JULY 30th, 2009
WOW! That is the best word to describe the ageless land known as mongolia. Home to the greatest conquerer the world has ever known, and tremendous source of national pride...Ghenghis Khan! Endless plateaus, rugged mountains, pristine lakes, unforgiving deserts. And the people...many of them holding onto a traditional lifestyle that can best be related to the plains indians of the american west. Herds. Herds of Camels in the hundreds. Herds of horses in the thousands. Herds of goats and sheep in the tens of thousands. Each roaming across the land, blackening patches of the green grass that covers it.
...After crossing the border from Russia into Mongolia, the bus headed down towards the capitol city of Ulan Baatar, and it's population of 1.5 million. An impressive figure when you realize the entire country, which is the size of the american southwest, contains only 2.7 million. As we arrived on the plateau with the hills in the background, I spotted my first herd of horses carelessly grazing off in the distance. I struck up a conversation with a mongolian woman who had lived a short time time in the states. She tried to prepare me for what to expect of the only real Mongolian city. All her warnings weren't enough...people use the word chaotic for Milan, for New York, let's get serious folks, compared to 'UB' these places have the tamed organization of a small Swiss village. Cars everywhere...on the road, on the side walk, on the grassy patches, on top of eachother, this may be a result of the fact that the inhabitants treat the three traffic lights of UB as if they were christmas decorations (UB maybe the only place in the world that uses traffic cops when the lights are actually functioning, and the drivers ignore them just the same!) We arrived at the bus station in the mid-afternoon, and the woman was nice enough to offer me a ride from her husband to the hostel that i had booked a few days earlier. Upon entering the hostel, I was accosted by the manager, insisting i jump on a jeep trek as soon as possible...again no rest for the weary. I explained that i needed to 'sleep on it' and went off to meet my roomies...a brit(sandro) and a swede(bjorn). They had just arrived from beijing and were as tired as I, but after a brief discussion we joined together with 2 Korean girls to organize a 9 day jeep trek through central and north Mongolia, that would be leaving 2 days later. After a rest, i headed out into the concrete jungle of Ulan Baatar to search for some famous Mongolian cooking (joke). Arriving at the hostel exit, I read the notice on the back of the door..."PLEASE DON"T STAY OUT AFTER MIDNIGHT, THIS CITY IS NOT SAFE".... and I thought to myself...What the F@#K????
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