Day 10 - Tuesday 18th October 2005 - Sam's Account

Arrived at 7.30am in Ulaan Baatar train station, Mongolia's capital. On leaving the train we were overwhelmed with a rush of Mongolians circling us and offering home stays. They had a cartel - all were offering a double room at $14!

George (which I'm sure is not his real name) appealed to us with his Queen's English and photo's of his newly renovated home stay. None of the others had photo's so that meant one of two things 1) they weren't as entrepreneurial 2) their places were minging ! So we chose George. Mind you, the others didn't give up without a fight - all credit to them.

The home stay was in a tower apartment block, level nine and although it looked seriously dodgy from the outside the apartment itself was just as the photo's had promised. Perfect!

George was falling over himself to make sure we were well looked after and helped us with our orientation and where to eat, what to see etc... After a good shower, breakfast and organising our laundry (most of the contents of our rucksacks!), we donned our boots once more and set off to discover the capital.

I loved it. I'm sure it has many times been said that a country, city or place is not so much about it's infrastructure or capitalistic appeal but about the people. And the Mongolians are really lovely.

Having visited the Mongolian history museum I learnt that they have only had democracy for the last 15 years. Imagine that! The Mongolian empire, founded by Genghis Khan, was THE biggest empire ever in the world from the 13th-14th Century. From the country's great roots, Mongolia now has more Mongolians living outside their homeland than within it and 75% of those live in the Capital Ulaan Baatar. This said, they seem to be happy people who are friendly and open to visitors. On the streets you will find people trying to make a living offering shoe shining, fruit, telephone calls, scales to weigh yourself - anything to make some money. Admirable.

The day was tiring as we must have walked for miles and miles around the city. Lunch was delicious as was dinner. We ordered to much though as we had thought that the portion sizes would be limited and weighed as they were in Russia. How wrong could we have been?!

Typical food is milk tea, noodles, meat dumplings and lamb ns any way shape or form. The menus offer lambs head. I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet though!

Back to base and early to bed, the bed is extremely hard - not very comfortable at all but I was out like a light anyway.

Day 10 - Tuesday 18^th October 2005 - Colin's Account

7.30am arrival in Ulaan Baatar. As we alighted from the train, we were immediately mobbed by half a dozen or so guesthouse owners. They were all women bar one and he was the only person with photo's. They were all shouting US$14 per night for a double room again except one who apologised that her room was $16, but her excursions were very good.
We decided to go with George who spoke excellent English. As we walked along the platform beside George the others were thrusting their cards in to my hand and saying 'he's quite new', 'not very central', stay with me instead.
George's guesthouse is in a run down apartment block (due for renovation next year) and is only 8 minutes walk from the town centre. The guesthouse itself was excellent, all newly fitted out with kitchen, bathroom, fridge, washing machine and our own room with TV. We have landed on our feet.
Having dropped our bags and been given loads of information by George we set off to explore. It was great to see smiling faces and dynamism after Russia and the prices here are very low. Our dollars are welcome here are is the local currency the Tugrik, about 2200 to the £stg.
We stopped for lunch at the red horse restaurant near the main square, total lunch bill 11200t. We strolled around, saw a temple or two and visited the national museum of Mongolia. Their history is fascinating, around 1300AD they had the largest empire the world has ever seen, stretching from somewhere around Thailand all the over to Germany. After they threw off the communist yoke, they hastily embraced free trade and are making great strides forward. You constantly see people at the side of the road with a telephone and aerial. At first I thought these land line size phones were the Mongolian equivalent of a mobile phone, but soon realised they were acting as public call boxes.
Found a WI-FI hotspot, but you have to practically sit in the middle of the road to get a signal and it didn't work properly anyway, never mind. Had dinner at a nearby restaurant and had dumpling soup followed by fillet of horse with salad & sauté potato's. We have walked miles today and enjoyed every moment, Mongolia is great.

Day 11 - Wednesday 19^th October 2005 - Sam's Account

Today was the BEST day of our trip so far...

We decided to go on a day trip to the mountains to meet a rural Mongolian family, have lunch and dinner with them in their Ger and horse ride in the afternoon around the surrounding mountains.

So at 9am we were washed, dressed & ready for the off. The actual off didn't happen until 10am but hey ho it didn't really matter. George had organised this excursion for us and as we hopped into the car with the driver and the horseman we were hoping that everything would turn out OK, especially as they didn't speak any English at all!

We broke the ice by offering our sweet bread around as a breakfast snack and after some very basic introductions, and a stop at the petrol station for a fill up, we were on our way.

Very quickly the shanty towns and Gers communes surrounding the city were left behind and we seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, well I suppose we were; outer Mongolia!

The mountains started to loom and we stopped a couple of times (once so the horseman could pee) and also to climb into caves and see some camels.

On arrival at the Ger, Nergwi's mum (the horseman's mum) had prepared some Mongolian tea and snacks. The tea is milk with water heated with herbs on the stove. The snack could only be best described as a cream tea! We had thick cream to break off in chunks and place on the bread and munch up as well as dry biscuits to dip in the tea. The other snacks I really couldn't work out what they were but all were made from milk, some nicer than others but on the whole the meal was very tasty indeed. We ate this whilst Nergwi was off catching the horses as they are left to graze in the wild.

After all that tea, I had to spend a penny and stupidly tried to ask where the bathroom was. Of course there wasn't one at all and I was directed to the field to bare my bottom to nature.

