Chinggis expands to Russia

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So one of the things that is most crucial for you to understand the hilarity of what I have seen in the last week is my newly acquired nickname from a group of Mongolian guys. They called me Chinggis, not Ghengis as we say, but Chinggis. I got this nickname after singing a throat song (mongolian throat singing) in praise of the national hero, while drinking a Chinggis Beer. We then had a wrestling match where a Mongol of about half my size picked me up through me across the ger where I pulled a muscle. But the throwing match did get me some respect, and from then on I was Chinggis.

The Gobi trip was a lot diffrent and in many ways a lot more fun than the last tour I decribed. There were 6 of us and two drivers who where absolutely hilarious. Our group was made up of two British brothers, an Austrian who has been traveling for 5 years, an american "film maker" and a nice German girl.

Every night we stayed in a tourist Ger which is the same structure as I've been sleeping in but this time with no families. It was just people who rented out their extra Ger for accomodation. The Mongolian experience was therefore a bit less authentic, but it was nice to just sit back in at night after long drives through the Gobi and play cards.

After the Nambid desert near the Kalahari i never thought I'd see a sand dune as big as they claimed theirs was (700 meters tall) but the Gobi dune climbing put that to shamel. This thing was at least 900 Meters tall, add -20C temperature, blowing winds, some light snow, and straight up climb and you get a feel for what we attempted. The German girl passed out on the way up and I had to help her down.

These are going to be short blurbs because I"m about to miss my train but wanted to write some news before I head off again.

One of the British guys upon coming down from the mountain was walking near some bushes and kicked a rock a bit ahead of himself. The rock tripped an animal trap and he almost got his leg snapped in two when this huge metal circular thing snapped up and attempted to close around him. They said it was to trap runaway sheep. What I don't understand is what the hell a runaway sheep would be doing near a barren sand dune 5 hours drive away from any hint of a breathing human who ones the food.

Mutton has gotten so old that I would go back to China in a moment and gladly continue to eat dog, scorpion, and mice meat. You can smell it embedded into your skin and it's absolutely infuriating that anything else costs more than one night's accomodation.

Two days rest in UB has been amazing. Had an apartment all to myself in an old soviet style block of apartments. High ceilings, cracked walls, low ugly chandaliers,and pipes on the inside of the walls because they would freeze if they were INSIDE the walls.

One night in the Ger the roof flipped open and we were stuck sleeping and diving for cover from -20C temperatures. That's INSIDE the ger, with a FIRE. Outside was much much worse. I was looking at the BBC report yesterday for the first time and noticed in Rome it's 14C. I think I would be sweating. My chinese house has come through though, i am warm. And thankfully I have finally washed my long underwear from the Army Navy Store. They started smelling like mutton.

I finally used the Mongolian language phrasebook too. If you ask the drivers to stop to take a picture or pee they just laugh, but as soon as I said "Chinggis has Diahrrea" they pulled over and opened the door for me. And boy was it a Chinggis diahrrea.

When traveling you meet a lot of other people who have done some amazing trips as well. Speaking with the British brothers, Colin and Ian, we started brainstorming the next trip that we should take.

I'll have to wait til next time though. The basic drift of it is an tour in a Toyota landcruiser from Southern Europe to Cape Town. And I've already got a few ideas on how to make it a trip with a purpose, totally free to me and those lucky enough to come along, and something that will hopefully benefit the HIV/AIDS pandemic research. I'm working on my proposal now. So keep those check books handy!

I'm on a train in two hours from Ulaan Bataar to Novisibrsk Russia. That's just north of Almaty in Kazakhstan. I'll spend perhaps one night or no night there depending on the time of the connection south. From there I'll meet up with my friends Sara who's in the north, and Matt whose in the South. Matt has communication, Sara doesn't seem to. I'll basically be getting off the train and wondering around until i find a bus where I can ask "take me to the american in your village."

til soon.

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