Ulaan Baatar city...a developing city center which is surrounded by blocks of apartments and then industry and then houses and gers(yurts). There are some new buildings, lots of people dressed nice sporting cell phones and some high end cars. Most large cities in developing countries have these features but for some reason I didn't expect it in Ulaan Baatar. Perhaps it was the pictures that I remembered seeing when I was younger or the fact that Mongolia's PPP is way down the list. Thermal power plants dot the city, most roads are fairly pot-holed, and the air stings your lungs as you breath. There are, however, ample places to eat with great food and some informative museums and temples that give you a good picture of the history of the city. We stayed at Idre's Guest House, a touristic hostel type place that we'd heard of from Chris and Krystil. The dorm rooms were, I think, 4 dollars per night and the private room we got on our last night so that we could explode our stuff to pack was 14. They also have a pickup service for free from the bus station which meant we didn't have to assemble our bikes and poke our way through evening traffic(which is heinous) to get there.
Extending our 30 day visa turned out to be fairly trivial. The most time consuming part was the public transit to get to the recently moved immigration office. It's a funny affair. You get help from one wicket, get a number for another wicket, and as you progress through the steps of the process you make trips to the bank next door to pay. Somehow, even though the place was packed, our wicket was perpetually open so when we'd finish a bank run we'd go right back to our lady(not sure if this was by design or that B had taken a bunch of numbers to hedge our bets). After all was nearly done the lady pointed at a day on the calendar several days in the future...'passports'. This meant that our passports would be ready then. "Rush" we said. One more trip to the bank and back to our own personal immigration agent to show the receipt and 5 minutes later we had passports in hand while heading out the door(while doing clandestine high fives). I felt a little bad (and lucky!) as some other travelers were still filling out paperwork or waiting in line or were being told it'd take another day (or days).
A side note on the bus ride down to Ulaan Baatar...both Russian(exiting) and Mongolian(entry) was a breeze. The Russian agent, so used to processing Mongolian and Russian passports was a little perplexed about ours so didn't bother to give the rumoured inquisition that you hear about.
Other errands in Ulaan Baatar (which means red hero by the way) included:
-getting a new sun hat (left mine on a minibus in Ulan Ude)
-maps from the map store
-food for camping
-compass and iodine for water. Both were found at a hunting supply store near to Idre's. (next to BD Mongolian BBQ) The store had an impressive selection of camp gear but at stratospheric prices.
Day 1 on bikes.
With all that and packing behind us we woke early on July 20, ate some food, packed up the bikes and headed out. We were on the road by 6:45am...a little behind schedule (to beat traffic) but it turned out just fine. The traffic was relatively calm and drivers did give us some room. A minute for a minor mechanical and a brief bowel blowout were the only hurdles we encountered on the way out of town. We also bought a small amount of petrol for the camp stove. The alternative was benzene...did that guy really mean BENZENE when he told us what he put in his camp stove?
After about 25km Ulaan Baatar and its hazy halo faded behind a hill and the countryside opened up. The rolling green hills speckled with gers and herds of goat and sheep are totally spectacular when you first see it.
With around 80-90km behind us we turned down a road which leads to Khustain Nuruu National Park, a park where wild horses roam free. After a few hours of siesta at the turnoff to escape the heat we continued for a few more kilometers of washboard until we came to a tourist ger camp. Most tourist ger camps follow the same formula: they have a number of gers layed out where you can sleep and have a building for eating and one for sani(bathrooms and showers). The usually charge between 20-40 USD per night per person which includes meals. We inquired about the cost of dinner and we deemed it too expensive for us so we asked for water. "2 dollars"...fair enough we thought, although we'd heard that water is something that all Mongolians give each other for free. After some unpacking of bottles and water skins the fellow pointed to the showers. We said no, just drinking water and he said "oh, water free" and started to laugh. The nearby yurt with some women in it also emitted some chuckles. I guess they all thought it was pretty funny that they were going to charge for drinking water. We hopped back on the bikes and made our way back towards the highway until we found a place to pitch tent and cook.
