In the land of Ghengis Khan
Trip Start
May 24, 2005
1
24
25
Trip End
Ongoing
Ulan Baataar,
Mongolia
Friday, August 19, 2005
oh, and a small incident of being stranded in the Gobi.
Did you know you can ferment mare's milk into vodka!?! That's the
mmmm, in Mongolia.
This land which Helen had been craving to explore for nearly a decade was,
as of 5am, ours to discover. With our Loney Planet guidebook to Mongolia
safely tucked away on the bookshelf in London, Ulaan Baatar was a mystery
as our Russian born train choked its last breath into the city terminal
Abandoned but Happy!
.We managed to get sorted for a room by the 'fingers crossed for someone
at the station' technique and within minutes we were whizzing down Peace Avenue
towards the town centre.
Picking up a copy of the Ulaan Bataar Post en route to the National Natural History Museum Helen noticed an advert: " So you want to be a Movie star!! " A Mongolian movie about to start filming and they were in search of a lead foreign actor - no Mongolian language necessary, preferably some acting experience (blagarama). The only draw-back => he has to play a 40 yr old.
We called the number and were directed to call in that afternoon at a 'Soviet style
building near a blue horse'...?! During the interview - where Eoghan got to meet the director -we were warmly received and given the lowdown on the Mongolian film industry. The film was going to be made by the Oscar-nominated Mongolian director who made "The Weeping Camel" and "The Cave of the Yellow Dog" (which we went to see that same evening). "Come back to us on Monday" they said.
The following day we set off to Terelj National Park, an hour out of Ulaan Bataar. Here
we slept in Mongolian Ger tents and got to meet a nomadic family. We stayed for two nights only (Mollywood was calling) but managed to fit in a couple of tear-jerking horse-back rides to a Buddhist temple and a river where we braved arctic waters in a somewhat pathetic attempt at skinny dipping ..
Another Ger tent!
. more like "THAT WATER IS FRREEEEEZINGGG BRRR." Back to the cosy ger tent with cow-dung fire and candle-light, yum.Back in UB (You Bee, as the backpackers call it), and armed with Oscar-winning speech in hand, Eoghan set off for Monday's meeting.
Sticking his head in the crack of the door E was met briefly by the casting director before entering a room of stony faces. Whilst I was reading through the script, Mr Casting Dictator (dream-crusher) passed the room and bellowed out - "We have chosen someone else". Boo.
That evening we went to a backpackers' cafe for some chow and were gazing over the notice board - "group looking for Gobi partners", "three heading West looking for fourth to share costs" etc ... when a cough caught our attention. We turned to see the warm smile of Annabel, aged 24, French and with 6 days left in Mongolia she was in a hurry to get to the Gobi. Annabel had loads of great ideas of places to see and a list of guides prepared to show the way ... some email banter later and we'd agreed to head off the next day in search of camels and sand dunes.
Detail on Mongolian Buddhist Temple
Our guide was a 21 yr old Mongolian school teacher "born in the Gobi" called Eddie (Idr).
Although we'd agreed to go Gobi (as it were) he had made an itinery of Ulan Batar's
local sites ... (warning sign #1)
He then upped the price of the trip in his car from that agreed the previous night,
(warning sign #2). We then found out this was his first tour (warning sign #3) and
he didn't know the way to the Gobi (warning sign #4) needing to call in the help of
his uncle (warning sign #5) before upping the price again (warning sign #6) and
then not having any clue what food we'd bring or who would be doing what cooking (#7).
OK - by #7 the girls went off to call another guide but none were available, pressed
for time we agreed to go with this quite undynamic duo. Long story short, gave them
loads of cash which included accomodation, they got sooo massively lost - once turning around and retracking a whole mornings route - sooo lost that nomadic farmers were confused why we were in certain areas asking for others ..
Dew drops on Eidelweiss - Terelj National Park
. then we get to the Gobi (day 3!) and they said we had to pay for accomodation!! I never mentioned that u-n-c-l-e stood for unfriendly-neurotic-cagey-loser-encarnate . Basically these two were not guides but in a round about way were found on the street by Annabel (not her fault) and the guide was born 100km from Ulaan Batar before moving to the city at 1yrs old. His famous quote was "How long do you think you could survive in the desert alone?" ... a few brain teaser answers by Helen and Annabel were rewarded with guide saying "All I need is my penknife". He then 'explained' how he would survive with his penknife.... ==> HE SAID HE "SAW HOW ON NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNEL" #8!!!!!!! and that was it...no other explanation forthcoming!!! Dazed and confused we got back in the jeep (doh!).On refusing to pay for something we'd already agreed, and having showed them the written 'agreement' schedule in u-n-c-l-e's handwriting, they turned to each other, said someting probably not so kind in Mongolian and said "we're going, we're leaving you here!". A simple "OK" was our reaction to this, "Please!"
We spent the night with a ger family and after not so much bother found a lift with a group of the soundest Swedish fella's you could meet. Really sound. An overnight bus ride back to Ulann Batar full of sing-songs and tradional music, and Mongolian phases ... "Beer chum heer te" means "kiss me" - all was back to normal again.
We got our Chinese visas and headed back to Terelj for trecking and Ger-action. bliss.
