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Published: September 19th 2006
Locals say Hi, Mongolia
As we overtook them and covered them in dust!Ulaanbaatar - capital of Mongolia
Arriving in Ulaanbaatar during a snow fall wasn't the most auspicious of starts. However, the wonderful Mongolian people made our welcome about as warm as we could ask for. After the reserve of the Russians, the wide smiles and charm of the Mongolians was a nice change. And so many of them spoke English. We felt extremely spoiled.
We only spent one day in Ulaanbaatar (UB), which was a pity as there was plenty we could have done there. However, we suddenly discovered that we were under some time pressure. We'd heard that train tickets from UB to Beijing were difficult to come by, but being told that they were sold out for September and October threw us into a total panic. Particularly because our Chinese visas required that we arrive in China by 21st September, meaning that hanging around for tickets wasn't something we could do. So we ended up paying over the odds for
soft sleeper (up till now we'd been in hard sleeper) tickets on the only train available (apparently) which was the 15th. This meant our plans for a ten day tour to the Gobi desert had to be abandoned
and that to do a decent length tour into the Mongolian countryside we needed to leave pretty much immediately.
Out into Mongolia - Land of the Blue Sky
Somehow we managed to talk Tarald, one of the now seemingly ever present No. 1 Norwegians, into doing a six day tour with us. Having said that, he did only really decide to come exactly half an hour after we were due to leave. Luckily Mongolia isn't a particularly stressed out place and we were running late.
With our guide Ekhme and our trusty Russian four wheel drive van (trusty only because Ekhme is a great mechanic) we set off on a flying visit of the area west of UB. It was a flying visit because it felt like we frequently had all four wheels off the ground. This was due in part to Ekhme's driving style, but mostly because of the Mongolian roads. It's worth devoting some time to a full description of the Mongolian roads. They were quite outside the combined experience of one Norwegian, one Brit and one Kiwi. The main roads in UB are really terrible. They are full of potholes, fractures and resealing. Any
drive along these is a seriously bumpy experience. However, as we left UB and got further out into the countryside, they actually got progressively worse (except for one section which was newly sealed and smooth - though this might have been a dream). Eventually they got so bad that Ekhme chose to drive on sandy tracks that spread out either side of the 'proper' road. These were often smoother than the road, but tended towards really huge dips and bumps that had us slamming our heads on the (thankfully padded - oh er) ceiling of our van. Eventually the 'proper' sealed road completely disappeared, and we were left tearing along sandy tracks literally in the middle of nowhere. It only occurred to us very late in the tour that if anything happened to Ekhme, we'd have no chance of finding our way back to UB.
Our tour was a bit of a loop to various sites west of UB. Because Mongolia is huge (the size of Western Europe), and the roads are so bad, this meant spending upwards of seven hours a day in the van getting from place to place. Although it was a long time, the empty
Mongolian scenery creates a kind of zen like calm (Tarald might call it sleep) that makes the time pass easily. We would drive through huge empty grassy plains ringed by low blue hills, with not a tree, or other vehicle in sight. There might be a ger (Mongolian tent-house), or a local on a horse, or a herd of sheep, cows, goats or horses. Then we'd climb over the hills at the other side, and be in another huge plain, with no sign of human habitation whatsoever. And from horizon to horizon all you could see was blue sky, with not a cloud in it. We'd spot eagles, hawks and buzzards circling or just lurking by the side of the road, and the bones of dead animals were a frequent sight. Sometimes we'd cross rivers, and these were always vivid blue against the golden grass on the plains.
We stopped at sand dunes on the edge of the Gobi Desert. We only had enough time to climb to the top and then run back down again, but at least we got a little taste of this huge desert that is currently heading towards Beijing at a rate of 2kms
a year.
We also stopped briefly at Karakorum, the capital of Mongolia during the reign of Chinggis Khan (aka Genghis Khan). Although there is nothing to see of his capital we were able to visit the Buddist Monastery Erdene Zuu, which was the first Buddhist centre in Mongolia, and which is functioning again after the Stalinist purges of the 1930's. It has huge walls (that Tarald, the crazy Norwegian, insisted on climbing) surrounding a very large area of land with a few small buildings clustered around the middle. We had arrived too late to visit the temple, but did manage to take a good look around, and then have a look at the stone turtle.
In the evening we were lucky enough to be able to attend a 'concert' by our host's neighbour. He played three traditional Mongolian stringed instruments for us and sang to us about Chinggis Khan, camels, Mount Attai, sheep, goats and other livestock as part of his repertoire of traditional Mongolian songs. The music is actually pretty good, and encourages plenty of foot tapping. Basker was also the total entertainer. He played a short song for us, and then played it using his head,
Dinner, Mongolia
Lambs stomach dumplings and Chinngis Khan beer. his nose and his knuckles as instruments. He's completely self taught and can play over 20 instruments. And for a day job he's an air traffic controller...
On the first leg of our trip we passed hurriedly through the town of Tsetserleg. It was under quarantine due to a case of Bubonic plague. We closed our windows on the way through, but noticed that Ekhme didn't bother. No symptons to report so far. We did stop here for lunch on the way back to UB, and the quarantine had been lifted, so we're feeling pretty confident. Cough cough.