Day 2
Skipping the wild horse park, we opted to continue on the highway. Pleasant country riding with long mellow ups and downs in the increasing heat. We started to realize that water is going to be an issue on this trip. All towns have some sort of water supply but the town well isn't always open when we go through. This means packing more than we thought, about 10 liters each. I knew that further on in the trip there are dry sections but I honestly didn't expect to be carrying so much so soon! We met a Dutch fellow who is working to develop a water plan for Mongolia. He said that this summer is a sizzler and that last year they'd put sweaters on in the evening. This year, in the evening, we lay there in the tent without anything covering us sweating until sleep overcomes dehydration. Snacks for lunch and dinner was in a family ger. We thought, by the sign, that we were at a guanz (restaurant) but it was, in fact, closed. But in front of the building was a family who had placed their ger, possibly to intercept the odd person who needed some food, like us! With some awkward price negotiations we were herded inside the family ger and the hospitality began. It was pleasant and they were kind but it did take us a little off guard as we weren't prepared for a guanz-meets-traditional meal. Hot milk, hard bread with potent cheese, rice with mutton and potato soup, followed by sun baked biscuits was the meal. It turned out that the initial price negotiations were for a night of sleep as well and a little more awkwardness ensued as we stuffed money into each others hands (sale meets traditional!) until both we and the lady of the ger were happy. We continued on and camped nearby in a field. Riding time today: 5:09. Distance 82km. Camped at 47.72420 N, 105.03739 E.
Day 3
4:50 in the saddle, 76km.
More pleasant countryside. Increasing heat.
Near the end of the day B got woozy and started throwing up on the side of the road. Heat/sun stroke. I don't have a thermometer but I can say it's about as hot as Hades! I did my best to prop up the tent fly for shade for the 2-3 hours that we were in the roadside ditch. A family in a truck had a blowout on the other side of the road and when they were done repairing it they came over for a dictionary session (side note: there are many broken down vehicles in this country but none abandoned. I had the chance to witness a break down where the guys had taken the engine out and split it open, pistons and all!). After much chatting and pointing at words I understood that they had the solution. We would need to:
1) have B drink her own urine
2) prick her finger tips to let out the poison
3) I would go alone to the next town, get a machine to bring her back to the hospital.
B reckoned that she just needed to rest a little longer so I nodded to them and told them that we were on it.
Mongolian, to those who have not heard it spoken, sounds like gargling/sputtering/hissing all at the same time. It's particularly cute when young children speak as it sounds like sneezing kittens.
Eventually B began to feel OK and we continued on slowly towards the town of Erdenesant in search of water and a camping spot. As we neared the town a gang of fellow packed into a truck called us over and introduced themselves. After the brief intros they gave us a cold bottle of water with ice in it...perfect! Of course, then came the vodka. B was in no shape so I needed to save face and chugged some from their communal cup. A small amount of chitchat, some biscuits for the road, and we were off again. It didn't take too long to find somebody in Erdenesant who showed us where the well was but we were confused when they handed the well attendant some money. I really hope that some fat-cat isn't getting wealthy by charging people for water in this heat. Fully stocked with H2O we crested a hill on the edge of town and had the pleasure of an end-of-the-day-downhill for several km. As rain clouds brewed we found a spot on a mellow hillside and made camp. I had the foresight to make a small trench uphill from the tent in case there was any heavy rain. Soon the thunder came and the howling wind became even more fierce. For a while I stood outside surveying the scene much like Ghengis would survey a landscape before battle. When I got in the tent B was sprawled out with both arms holding the tent to prevent it from collapsing in the wind, yelling. Funny, I didn't hear that from outside. Then the rain started...and increased to a torrent while lightening strafed the hillsides and peaks. I couldn't help feel a little smug for that 'clairvoyance' with the trench! There was some water that was flowing down the hill from the fly so I opened the uphill door and began to excavate a small trench with the poo shovel as a secondary defense...but by the time it was made it needed to be enlarged to accommodate the increased volume...and so on until I was frantically digging and flinging mud away. I noticed that the tent floor felt like a water bed..."oh no, it's under us"...and then noticed a 6 inch reservoir above the tent-overflowing the waterproof tent bottom. Scrambling turned to panic as we did our best to keep stuff dry and I noticed that one pannier of mine was lying on its side in several inches of brown water. "oh no, my camera!" I dove for the pannier and ripped out the camera case and the camera from it. Some panniers were moved inside to prevent further wetting. B was hunched on a wet, half floating thermarest clutching the tent's contents, me with several balancing panniers occupying one arm while nursing my camera and case with the other and at the same time trying to prevent the biblical deluge from overflowing into the tent again. The rain eased and then stopped. I sat there thinking "holy shit". A mixture of wet sand, mud, and animal shit covered most of our stuff. Emerging from the tent yielded a spectacular scene...the ENTIRE valley only a couple of hundred feet away was a river. There were tributaries coming from all the low peaks and basins, some hundreds of feet wide. The raised highway was engulfed in over a foot of water.
