Yesterday standing outside the Uzbekistan embassy, a fantastic opportunity came up, and I had to admit that SOME good comes out of visa applications. In Kazakhstan in the hell that was trying to get a Chinese visa (for Liam) during the Olympics, (or rather trying to get into the Chinese embassy to get a Chinese visa during the Olympics... which proved just as impossible), we made friends with a very nice Australian/British couple who are cycling from London to Australia, and met up with them lots while in Almaty for coffee, drinks, dinner, and chats.
The man I talked to outside the Uzbek embassy was from Afghanistan, but he and his entire family had lived in diverse places like Germany, India, and Australia for over 15 years. He himself lived in Germany for 9 years, and Kyrgyzstan for the last 4, and hopes to go to Australia. I'm not exactly sure what relation he was to the bride and groom (presumably groom, as the groom was Afghan), but he was in the closer circle of the few hundred people at the wedding and just randomly invited me as we chatted outside the embassy. I mentioned that I had 2 friends, and so he invited them too!
Zaymai picked us up at 5, and then we drove around "looking for the wedding". Since we got to the stan's, and even in Olgii in Mongolia, we have seen a ridiculous amount of weddings, it is obviously the season for this sort of thing (wouldn't fancy a winter wedding in this neck of the woods!). Weddings are especially conspicuous cause people drive around town in a big chain of cars decorated with colourful streamers, balloons, flowers etc, honking their horns alot!
Zalmai didn't know where the wedding was ... at that moment... it turned out it hadn't started yet, we drove out to the Turkish district a bit out of town and joined the wedding from the beginning. At first we loaded into a mini an with our own travelling band, playing loud beaty Turkish music with some kind of flutey horny thing, and a drum...we arrived at the grooms house drank some vodka outside, and nibbled on some food laid outside the door, and then out came the groom and everyone started dancing outside the door (at this point the party was maybe 15 people including us).... then we walked down the road and women from the brides family, including her mother were walking to meet us and dancing along the road .... all the while the band was playing and walking... and we all walked behind... back to the brides home... I think we seemed to pick up a few people as we went too, as by the time the bride came out of her house, we were about 10 cars loads... one of which was a limo, the rest followed behind, honking and yelling all the way back into town...
we went to a park for photos, and then the band started playing again and the women of the brides family started doing a dance...fingers linked and kind of going round in a circle... then the men started dancing, and my, they were AMAZING! (blushes) ;)
Randomly we stopped again, danced again, and they pulled a briefcase of flat fried bread and a whole chicken from the limo which was shared around, everyone getting a small bit of chicken and bread... tried to find out the meaning of the tradition... something to do with a good marriage.. ? ! :).
By this stage Lenore and I had been pulled up for a women's dance, liam and I randomly got made to dance around too (I was having a laugh cause they pulled Liam up to dance on his own and the next thing I know I'm pushed in myself!... Thank goodness Zalmai and his girlfriend came and danced with us too!).
Then Liam had a bit of a dance off with this guy whose name was told to me but I;ve forgotten... anyway this guy was definitely cool! He was a fantastic dancer and had been dancing since about 5:30, full on leaping around and jigging it to the band when we were waiting for the groom and walking around the neighbourhood even no one else was dancing!
Liam did a pretty good job too :)....
Anyway, by this stage our uncertainly about whether there would be alcohol at the wedding (being Muslims) had been answered, the vodka shots were flowing and when we arrived at the brides home again it was packed with around 200+ people sitting at long tressle tables in a tent in the backyard. The tables were covered in food and strategically placed bottles of soft drink and vodka... The food we were informed, was not dinner though.... (salami, cheese, bread, fruit, sweets, biscuits, chicken)...
There was a stage in the middle of the tables and people danced alot... when the women danced people came up and put money in their hands which was all put into a suitcase at the end of each song... presumably to give to the happy couple... who did not dance at all while we were there (we had to leave at midnight... but the party was just getting started then!)
When the bride and groom came out they enacted some kind of story, the bride had a big veil on and wouldn't remove it, and acted all upset and made crying gestures, and the groom did this dance with knives around her... then all these people came up and gave money and when there was enough money she took off her veil, but then she stood there while people danced around her and more money flowed in (given to the dancers) and eventually they went together to the special table on the stage for them... with a huge cake, but it looked lonely up there to me!
