Mongolia

Mongolia, originally uploaded by ericdues.

Well, the Mongolian border crossing was relatively straight forward.
After our train moved about 35 kilometers, we cleared customs and went
through the inspections in a matter of an hour. Then all of the
Mongolians that got on at the border, got back off and moved to other
cars. Although the one we were talking to came back to our kupe and
played with my phone for a bit and shared a hard-earned beer with us.

The Aussie son, Nick, fell into a concrete drainage trench about 5-6
feet deep while running back to our train in the dark after buying
some beers at a small shop near the train station. I was essentially
just wearing long underwear and sandles during this time, which I am
sure looked a bit odd. Nick ended up breaking one bottle and cutting
his hand and bruising his heel in the process, but is lucky bit to
have really hurt himself worse.

So, I thought the train arrived at noon, but the Russian timetable
switched to local Mongolian time at the border, so my ride was not
there, although the fantastic UB Guesthouse (who I was staying with on
my last night in UB) was there to pick up other guests. After being
dropped off by them at the office of the company (Tiara Resort) that I
booked my train ticket and national park stay with, it soon became
apparent that I would be waiting for quite some time until they
opened... so I decided to try to make alternate plans.

I walked back to the train station so that I could orient myself
correctly, but I did happen to run back into the van dropping off
other people from the UB Guesthouse that were bound for Bejing on the
Thursday version of the same train I am taking on Sunday. I asked the
driver and he took me back to the UB Guesthouse and I decided to book
my camping trip through them and with the Aussies and the
Brazillian... which would mean that I would not be alone the whole time.

The picture above is taken at sunset on the last night. The first day
and night the group of Swedes from Russia were staying with the same
family and we had a pretty sizeable vodka party with all of the random
backpackers that were staying there (about 9 in total). The ger was
so damn hot because the oompa-loompa lookalike guy that stoked the
fire filled it with coal to a level that made the entire stove glow
red-hot. This then essentially made the place a sauna and in the cold
ass weather there sat about 8 guys in their shorts sweating and
drinking vodka... only to occasionly run outside in the cold to cool
down and stop sweating.

The two days were spent playing soccer with the kids, horseback
riding, eating real Mongolian barbecue, taking photos, drinking vodka
and solving the worlds problems, and hiking some mountains.

The scenery was absolutely amazing, and the picture above definately
does not do it justice. I am glad I got out and did this now, because
while going around the Terelj National Park, it was clear that more
upscale resorts will be going in the future and the very desolate
landscape and nomadic lifestyle that people come to see will be
infringed upon and the experience will be lessened a bit. The
completely black starry sky alone is worth the trip, and the larger
resorts will take away some if that too.

Well, after having a huge Korean meal for $5 it is off for a bit if
drinking tonight, then time to catch my last train in the morning.

- The Dues