days spent trying to buy horses and tack. Here is a quick recount of my trip to Mongolia roughly two months ago. Hopefully it will help everyone picture where Frank and Brett are off exploring.


While Big Frank was treking around Thailand and Malaysia with Sarah and Brettski and Augostien were following wizards in Burma, I took a five day four night train trip from Hanoi to the capital of Mongolia. The day I arrived the city was busy preparing for the annual Naadam Festival, which consits of the three manly sports of wrestling, archery and horseback riding (women now compete in archery and horse riding). The horse riding comipition was very impressive and consisted of a 26 km race about an hour outside the city. The most impressive aspect was the fact that the average age of the riders was around ten. These were some tough little kids who most of which learned to ride a horse before they could walk. The whole festival lasted three days and ended with the wrestling final which lasted almost two hours.

After the festival I met a group of travelers who had arranged a 31 day tour of the mongolian countryside via a Russian 4x4 van. The crew consisted of a vegitarean french girl (not an easy lifestyle to maintain in Mongolia), a 34 year old proffesional Brittish photogragher for Rough Guides, an Austrailan, a 22 year old mongolian interpreter, and Oggi our driver. For the next month we traveled to lakes, crossed sand dunes, and forded rivers to the western most reaches the country, which is roughly the size of Alaska, and back again to the capital. Putting six strangers in close quarters for a month is never an easy propsition. There were several points throughout the month where I thought the group was going to kill our guide, who turned out to be a greedy decitful little wench. I tried my best to play the peacemaker and stave off any mutiny attempts, but after a couple weeks I was definatley ready for a change in leadership. Fortunatley our driver could not have been more competent and knowledgable. Everyday brought new breathtaking scenery and and the vastness of the region made anything tolerable.

It was an amazing segment of the trip and one that I will never forget. The pictures do much better justice to the countries beauty than anything I would be able to articulate.
peace and love
-sdg-

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Comments

[Mary]

Sam I Am in Mongolia
Thank you so much for blogging about your Marvelous Mongolia Month--these photos are unbelievably beautiful!! You're right to be thinking you will never forget it for the rest of your life... stay safe and open-hearted and open-minded as you bid farewell to that hemisphere and these wonderful months of adventure and travel... Can't wait to see you and share every single tale!

[nance uhler (ie mom)]

thank you
greatly appreciated you blog on mongolia. last we heard from brett, he was in china with mongolia on his mind. with visa deadlines and last minute issues, it is understood that communications home are difficult. thank you sharing that you actually saw him and in fact that he and frank are in mongolia being cowboys. hope someday we cross paths so that you can share some of your stories..... come see us in chicago!

[austin]

thanks for having great sons
this comment is for the mothers of all the Magellans, Columbus's and DeSoto's out there, who have sat wide eyed many of late night, thinking of their boys in the vast wilderness's of Asia. Thanks for having great sons that I have truly cherished throughout my journeys. Franklin and Sam have been life long freinds, and Im glad I can now add Mr. Uhler to that list. Truly amazing gentlemen. The next step now, is figuring out what Bret and I are going to do with our amazing experience in Burma. Cheers to all you wonderfull moms and if your sons are keen on coming out to Oz to visit, then Ive got plenty of room. one love!