After brunch Nergwi returned with the 3 horses which looked more like pony's or overgrown donkey's and we set off. I was quite nervous as it was my first time horse riding (except for some lessons I had had at the age of about 8, which I have to say, totally confirmed that I was lacking any natural ability in this activity).

The route took us through little streams, down & up steep banks and I think it would be fair to say that I was definitely pooping my pants (metaphorically speaking of course) a fair few times before we'd even really got anywhere. Nergwi was controlling everything my horse did as I couldn't get it to do anything I wanted for love nor money. However, I persevered without letting on that my heart was in my throat and eventually, after the few stops we made to a temple and to climb some rock formations, settled into the ride.

What a mistake to make! I'd done walking over, up and down obstacles, I'd done trotting (badly it has to be said) and all of a sudden this seemed to automatically qualify me to canter. Like, what? As Nergwi suddenly whipped my horses backside we jerked immediately into a very fast canter. AAARRRHHHHHH ........................................................ !

It was knackered, exhilarating and petrifying. As the horses showed absolutely no signs of slowing down I started to panic. Thinking; I'm a novice, cantering along on a horse for which I have absolutely NO control, in outer Mongolia, with frayed ropes as reigns, no riding hat nor any idea as to which direction we should be going in. Help!

I eventually managed to get my horse to slow down and then :- nothing. He stopped and wouldn't move another inch. By this time my by bum was numb, the skin on the insides of my legs was raw, my muscles were seizing up and I was in no mood for primabloodydonna donkey! In vein I dismounted and tried to pull him to where I thought we should be heading (Nergwi had shot off on his own assuming we knew the way home). Would prima donna move? Don't be silly - that was it, he was all in for the day. But we needed to get back. Then, breaking through the trees on the horizon (well OK I'm exaggerating a bit but it sounds good!) the taxi driver galloped over to me and led both prima donna and myself gracefully back the the Ger. Thank god!

Evidently Nergwi had had enough of my incompetence and had asked the taxi driver to step in. I can't believe they all know how to horse ride though. A born and bred city boy able to horse ride so deftly was a real smack in the teeth!

Back at base Nergwi's mum had prepared more grub and with red glowing faces, chapped hands, raw and aching legs we ducked into the toasty Ger and tucked into noodles and Mongolian tea.

Having helped them round up the cattle to put back in the pen for the night I was about to help with the milking of the cow, when Colin announced it was time for us to go as it was getting dark. He was right but I was very sad to go. As our taxi sped away kicking up dust in its wake, I waved out of the back window to Nergwi, his mum and Bower (their lovely old dog). As the Ger got smaller amongst the mountainous surroundings it hit me how lonely their existence was, how hard their lives were and yet how happy they seemed to be.

Day 11 - Wednesday 19^th October 2005 - Colin's Account

We have decided to go on a trip George mentioned last night. He has organised a driver and a another man who lives in a Ger (Yurt) in the countryside with his mother. We agreed a price of $60 for the car, driver and petrol and $15 for the man with the Ger who was going to take us riding.
We left at about 9.30am and drove for an hour, stopping briefly along the way to look at some ancient caves and some locals with camels, who were offering rides in the middle of nowhere. The scenery was nothing short of stunning, miles of mountains, valleys, escarpments and interesting rock formations with temples cut into the sides of hills.
We arrived at Nergwi's (at least that's how you pronounce it) Ger and his mother came out to greet us. She is absolutely tiny (quite useful in a Ger), but very friendly. She immediately prepared us some tea, made from horse's milk with herbs and spices. There were also a variety of snacks made all made from dairy products, sweet cheese, some very hard biscuits and what looked like solid cream in the form of a honeycomb which you can eat on it's own or on bread.
Meanwhile Nurguiy had gone off to catch the horses. Once he came back we set off on a 4 hour ride around the area, through valley and mountains, streams and woodland. We stooped at a temple where we had to climb a steep hill and lots of stairs, no horses allowed! The curator of the temple took us up there with his 2 little boys who laughed and played all the way. The clear air, the brilliant sunshine and spectacular views simply took your breath away.
It was the first time Sam had ridden a horse and I'm sure she will have a sore bottom from being bounced up and down so much. It certainly gave Nergwi much amusement, but as we not only trotted, but also cantered I think She did very well. Sam's horse was rather lazy and constantly misbehaved by ignoring her orders, a brave horse indeed!

We took dozens of photo's and climbed huge rock escarpments. In many places you could see bright bits of blue cloth tied to trees or by religious sites, all for good luck. When we finally returned to the Ger , more tea and some type of dry noodles with beef and potato awaited us. For desert that was some thick yogurt with sugar and a dash of horse's milk, it was lovely. Sadly they didn't have any Arag, which is fermented horse's milk and is the local brew. Very wearily and with some wonderful memories we said goodbye to Nergwi and his mum and headed back to George's for a quiet evening. We are not even going to go to the Mongolian BBQ restaurant we promised ourselves. A truly wonderful day and tomorrow we are back on the trans-Siberian. George has just come home and filled me in a few details. Nergwi's Ger has been there for about 5 years and before this they were over 1200km away from UB. In the winter they often add a wool covering to the Ger to keep the warmth in as the snow can reach waist height and it only takes and hour to either put up or take down the whole Ger.

The news has just reported that 2600 birds have been found dead from bird flu in Inner Mongolia and we will be there tomorrow. Fortunately no people have been infected.

The journal now moves back to the Trans-Siberian link

The Mongolian section of the journal is now finished