Just a week ago I was working deep in the woods of Khamar Daban near Lake Baikal in Russia. From there I travelled via Trans-Mongolian railway to Ulan Baatar, Mongolia and then to Peking, China, from where I currently write. The difference between the three of these countries cannot be described shortly. The changes range from landscape to demography, politics to people, weather to food. It's remarkable!
Our trip to Mongolia was slightly tedious, because of various circumstances ranging from a unagreeable attendant to having only one bathroom to having an unpleasant odor from our carriage mate's feet. We made it, however, and it was worth all the trouble!
Mongolia... the one place on my journey I knew very little of and was hesitant to venture to! What a disappointment I would have had if I had missed this amazing country! Full of rolling hills, farm animals, and perhaps the last real cowboys on earth, I quickly fell in love with the place.
Our time was spent mostly on tour, west of the capital. It was expensive at $60 a day per person but worth it as the sites of the city are quickly exhausted. Our tour was well supplied with a guide/translator/cook and driver plus tent, food and supplies. Our driver also lived in Japan for 2 1/2 years and spoke some Japanese so we could communicate quite well even without our translator!
We stayed in a nomadic man's hut the first night and played a game much like Spoons. It was a bad game, because we had punishments for losing. It ended with me running into a neighboring family's yert in my boxer shorts asking if I could stay there for the night. I hope they don't shape their opinion of Americans based on me!:P
That was near the "little" Gobi Dessert, which is a slightly scaled down version of the "big" Gobi dessert, yet still desert-y. Almost manufactured in appearance, where the grass ended, the dunes began. That evening we had a lighning storm that made the sky turn orange at each flash. It reminded me of a pachinko parlor in Japan.
The following day we went to a Buddhist monestary and a lake, both that seemed surreal in their surroundings. At the monestary I drank a bowl of fermented mare's milk. It was sour but easy to drink. All of the young monks were drinking it during their study which made me wonder what exactly they were learning.
The lake was beautiful and from the peak where we first spotted it resembled a small puddle with the endless fields around it. We stayed there two nights and did very little except sleep, swim and eat. What a great tour!
Looking back, Mongolia feels like a dream; we didn't have much time there. Our experiences in that short period were incredible though and as we travel through Asia, contrasting the countries has been interesting. Maybe one day I'll find myself returning there (the translator said she'd marry me).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment