jaywalking

Ok I’m trying to get back into the regular blogging business, let me begin by finishing up with the last stop on my epic journey - Mongolia.

The decision to go here was pretty random on my part. I never really had ambitions to go there, but after some coaxing from my friend to go on an adventure, it was a toss up between Mongolia or Tibet. Both areas had recently been having some sort of civil unrest, but Mongolia seemed the safer (and also more interesting) location.

In order to save on costs, we decided to take the train in to Ulan Bator. It was a 36 hour journey with temperatures inside the cabin reaching up to 34 C. Our cabin was shared with a couple from Perth whom were part of a tour that would stop in Mongolia and continue on to Moscow.

At a midnight stopping point at the last Chinese border town where we had to wait for an hour or two while the wheels on the train were changed. The tracks in Mongolia and Russia are different from those in China.

After a long night of wheel changing, visa checks and dodgy sleep, we awoke to find ourselves passing through the Gobi Desert and watched as the sandy dunes turned to green plains.

Finally, we were in Mongolia!

In the first couple of days, we ate and explored the city. There really wasn’t much there, but then again I guess you don’t come to Mongolia for urban sprawl and high-rise?

A building that was burned in the political riots not too long ago. Oddly enough, the travel agent we needed to go to to book our flights home was in this building…

For such a small city, there are quite a large amount of ‘Mongolian Fast Food’ places around. This was one of the better ones, the waiter actually spoke english and recommended some dishes. This one is sort of like shepherds pie, only made with mutton. The old school Coke bottles are so cool too.

So after a day or two of exploration, we got our trekking plans into place and headed off for an 8 day adventure. With a driver and an interpreter, we began with the first two days in a jeep heading out to the base of the mountains.

On the outskirts of Ulan Bator there are lots of these trucks ferrying wool and goods back and forth.

The first night we tried pitching a tent to camp but the winds picked up and a storm came. Thankfully one of the locals was kind enough to offer us their ‘ger’.

Land, rocks, grass and hills as far as the eye can see. Strangely enough, there’s great phone reception out there.

Finally after two days of driving we reached out ‘base camp’ where our driver would stay to rest and we met our horse guide. He looked like the Mongolian version of Clint Eastwood. I wish I got a photo of him.

So we rested up for the night to prepare for the 3 day horse trek into the mountains.

Jack on his horse.

After riding through open plain, rocky mountains and swampy marshes, we reached the first of several lakes we were to visit. The first day on the horse was pretty intense, I was covered in flies, hundreds of them. So much so that I had to jump in the lake to bathe and escape them.

It was summer time there so the whole place was alive with insects.

After this, my camera ran out of battery. But the next night we stayed in a ger with a local family and we did more riding and saw more amazing scenery. It was a pretty intense experience, bathing twice in 8 days in rivers and streams. No toilets, electricity. Wearing and reusing the same clothes. Flies everywhere. Challenging, but looking back, really rewarding.

One of those things you’ve just go to do.