June 2 2011
Walked to the bus station easily from the hostel. Had to fill out costom forms for exiting Russia and entering Mongolia. The Russian exit one was in russian and the Mongolian in english. The girl next to me was from Kazakhstan and so She helped me with the russian and, though her english was great, I got to help her with the english. In Russia they stoped the bus 2 times before we got to customs and checked everyones passports. Then we had to get our bags and go through, where they checked passports, and also the other papers I have been carrying around. Then our bus had a mechanical problem so we waited there an hour. There was a family from Brazil with a 3 year old and all he wanted to do was go outside but was trapped in the waiting area with the big glass doors ,so he could see grass just on the otherside. Poor guy. Then bags back on the bus. And once more stopped the bus to check the passports.
So long Russia you are amazing and surprizing. Incredibly warm friendly people with a genuine pride in the beauty that is Russia.
MONGOLIA: Bus broke down about an hour into Mongolia. But I have found out that these mongols know how to fix any automobile. The bus just needed a small coin from a passengers pocket another time some scotch tape did the trick. We were in Ulaan Baatar (UB)a few hours later. Took a taxi to Ub hostel and the lady Bobee told me a group of 4 was looking for a 5th person for a 7 day Gobi tour the next morning.
We were 2 Swiss girls (Melenie and Valerie), a danish girl ( Anne)and a british guy(Richard). So we have an old russian van and driver, a cook, and 3 meals a day. We drove acrost Mongolias coarse roads and were lucky enough to see some of the most stunning landscapes in the world. The view seemed to change every half an hour or so, so even though I was beening thrown around a bit in the van, I did not seem to mind because there was always someting to marvel at. I saw budist ruins hidden in huge rock crevices, Flaming cliffs, white mountain( with the tiny mountain ranges below that make you feel like Zues looking down on the land) ice canyons in the middle of the desert, rolled some ankle bones(a mongolian game), rode a camel to unbeilvably large sand dunes and ate lunch on the grassy steppe as horses,cows,sheep,and goats ate their lunch also.
The food that Kwalan (cook) made was pretty good for breakfast and lunch. Every night we stayed at a nomadic families ger and they made us dinner. Usuaally consisted of noodles, rehydrated goat or mutton and possibly some potatoes. We should have brought salt and pepper though I don't know that would have helped. Shared a cup of Airag ( A slightly alcholic drink, 3 percent, made from fermented horse milk). One night we had a fire that caught quite quickly and warmed the ger up to the point of having to go outside a bit. It was all dried animal dung. Richard really got his hands dirty helping start the fire! yeah! POO FIRE!
Back in UB I took a very long shower washed my hair three times. The dunes just buried tons of sand and dirt in there. Then scored a ticket for Moron on sunday! Moron is the city a few hours away from lake khovsgol and Khovsgol nation park in Northern Mongolia. Two days in UB. Did some major treasure hunting for sunscreen ( sheeza), Walked to a view point above the city, museums and more museums, ordering buuz in mongolian, beers, and drinking ice coffee from this place down the street.