Needless to say we packed up and moved to a better spot. We cleaned up a bit, ate a couple of fig newton type cookies, had a few bites of cheese and went to bed a little shell shocked. (moral: clairvoyance is no match for angry gods)
Day 4, July 23
Time in saddle: 4:12
Distance: 60.5 km
Ger Camp: 47.42126N, 103.70924E
Slept in a bit, not wanting to face the muddy mess. Turns out that most stuff is fine on the inside except for some of my clothes that are now brown and wet. Pack up, set off in the pounding heat. Lunch at a roadside guanz followed by a 'mutton-bomb'. I've been having some stomach issues for a few days now...occasional cramping and the odd blowout. So far it's not too bad so I'm hoping it works itself out. A short distance after lunch and some heat stroke shuts us down again. More vomiting and wooziness. With the help of a utility pole for shade B recouperates while I dry stuff out and catch up on my journal. Funny, as we rest B get stronger and I start wilting so by the time we get on our bikes again she's off like Lance while I slog like Floyd without his meds. We're heading to Ovgon Khiid, a monastery with several ger camps in the vicinity. We reckon it's time for a bit of pampering! We take a mentioned short-cut on barely visible tracks and single track over some hills to gain the next valley over. As we start on the short-cut we get headed off by a trio of youths on horseback who's job it is(I think) to stall us and get us to abandon our attempt and come back to the ger camp that we just passed. Friendly turned to annoying and we set off, leaving the phony express to their next task...even though they warned us of "wolves" that would eat us. As it turns out, there were no wolves and the short-cut is a HIGHLY recommended (by us) route to the monastery. A little meandering and hill climbing followed by 8km of fast downhill on packed dirt with hardly any sand. We reached a cute camp nestled in the rocks. It even had trees! The first trees we've seen since Ulaan Baatar. B did some bargaining and got us about half price which was great. So were the showers and wonderful food.
Day 5, July 24
Time in saddle: 4:18
Distance: 51 km
Camped at 47.28687N, 103.25747E
Woke from a moderately fitful sleep to a breakfast of fried bread, regular bread, and tea. We checked out the monastery which was small and in a beautiful location. It's a little odd...every Buddhist monastery/temple I've been to is set up for tourists. I guess it's a good way to fund the pursuit of enlightenment?
Then back to the HEAT again. As we took the other way out of the area we realized just how good the decision to take the short-cut was. Lots of sand and bike pushing and a little downhill the whole way. After a couple of hours we reached the highway again and then spent some time eating/relaxing in a restaurant to let the mid-day heat pass. Well, I ate. B nibbled a very small amount. Better for the tummy. The rest of the day was hot and once on the road turnoff to Kharkorin the road deteriorated a bit and felt like uphill for the next couple hours. Tiring.
Day 6, July 25
Time in saddle: 2:41
Distance: 45km
Night at Bayan Burd hotel in Kharkorin
Woke to cooler temperatures! And a tailwind! And downhills! More nice scenery. A herd of camels on the highway. On the way in to Kharkorin we stopped at the giant penis. The rest of the day was spent lounging and playing cards in a guanz. We learned a new game from the woman who works there.
Day 7, July 26
Time in saddle: 0
Distance: 0
Night at Bayan Burd hotel in Kharkorin
Rest day. Saw a monastery, ate, blogged, played cards.