All in all it was an amazing experience... The music was Loud, 'BIG', Turkish sounding, and all live (more musicians now, and keyboards and singers too... the dancing was cool, I felt very privileged to share the experience! In the end we got up on stage and said a few words in the microphone and the we had to dance, but the music they put on for us was this wierd pop, and I had no idea how to dance to it, (couldn't do the whole pseudo turkish dance we did before!)... after a few awkward minutes we were joined by some of the younger crowd... phew! (you feel very exposed up there on the stage!)
We left at 12 as our guest house had a curfew (of 12), which we were late for, oops, but the party was just getting rolling... the Plov had only come out at 11:30 and it was delicious, as was the beautifully spiced meat soup we had at around 10:30-11... It had been cooking since 5:30 when I saw they lady putting the meat into four huge (and I mean huge) woks, each with it's own fireplace beneath it. They killed four goats so I presume one wok, one goat!
Zalmai was beyond driving (shooting 40% vodka does that to you, needed the soft drink chasers for these!), and we asked to get a taxi, but the family got a guest who was a taxi driver to drive us home as a favour, which we paid for, but it was a very nice thing to do as he had to come all the way back afterwards. Probably for this reason, he hadn't been drinking (much at least), which I was gald of, as I was starting to wonder how Zalmai was going to drive us home!
So yeah, that was my awesome, bizarre party evening last night at an Afghan-Turkish wedding in Kyrgyzstan (although I suspect it was more Turkish as the brides family organised the wedding but Zalmai said many traditions overlapped).
Friday, August 15, 2008
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Kazakhstan
I write now from Bishkek, the capital of Kyrzgystan... where I most relied to be, and not in Kazakhstan anymore... where we didn't have good luck at all. It is harsh to blame it on the country itself (well entirely on the country itself)... some things just happen, but many experiences of Kazakhstan were intensly frustrating.
I, (and only half in jest), commented one day, that you would not want to be suicidal in Kazakhstan, as trying to get through just about any 'process' at all, would have you reaching for your knife before you a) reach the front of the queue, or b) never reach the front of the queue.
So I guess story number one is how we arrived in kazakhstan... for 7 days prior to our flight out of Mongolia, Lenore had been mentioning a pain in her side, first as an abdominal sort of gassey pain, (at this point Liam and I both sugested appendicitis as a possibility and suggested the doctor as we happened to be in a town... but she refused, being a stubborn bearer of pain... and so we left twon for the remote Altai region that borders Russia and China)... and later the pain beacem stabbing, and when we got back from climbing mountains in super remote areas, she visited the hospital in Olgii.
They ultra sounded her, and said it's appendicitis, lets operate now! The hospital was less sanitary than standard dorm rooms around here, and a little hysterically, Lenore laughed and said, can it wait 2 days?
Our visa's expired the next day, and we had flights to Ust Kamenogorsk aka Oskemon the next day too. In hind sight it was a bit irresponsible, despite legal issues of staying in the country. The doctors looked at her like she was crazy, and prescribed some super strong anti inflammatory antibiotics, which she had to have injected (by Liam) in her bum every 8 hours. Then we flew to Kazakstan, and not getting onwards flights the following day, Liam and Lenore waited another 24 hours for a flight from Oskemon to Almaty....
At this point, lenore is so much pain she can barely walk, (I was stuck in Ust Kamenogorsk for a few days waiting for a bus), we were extremely worried!
Liam and Lenore went directly from the airport to International SOS, a private international standards clinic, and the night doctor diagnosed her with appendicitis, called in the English speaking doctor Dr Heinrich, from South Africa, who said yep, it's definitly appendicitis, who makes her an appoitntment at the hospital for a surgical consult. After 3 medical diagnoses (and our own internet/no experience diagnosis) , the surgeon comes in, finds out she was in Mongolia, did you eat meat?, you've got an intestinal infection and travellors diarrhoea, and gives her some medication and sends her home!
