Day 3, 4

The third day of our trek took us to a hot spring. It was great to get a douche after a few days in the wilderness. The spring was pretty cool. There was a small steaming stream that was super hot – way too hot to get in. Fortunately, there was a small, cool water stream that joined the hot stream just below a bath house. We jumped in where the streams met and arranged rocks to mix the water. When it was our turn to go in the bath house we used big jugs to pour the hot water into the tubs. There were locals doing laundry and bathing.

Before the day was out we stopped by a big waterfall. It probably was about fifty feet high and poured into a huge hole and canyon in the Orkhon River Valley. That’s where we would spend the next two nights.

This ger camp was more aimed toward tourists as it had several guest gers for visitors to stay in. That night we learned a great new card game. It’s one I’ve seen several times on the streets of Beijing being played by old guys. To play you have to group suits and numbers and then put them on the table all while trying to get rid of your cards. Every turn you get to put one card down and pick up a new one. There was another driver guy there and we played with him and our driver. We even kept score and had to pay a few hundred Turreg when it was all over.

The next day we went on a great horse ride. We rode up and down the Orkhon River Valley passing by the occasional ger camp and enjoying the hot Mongolian sunshine.

We passed a river and I wanted to jump in so I suggested we take a douche. So we did. We all jumped in the water in our birthday suits. It was pretty cold but the water was sort of muddy so we didn’t stay in for too long.

Day 5

On our fifth day we left the Orkhon River Valley and headed for the sand dunes. There’s a strip of sand that I guess is the northern tip of the Gobi desert. It was really hot and sandy there.

Around lunchtime, before we got to the dunes, we were just cruising around when our driver, Billick, suddenly pulls a sharp U-turn and we start bounding over the grassland not following any road. We were all like, uh.. where are we going? We just did the only thing we could, sit in the jeep and see where we’d end up. Sure enough, we come to a little family having a picnic lunch out in the sun. That is what was great about our driver. He knew all these great spots and had friends along the way that he could take us to.

For lunch we ate the Mongolian bread things with a yogurt cheese sauce thing that you scoop. There was even good Mongolian vodka, and by tradition everyone had three hits. We also passed around a bottle of snuff. It stung.

After lunch the family challenged Wendel to a foot race. He won and had to take a celebratory shot. It was about 12:30pm.

We also checked out some cool monasteries. One was actually real. When we walked in, the monks where doing their singing thing. This was a lot cooler that what I’ve seen in the past because it felt real. There were absolutely no other tourists. Usually there’s a bunch around and you just think they’re doing the singing thing for the tourists. That wasn’t the case here. The second one we checked out was much bigger. It was the first monastery in Mongolia.

For the night we slept at a tourist camp but they didn’t cook us any food so we cooked our own. Before dinner we hiked up the mountain behind camp. The place was basically in a natural crater with one side left open. It was fun climbing because we really had to work to get up the rocks. It took a little while but the view from above was pretty sweet. On the way down we found some rhubarb. I ate a stick while I was hiking down, it was really good.

Day 6

All we did on the last day was drive back to Ulaanbaatar. Oh wait, we also went shooting at the army place that was closed before. We shot a huge sniper rifle and an AK-47. There wasn’t as much kick as I expected. With the sniper I shot two targets way off in the distance. The shooting range was set up just like a video game with people figures that fall backwards when shot.

We arrived back in Ulaanbaatar to see the streets crawling with military, roadblocks and tanks rolling around. There had been riots the evening before. People were angry over the recent election outcome. International outsiders claim the election was fair so I guess people just got mad and rioted. The headquarters of the ruling party was burnt. I went out and took some photos.

Stay tuned for a Russia post!

After spending a day in Ulaanbaatar to figure out what was we where going to do, Wendel and I decided to take a five night trek into the Mongolian wilderness/countryside. It’s not really wilderness because people live all over the place, but there is certainly no running water and very little electricity.

At our guesthouse we met a guy from Iceland named Gunnar. We arranged a trek with Bolod, the guy who runs the guesthouse, that would include tank driving and horseback riding. Remember, to see all the photos check the photo page.

Day 1

First we had to buy food for six days. We loaded up our Russian jeep full of all our stuff and food. Our drivers name was Billick. He’s a bad-ass Mongolian dude. It took us a little while to get out of town but soon we were off paved roads and bumping around over dirt and grass.

