Delayed...

I awoke early on May 30th ready to take my flight from Mongolia to India via China and start my new adventure as an intern in Jaipur. As I arrived at the airport (super early, this is a result of my fathers influence) I was greeted by a very nice main who said "Air China? Delayed 9 hours"). I thought great, 9 hours means that I am going to miss my connecting flight to Delhi and possibly have to sleep in the airport for the night.
When it was my turn at the Air China office, the lady said that I two options. The first was to fly with the delayed flight and then stay two days in China before I could catch the next flight to Delhi, or wait two days in Ulaanbaatar until they could schedule the same flights but for June 1st. I didn't really have a choice since I couldn't stay in China for 24 hours without a transit visa, but they gave me a free hotel for two nights so I couldn't really complain. They sent us with a bus to a hotel in town where they said that they would give us rooms and meals for the day. On the bus ride I met a group of 20 men who ranged between the ages of 25 and 65 and all carried the same type of luggage. I assumed that they were there for some business trip to a mining area but they were actually a group of Spanish motor-bikers who travel to different countries once a year bike. They have been doing it for over 20 years! They said that Mongolia was fun, but almost too free since they couldn't go off by themselves and needed a guide in order to navigate.
The hotel that they booked us into didn't have enough rooms or food to feed all of us and there is nothing like 20 big Spanish men who have their plane delayed and have not eaten for a few hours. I quickly headed back into the city to figure out what I was going to do with my time for the next 2 days.

I ended up visiting some temples, one of the weirdest natural history museum I have ever been to, watching Thor in 3D and catching up on sleep and emails. It was great to have some down time but if I had the choice I would not choose to stay in Ulaanbaatar.

Road Blocks

I

I think that Mongolia might have the worst roads I have ever seen in the world. The problem is that when it was part of the Soviet influence they had the main roads paved but when it fell in 1989 the paving, as well as the upkeep came to a halt. Due to the variation in temperatures the road cracks and creates huge potholes that instead of fix, people just drive around. The result is that a large portions of the road a extremely wide without much hope in narrowing. Good things most people just ride horses.

Day 5 - Lost at Sea

We were coming to the end of our trip and now had to make it the hundreds of kilometers we had traveled back to Ulaanbaatar. The whole adventure made me realize how useless I would probably be in any type of car breakdown. On our trip we witnessed our driver fix the brake line with a copper wire and some rubber tubing as well as change a tire without the proper equipment in the middle of no where. There is not much traffic that passes by these areas (2-5 cars per day) and it made me nervous to think what we would do if there was a serious incident. Luckily we didn't even have to think about that. 

How can we hit the one part of the desert with a nail?

The only thing on the list for today was the label "rock formations". We all thought that it was just a random site to finish off the tour and none on us seemed that excited for it. As it usually happens we were very wrong and the "rock formations" turned out to be one of the most beautifully naturally created landscapes I have ever seen. We were all blown away and humbled by the valley which could have been used to shoot a movie like Lord of the Rings. It was a good time we all spent reflecting on our time together and climbing through this untouched wonderland.

What would the trip be without some sort of family photograph together?! Although we could barely communicate we still had a great time hanging out with our Mongolian friends.

Day 4 - Possibility of Showers

The morning was a slow start due to an unforeseen illness of our cook. We heard the family along with our cook and driver party long into the night and we had to stop several times within the first few hours. There was not to much to see on the list today as our itinerary showed "day 4 - ice field, possible shower, market and electricity." Well, we got 2 out of 4.  

Entrance to the ice field

Owen looks satisfied

After the look at the ice field we headed to a small town for the night. Although we didn't come across any showers or markets but we were able to charge our ipods and find a few beers.

Day 3 - Desert Dunes

We had a fabulous third day of our desert tour, starting off with a little photo shoot conducted by our cook and encouraged by our driver.

Hooray

We came across these dusty red caverns, something we did not expect to see on our trip. It looked like the landscape belonged somewhere in Arizona. We had lunch and hiked around to the other side of the cavern and contributed to some human erosion from the very unstable soil.