Surprise surprise, the next day the diarrhoea is gone, but the stabbin pain in the side hasn't. Dr Heinrich calls and finds out, and rings another hospital, around 24 hours after Liam and Lenore saw him last. The surgeon in the next hospital gets right on the case and within half and hour she's on the operating table! By this stage it has been 10 days on her saying she ahd a pain... yesterday we met someone whose friend's appendix burst after less than 48 hours of noticing pain.... She was very very VERY lucky! ( OK, so maybe Kazakhstan was a lucky place?? )
Yeah... so meanwhile, the next 10 days we spend in Almaty.... meeting people with stories to tell (and there ALOT of those stories here... passports stolen, passports melting (both these people have had to end their trip and go home :(!), people denied exit from the country at the last minute at the airport due to the lack of a stamp (wouldv'e happened to us too...), people trying to get through China on a bike before winter, but being denied entry to the Chinese embassy let alone get a visa and cross the borders which are allegedly closed... (alot of frustration stories reoled arount eh Chinese border actually, or the russian border, or... : ) )
So we sit around in the only cheap place to stay in town, the 4th floor of a Univerisity dorm, which is sort of a hotel... and complain, and subsist on kebabs and self cater cause Almaty is so expensive, and WAIT (everyone was waiting for something, and everyone wanted to leave!)!
I have more to write about Kazakhstan, but right now I'm off for lunch!
I, (and only half in jest), commented one day, that you would not want to be suicidal in Kazakhstan, as trying to get through just about any 'process' at all, would have you reaching for your knife before you a) reach the front of the queue, or b) never reach the front of the queue.
So I guess story number one is how we arrived in kazakhstan... for 7 days prior to our flight out of Mongolia, Lenore had been mentioning a pain in her side, first as an abdominal sort of gassey pain, (at this point Liam and I both sugested appendicitis as a possibility and suggested the doctor as we happened to be in a town... but she refused, being a stubborn bearer of pain... and so we left twon for the remote Altai region that borders Russia and China)... and later the pain beacem stabbing, and when we got back from climbing mountains in super remote areas, she visited the hospital in Olgii.
They ultra sounded her, and said it's appendicitis, lets operate now! The hospital was less sanitary than standard dorm rooms around here, and a little hysterically, Lenore laughed and said, can it wait 2 days?
Our visa's expired the next day, and we had flights to Ust Kamenogorsk aka Oskemon the next day too. In hind sight it was a bit irresponsible, despite legal issues of staying in the country. The doctors looked at her like she was crazy, and prescribed some super strong anti inflammatory antibiotics, which she had to have injected (by Liam) in her bum every 8 hours. Then we flew to Kazakstan, and not getting onwards flights the following day, Liam and Lenore waited another 24 hours for a flight from Oskemon to Almaty....
At this point, lenore is so much pain she can barely walk, (I was stuck in Ust Kamenogorsk for a few days waiting for a bus), we were extremely worried!
Liam and Lenore went directly from the airport to International SOS, a private international standards clinic, and the night doctor diagnosed her with appendicitis, called in the English speaking doctor Dr Heinrich, from South Africa, who said yep, it's definitly appendicitis, who makes her an appoitntment at the hospital for a surgical consult. After 3 medical diagnoses (and our own internet/no experience diagnosis) , the surgeon comes in, finds out she was in Mongolia, did you eat meat?, you've got an intestinal infection and travellors diarrhoea, and gives her some medication and sends her home!
Surprise surprise, the next day the diarrhoea is gone, but the stabbin pain in the side hasn't. Dr Heinrich calls and finds out, and rings another hospital, around 24 hours after Liam and Lenore saw him last. The surgeon in the next hospital gets right on the case and within half and hour she's on the operating table! By this stage it has been 10 days on her saying she ahd a pain... yesterday we met someone whose friend's appendix burst after less than 48 hours of noticing pain.... She was very very VERY lucky! ( OK, so maybe Kazakhstan was a lucky place?? )
Yeah... so meanwhile, the next 10 days we spend in Almaty.... meeting people with stories to tell (and there ALOT of those stories here... passports stolen, passports melting (both these people have had to end their trip and go home :(!), people denied exit from the country at the last minute at the airport due to the lack of a stamp (wouldv'e happened to us too...), people trying to get through China on a bike before winter, but being denied entry to the Chinese embassy let alone get a visa and cross the borders which are allegedly closed... (alot of frustration stories reoled arount eh Chinese border actually, or the russian border, or... : ) )
So we sit around in the only cheap place to stay in town, the 4th floor of a Univerisity dorm, which is sort of a hotel... and complain, and subsist on kebabs and self cater cause Almaty is so expensive, and WAIT (everyone was waiting for something, and everyone wanted to leave!)!
