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28/29 July 2017
Trip days 10/11
Days 3/4 Mongolia

Day 3 Monglia:

Today was the first real day of the tour.  I'm already not sure I'm going to like this whole schedule thing particularly in town.  Maybe it'll be different out in the wild but having to limit myself to a certain amount of time for a meal or whatever is kind of annoying.

Breakfast was at 7.30am and we were to meet in the lobby ready to go by 8.15am ... the breakfast buffet was running a bit late but we all got done in time.

First thing on the cards was another Buddhist temple.  Oldest one in Mongolia.  I wasn't really paying attention but I think it was the only one to survive an invasion so that the new rulers could say they were not stamping out the religious freedom of the Mongols.  <cue Simpsons reference> Default! Default! Default!

Just another temple with another giant Buddha inside.  Apparently it's one of the places in Ulaanbaator that married couples go to get photos and bless the marriage so we saw a couple of weddings and a few of the tour group chicks harassed the couples and took photos.  Whatever - they just looked like western brides.  Weren't even in traditional clothing.

Then we headed off to the Mongolian National Museum which I completed in about 45 minutes.  #winner #newrecord

It had some interesting stuff (the traditional costumes were good as you would expect) but there are only so many fossils or plates or coins or arrows you can look at in museums around the world.  I'm sure Maile would disagree.

So we had 3 hours to do the museum and lunch on our own before we were to meet up again and head to the Black Market.  It's basically a big flea market but it's got EVERYTHING (except illegal goods apparently ... I'm not sure I believe that).  It was OK but as someone who wasn't shopping for anything it was initially interesting then increasingly hot, dusty and boring.

After that a few of us chose to go to a "cultural appreciation show" which is an excuse to get a bunch of money from tourists for sub-par performance art.  The Mongolian throat-singing was interesting and there was a pair of contortionists whose act was interesting and sexy (mostly sexy).  The rest of it was just singing or dancing or playing instruments in costumes.  I'm not sure if it was actually historically accurate but the female singers were shrill and horrible.  It reminded me a bit of the "ballet" we saw in Luang Prabang in Laos ... similar traditional rubbish.

That was the end of the official stuff for the day but a couple of us went to some war memorial to watch the sunset over UB in our last night there.  It was a really nice view actually and well worth the trip.  We caught a "local taxi" to the memorial.  It's basically Uber but without the app or any requirement for a decent car.  You stand on the side of the road hitchhiking and someone will eventually pull over and give you a lift somewhere for some negotiated price based on time, distance and how much petrol costs.  We had to direct her with Google maps which was kind of annoying ... I much prefer Uber.

Our local guide on the tour is a singer in a local jazz band.  She had a gig on last night that a few people went to.  I had intended to go as well but the sunset thing took so long that we thought we had missed it so we went for dinner instead.  Apparently she was on an hour later than expected so I wouldn't have missed it but I'm not really disappointed though she was a reasonable singer by all accounts.

Back to the hotel to pack and wash before we head off in our little truck tomorrow.

Day 4 Mongolia:
I'm sick!  I've got SARS or something (I.e. Man flu).
Runny nose, sore throat, bad sinus, watery eyes ... made for an unpleasant day on the bus today and no doubt tomorrow.

Up early for breakfast and meeting in the lobby to head out into the wild blue yonder.

Meet Rashida ... Queen of the Gobbi (...).  She's our truck.

Stacking luggage, safety briefing and a last minute shopping stop at what I assume is Mongolia's version of Costco.  Think Bunnings for food (and Beer!).

The truck is pretty good.  It's pretty full with 22 of us and the tour leaders/guide but there seems to be enough room for now.

We've all been allocated cooking teams and jobs on the truck.  I'm in cooking team 2 and I think we have to do about 8 meals all up ... a mix of breakfasts, lunches and dinners.  It's going to sound sexist but there are 4 females in my team so I'm hoping they step up and do most of the cooking while I just have to chop and clean shit.

My truck job is something to do with the water in the jerry cans.  Me and a girl (Nell) have to make sure the Jerry cans are full of water after each stop I think.

We're headed for Ogii lake today to stay in a ger at some tourist ger setup.

The roads here are pretty bad and the truck seems to amplify all the bumps so we trucking along and getting thrown all around the place.  Apparently these are the good roads so I'm sure whiplash is coming.

 We stopped at some ruins about halfway to Ogii lake.  The ruins pre-date the Chingiss Khan era Mongolia so they are pretty old.  They are ruins obviously but there are still some standing walls and what I assume is a cairn of some sort.  The quality of the stonework is really good ... I'm sure it was a real fortress in its day.

Lunch at the ruins (salad sandwiches) then off we go to Ogii lake.

This lake is pretty awesome.  It's pretty big though it only reaches a maximum depth of 3 metres.

We're in a ger camp right on the water which is nice.  After everyone dumped their bags in their gers we all jumped in for a swim.  The water was beautiful!  Great way to wash my clothes for the day :D

A storm rolled in while we were swimming so it went from a nice calm lake to windy with waves and rain pretty quickly.  Everyone ran out and took cover though it was a pretty small storm by the looks of it.

The ger itself is really roomy.  It's got 3 beds (a queen and 2 singles) and I'm sharing with an Aussie named Bruce.  The wind is not getting in this thing at all.  With the burner going I can imagine how well the Mongolians would survive winter in these things.  I hope it starts to rain again later ... the sound of it against the ger was great and would be excellent to fall asleep to.

The camp is very civilised.  Very clean and well provisioned toilet block with western shitters and nice showers (though there is no water pressure).

Seems like a really nice place to stay.

Dinner was disappointingly western.  We had mushroom soup, fish & chips and SPC fruit cocktail for dessert.  Nothing Mongolian at all.  Though as one of the guys pointed out their target market is probably middle class Mongolians so it makes sense that hey would serve something non-Mongolian if that's the case.

One of the gers turned into a party ger tonight.  Some drinking, some music.  Was fun.  My beer was still in the back of the truck though :(