Chasing Clouds, The Gobi Desert, Mongolia
Mongolia is, in some ways, similar to Tibet. To go far from Ulaan Baatar (UB) it is necessary to join a tour, however it's a bit more difficult to arrange them here. I decide to head off to the Gobi Desert for 8 days and unlike the new-looking SUVs of Tibet we are riding in a Russian 4WD jeep. This Russian "jeep" looks like a 70s van, military green in color and all beefed up. Since China hasn't invaded Mongolia, lately at least, the road infrastructure outside UB is, um, non-existent. Fortunately, our driver, Otto, seems to have a built in GPS, as he randomly, at least it appears that way, jumps from one dirt track to another. With no landmarks, only the vast and very barren desert in sight it's a wonder we weren't just going around in circles. The Russian jeep though is a workhorse, chuggin' up, over, and sideways through often treacherous terrain that seems to appear out of nowhere. There is no doubt it would pass the Land Rover test drive obstacle course with flying colors. (Don't ask why I've test driven a Land Rover.)
In general though the Gobi can be described as vast, brown, and flat. In the distance there is occasionally a brown jagged mountain range peeping up, or yellow or purple wild flowers stubbornly finding life. This desert is devoid of cactus, and during toilet breaks it's difficult to find something to hide behind. But, wow, does this landscape make for the most amazing sunsets! Without fail every night we are treated to a show of reds, oranges, yellow, pinks moving outwards from the horizon, the most amazing I've ever seen.
Travelling in the Gobi gives a whole new meaning to the saying "the middle of nowhere." But it's funny what you find in the middle of nowhere. As we travel we pass mangy and small looking horses, rugged camels, some with droopy humps, and several gers, the monadic Mongolians yurt-like shelter of choice. The first day we pull up to a restaurant, 3 gers seemingly plopped down at random, and are treated to homemade pasta with the staple mutton. Even though we are several hours from anything resembling a village, the woman making us lunch has curlers in her hair and is constantly checking her makeup in the mirror. Just as we jump in the jeep to continue our journey we are blasted by a sandstorm that felt like something out of a movie. The color of the sky instantly changes from blue to brown and it's inexplicably beautiful in the most inhospitable way. For some reason sandstorms are accompanied by rain. And as quickly as Mother Nature thrust it upon us, it's gone, and we're off with sand crammed in every crevice.
The desert, surprisingly, has some marvelous and unexpected geologic formations in store for us. First, we stumble up to some rocks that are clumped around a bend, out of the blue. The rocks look misplaced from Joshua Tree. Next, we come to the Flaming Cliffs, reddish, but more so at sunset. Here several dinosaur bones were discovered and it's quite a bit creepy to imagine the giant beasts roaming around this area.
By far the best stop is at the dunes, the most expansive I've ever seen. We approach the sand dunes in a major sandstorm. Somehow Otto still manages to steer us in the right direction as we search for a "hotel" ger. As a budget tour we don't stay in the tourist ger camps, but at small family run places. Usually they consist of 3 or 4 gers in the middle of nowhere and inside we sleep on the floor. I have no idea how these people live and survive here. But they do have satellite TV which we found out one day as we watched a World Cup game in black and white - a very surreal. Climbing the dunes one morning for sunrise I took an unwise path, direct and too steep, and started a sand avalanche. As I ran out of the way, it sent vibrations in all directions and sounded like a freight train off in the distance. Sunrise was the highlight of the trip with the angle of light creating all sorts of dark and geometric shapes. Bold patterns in every direction, it was a photographic dream. We stayed an extra day here and tried our hand at camel riding. It was quite the experience. Though supposedly you control a camel like you would a horse, there was no question who was in charge. Out for a stroll my camel took every opportunity to stop and eat and for fear of pissing him off, I let him get away with it. On the home stretch he decided to trot like horse.
There is no doubt in my mind that food in the Gobi is the worst in the world. Mostly we had noodle soup with mutton for dinner, with sand being a main ingredient. Breakfast resembled dog biscuits. You would think this would be a recipe for weight loss but mainly we became connoisseurs of Gobi desert chocolate that we found in the few desolate towns we passed through.
