Mongolia: Ulaan Baatar

Arriving in Ulaan Baatar
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Monday 28th August

I woke up in the train with the sun rising over the Mongolian steppes. A bit early to wake up David, so I sat and absorbed the wonderful hilly plains, scattered with isoloated ger camps, bathed in pink and blue as the sun reflected off the clouds. A tiny taste of what's to come in this wonderful country. We arrived in Ulaan Baataar and began the search for our hostel! Well, after 2hours of walking around in circles and battling to find it, a local internet cafe said that the directions we had were completely wrong and we'd been entirely on the other side of town. Anyway, we found it eventually, with the help of a local Mongolian chap literally taking us to the front door! We were knackered and all I wanted to do was sleep. Sleep deprivation and general travel weariness is catching up now - but no - we went out straight away as we had no Mongolian money. Ulaan Baatar's ATM's dont' accept anything except VISA cards and David has a Mastercard. Problem!! I decided to use some of my travellers cheques anyway and we discovered a good place to do this - at the Trade and Development Bank. The lady teller however, tried to diddle us out of 20,000 Tugriks - not much in Rand terms - but the principal of what she tried to do was a pretty bad reflection. Bottom line, always check what you get, obvious really, but not everyone does. Mongolian money has huge denominations, ie: 10,000T is only about ZAR60. I saw a laptop with a price tag of a 7-digit number. It's crazy and so easy to get ripped off as the locals know that the tourists aren't used to this!!

Flash Flood, China Visa and The Black Market

Rob, Mel and Janet
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We returned to the hostel and just in time too. Not 5 minutes later the heavens opened and there was a mini flash flood! The streets turned into a quagmire of mud and puddles and rivers due to the lack of drainage! I was by this time, a walking zombi and had a beer but that decided it, I just had to sleep, and was in bed by 9pm. With everyone talking, lights on and TV blaring - I slept!!!

Tuesday 29th August

The hostel was buzzing this morning with loads of people packing up to head out into the Mongolian desert. We headed out to town to buy some warm weather gear as it's starting to become pretty cold now. We walked and walked and walked. Saw the markets and decided to buy some good gortex rain jackets with built-in fleece!! Not originals, but really great and well made. David did need these things but I actually didn't so to justify the purchase I will be replacing what i have already, with the new stuff! I'll dump the 'old' things or sell them. Back at the hostel we chilled to the sounds of some Bob Marley and found a half empty place. Really nice after last night's and this morning's chaos!!

Packing the van
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Wed 30th August

Having not managed to get our Chinese visa in Russia, this is where we'd planned to do it. Today was the day. We arrived at the 9.30am opening time, completed our forms, stood in a longish queue, handed everything in and were in and out the embassy with half an hour!!! We were shocked at how easy it was compared to the uphill that the consulate in Moscow had been!! As long as you have everything needed, it's a breeze. And NO invitation is required. This we knew to be the case, but in Russia they absolutely insisted on it. We will collect the visa in a few weeks time after we return from our planned escapade into the Mongolian desert......

Packing the van
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We now wanted to visit the Black Market which we'd been told was a must to see. We walked quite far out of the town before we actually found it and knowing that we were going there, took nothing with us at all. Pickpockets and bag slashers are rife here. Well, what an experience this was. We entered the place after paying the small entrance fee and were instantly surrounded by literally thousands of people milling around. If you are the claustrophobic type you just may have a problem here!! It's quite a shock to the system. We squeezed our way through as many of the rows and rows of merchandise in our attempts to find David some Mongolian boots and for me to search out a new pair of jeans [mine have totally disintegrated]!! We found David's boots, really nice for which he bargained a good price. Whilst forcing our way through the clothing sections I nearly died from the heat generated from the hundreds of people in there. I spied a pair of jeans that I thought would be suitable but of course there's no chance of trying them on!! I asked the lady if I could, so she made me stand right there, literally in the middle of the crammed aisle, holding up a sarong for me 'hide behind'!!!! What fun!!! After some nifty manoerving to get my clothes off and to put the new ones on, I discovered that I didn't want them anyway - too small!!! We moved on but after that performance I thought that buying these items in here just wasn't going to happen. After about 2hours of this really crazy but interesting place, we left! Whew!! Fresh air outside. But not actually as there are literally 100's of kombi taxis spewing exhaust fumes everywhere. We went back to the hostel.

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Thursday 31st August

Today we planned our expedition out into the Mongolian Gobi desert! We hooked up with 2 Kiwi people and spent the entire morning pricing out various options and routes to take. Through one of the local companys here [and there are many], we have arranged to take a 18 to 20 day route through the middle-southern of Mongolia up to the middle-northern part of the country. We will be going in a kitted out van, staying overnight in either ger camps or tents. We'll be camel riding, horse riding, fishing and just experiencing the whole Mongolian Gobi desert with it's nomadic people, mountains and lakes. We leave on Saturday 2nd September so won't be able to update this website until we return.... You'll hear from us soon....