All this was en route to White Lake, a beautiful lake surrounded by low, mostly treeless, hills. It has a sprinkling of gers around its edge and telephone lines. And that is as far as any human development has gone. It has to be one of the most peaceful, beautiful places on earth. It is so quiet that we could hear the creaking of birds wings as they flew overhead! We spent two very laid back days here, wandering around the lake, paddling in the ice cold water. During the day, it was warm, but at night it got very
Baskar, Karakorum, Mongolia
We were treated to a traditional mongolia concert in our Ger. cold. We spent our evenings curled up in our ger with the fire on, only venturing outside long enough to look at the stars. After London we'd begun to believe that there were only three stars in the Northern Hemisphere heavens. Mongolia proved otherwise - there were so many stars we had trouble finding the main constellations.
A - The only thing to interrupt our peace was an ill advised bout of horse riding. Ill advised only as far as Daren was concerned. For reasons we could never understand, his horse didn't work properly. It wouldn't steer, or if it did it overcorrected to such an extent that Daren would end up going in almost the opposite direction from Tarald or I. And it had two speeds, walk or the jackhammer trot. Which meant that when Tarald and I were doing our Mongolian warrior impressions, galloping across the grassy plains, Daren was being turned into a milkshake somewhere far behind us. This might have been bearable for him if we'd only been out for an hour, but as our guide only spoke Mongolian, we were doing the three hour tour. Including a half hour hike up a volcano while
Daren & Tarald, White Lake, Mongolia
Daren was on Unpredictable Moody Bastard, Tarald was on Trusty Lad at altitude of more than 2000 metres! Daren's back has only just started to come right, and it took him quite a while to find his sense of humour about it. Also, I can't resist mentioning that our three horses were the most flatulent that I have ever come across! The entire ride was punctuated by loud toots and farts from our less than gallant steeds.
D - Bl**dy W*nking T*sser St*p*d Sm*lly H*rse...
Our accommodation during the trip was at Mongolian Nomad gers. These tents look pretty basic from the outside. Inside they are comfortable and typically have five beds lined around the walls, a table, stools and a large stove throwing out heat. Some were decorated with beautiful printed fabric around the walls, painted wooden tent ribs, and beautifully painted furniture. It was a real adventure staying in them. The mornings were freezing, so both Daren and Tarald tried getting the fire in our stove started. With a pretty low degree of success. Both came away muttering something about the lack of oxygen at altitude.
The families who hosted us also fed us. Mutton features pretty big here, and Mongolian nomads don't go in much
Abbie, White Lake, Mongolia
Completely composed and in charge - yeah, right! for vegetables. Except potato. In fact, our guidebook said that some Mongolian's consider that too many vegetables are bad for you. So most of our evening meals were things like pasta and mutton, rice and mutton or noodles and mutton. Initially delicious, eventually even Daren, the original carnivore, was complaining about mutton. We also drank quite a lot of Mongolian tea, which is salted cow or mare's milk. Rather nice once you get used to it.
Trans-Mongolian - Number 4 train - Ulaanbaatar to Beijing
Back to UB, for a shower and the chance to scrape the dirt off (and a bite to eat that wasn't mutton), and we were on the early morning train to Beijing - another 30 hours and 1,500 kms. We knew the train passed through the Gobi desert, however we didn't pay this much notice, as it is apparently only 4%!s(MISSING)and. By the end of the first day though, almost all of that 4%!w(MISSING)as in our cabin.
We shared with a Mongolian family, Toogi, Ameena and Aneema, a mother and 2 daughters (aged 5 & 15) also travelling to Beijing. They were very accomodating, especially as Daren got incredibly grumpy
Daren and Unpredictable Moody Bastard, White Lake, Mongolia
I wouldn't mine, but this was his response to several kicks in the ribs... with the heat and the sand. We also met a few Brits, Benjamin from MK (Milton Keynes), Mark from Ipswich and Bristol (probably couldn't decide which was worse), Melissa from London, and Alexa from New York, now working in UB for a year. They helped the time pass, especially Benjamin, who bore more than a passing resemblance to Adam Sandler.
Waking up on the second day saw us in China, a very different view from the window, and a confusing one hour lost from Mongolian time (despite the fact that we'd been travelling south east all the while). Around about lunchtime the train started to climb the mountains, to pass within sight of the Great Wall of China! The train even stopped at a small station to change engines and we were allowed a brief break to get views of the wall climbing steeply up the ridge of hills either side of the station. It's not so much the size that impresses but the location - it's impossible to imagine how the builders even managed to get to the location, let alone drag piles of earth, stone and bricks for building work.
From there it was only a
short ride to Beijing. We said goodbye to Toogi and her lovely girls, and tried to arrange to meet up with our fellow travellers for a drink. However, when it came to finding the bar it appeared to have mysteriously disappeared. But that's a story for the next installment...
Where to next?
We're working away on this in our hotel in Beijing. On Wednesday 20th we head to Xi'an to look at terracotta warriors and then the plan is to head to Shanghai - possibly on the Friday. Our visa for Vietnam starts on 1 October so we plan to be heading into Hanoi on or about that date. Love to all our friends and family x
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steve grover
non-member comment
hello daren and abbie, mongolia looks cool better than westham, even with our two new argie superstars. Its great being a grandad, george is 5 weeks today, getting biggerand fatter by minute. alls well here look 4ward 2 next diary entry. love every1xx