I have more to write about Kazakhstan, but right now I'm off for lunch!
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Mongolia!!!!!! Part 3!
By this stage I am up to writing... more amazing scenery out the window, more eagles, more camels, more desert plains, more alpine valleys, more green steppe, more nights camped under the stars, more bowls of tuna and pasta for dinner.... :) The trip continued to be very cool as we journeyed across the North!
New developements included flat tyres, salt lakes, sand dunes and a few meals in Guanz (small restaurants) where we got Tsuivan- fried dough and meat,or meat with rice and mabe a fried egg.
Oh yeah and there were the wolves... :). One night our drier pointed off into the sand dunes and made woo woo wooooo wolf noises, that night I woke up and I could hear wolves howling in the (hopefully) distance! I heard then quite a lot at night for the second half of the trip!
We stopped at Uvs Nuur which was cool- an enormous salty lake (looks like the sea as you can't really see the other side), which is 5 time saltier than the ocean. It was hot and we were in the desert, and swimming was irresistable! Lenore and I had walked a bit from the an, and didn't have our things with us, but just went in in tops and undies, possibly scaring off Michael, (our 4ths person in the van, who seems to have issues with the female form), by the time we'd laid around and had lunch our clothes were dry anyway! That was a fun afternoon!
Then we stayed with a family in a mountain valley (Turgen Uul) in their Ger for two nights, as it was chilly at night in that area and uncomfortable sitting around in the evening outside. The family told us they only stay in the valley in summer, and even then, at night I had my long johns, merino wool layers and beanie on!
Gers are amazingly insulated- something to do with thick layers of felt I think! We did a day hike up to see a glacier and get a view of the mountains, which was fun, but we took a hard route up this hill covered in scree, which was not easy walking! the return journey in the bottom of the valley took 1-2 hours, whereas going there took maybe 5!
This family was really lovely, and they especially warmed to us after I gave the kids textas and colouring in books. We got to try camel yoghurt, (even though they were goat herders, they somehow had camel yoghurt), which was really really nice! I took loads of photos, the boys especialy were showing off on their horses and promised to post them some, must do that soon!
On the way from this valley to Olgii, the main centre of west Mongolia, we had an interesting river experience. Some rain earlier and snow on the hills had made all the streams full of water, and we'd had a few hairy crossings but the most show stopping was when we got to a river that went over the road. It was clearly the only place for miles to cross, as there was a bit of a bank up of traffic waiting at this spot to cross ( a few cars a two trucks). The trucks had a long wait on their hands I'd say, as the river was full and flowing fast, and the snow'd keep melting for days...
We wouldn't have made it if an enterprising local with a tractor hadn't been there monooplising the river crossing business! He towed us across, which was ScAREY, you could feel the water pushing us around and it was coming in the doors! We made it, and the engine still started, but the next jeep across in oposite direction was not so lucky, they had like 15 people in a 5 seater jeep, and got stuck on a rock in the middle, I suspect it was the jeep drivers fault, he seemed a little drunk! There would have been lots of water in their car!
The final bit of Mongolia was our excursion to the Altai National Park, which 'straddles' the border with both China and Russia :) . (I like the word straddle... it has a kind of cool sound).
It was very much sound of musicness there, green valleys and hills, snowy peaks- which were just beautiful...we did an overnight hike to the base camp of Tavan Bogd, and hiked to the Russian border, to get a cool view of the Altai peaks of the Russian side... and on our way back to Olgii we stopped at a Kazakh family ger for the night. They were also amazingly friendly and made us beshbamak- a kazakh dish of meat and pasta sheets which was delicious.
The western region of Mongolia is mainly Kazakh and Olgii was very different to other towns we went through. The people dressed more like central Asia- head scares, and felt fez-like hats for the men, and the Ger's are decorated with the most beautiful embroidered wall hangings and felt carptets. This area is more traditional-Kazakh than Kazakhstan, where nomadism was stamped out by Stalin.
yeah, the ending of Mongolia you know from the Appednicitis post, we evacutaed with a medical emergency!
