Week 8 - Mongolia

Drinks with Orgilma - like my beard?

This is a very typical Mongolian cuisine - noodles and beef, pretty tasteless

Look closely at whats in this picture. It looks like someone went nuts on this sheep. We ate it...

Khovsgol lake and our horses

Our van we travelled in: 1950's Waz from Russia

Our path is in the middle in black; approx 2000 miles (3000km)

Sainbainauu!

Welcome to the final week of our trip in Mongolia. Its about 4pm here in Ulaan Baatar and I'm looking forward to a few nice cold Chinggas beers! We are very excited to see our good friends Raj and Meg in Beijing tomorrow! And Chinese food is also very appealing right now!

So what have we been doing since the last post?
Khatgal > Khovsgol Lake > Khutag-Ondor > Amarbayasgalant Khiid > Ulaan Baatar

This was quite an exciting part of the trip throughout Mongolia, mostly for the reason as we got away from everyone and Marina and I just spent some nice romantic time around Khovsgol lake - well it can't be too romantic in Mongolia as fresh showers are not common and the toilets are from the 1800's - yes they have outhouses outside of UB.

Friday - preparations for the lake: As we arrived to Khatgal our first thought was lets get the lake trip sorted. We wanted to go on a fishing trip via horses for 3 days. Once this was arranged we now had to buy the supplies and of course a few beers. You really get used to drinking beer warm in Mongolia. During the day we an expat living in Mongolia and we partied that night at the hostel hearing about Phil's cool adventures around the country.

Saturday - Mongolian Horses: Mongolian horses can be a lot more stubborn than American horses and when they told us they don't listen to foreigners as much, its true.. You really have to take control in the beginning or the horse will walk right over you... literally; just kidding. Although Marina did learn this quite quickly. Also, they are smaller than we are used to. Sometimes you see a 200lbs (90kg) guy on a small Mongolian horse and its pretty funny. So we began the trip through the mountains to the west side of Khovsgol lake. Our camp was again with a family who stays on the lake and that night we tried our luck fishing.... I don't mean to complain, but it is not easy fishing in Mongolia. Wow! Not only did we not see a fish in a lake during our whole time in this country, but we didn't have a bite either - I think rivers must be the way. I blew my forecast by a long shot (Donut!), but luckily we still got to eat! Picture attached of the food that night.

Sunday - Khovsgal Lake: The next day we did a 6 hour horse trip along the lake enjoying the scenery. This lake is absolutely gorgeous. Just to tell you a bit about it. Its Mongolia's biggest lake and something like the 14th biggest lake in the world. I read that it contains 2% of the worlds fresh water. So as your guessing, its big! But disregarding its size, its beautiful for the fact that it has gorgeous pine trees lined around it along the mountains which also surround the lake. And the water is the nicest I've ever seen in a lake. Your probably thinking, oh it must be clear. Well yes, it is clear, but the coolest thing is it has loads of white rocks at the bottom. So what happens to the water when white rocks or sand is at the bottom - it looks turquoise like in the Caribbean (well maybe not in 2010, but before BP's debacle). So this lake is just heaven! That night I thought I would take advantage of the gorgeous water and have a dip. Now remember we are just south of Siberia and at night around the lake its probably around 40 degrees F (5 Celsius). So the water was very cold. But in the day the ambient temperature is about 75 degrees F (25 celceus) so you warm up quickly. But that lake is almost cold enough for the polar bear club!

Monday - Riding back to Khatgal: The ride back was a lot of fun and we had a few scares along the way. Well at least the horses did. They are really big girls (no offence ladies). One lady came out of a gate with a stroller (pram) and her baby. One horse went nuts and the rest followed causing a big risk of getting thrown off - pretty funny afterwards. One more thing about Mongolian horses; the saddles are pretty simple and after 3 days, you feel it! Man you feel it! It would probably have felt better to get kicked by the horse in the butt...

Tuesday - riverside: The ride leaving Khatgal to the outskirts of Khutag Ondor was a grueling one.. About 12 hours including lunch... Oh have a look at the restaurant we ate at - picture attached. When we arrived at our destination it was gorgeous, nestled between the mountains and along the river. But besides that not much to mention.

Wednesday - Best food of Mongolia: We stopped in Erdenet for lunch. This city actually looked like a proper city rather than a Kansas mining town in 1831. We stopped at a little cafe (fast food place) and wow, great soup and excellent dumplings! what a treat! If I showed you a comparison picture from the other, you would appreciate it too. That night we arrived at Amarbayasgalant Khiid; Mongolia's most famous monastery. It was a shame as it again was not what it used to be; it seemed it was run by 10-12 year olds.

Thursday - Orgilma: Back in UB we were very happy to see civilisation after being in the van travelling around for 18 days. See a picture of the van above. We had stopped in small towns, but UB was UB and we were ready for decent food and cold beer! I managed to arrange time to meet up in the late afternoon with a friend from London in 2003 who is Mongolian and lives in UB. It was awesome to hear about Mongolia from her view.

Friday - Today our last full day here: we have been sightseeing this morning. One notable site was UB's famous Gandan Khiid Monastery. Now this place was vibrant and alive. Multiple buildings of young novices studying to be monks! And the buildings were very ornate! Tonight should be fun as we are hoping to hear some live music and relax in preparation for THE PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF CHINA!

Just to recap on a few of the thoughts we have about Mongolia.

- Mongolia is certainly a land of opportunity. They have a huge country like 3 times the size of Texas and it seems to just kind of sit there without any industry or agriculture. If these guys start to take advantage of the huge land they have they could be a very wealthy nation.
- Fast food: Mongolia uses the catch phase fast food quite often. Marina says this was chic in Russia 10 years ago. What I have gauged from fast food is the only difference is this food comes in about 15 minutes rather than 90 minutes which is a typical time to wait in many of the Airmag capitals.
- This is a challenging an arduous country to visit and especially live in! Anyone who wants to tackle Mongolia needs a big sense of adventure and to not expect the finer things in life - outside of UB.
- Its a great time to visit Mongolia. This place is getting popular and its still retains its old-fashioned ways. Mongolia is very different from any country we have been to and you really need to come here to truly know what this place is all about. It has been called the world's largest camping ground and that is absolutely true! With your open mind and ability to endure this place - you will have a great time! We really did enjoy our 3 weeks here! Priceless!

Our flight is to Beijing is tomorrow at 11:50 and we will be doing Beijing, Gi-an, Shanghai and then possibly to Taiwan before Southern and western China. We'll keep you posted!

Bayartai from Mongolia!

Dan and Marina