UB, Mongolia
I stopped briefly in Beijing to pick up my train ticket to Ulaan Baatar (UB) and boarded the train to a loudspeaker greeting announcement which amounted to a health and AIDS lecture, in English. My favorite line: "It is possible to prevent from getting old." Really? Unfortunately they didn't follow up with any miraculous techniques. I am welcomed in UB by Juni and Katrin who I met in the Tiger Leaping Gorge in China. They are waiting on their Russian visas, a common theme amongst backpackers. UB, unlike the Gobi Desert it turns out, has some quality food. Actually though the best restaurant is an American chain of a Mongolian BBQ. The Mongolians don't really eat the Mongolian BBQ the way we think of it, or at all really.
Juni, Katrin and I go in search of a motorbike that I can rent so we can make a day trip out of UB into the steppe. The search was difficult and when we finally found one it broke both rules we had for renting a bike: 1) it was Chinese and 2) it was from Andreas, a German ex-pat notorious for bikes with missing parts. So it was no wonder when we made it a few hours from UB that something went awry with my bike and it stopped moving forward, or moving at all really. Luckily after we, Juni really, had torn the bike apart and put it back together without curing the problem, a Mongolian truck happened by and gave me a lift back to town. This is typically how adventures go in Mongolia.
For another adventure, I headed to the Terelj National Park. It's a beautiful park with rolling green hills and rounded rock formations scattered about. We have gorgeous weather and John, another American and I head off for a hike. There are no trails and we think we can make a loop, a not-so-bright idea. We hike over ridges and besides a swift-moving river and hike and hike and hike, lost, before we finally enter civilization 8 hours later, just in time for dinner. Phew. The next day we go for a horseback ride, Mongolian style. The driver of the van that brought us to the park warned us that horses could be dangerous, "they are animals, not people," he informed us. No kidding. Within one hour of leaving the stables 2 of the 6 of us had fallen off our horses and a third had a really close call when her horse rode her straight into a tree. My close call came on the home stretch with my ger in sight. Another horse galloped past and my horse decided to follow. If you don't really know how to ride a horse, you don't want to be on a galloping one. Somehow I nearly fell off forwards, having completely lost my balance and despite my best efforts to get it to slow down. I had no control of the horse at all! This is what happens when you don't have to sign any of those liability forms.
For photos of UB, click here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/39463330@N00/sets/72157594170577592/
Juni, Katrin and I go in search of a motorbike that I can rent so we can make a day trip out of UB into the steppe. The search was difficult and when we finally found one it broke both rules we had for renting a bike: 1) it was Chinese and 2) it was from Andreas, a German ex-pat notorious for bikes with missing parts. So it was no wonder when we made it a few hours from UB that something went awry with my bike and it stopped moving forward, or moving at all really. Luckily after we, Juni really, had torn the bike apart and put it back together without curing the problem, a Mongolian truck happened by and gave me a lift back to town. This is typically how adventures go in Mongolia.
For another adventure, I headed to the Terelj National Park. It's a beautiful park with rolling green hills and rounded rock formations scattered about. We have gorgeous weather and John, another American and I head off for a hike. There are no trails and we think we can make a loop, a not-so-bright idea. We hike over ridges and besides a swift-moving river and hike and hike and hike, lost, before we finally enter civilization 8 hours later, just in time for dinner. Phew. The next day we go for a horseback ride, Mongolian style. The driver of the van that brought us to the park warned us that horses could be dangerous, "they are animals, not people," he informed us. No kidding. Within one hour of leaving the stables 2 of the 6 of us had fallen off our horses and a third had a really close call when her horse rode her straight into a tree. My close call came on the home stretch with my ger in sight. Another horse galloped past and my horse decided to follow. If you don't really know how to ride a horse, you don't want to be on a galloping one. Somehow I nearly fell off forwards, having completely lost my balance and despite my best efforts to get it to slow down. I had no control of the horse at all! This is what happens when you don't have to sign any of those liability forms.
For photos of UB, click here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/39463330@N00/sets/72157594170577592/
posted by Deb Shea | 2:16 PM
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