Day 8 (Sat., Oct. 31): Mongolian Tricks and Treats A sample of a pretty standard Mongolian music video, i.e. what you watch on state busses for hours on end as disco-lights make it all the more exciting, as we had done the day before: I had a nice sleep-in kind of morning our last [...]
Archive for the ‘Mongolia (Fall)’ Category
Week 8: Mongolia, Days 8-10
Posted: November 12, 2009 in Mongolia (Fall)Tags: datsan, Italian restaurants, Mongolian Smithsonian, museum, passport control, Texan restaurants, the French, toys and puzzles
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Week 8: Mongolia, Home-stay 3
Posted: November 8, 2009 in Mongolia (Fall)Tags: camels, cold, horses, host fam, kids, Mongolian language, Monty Python, panic, party bus, Paul & Mary, Peter, public transportation
Day 6-7 (Wed.-Thurs., Oct. 29-30): Getting out of dodge Family life. Our third family consisted of the mom and dad, an older son or two who weren’t around most of the time, assumably tending the livestock, a five-year-old son, a nineteen-year-old son, and an older daughter. The mom was really nice and friendly, and insisted [...]
Week 8: Mongolia, Home-stay 2
Posted: November 7, 2009 in Mongolia (Fall)Tags: Bulgan Province, carpool, dairy products, ger, horses, host fam, long horse rides, Mongolian language, трудность, Queen Manduhai, Swan Lake
Day 5-6 (Wed.-Thurs., Oct. 28-29): Wandering and wondering Last place. On our horse-ride from ger one to two, my horse turned out to be the stubborn one. I’m blaming it on the fact that the father (who was leading Romany’s horse next to his the whole way) and son both had leather whips and the [...]
Week 8: Mongolia, Home-stay 1
Posted: November 7, 2009 in Mongolia (Fall)Tags: Bulgan Province, cold, culture shock, dairy products, food, horses, jumping-jacks, matches, Mongolian language, motorcycles, nomads
Day 4-5 (Tues.-Wed., Oct. 27-28): Out on the Mongolian steppe Nomad hospitality. A mentally tumultuous hour after our arrival in Sansar, Bulgan Province, we were received into our first ger. Climbing out of the jeep with our stuff, the mother and daughter, having come out to greet us, helped us get our stuff inside the [...]
Week 8: Mongolia, Day 4
Posted: November 6, 2009 in Mongolia (Fall)Tags: Bulgan Province, bus travel, culture shock, friends, headwear, Mongolian language, трудность, potholeless roads, Sansar
Day 4 (Tues., Oct. 27): But. . . there was no lady with a cap. . . I consider myself someone who’s ok just “going with it,” “easygoing” as it were. But, when in a country, of which you don’t speak the language, when you find yourself half-stranded at a bus stop in a town [...]
Week 8: Mongolia, Day 3
Posted: November 4, 2009 in Mongolia (Fall)Tags: Asia, black market, culture shock, currency rates, Ger-to-Ger, helpful people, Mongolia, shopping, Ulaan Baatar
Day 3 (Mon., Oct. 26): Dollarpower Dundundundun, dundundundunDUNdun–Downtown. Multiple people had recommended going to the black market in Ulaan Baatar, despite the long walk there and the so-called best pickpockets in the world that hang out waiting for unknowing tourists. Stopping at the post office along the way to pick up postcards with the famous [...]
Week 8: Mongolia, Day 2
Posted: November 3, 2009 in Mongolia (Fall)Tags: datsan, food, German Opera, monastery, Mongolia, museum, pizza & coke, survival, The English, train
Day 2 (Sun., Oct. 25): 22 steps to a [pick-your-adjective] day in UB City 1. Know that UB City is the somewhat gangsta’ name for Ulaan Baator so that you can feel hip and cool in conversations about the capital of Mongolia. Facts: 1.5 million people of Mongolia’s 2.5 million population live in UB. UB [...]
Week 8: Mongolia, Night 0.5 and Day 1
Posted: November 2, 2009 in Mongolia (Fall)Tags: 350.org, Canadians, fellow foreigners, food, Mongolia, museum, Naushki, packing, passport control, rest, sugar, train
The saga of my trip with Romany to not-Russia, almost-Far-East Asia begins. To sum it up, and in honor of Asia, I’ll even compose a little haiku (with full knowledge that the haiku is, in fact, not a Mongolian poetry form). Train across the steppe. UB. Camels. Really far. Russia seems better. Publishable almost, right? [...]
