Mongolia: Ulaanbaatar again & Moscow

After being outdoors for so long, you only realise your odour after the shower, when you enter the room and smell the dirty clothes. Ugh! So that's why all the people in the mall looked so annoyed! When we are clean we can meet the other group of Belgians, who arrived just a few days ago. It's great fun to scare them with stories about the lack of hygiene and paved roads.

The biggest Naadam events take place in Ulaanbaatar. We go see the opening ceremony (watch out for cheap tickets, the seats can have a horrible view), wrestling and fireworks. The last part is the most spectacular, with an incredible amount of fireworks used.

We end up in a karaoke bar and some vodka helps to produce unique renditions of among others The Pianoman, Creep and Bleed It Out!

The next day is though. Not only because of the hangover, but also the sandstorm and the horrible traffic. We manage to get trough it, and see the carnival and the big horse race outside of the city. Then we say goodbye to the other Belgians as they leave for more adventures on the Mongolian road.

Our own remaining adventures are limited to some museum visits, a dance performance and some souvenir shopping.

Before we arrive back to Belgium, we have 8 hours to spend in Moscow (you'll need a visa to leave the airport). I was there once in winter, but with some sunshine the city appears much more beautiful. Highlights are Lenin's tomb, St. Basil's Cathedral and Arbat Street. Tired but satisfied we get back to the airport and so ends an amazing journey!

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Mongolia: road trip part 2

Day 6: crossing the vast steppes on horseback is such an amazing feeling. We are free to walk, trot or gallop. The speed is controlled by hitting its rear and shouting 'tchuu!'. Some struggle a bit to control the horse, but eventually every duo reaches some sort of agreement. While I'm in a gallop, my horse gets bitten by a fly on it's head. It panics and wont stop, so at max speed, I have to lean forward to swat the fly. It thanks me by slowing down and behaving for the rest of the trip :) For lunch there's goat barbecue, and we watch how the farmer skilfully kills and cuts it.

Day 7: the drivers will bring our tents while we go to the next destination by horse. Now the saddle pain starts to get really bad, we are all to big to sit on these tiny wooden things with our legs in the wrong angle. Luckily at the end of the day, we are greeted by a naturally heated swimming pool and shower. It's the perfect end to the best experience of the entire trip! Also the combination of quite a few drinks in the evening and the shiny moon prompts me to blast Shine On You Crazy Diamond trough the valley. Needless to say our guide was a bit confused!

Day 8: some culture. We visit Kharkorhin and its remains of Mongolia's first Buddhist monastery. It's an impressive place. Much less impressive is the nearby penis rock.

Day 8: we are staying next to a river, and our guide manages to rent some canoes. The river is quite long and we have great fun manoeuvring it. It's also great fun to bump the other canoes! The animals at the side are unimpressed by our antics. When we walk back to the camp, a farmer tries to herd his goats to the other side of the river. He asks for our help to cross them one by one. The farmer and his kids group the goats, so we can grab one by the horns and pull them over. The goats don't like this at all and bleat like they are being murdered: maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! If they swallow water it becomes the funniest sound ever: maagllellegllelle!

Day 9: Naadam is the national holiday in Mongolia. There are lot of celebrations around this time, focussed on the three most popular sports: wrestling, horse riding and archery. We have the chance to visit such an event in a small town. The premise is nice, but everything is very chaotic and badly organised. There's some wrestling going on but only with kids. We do see the finish of the horse race. The riders are very young and sometimes are thrown off under way. There's a point system which lets these riderless horses still count. All the awards only go to the trainers. Another particularity is the rush of people wanting to touch the sweat of the winning horse. We are chased away by a heavy storm but soon the weather calmes down and we settle at the most idyllic location of the entire trip! In the evening we visit a school were the unofficial fourth sport: knuckle-bone shooting. It reminds me of shooting marbles in primary school, but for the people here it's serious business.

Day 10: another local Naadam and now we see the real wrestlers in action. The size of the men is impressive (no weight categories here) but even more memorable are the victory dance and the occasional butt slaps! Everything was well organised here, so it really depends from town to town. After a lot of driving we set camp in a desert area, filled with lizards, prompting our scared guide to sleep in the car instead of his tent!

