Back in the big city

So we made it back to Ulaanbaatar and are going to hang out for a few days. Originally we had planned to take the train down to the Gobi desert in a whirl-wind trip but I have a bit of a stomach bug and truth be told, we're really tired and could use some down time. The China travel coming up will be really busy and so we're relaxing a bit under the supervision of our fabulous tour guide Meg (who has this blog address and so I will only mention how smart, pretty, and fantastic she is). She's also a Facebook friend if you want to see her. We loved going to visit a couple of lakes and having the two other travellers made it much more fun. Agi the driver is a big favorite of ours and when we find an internet cafe that will let us upload pictures, I'll post a few of the group. A former teacher friend of Janice's from Kathmandu (we pronounce her name Meow but I suspect that it's probably something totally different) lives in Beijing and is awaiting our arrival. Also a friend from Ann Arbor lives near Tibet and we're staying with her for a few days and so things really are lucky for us. xoc

Reindeer

So we're going to a big lake near the Siberian border today to see the reindeer herders. Mongolia is fabulous and we really like the people with whom we're traveling. There's a little too much meat to eat but today we found a box of cereal (in town) and so that's thrilling. The landscape is just so unbelievable and there are simply no people. If Nepalis could handle snow then they'd probably fill this place up in a few decades or so. So if you like camping, beautiful landscapes, vodka, meat, friendly people and internet cafes that charge $.50 an hour, this is your place. xoc

Internet everywhere

Hello from Karakorum. It's Genghis Khan's ancient capital in the middle of Mongolia from the 13th century. Actually, the Manchurians destroyed it in the 14th century and now it resembles a town in the UP with one gas station and a bank but the signs are in Cyrillic and so that's kinda cool. There's a great Buddhist monastery here built in the 16th century from Karakorum's ruins (then the Soviets destroyed a lot of it in the 1920s but now it's partially rebuilt). Mongolia is excellent. Six of us are driving around the country in a 4WD, Russian version of a VW bus. The driver is a huge Mongolian man who knows a few English words like "shit" and he drives like a madman but there are very few cars and so the risk is minimal. Our guide is a 25 year-old Mongolian woman who studied in Florida and so she has a great American accent: "So, that's, like, the monastery..." She's very interested in geology and paleontology and is a wealth of information. The two others are an American IT worker turned volunteer in India and an Indian woman who gave up her American corporate job to volunteer to help rural Indians (darn do-gooder not getting paid). We are camping and staying in yurts with nomadic families. Mongolia is so interesting in that apart from the few towns, all land is public land and so 1.5 million Mongolians just roam around in their yurts and make camp where ever. There are 2.5 million Mongolians and 45 million livestock here and so most everyone grazes their animals and moves 3 or 4 times a year. There are almost no fences in this massive country and we just camp. Camping is better than yurts because the yurts house a lot of dried cheese and yogurt and so there are a lot of flies. Mongolia is also interesting after India and Nepal because everyone is so stocky from all of the dairy and meat. They may not be wealthy but they get a lot of calories. xoc

Yurt

Hello. Heading off onto the Mongolian Steppe in a jeep with our driver, a 25 year-old Mongolian female guide, and two other Americans. Be back with you in two weeks! xoc

Seoul to Ulaan Baatar

Seoul (a few million people live there) was so lovely and a bit like Bangkok or downtown LA. Maybe Kathmandu skewed my expectations, but Seoul was clean and quiet and everyone was so polite. For instance we stopped in one restaurant to ask directions to another restaurant and they picked up the phone and called to be sure to give us the correct information. What a totally livable city with great museums and a spic-n-span metro. And who doesn't love Korean food (BBQ and Bi Bim Bop anyone?)? Flying into Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia was a little nerve-raking because UB is supposed to be a bit wild west. Apparently the thieves specialize in pick-pocketing. A taxi from our hostel picked us up at the airport at midnight (thank goodness) and we sped through Soviet-era streets to our back alley hostel. After arming ourselves with our cut-proof bags and pepper spray we wandered out this morning and wow, it's a nice little city. We avoid loitering guys, of course, but it's a charming mix of Soviet buildings, a few modern building, and Mongolian-looking stuff (not the official review but you know what I mean). And Mongolians are really attractive people who dress to the 9s and so that's fun. The museums are also charming and lunch today cost us a grand total of $4.oo. Tomorrow we're off to see some Buddhist temples and then the next day.....off onto the great Mongolia Steppe in a Land Rover for 15 days of nomads, reindeer, ghers, and lots and lots of boiled mutton. Oh my. xoc

Time to blog

OK, so leaving Kathmandu was difficult. It's not that I'm that sad to leave, but of course I have great friends there. And what was even more poignant were the people who cried and it's not because they were so sad to see me go. Several people: Kamala my boss, the sales office coordinator, my guide friend Raj and our cook Kumar among them, were so visibly upset because someone leaving drives home that it's not them leaving. Life is Nepal is so difficult and the pressure is so intense that a reminder that they are not going to escape it is devastating. Kumar, a dignified and reserved man, managed to say through his tears that if he doesn't find a job soon he'll have to take his only son out of school. Kamala said that I was the only person to whom it was safe to discuss her problems. Nepal is a heartbreaker and to see strong people who have never wavered crack a little is a heartbreaker. Sigh. And Korean Air lifted us up and gave us warm towels to wash our hands of it. Update on Seoul tomorrow....xoc