After several more hours of driving we finally made it to our camp for the night which was in view of the famous sand dunes.

Yurt Camp by the Dunes

Before dinner we took a mini camel trek to see the dunes up close. If you have never ridden a camel before let me tell you that it is much less glamorous than riding a horse. They are much taller which make you a bit more nervous and for some reason they smell awful. You lead them in a straight line guided by a rope that is attached to a bone going through their nostrils. They drool, spit and make lots of noise, they also dont really listen or follow inline very well. We were all glad we only opted for a short trek.

Mini Camel Trek

We made it with our camels to the foot of the sand dunes and hike up the ridge as much as our bodies would allow us. I think one of the most fun things I have ever experienced is jumping down the edge of a steep sand dune. It is like taking a leap off a cliff without any consequences because you land in a soft pile of sand. It is like being in a giant sand box. I was trying to collect some sand here to bring back with me for a family friends. I think I brought back 3 kg between my shoes, pants and pockets.

Treking up the sand dunes

After dinner our driver signaled us to follow him to the van. This time we drove to the sand dunes to climb up and watch the sunset. There were other Mongolian families there too, it almost seemed like a tradition that they completed together every night.

Day 2 - Was this a good idea?

Started out the next day by piling back into the van after breakfast. We drove around for most of the morning (5-6 hours), in what felt like in circles. I don't think that our driver quite new where he was going. We came to each home or person we saw to ask for directions, the only thing they have is landmarks and after a while everything direction starts to look the same. 

A man bringing home cow-patties for the fire

This looks like the way

 We eventually found our way and stop to explore an abandon monastery while our cook made us lunch. We met these two kids who I have never seen have so much fun on a bicycle without actually riding it. They just pushed it around and circles like it was a giant toy car.

So much fun with a bicycle

Monastery

After lunch we drove for about 40 minutes and we came across this group of gers. We unloaded our stuff into one while the driver and cook joined the family in the other. It was only 3 in the afternoon and we had no idea why we had stop so early in a place with absolutely nothing around to explore. It was an odd feeling having no where to go or anything to do.

Can you spot our yurt?

We decided to go for a walk even though we knew that we really wouldn't make it anywhere. The beautiful windy landscape made it enough to bare for one day, but we hoped for a few more activities tomorrow.

Day 1 - Middle of Nowhere

The first days main goal was to get as far south as possible from the city. This is when we started to realize that we were moving to the middle of nowhere. A place that not only lacks facilities and roads but also people, animals and water sources. 

Well, they have hyrdo

Nick can just fit

Sandstorm

Along the way we came across a huge sandstorm which made a think black cloud that seemed to  be coming our way. In everything I know about sandstorms from movies and books this is where you are suppose to turn around and drive in the opposite direction for safety. We did the exact opposite and headed straight into it. After a few stops since we couldn't see anything, we made it out and into the small village where we stayed in a families yurt for a night.

6 Day Desert Tour

The second part of our Mongolia trip consisted of a Gobi Desert tour that was 5night/6days long. We arranged it through our hostel which was very easy and not too expensive.We didn't know it at the time, but this van would become our home for the next week along with our cook and driver.
There were two things that we were not aware of before we left. The first was that once you get out of the area around Ulaanbaatar that is not connecting to Russia or China, there are no roads. People make general paths, usually consisting of 1-6 dirt lanes constantly crossing one other. This is not a recommended journey for anyone who gets car sick. The second is that there are only a few ingredients in Mongolian cooking; cabbage, onion, carrot, potato, rice, noodles and mutton. Everything you eat is a simple variation on these ingredients and there is no way to tell someone that you don't want mutton in something. Good luck vegetarians.

Horse Camp

A few more pictures from our yurt camp.

Horse stable

This was the fastest horse they have, took over and hour to catch 

Sad to leave but excited to explore the rest of Mongolia

Camping?