Another similarity between Mongolia and Tibet are the gorgeous blue skies and often they are dotted with the same perfect clouds. As we bump back towards UB we race the dark moving formations the clouds create until we almost catch one, and it disappears.
In general though the Gobi can be described as vast, brown, and flat. In the distance there is occasionally a brown jagged mountain range peeping up, or yellow or purple wild flowers stubbornly finding life. This desert is devoid of cactus, and during toilet breaks it's difficult to find something to hide behind. But, wow, does this landscape make for the most amazing sunsets! Without fail every night we are treated to a show of reds, oranges, yellow, pinks moving outwards from the horizon, the most amazing I've ever seen.
Travelling in the Gobi gives a whole new meaning to the saying "the middle of nowhere." But it's funny what you find in the middle of nowhere. As we travel we pass mangy and small looking horses, rugged camels, some with droopy humps, and several gers, the monadic Mongolians yurt-like shelter of choice. The first day we pull up to a restaurant, 3 gers seemingly plopped down at random, and are treated to homemade pasta with the staple mutton. Even though we are several hours from anything resembling a village, the woman making us lunch has curlers in her hair and is constantly checking her makeup in the mirror. Just as we jump in the jeep to continue our journey we are blasted by a sandstorm that felt like something out of a movie. The color of the sky instantly changes from blue to brown and it's inexplicably beautiful in the most inhospitable way. For some reason sandstorms are accompanied by rain. And as quickly as Mother Nature thrust it upon us, it's gone, and we're off with sand crammed in every crevice.
The desert, surprisingly, has some marvelous and unexpected geologic formations in store for us. First, we stumble up to some rocks that are clumped around a bend, out of the blue. The rocks look misplaced from Joshua Tree. Next, we come to the Flaming Cliffs, reddish, but more so at sunset. Here several dinosaur bones were discovered and it's quite a bit creepy to imagine the giant beasts roaming around this area.
By far the best stop is at the dunes, the most expansive I've ever seen. We approach the sand dunes in a major sandstorm. Somehow Otto still manages to steer us in the right direction as we search for a "hotel" ger. As a budget tour we don't stay in the tourist ger camps, but at small family run places. Usually they consist of 3 or 4 gers in the middle of nowhere and inside we sleep on the floor. I have no idea how these people live and survive here. But they do have satellite TV which we found out one day as we watched a World Cup game in black and white - a very surreal. Climbing the dunes one morning for sunrise I took an unwise path, direct and too steep, and started a sand avalanche. As I ran out of the way, it sent vibrations in all directions and sounded like a freight train off in the distance. Sunrise was the highlight of the trip with the angle of light creating all sorts of dark and geometric shapes. Bold patterns in every direction, it was a photographic dream. We stayed an extra day here and tried our hand at camel riding. It was quite the experience. Though supposedly you control a camel like you would a horse, there was no question who was in charge. Out for a stroll my camel took every opportunity to stop and eat and for fear of pissing him off, I let him get away with it. On the home stretch he decided to trot like horse.
There is no doubt in my mind that food in the Gobi is the worst in the world. Mostly we had noodle soup with mutton for dinner, with sand being a main ingredient. Breakfast resembled dog biscuits. You would think this would be a recipe for weight loss but mainly we became connoisseurs of Gobi desert chocolate that we found in the few desolate towns we passed through.
Another similarity between Mongolia and Tibet are the gorgeous blue skies and often they are dotted with the same perfect clouds. As we bump back towards UB we race the dark moving formations the clouds create until we almost catch one, and it disappears.
posted by Deb Shea | 2:16 PM
1 Comments:
Hey Deb! You seem to have had quite an adventure since we met. I'm still in India, in Varanasi now, en route up north, probably to Nepal...have you been there yet? Any tips? I met an American girl here who is thinking about going to Pakistan by herself, so I gave her your blog address, hope you don't mind. Safe travels and wishing you well.
Michael from Udaipur/NYC
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