New developements included flat tyres, salt lakes, sand dunes and a few meals in Guanz (small restaurants) where we got Tsuivan- fried dough and meat,or meat with rice and mabe a fried egg.
Oh yeah and there were the wolves... :). One night our drier pointed off into the sand dunes and made woo woo wooooo wolf noises, that night I woke up and I could hear wolves howling in the (hopefully) distance! I heard then quite a lot at night for the second half of the trip!
We stopped at Uvs Nuur which was cool- an enormous salty lake (looks like the sea as you can't really see the other side), which is 5 time saltier than the ocean. It was hot and we were in the desert, and swimming was irresistable! Lenore and I had walked a bit from the an, and didn't have our things with us, but just went in in tops and undies, possibly scaring off Michael, (our 4ths person in the van, who seems to have issues with the female form), by the time we'd laid around and had lunch our clothes were dry anyway! That was a fun afternoon!
Then we stayed with a family in a mountain valley (Turgen Uul) in their Ger for two nights, as it was chilly at night in that area and uncomfortable sitting around in the evening outside. The family told us they only stay in the valley in summer, and even then, at night I had my long johns, merino wool layers and beanie on!
Gers are amazingly insulated- something to do with thick layers of felt I think! We did a day hike up to see a glacier and get a view of the mountains, which was fun, but we took a hard route up this hill covered in scree, which was not easy walking! the return journey in the bottom of the valley took 1-2 hours, whereas going there took maybe 5!
This family was really lovely, and they especially warmed to us after I gave the kids textas and colouring in books. We got to try camel yoghurt, (even though they were goat herders, they somehow had camel yoghurt), which was really really nice! I took loads of photos, the boys especialy were showing off on their horses and promised to post them some, must do that soon!
On the way from this valley to Olgii, the main centre of west Mongolia, we had an interesting river experience. Some rain earlier and snow on the hills had made all the streams full of water, and we'd had a few hairy crossings but the most show stopping was when we got to a river that went over the road. It was clearly the only place for miles to cross, as there was a bit of a bank up of traffic waiting at this spot to cross ( a few cars a two trucks). The trucks had a long wait on their hands I'd say, as the river was full and flowing fast, and the snow'd keep melting for days...
We wouldn't have made it if an enterprising local with a tractor hadn't been there monooplising the river crossing business! He towed us across, which was ScAREY, you could feel the water pushing us around and it was coming in the doors! We made it, and the engine still started, but the next jeep across in oposite direction was not so lucky, they had like 15 people in a 5 seater jeep, and got stuck on a rock in the middle, I suspect it was the jeep drivers fault, he seemed a little drunk! There would have been lots of water in their car!
The final bit of Mongolia was our excursion to the Altai National Park, which 'straddles' the border with both China and Russia :) . (I like the word straddle... it has a kind of cool sound).
It was very much sound of musicness there, green valleys and hills, snowy peaks- which were just beautiful...we did an overnight hike to the base camp of Tavan Bogd, and hiked to the Russian border, to get a cool view of the Altai peaks of the Russian side... and on our way back to Olgii we stopped at a Kazakh family ger for the night. They were also amazingly friendly and made us beshbamak- a kazakh dish of meat and pasta sheets which was delicious.
The western region of Mongolia is mainly Kazakh and Olgii was very different to other towns we went through. The people dressed more like central Asia- head scares, and felt fez-like hats for the men, and the Ger's are decorated with the most beautiful embroidered wall hangings and felt carptets. This area is more traditional-Kazakh than Kazakhstan, where nomadism was stamped out by Stalin.
yeah, the ending of Mongolia you know from the Appednicitis post, we evacutaed with a medical emergency!
Mongolia!!!!!!!!!! Part 2
Highlights Part 2!
The Hike through the 8 Lakes region (Naim Nuur)
We got to this region, and spent half a day wandering around the fields and hills around the Ger camp we slept at. Then we had a 4 day hike, (though it wasn't really 4 full days of walking), across these hills and terrain, that our driver couldn't go across, and he met us on the other side 4 days later.
This was our first experience of Airag... it all came about when shortly after we started walking we were hit by rain. Baga, our guide (who had a pack horse too- convenient!), took us into the first Ger we past to shelter and they served us tea and Airag! We had only been walking less than an hour and already we're drinking!