Our first stop was a Mongolian Army base. We just drove up to the gate, got out, waited for little while, handed over some cash (only after figuring out how much by speaking German) and waited for our tank to drive out. Waiting outside the walls of the base (that looked just like a base you’d encounter playing some army computer game) we could hear the tank start up. It was really noisy. We paid 25,000 Tourig (like 20 bucks) for 1 kilometer of driving. The army guys said the tank eats five liters of diesel gas per km.

Out drove the tank and we walked over and hopped on. It wasn’t until the army guys started pointing out the clutch, gears, gas and break did we realize we would actually get behind the wheel of this 40-ton war machine. Gunnar drove first up a hill. Then Wendel and I shared the way back down.

The tank was pretty simple to drive. The T-55 has five gears and drives just like a car – except for turning. Good thing we knew how to drive stick because that how the tank worked. I just sat right down in the seat and started driving. To turn, you have to pull either a right or left handle that changes the speed of the caterpillars so it will turn. It was pretty fun.

After tank driving we tried to shoot some military weapons but the place was closed so we would return later. (See? There’s me in the dank driver seat below.)

Our first night we slept in a Ger – basically a yurt where a family lives. We were cruising across the Mongolian steppe when all of a sudden Billick hangs a sharp right. We drive over a hill and just pull up to a random yurt, get out and walk in. As soon as we entered we were offered some hot sheep and goat milk. We had a great dinner of mutton and noddles in a soupy mixture. Everyone slept in the yurt. Mom, dad, grandpa, some little kids and me, Wendel and Gunnar on the floor. It was great.

There was great wildlife, like this cool looking bird. We think it’s a Kite.

Day 2

After leaving the Ger, we checked out an ancient city. There were ruins from the city that was around between the 8th and 10th centuries. The we stopped by a cool lake called Olgy Nur and ate lunch on its bank. Most of the day was spent in the jeep.

For the night we camped on a random hillside and were literally in the middle of nowhere. We left a small dirt road and just bounced over the grass up this hill to our campsite. It was a great spot. This was about the time we realized we were really in Mongolia. I’m not going to try to describe the place. Just look at the photos.

There’s our jeep in the corner.

Cool face shadow:

Stay tuned for more posts about the rest of the Trek and the Russian Federation. Yeah, I guess it’s a federation.

Today when we returned to Ulaanbaatar the streets were roaming with military! There was a riot last night and some government buildings where burned and looted. People are upset over the outcome of Sunday’s parliamentary elections. There’s a state of emergency and curfew in effect. The post office and bank across the street from us is chained shut. Good thing our plane to Irkutsk leaves before the curfew time.

Today Wendel and I arrived in Mongolia after a 30-hour train ride. We took train K23 from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar. We left Beijing at the crack of dawn right on time. The train was full of sleeper cars and we were in a compartment with four beds. An Australian named Kate joined us for the journey. From Beijing we headed north through China’s Inner Mongolia. The smoggy air of Beijing finally started to clear up a bit as we neared the Mongolian border.

Just before midnight we arrived at the border town of Erlian in China. There, the train had to change wheels to accommodate for the different track gauge of Mongolia. It took forever but was cool because each car was lifted up so the Chinese wheels could be rolled out and the Mongolia wheels attached.

As we rode the train we noticed that the sky is bigger here. Everything is of a larger scale. The mountains looked huge and far away. Animals grazing in the distance looked like ants against the wild grassland. Overnight we passed through the northeastern Gobi Desert. By daylight we were on the vast Mongolian steppe. Yurts huddled around small buildings dotted the hillsides as the train weaved its way through the lowest spots.

Ulaanbaatar is a small and pretty run down place. It only seems that way to us because we’re not used to sidewalks with potholes all over them. Our guesthouse is small but comfortable. A Mongolian dude named Bolod who is fluent in English, French, Russian and Italian runs the place. As soon as he realized we were American he sat us down at the kitchen table and asked us about the Presidential Election. We immediately voiced out support for Obama but he was skeptacle. We thinks McCain will win in November and quizzed us on why we like Obama.

We walked around town for a bit. I found the Chinese Embassy and inquired about my visa. (I’ll have to apply in July.) Then we walked around Sukhbaatar Square where the capital buildings are. They follow the communist monumentalism that is common in Beijing.

We booked plane tickets to Irkutsk for next week. That gives us only a few days in Russia but from what we’ve been told that will be alright. Now we get to plan a several night trek through the Mongolian wilderness.