Around Mongolia

Hello again! Sorry it's been a while since the last post but we've been busy "on tour" in Mongolia with very limited access to the internet!

So, I'll start where Mikko left off. We took the train from Irkutsk to Ulan Bator and to our surprise found ourselves sharing a cabin with Andy and Rob; two English guys who, we are starting to suspect, have been stalking us since the beginning of our travels! We met them first in our hostel in Moscow, then later on Olkhon Island, and then on the train to Mongolia. We got some beers in (as you do!) and had a good night chatting about our travels so far.

This time we spent just 2 nights in the train, but annoyingly it passed through most of the nice places (it follows the edge of lake Baikal for quite a distance) during the night, and for most of the daylight hours the train was stationary at a very depressing Russian border town called Naushki. After what seemed like an eternity (especially when you're not allowed to leave the train and the toilets are locked!) the border guards finally came onto the train and checked that our passports/ visas were all in order. We were slightly disappointed that after all the hassle trying to register our visas in Moscow, they didn't even check whether we had bothered to register them at all!

On arrival in Ulan Bator we were met by a mob of people offering accommodation/ taxis/ tours, etc. Fortunately, we'd prebooked a hostel so we could just ignore the masses and made our way to a man holding up a card with our name on. Good thinking! :-)

Andy and Rob were also staying at our hostel, and we figured that since we would probably end up in the same place anyway then it made sense for us to book a tour together! So, we arranged a 2 night trip out to Terelj National Park, leaving the following morning. We had the rest of the day free so we went for a walk around the city. Ulan Bator is a bit of a crazy place. Its polluted, noisy, the traffic is hell, the buildings are ugly (still Soviet-style) and there are pickpockets everywhere. But despite all that, there is something very nice about it... a nice atmosphere somehow, but I can't quite figure out why!

We took a walk around a buddhist monastery in the city centre which was a very beautiful and relaxing place, then we walked down the main street, Peace Avenue, in the hope of finding a new camera. We didn't find one (at least, nothing that didn't look like it had fallen off the back off a lorry!) but we did find a vegetarian restaurant, much to my delight! In the evening we went to a concert, which had a strange combination of the tradition Mongolian art of throat singing (very weird... I can't even begin to describe what it sounds like), other tradition music performances and dances and some gymnastics. It was a fun evening, very different to any other.

So, the following morning we were packed into a minibus bound for Terelj, a National Park about 100km from the city. Outside of the city, most of the Mongolian people lead a nomadic lifestyle, following their animals around the countryside and staying in little round tent made of felt, called gers. We were told that we would be staying with a nomad family and were all looking forward to the experience. But on arrival, I think we were all a bit disappointed. One man came and showed us to our ger, informed us "lunch at 2pm" (it was 10am) and then disappeared. We had no idea where we were, no map and no idea what we could do in the area. Our camp was facing a mountain so we decided to climb. It was a beautiful view over the camp and the surrounding countryside, and there were wild horses everywhere. We went back to the camp for lunch, which consisted of rice, mutton and potato, pretty much what we expected!



After lunch some other tourists told us about Turtle Rock (a rock which looks- you've guessed it!- a little bit like a turtle). So with no other options, we set off on another walk to the rock, which turned out to be quite a hike since we didnt really know where we were going, just wandering aimlessly looking for anything resembling a turtle. In the end, we found the turtle, which is really nothing special. But next to him was a small ger where some people were charging tourists a small fee to have there photos taken dressed as Mongolian emperors/ emperesses. We all felt a little bit foolish in the beginning but before long Rob had started cross-dressing, and in the end I think the locals got more of a kick out of it than us tourists did!



When we returned to the camp, they had organised horseriding, and this was by far the best part of the whole trip. Our "guide", the son of our host family, was about 12 years old and spoke very limited English. I think we were all pretty nervous. Sure enough, within 2 hours he had everyone's horses galloping down the mounainside, completely out of control, to his screams of "GENGHIS KHAAAAAN!!".



The following day we walked to a remote monastery up int the mountains. There was not so much to see there, but still it was a nice walk. We had to walk past the turtle again to get there. It doesn't matter how many times you see it, it still doesn't look like a turtle.



The next day we returned to Ulan Bator, and booked another longer tour, into the Gobi desert. I'll leave that to Mikko to report.

We still don't have a camera (should get ourselves a new one in Beijing), so the pics of Terelj are by Andy.

We are reading all your comments, and I'm happy to hear you're enjoying our blog! It's always really nice to hear from you too. I'm having a wonderful time travelling but believe me I miss you all, so thanks for your comments. Until the next time...