We left this Ger after a while, although the rain started to get heavier as soon as we left! Then it turned into Hail! We walked for about half an hour to an hour in the hail, getting very cold and wet, and then as soon as we got to another Ger all went inside looking very miserable. These people let us take off our saturated clothing and hang them near the stove, and we put on Dels- traditional Mongolian coats. We drank tea, had cheese and more Airag... and hung around for quite a while waiting for the hail to clear... which it eventually did!
The next Ger we came to we had to stop at because for some reason the horse was limping and Baga wanted to stop... so in we all piled to Ger number three and pretty soon we were being offered MORE Airag... we started to joke that it wasn't really a hike we were on, m0re like a Ger crawl!!!
Finally we got walking, over the hills which had snow on top, and down into a gorgeous valley, with the sun shining and a big blue lake surrounded by pine trees!
The second day was pretty much walking through these nice valleys, though the flies were awful! In the evening we stayed up late by the campfire, which was pretty nice. Baga was feeling unwell so we stopped quite early, near some Gers, although we decided to walk away and make our camp some distance from the Gers, while Baga got some TLC inside.
The third day we walked a long way, maybe 25k's who knows, by the time we made it we were running out of water so we asked to camp near a ger so we could drink tea from them. hey offered to make us dinner for a small price, and we agreed not realising that what we had agreed to was MARMOT!!!!!!!! Ai ai! Blowtorched Marmot is a summer speciality in Mongolia and everywhere you could see marmots running around from the van. It was not very nice in my opinion though Lenore and Liam managed to eat most of theirs, I couldn't really stomach mine, and mainly ate rice! The family were all drunk before we even arrived, I went to bed before we could get offered Airag! An drunken elderly man was making advances on me, all in all that family was a little strange compared to other families we visited...
The region was very green and pretty, we didn't see all the lakes, about 4 of them I think!
More Highlights
The Hike through the 8 Lakes region (Naim Nuur)
We got to this region, and spent half a day wandering around the fields and hills around the Ger camp we slept at. Then we had a 4 day hike, (though it wasn't really 4 full days of walking), across these hills and terrain, that our driver couldn't go across, and he met us on the other side 4 days later.
This was our first experience of Airag... it all came about when shortly after we started walking we were hit by rain. Baga, our guide (who had a pack horse too- convenient!), took us into the first Ger we past to shelter and they served us tea and Airag! We had only been walking less than an hour and already we're drinking!
We left this Ger after a while, although the rain started to get heavier as soon as we left! Then it turned into Hail! We walked for about half an hour to an hour in the hail, getting very cold and wet, and then as soon as we got to another Ger all went inside looking very miserable. These people let us take off our saturated clothing and hang them near the stove, and we put on Dels- traditional Mongolian coats. We drank tea, had cheese and more Airag... and hung around for quite a while waiting for the hail to clear... which it eventually did!
The next Ger we came to we had to stop at because for some reason the horse was limping and Baga wanted to stop... so in we all piled to Ger number three and pretty soon we were being offered MORE Airag... we started to joke that it wasn't really a hike we were on, m0re like a Ger crawl!!!
Finally we got walking, over the hills which had snow on top, and down into a gorgeous valley, with the sun shining and a big blue lake surrounded by pine trees!
The second day was pretty much walking through these nice valleys, though the flies were awful! In the evening we stayed up late by the campfire, which was pretty nice. Baga was feeling unwell so we stopped quite early, near some Gers, although we decided to walk away and make our camp some distance from the Gers, while Baga got some TLC inside.
The third day we walked a long way, maybe 25k's who knows, by the time we made it we were running out of water so we asked to camp near a ger so we could drink tea from them. hey offered to make us dinner for a small price, and we agreed not realising that what we had agreed to was MARMOT!!!!!!!! Ai ai! Blowtorched Marmot is a summer speciality in Mongolia and everywhere you could see marmots running around from the van. It was not very nice in my opinion though Lenore and Liam managed to eat most of theirs, I couldn't really stomach mine, and mainly ate rice! The family were all drunk before we even arrived, I went to bed before we could get offered Airag! An drunken elderly man was making advances on me, all in all that family was a little strange compared to other families we visited...
The region was very green and pretty, we didn't see all the lakes, about 4 of them I think!
