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Other entries in Ulaanbaatar

City of Felt and Jeep Tour

Josh: Sorry its been so long, been rushed of our feet, as you will see, but a mass update now, and hopefully pictures too. 

 We arrive in Ulaan Baatar railway station and got met on the station by the people from our hostel and got swiftly transferred through the busy streets of Ulaan Baatar to our very central hostel, UB Guesthouse. Very large with little communal space. After a relax and sleep after our late night due to the Border crossing from Russia, 5 hours on the Russian side and 2 on the Mongolian. We are met there by two new friends we met in Moscow, Kerry and Steve, who, after arriving in UB 4 days before us had researched a jeep trip to visit the Gobi Desert and Ancient Capital for 11 days, 2000 km travelling for 15 pounds a day all inclusive. Leaving on the next day. "We're in" we say. So after a short afternoon sightseeing around UB and buying the obvious necessities- toilet roll and lots of bay wipes- we leave early the next morning in our own jeep, the four of us, and driver and guide/translator set off.

 The first thing we find out is that Mongolian roads aren't up to much, out of 7 hours driving 6 of them needed all the 4x4 our Russian Van/Jeep could give. We stop for lunch at a Mongolian Canteen, the local there had their horses tied up to the veranda! Mongolian diet is very...meaty...poor Soph! We then drive onto our stop for the night, a ger camp (large heavy duty but portable felt lined tent with wood or poo burning fire inside) in a gravel desert back dropped by a fantastic National Park mountains. Our first of many encounters with a ger is welcoming, we are given a bowl full of fermented mare's milk - a real eye opener, the taste is...inexplicable, lets just say its like fizzy gone off yogurt. The catch in Mongolia is it is rude not to finish what is given to you, so we all drank it! We then walk up a nearby hill for great views of the surrounding area, including the thousands of wandering goats being herded by a friendly Mongol on horseback.

 The next day we head off for Karakoum, ancient capital of Mongolia, where Gengghis Khan ruled over the biggst empire the world has ever seen from Ukraine and Persia to Vietnam, a fact every Mongolian loves to tell, everything here is named after him, hotels, beer, shops, food, vodka, he is idolised, when in the 1920s the Mongol people had to choose surnames after they traditionally didn't have any, 20% of the population chose 'Gengghis' and claimed to be his relation. Karakoum was cool, small most of the old stuff was destroyed by the Communists in the 1920s. Back in the van for a 4 hour drive to Orkhon waterfall up a beautiful wide valley scattered with volcanic rock. The waterfall fell into a gorge, very impressive. We are staying in another ger, when our guide cooks us friend vegetables and pasta with a little splodge of tomato ketchup for the third time we start to see a recurring theme!

 The next morning we wake up cold but ready for the day, horse riding, we are going to start a 2 day trek in the '8 belly lake' National Park and are joined by 'horseman' as our guide called him. Outside is perishing cold and the local families give us their cast away 'dells,' traditional gowns worn by the local as coats, basically ankle to neck quilted coat with sash belt, we also are given riding boots. We 'saddle up' and are off!

That night I woke up to go to the non-existent loo, to fine a crunching under my foot- it was snow! I ran back inside and woke everyone up saying its snowing its snowing. Obviously only a grumbling came from the others! In the morning, I have never seen such a beautiful sight. The lake was frozen over, the mountains were white and there were yak right outside our ger. It was quite scary going for a pee as immediately afterwards they would come and lick it up to get the salt! So we got back on our frozen horses and made our way up a freezing cold mountain. Our toes, noses and fingers were numb. Josh had ice in his beard! Apparently it had been -15'c that night and it still felt like it! We walked with our horses to warm up. The route back to our starting point was very beautiful, through dense forests and over vast steppes under the blue cloudless sky. However we were glad to get off the horses and back in our ger to get the fire on quick to warm up!

Josh:

Today was a driving day, but we had to make a 3 hours extension as the heavy snow had made a mountain pass we attempted to drive up impassable - the van was sliding down the hill backwards! After finally reaching our destination we were staying in a town with 'driver's friend' in his family ger, so an evening filled with card tricks and 3 bottles of Chinggis Vodka with our driver drinking the vast majority! We had 10 people sleeping in the ger that night, us all on the floor, but at least it kept it warm!

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