After the first day of horse trekking we stopped to camp inside a National Park for the night. We pitched our tents and piled in the pillows and blankets, the nights get very cold here. We had some dinner of some Mongolian style soup, bread and a few tablets of Advil. We are going to be sore in the morning. 

campsite

What is dinner without a show? The guide for our horse trip has a ritual of always asking the guys (and girls) to engage in some Mongolian wrestling. Nick who was twice his size put in a good effort and eventually prevailed. Apparently there is no weight class system in wrestling, usually the biggest man wins.

A final flip

Mike going head to head

I am not sure if we are used to Mongolian food since Owen and Leah were both very sick during the night and had to be taken back to camp in the morning. Mike, Nick and I continued on the trek back until I started feeling really sick too and had to head back by car. Owen, Leah and I spent the rest of our two days enjoying the inside of our yurt and outhouse. Luckily we were still able to see the view of the surrounding hills.

Steppe Riding

All geared to go

The first part of our Mongolia tour was to tackle Mikes dream of riding into the rolling hills for 3 days on horseback. Equipped with mass amount of Advil and other pain killlers we saddled up after lunch on the first day. There was about 10 of us riding all together on horses of various sizes and speeds. We soon found out which ones were the fastest and the ones who would listen to your commands. Years ago when I was about 11 I took riding lessons in the summer for a few weeks and when I asked my teacher how long it would take before I would be able to go faster than a trot she said "about 3 years of riding every weekend." I immediately quit the lessons which was good because I think that it only took about a hour before all of us were on our horses in a full gallop together in the middle of a valley. It was a definite rush of excitement which made you forget just how much you knees and but hurt, at least for the first while. 

Cornelius and I

My horse also had a small obsession with being the first, he didn't take to kindly to me wanting to take it easy after about 5 hours of riding and no longer being able to feel my legs.

Mongolia Living

After a 12 hour bus ride from Ulan Ude into the capital of Mongolia (Ulaanbaatar) we almost immediately headed to our camp for the next three days about 40 minutes outside of the city.  We planned to do a three day horse trek with a company called Steppe Riders which we definitely recommend. We arrived without electricity at about 10:30pm and settled into our nice, cozy yurt/ger with hot cups of tea. 

Many blankets, it gets cold at night

The yurts are kept warm at night using a little bit of kindling and horse manure. You have to be careful that the manure is nice and dry and from the right animal or you will end up with a very foul smelling smoke in your yurt. The girls that were also staying there learned the hard way.

The steppes of Mongolia

The first morning while waiting for the horses to be ready we hiked up onto one of the hills to view our camp. The scenery is spectacular. Outside of the city no one actually owns land in Mongolia due to their nomadic lifestyle. There is no such thing as property tax they just collect road tax when passing through check points.

Trans-Siberian Train Travel

Since I heard about the Trans-Siberian, the train that runs east to west through Russia with a possible deviation in to Mongolia and China I knew that it was a trip I wanted to try. When we started looking into it I was a little nervous, 5-7 days on a train, in third class, with little to no English once we passed through Moscow. The result was a very easy, interesting and stress free train trip. We used an online website to purchase our tickets so that we could stop in several places and not have to worry about speaking Russian to the ticket ladies. Travelling third class was great, clean and had much more space than I predicted. Besides Nick, whose tallness made it hard to fit into the sleep bed without his feet hanging over the edge, we all had fairly good sleeps and didn't worry about our stuff being stolen or unfriendly passengers. We also met some really nice people who we share our snacks, stories and games of UNO with! 

Train food, vodka, caviar, crackers and chips!

Platform 4

 We broke the trip down so that that our longest train ride was only 30 hours and we traveled from West to East through St.Petersburg, Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Ulan Ude and then traveled by bus to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. We took the bus at the end since it was about 1/5 of the price of the train and took half the time.

Have your ticket ready!

tanks and tanks and tanks of oil

When I pictured Siberia, I thought that it would be vast flat land of nothingness. I happily admit that I was very wrong and there are plenty of villages, forests (mainly birch trees), and farm land to watch as the hours pass by.