Well, I know I said we would be without internet for the duration of this trip but I was wrong and so for those of you still checking the site here is a little blog just for you.
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So, we left Ulaanbaatar not so early in the morning and headed south into the Gobi desert. At the end of our first day we were fairly close to a couple of Gers (kind of like yerts but a letter short) and enjoyed the company of their highly friendly dog in the evening. That night Noah and I camped out without tents as it wasn’t forecast to rain for another couple of years at least. It was at 5 in the morning, with the stars bright overhead that Dog came to me, he jumped on my face, licked my toothbrush and stole my sock. He brought it back though.
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As we got further into the desert and then west the nights grew colder and so my tent was back in action, my faithful trusty tent. Unfortunately it was handled roughly by someone, quite possibly me, when being put on the roof of our eco-microbus and one of the end poles came a cropper. No worries, Baida – our driver cum mechanic – found a thick wire coathanger at a flee market, which is now cut to size and seems to be working well. At the same market Tom bought a new hat in an attempt to blend in more successfully with the locals. At some later date you will see for yourself but for now be patient.
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On day 5 of our trip we met two Belgian girls called Ingrid and Nicole. They are roughly halfway through a trip around the world, traveling by various forms of non-motorised transport. In their own words on their website, ‘they will experience thereby only of not motorized transport own to the countries true to them to cross’. This has included a pony across Iran and a camel across Mongolia, until now that is – they are also on a ”holiday”. I offered them ‘Around the World in 80 Ways’ but they rejected it, perhaps they would rather re-word it.
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Outside of Ulaanbaatar Mongolia is still a truly nomadic land, and proud of it. So the majority of people live in gers miles from the nearest neighbour, which they move (the ger) 4 times a year. They have a deep love for travelers in general and this extends to westeners. As such they are happy to accommodate and feed anyone passing through and so we have spent a couple of nights with families in this fashion. A highlight of the trip for me was a couple of nights ago when we were staying with a Kazak family when the grandfather (most respected) came over to tuck me in with a blanket. So today we head to the western border, where winter has set in now, for a spot of trekking.