More Highlights
- Stopping in a town called Tseterleg and having a shower, and eating an English breakfast with bacon, sausage, eggs, bread and jam and pancakes in an English run cafe there. That was a special treat. We also stocked up on Cornish Pasties for the day, and cinnamon scrolls! Luxury!
- Terkhun Tsagaan Nuur: A huge lake in a national park, we spent two nights here. It was warm enough to swim in the lake, and we also went on a horseride to a volcanic crator. Terrain was pretty cool, rocks everywhere probably from the last time the volcano blew up!
Mongolia!!!!!!!!
So I didn't get much internet access in Mongolia (where I was from 2nd July- 31st July) but I did make some journal notes while I was away, which I now have time to write up a bit.. :)
Mongolia was, overall, amazing- we spent 26 days traversing the country in a Russian supervan, with a Mongolian driver who spoke no English, but did an excellent job taking us around. We, thankfully, weren't driving every day, and some days didn't have much driving to do, but we ended up covering over 2000km, on mostly dirt tracks (I'd say less than 80km was on bitumen!), from Ulaanbator, south through the Gobi, then north west up to the top of Mongolia, then south again to Olgii and over to the Altai region.
Highlights: Part One, the Southern section!
Mongolia was, overall, amazing- we spent 26 days traversing the country in a Russian supervan, with a Mongolian driver who spoke no English, but did an excellent job taking us around. We, thankfully, weren't driving every day, and some days didn't have much driving to do, but we ended up covering over 2000km, on mostly dirt tracks (I'd say less than 80km was on bitumen!), from Ulaanbator, south through the Gobi, then north west up to the top of Mongolia, then south again to Olgii and over to the Altai region.
Highlights: Part One, the Southern section!
- 5/7/2008 Day One (after leaving Ulaan Bator): basically everything was exciting this day! The Sheep looked funny and had fat tails :), we saw lots of beautiful demoiselle crane (something I wasn't expexcting to see in Mongolia...but I don't know why as we saw cranes all over!), Gers were still somewhat of a novelty to see on the steppes but we quickly got used to them!, In the evening after we set up camp we experienced a brief but heavy rain storn, and a brief but heavy dust storm, both of which my virgin tent survived, though the wind did rather flatten it!
- Camels! (first spotted on the 6th) and then many times over, in many places on the trip.
- Visiting our driver, Amara,'s home and staying with his family. They made us feel very welcome, and we had our first of many drinking experiences- bowls (not shots!) of vodka were passed around! Later drinking experiences we weren'[t so lucky to get vodka, the alcohol of choice is Airag, which we saw them distilling in one of the Gers we stopped at. Airag is made from fermented horse milk, some of it was alright, and even a bit fruity, some of it was downright awful! Anwway I was very happy that night at Amara's house!
- Gobi desert, we went to the Upper part of the desert which still had a lot of life in it! Heaps of birds, and livestock, we stayed one night in a friend of Amara's Ger which was our first Ger experience and very fun. The colours of the desert were amazing- in one part there was an eroded ancient sea that made cool white cliffs and coloured sands in the desert!
- Gazelles (7/7)!!!!!!! Running fast! In the Gobi desert.
- Being served yoghurt in the Gers. When we arrived at a Ger we'd be given milky tea, cheese (very sharp and crumbly, and a bit sour, generally goats cheese but it all depended on what animals that family kept), this fried dough stuff that you dip in the tea, and either yoghurt or the butter/cream off the top of the milk. I liked the yogurt the best of the dairy products, the cheese was a bit of an aquired taste! ... we got to try Koormog- camel yoghurt one time and it was deliciou, the nicest yoghurt of them all!
- Nadaam festival, which we saw in a tiny town we passed through- we didn't see the whole thing, but watched the wrestling competition. ha ha, very cool! First the young boys wrestled, and then came the big shot.... dressed up in fancy red and blue knickers and waist coats (taht expose their chests to verify they are not women!)... they danced their way into the field waving their arms like birds. They don't have weight categories, so the wrestles were rather like david and goliath, as the challengers had to wrestle last years' champions.... The champions were huge and won all the matches we watched, some of the challengers looked positively scrawny in comparison but were actually quite beefy men.... Sumo wrestling is very popular in Mongolia and I now can see why they are good at it!
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