The Trans Mongolian Mate!
Trip Start
Dec 01, 1999
1
84
103
Trip End
Aug 31, 2000
Ulaan Baator,
Mongolia
Friday, April 14, 2000
I was in Mongolia and I was soon to embark upon a journey of a life time. My Trans Mongolian and Siberian dreams were finally about to come true. When I arrived in Ulaan Baatar I was collected and taken to my hotel. From memory, to get a home stay in Mongolia you have to be collected by some sort of official and have a hotel booking. Same as in Russia. I can't remember why, I guess to look you over and see if you look strong enough to drink fermented milk with the men. The hotel I stayed at was great and the staff was so helpful and friendly.
After dropping off my pack I headed out side. I walked for a few hours around a very broken and poor city. I felt like I was back in rural China again. From the sidewalks to the buses, everything seemed to be broken
The Trans Mongolian & Ulaan Baatar
. As I walked people stopped and stared. Some even walked over to get a closer look. Traveling the places I had the past months meant I had been stared at quite often but this was very uncomfortable at first. In China people stared but smiled when you smiled and said hello. Here they stopped and just stared, some said hello but many didn't. It actually made me want to go back to my room where I would feel comfortable.It's strange walking around a city like Ulaan Baatar, as I have said, everything seems to be broken. The thing I can't understand is that everywhere there were computers. Online Game shops were not hard to find. For the first hour or more I didn't really notice but then after seeing so many of them I actually entered one to have a look at the actual computers. I was surprised to find that all of them were better than my computer at home. It seems in life man will always spare no expense on beer and now computers.
As the sun and our part of the world said they slow good byes I made my way home. I sat with the hotel staff for dinner and guess what I had for dinner?
Guess!
Guess
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! Guess!
Take a little time and think about it.
Not many can say they've actually done this.
I HAD MONGOLIAN HOT POT IN MONGOLIA!!!!!
It has always been a big favorite of mine and now I could actually say that I have had Mongolian hot pot in Mongolia. We sat for several Tiger Beers before I headed to my room. There I sat on my balcony that over looked the city streets and drank beer and watched Mongolians go about their nightly business.
I had this huge grin on my face. I'm sure it went from ear to ear. I couldn't believe I was of all places in the world, in Mongolia. No one I know had ever been there. I have eaten Mongolian hot pot in Australia, China, Korea and now actually in Mongolia. Sometimes it is these little things in life that make you sit in amazement at what you have accomplished
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. To me, strangely the hot pot thing was and still is one of those things in my life that I'm most proud of myself for experiencing. The plane ride was a visually unbelievable. The Gobi Dessert is such a huge barren land of nothing! Growing up I had seen many pictures of the moon and to me it was like looking at the moon close up. Just sand and sand hills and tiny little patches of water in the sand. It was such a trip. I was soon kind of happy that China didn't allow me back in to board the Trans Mongolian in Beijing. I missed the changing of axels at the boarder. This WAS something I did want to see but hey, I got to see the Gobi Dessert from a plane window instead. Mongolian Air was fantastic to fly. The staff were so friendly and the girls oh so pretty. You were offered a wine upon boarding, a beer soon after and more wine when with dinner and then coffee, all in three hours!
I spent a relaxing couple of nights in Ulaan Baatar sitting on my sun drenched balcony mostly reading and watching the Mongolians going about their life. I filled my days walking the streets, sitting in little 'wok em up' shops and discovering new and exciting places. I walked amongst the Gerts in the Gert District and wondered which one I nearly stayed in (bloody Chinese!).
These districts were very poor. I had been warned about the males and alcohol but it didn't really prepare me for the amount of them doing their best to walk and not fall into the filthy river along side them. Sadly I did see one man stumble and actually roll down the bank at 10:30am. He was walking with his friend and for no reason, just fell
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. Like everywhere I had been I was offered to fill empty seats but I felt uncomfortable drinking so much before Beer O'clock (noon). This is how one of the hotel staff explained it to me in their best English. They have a huge problem in Mongolia with males and alcohol. The male drinks whilst the female works. Many males also have two families to support their drinking habit and it's totally acceptable.
I did stop and share water with families as they sunned themselves outside their doors. I played with the little children who were brave enough to come near me. The people were very warm and offered food and cool drinks along with huge toothy smiles. I believed I missed out on an extremely beautiful experience arriving in Ulaan Baatar so late and not 'living' my booked Home stay. Apart from the alcohol I really liked the city and its brokenness.
Finally it was time to board.
I said my sad good byes to the hotel staff and the man whom collected me from the airport took me to the station. As we approached the train came into view
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. I remember feeling butterflies in my stomach. I was all giddy and excited. It's not often I wish to share travel experiences with others but I really wanted to share this excitement with another. I was well stocked with fruit, dried foods and of course noodles. I boarded and was shown my cabin and there I sat watching people out the window say their farewells to friends and family. I spent two evenings chatting and drinking beer with my cabin friends and others whom dropped in to sit with me and have photo opportunities. I shared my cabin with a lovely long legged Polish girl named Agniexzka and two elderly Mongolian men whom I'm sure were as happy as I to be placed in such beautiful company!
The journey was very comfortable. There was plenty of water for my noodles, a food cart rolled by at very odd times and the passengers and staff was very happy people. The luggage on board was questionable. I had been told there would be chickens and other small animals onboard and to my surprise there actually was. Try getting a dog on board a train in Australia!
