As it is taking Si a long time to upload photos I have been handed the baton of writing the travelpod, which wont be too hard as I will copy it direct from my travel diary....yes some of us still use pen and paper!
Here goes...a day in the life of Cath's travel diary......
We left Beijing for Mongolia on 27 August. Our train was at 7.45am at Beijing Central. 1st class, 2 beds, a small table and just me and Si for the next 30 hrs. We had brought our own little cabin breakfast with us so we cracked out the bread and jam, bananas and tea and coffee (As we are now in the 'expensive' leg of our trip bananas and bread will feature on the menu quite often). Once we got going the scenery was amazing. Si was really excited about the train trip, well so was I but it was his dream to do the Trans Mongolian so he was really in awe of the trip. The landscape soon changed from the green rolling countryside of China to more arid country with sparse dwellings and animal clusters. As we journeyed closer to Mongolia we started to see our first Gers and it was pretty clear that we were not in China anymore. As the desert rolled by and the train tracks clicked over a feeling of isolation started to kick in- a very rare and special kind of feeling. Nothing to the North, South, East or West of us but sand, sun, wind and train tracks and nothing to do but gaze out the window and wonder at it all.
We reached the Mongolian border at about 9pm and had to get off and hang around customs til 11.15pm before we were allowed back on the train, and the train didn't pull out of the station until 2am. After our late night border crossing we had a bit of a sleep in but it's also hard to sleep in because you don't want to miss anything out the window. Si is usually the one pointing to things in the horizon and I usually miss them ;-) The day went by quite quickly and we were approaching Ulaan Baatur (UB) before we knew it (about 2pm). The small clusters of gers became more dense and we started seeing buildings of all shapes and sizes, and as well rolled along the clusters just kept getting more dense along one huge long strip at the base of the hills. The strip then started to get more built up so we knew it had to be UB. We headed to Dave's Bar where we were getting picked up for our 3 day Mongolian horse trekking adventure. At about 5pm a silver min van arrived to pick us up. We thought it would just be Tovoo the driver, but the whole crew had come with him. Mendei and his wife Bina (who run Stepperiders), their 2 children and their brothers daughter and Fitz (the American who was helping them with their business). It was about a 40 min car ride to the camp from UB. The countryside was amazing. They refer to it as 'Steppes' as you can imagine one hill just rolls into the next like a never ending set of steps. The terrain was Green from the rain but still quite rocky, dotted with gers and livestock. It was also a little cold which made it even more perfect. If you can imagine it all, you almost felt you had to whisper due to the silence that surrounded the whole scene. They had 8 horses just strolling around and some cows that had wondered in that belong ed to the neighboring family. There was 5 gers so we had one to ourselves. It had 4 single beds and a fireplace in the middle. Later on the other 2 girls who would be trekking with us arrived at the camp. Stephanie (NZ) and Sung La (Korean). We had some dinner together, much like stew and then hit the ger.
Next morning...no shower, who needs it in Mongolia, breakfast, then time to saddle up. Fitz said "Who wants the steady horse with not much interest in running?' I said 'Me, that's just my style'. So I got Brown Horse...well that's what I officially called him as he didnt really have a name yet as he had only been with Mendei for about 2 months after being given to him by a Dutchman (which also meant he wasnt part of the gang yet). I was pretty afraid and very nervous but little did I know that me and Brown Horse would end up best of friends. Si got Blondie, one of the leaders of the pack who has a tendency to run and not do what he's told. Si and Blondie ended up with a relationship that was, well....a work in progress...not quite friends. Our destination for the day was to visit a Mongolian family who have about 500 animals and we would stay there the night. We headed to the watering hole first, mostly waling with a bit of trotting. I was still afraid of trotting as I thought it might turn into a canter which might turn into a gallop which would turn into me holding onto a run away horse, galloping off into the vast distance of the Mongolian steppes. Soon I got to know Brown Horse though and realised that he was quite willing to stop when I told him to, and it would take a bomb under him to even get him into a fast trot. Several times he got sick of trotting and just stopped and lay on the ground with me still on him. Everyone laughed at us in an endearing sort of way. Blondie and Brown Horse clearly were not traveling companions which meant that Si and I didnt get to ride side by side much but that was ok. By the time we were arriving at camp we had worked our way up to a canter which was fun and at the end of the day I wasnt afraid anymore.
When we arrived at the family ger only the father and the son were home and they offered us some 'arig'- the traditional sour milk drink. This was our first taste so we went easy on it but it wasnt bad...it had a kind of feta cheese flavour to it but it was a gritty milk texture. 6 people lived in that ger and they have 500 animals (100 horses and the rest sheep, goats and cows) all for milking. It was so great just being surrounded by these animals just walking free. There was a few too many of us to all fit in the ger so we pitched tents for the night.
In the morning for breakfast we got to try even more traditional cheese/yogurt products, all with varying tastes. We had to wait a while before we could get going as 3 of our horses had wondered off in the middle of the night and Mendei was having trouble finding them. Eventually after a few hours he came back with 3 horses in toe. Si asked 'Did they go far?' and Mendei just said 'Yes'....we'll never know exactly where they went but it did spark a lot of questions about how people keep track of their livestock.
We were all very sore but happy to be getting back on the horses. We had a pretty good run back to camp and even did some cantering across the hills. Brown Horse of course had a bit of a lie down along the way- typical! We got back to camp about 1pm and had some lunch and Si brought out the frisbee and had a throw with the kids and Mendei and Hassa (I also had a throw and my forehand had much improved!). At 4pm we all drove back into town. We were worn out and tired but sad to leave. I fell in love with Brown Horse and I was really glad Si had organised for us to go to Stepperiders despite my fears.
That night we stayed at the UB Guesthouse and went to Daves Bar for a beer. We met some guys doing the Mongol Rally from London to Mongolia, and one of them was living in N.Ireland and offered to take us out when we are there. The 4 of us went out for a Chinese dinner then a pub quiz at Daves Bar. Tomorrow.......the train to Irkutsk!
And it's over and out from me (I bet you were sick on Si's entries anyway!).
Cath
xx
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