Day 11: we visit a nearby monastery and the ruins of a rare stone temple (Süm Khökh Burd). But the most impressive sights of the day are the rock formations of Baga Gazryn Chuluu. We set camp for the last time, enjoy the night sky full of stars (Orion!) and so this amazing road trip comes to an end.

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Mongolia: road trip part 1

2 vans, 2 drivers, 1 cook, 1 kid, 1 guide, 6 tents, loads of food and water and 7 adventurous Belgians. All on the Mongolian road for 2 weeks!

Day 1: our guide Bolod has a lot to tell. While he sometimes repeats himself, the stories are fascinating and his English is great. His website: http://www.bolodtours.com/ We experience the 'road' for the first time, a dirtroad filled with potholes, but nothing our trusty Russian vans cannot handle. During our first stop, we see a few things that will appear a lot during the entire trip: hills with an ovoo on top, herds of goats & sheeps, and grasshoppers everywhere. Another stop is Khustain Nuruu National Park, home to the Przewalski horse. We can only spot them in the distance, but it's a great feeling to see them running around freely. We finally make camp at a lovely meadow between a river and some mountains with great views from the top!

Day 2: our first job of the day is helping a farmer to load a fleeing bull. A bit later we stop at a camel farmer and have some sharp tasting camel milk. After crossing many beautiful landscapes, the most impressive is a strip of desert, the Mongol Els. We set up camp close by but our dinner is interrupted by a sand storm! Luckily our tents are secure so we only suffer some plugged nostrils.

Day 3: after shaking all the sand out of our tents we continue. At another family we get more traditional products: dried cheese and fermented horse milk (airag or kumis) two things I will never get fond of. Our drives love the stuff, almost as much as they like dance music, which is played all the time in the van! We set camp at lake Ögil Nuur were we have a refreshing swim and spend the afternoon learning to steer a massive herd of goats.

Day 4: more roads and gers. We set camp near a fast flowing river and play a Belgium vs Mongolia soccer match. At night, some of us are awoken by horsemen riding trough our camp and hitting tents. They leave without saying a word so our guide suspects bandits. Turns out it were just some curious local farmers who had too much vodka.

Day 5: we stop in Tsetserleg to get supplies. It's a moderate city nicely located in between the mountains. It's very hot though, so we escape to a temple/museum. Most temples are Buddhist and have a Chinese style. We leave the city and eventually arrive at the family the who will supply our horses. Because it's late, we just go for a quick test run. Some of us never rode a horse but the mounting goes reasonably well. I had some horse riding lessons before, so they let me ride freely, and I can even help to herd the goats back to the pen, super cool! And also a great way to end day 5.

To be continued...

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Mongolia: Ulaanbaatar & Terelj National Park

We are a group of six friends: Bobby, Jeremey, Wouter, Jixop, Thomas and myself. Also with us is Peter from Joker who organised everything. For some years we had the crazy idea to go to Mongolia. So after a long flight without sleep here we are!

Ulaanbaatar is one of the most polluted cities in the world, to makes things worse, there's also lots of pollen in the air. But between sneezing, napping and organising ourselves we manage to see the mix of old and new in the city.

The next day the jeeps with our rental bikes arrive and we drive to Terelj National Park. We arrive at a nice spot and get to it: the mechanic/guide will ride with us, and the two cars will stick around. The bikes are in okay condition and we start riding trough herds of cattle towards the mountains. It's very hot and uphill, not so easy!

After a while we get used to the bikes and we can enjoy the beautiful landscapes. It's sometimes so rocky we have to dismount. We also come across our first ovoo, a cairn made of rocks. Circling and adding a rock 3 times is supposed to bring good luck :)

One of us isn't so lucky and became sick. But the good thing is he can just follow us in the jeep. At the end of the day we arrive tired but satisfied at our gers. We receive a great meal and take a dip in the nearby river.

This pattern continues for 2 days, passing lovely sights like Turtle Rock, a monastary and a touristic ger camp.

The last afternoon the jeeps takes us to the Genghis Khan statue outside Ulaanbaatar. It's a very impressive construction, built on the place were Genghis allegedly found his golden whip. We climb the stairs to the horsehead and are treated with a magnificent view over the steppes.

Back in Ulaanbaatar we shower, rest and prepare for the main part of our journey: the 2 week road trip!

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