Mongolia, a vast land of surprises

The Mongolian capital feels like a huge dustbowl, similar to many of the Russian cities that I passed by. Not helped by the huge Russian influence in the shaping of this city where winters can get as low as minus 50 degrees and up to 40 degrees in the scorching summer heat. Bobby from UB Guesthouse picked me up from the station at the Irkutsk/UlaanBaator train calls to a halt. I had planned to only stay for 2 nights, with most of the time spent out living in a Ger in a nearby Nature Park, and continue my journey into Beijing, only to find out that the only trains to run directly into the chinese capital only service on Thursdays and Sundays. The other alternative is a 3 day journey via a local train to the Mongolian border, followed by mini bus across to the Chinese border and another bus ride from there to the capital. Figured that I can't afford the additional day of travel even though it was half the cost of the train ride, only to be convinced by various in the hostel to take up a 5D/4N trip to the Great White Lake on the west of this vast country. That night, I withdrew 450,000 worth of Togrog, equivalent to about USD$250 to pay for the trip and train ticket ($125), felt like a millionaire at that point in time!

The hostel was almost full that weekend, with Dutch forming the majority of the numbers. A fellow Singaporean, Jo, was also staying in my dorm room, together with a Korean and Japanese. She has been making her way westwards from China into Mongolia, with Russia being her next stop. It was refreshing to find travellers from home with the keen sense of adventure and unafraid to step out of the comfort zones of their jobs and homes to see the world. A group of us headed to a Korean restaurant for a meal of very good and authentic Korean dishes before Jo left to catch her train. I headed to the State Departmental Store with Paul (American from Las Vegas) to stock up on food for the next 5 days.

Next day, our group of 4 got onto a Russian-built 4x4 van and headed west for a 350km drive to Kharakorum, the former capital of the country back in the 13th century. Behind the wheels was a very cheerful Batra, young man who recently have his first daughter of 3 months. Besides Paul, there was Dave, a Brit in his mid twenties who got fed up with the work that he has been doing and decided to go on a road trip round the world, and Marie (I can't spell her real Irish name!), an Irish nurse who has loads of energy and can't seem to stop chatting. We stopped halfway at a place known as mini-Gobi to see the sand dunes that is synonymous with the famous desert, only to find a few small sand peaks reaching barely 10m in height. Paul, been on another 7 days trip south to the Gobi desert prior to this trip, did not even bother to get down the van, or maybe he was just nursing his hangover from the deluge of vodka from the night before. We arrived at Kharakorum just before sunset, a 8 hour back breaking drive on a combination of tarmac and off road. Settled into a Ger, which is a traditional Mongolian tent used by the normadic Mongolians, easy to setup but yet strong enough to withstand the ferocity of the 100 mile winds. We spent the rest of the evening running up the nearby hills, mimicking sheep bahs and enjoying the vast emptiness of the surroundings, before settling back into the Ger to "enjoy" the local Buuz (mongolian dumplings) and burning real firewood to keep warm. We enjoyed our first traditional throat singing performance by a 54 year old local, who entertained us for almost 40 minutes of very traditional mongolian art, frequently rotating his musical instrument. Considering that his is his hobby (he said he started learning it since 17), he is not too bad!

The 300km drive to Terkhiin Tsagaan Nuur National Park was another back breaking ride on some of the most off road, crossing small streams and going over numerous mountains. Some of the scenery along the way were really amazing, as the colours on the mountains start to change from brown to its bright summer glories. We stopped by a small town for lunch and had the first of our many "fried noodles with mutton" dish over the next few days. It's amazing how they can reuse this dish in various different forms - fried, soup, more fried, soup using mongolian tea - tasted great on the 1st day, after which I came to run when I smell of it. Marie did not even want to try and stuck to her beef goulash, which was a mix of rice, some carrots and fried beef/mutton (we can never seem to figure what meat it was, as long as it didn't come from the camel).

...to be continued...