Got back to UB on a chilly sunday afternoon, desperate for a shower after two weeks in the countryside with no running water! Had been able to kind of wash in the stream near the camp, but with a permanent audience it obviously wasnt the most thorough of washes!!!
Was hoping for a day to rest and do bits and pieces but Helen had found 2 more travellers who were keen to head south to the Gobi on Monday morning. I had time for a long hot shower and a big stir fry veggie dinner. We did a massive shop at the State Department Store, stocking up on snack foods and pot noodles for emergency rations!
Our Russian built jeep was old and dull gun metal gray but proved to be sturdy in the extreme. On our last day of travel we came across a similar van on its' side in the middle of the "road", its folorn Japanese passengers standing around pulling out all their luggage. With 10 of us pushing we were able to right it again, a few dings and a bent wing window seemed to be the worst of the damage. Those Russians know how to build things!
But that's the end of the trip. Back to the beginning! My fellow travellers were Helen from Amsterdam, Alex and Tara old boarding school buddies from England and Tom our young chatterbox token male from England/Wales. Happily we all got on really well the whole time and we never lacked for interesting conversation. Mongolia is the kind of place where most people who come here have been almost everywhere else already. I feel like such a novice traveller, having only "done" Europe, although admittedly I have travelled it fairly thoroughly, but I've no interesting stories of Asia and other such "exotic" countries. Ah the inspiration continues!!!!

Our trip was for 7 days, the first 2 days were fairly solid driving, the relatively smooth paved road was to be ours for only a brief period, ever fainter dirt tracks for the rest. At times it seemed as though Mima, our ever capable, unflapable driver, was just making a road where he felt like it, stopping at every ger to sqat down with the locals and draw lines in the dirt. The landscape became drier and sparser also, although always with a faint haze of green over the rocky ground. Our journey was always scented by the plants fuzzing the steppes, camomile and thyme one day, mini chives for another, purple asters towards the end. A desert seems to never be just sand but infact supporting an amazingly rich ecosystem.
Along the way we stopped at some pink and white cliffs that rose suddenly from the landscape. The sign to a tourist ger and showers that pointed directly over the side of the cliff presumably a sample of local sense of humour! I constantly needed to put a person, the jeep or try to spot a distant ger somewhere in order to put things into persepective so endlessly vast was the landscape. Maybe once an hour or so we would pass a ger or so, a tiny white dot with a brown stick sprouting from the top (the chimney), maybe with a satelite dish and solar panel out front.
Mongolia is a fascinating contrast of worlds. Gers with satelite dishes, ladies in traditional colourful silk dels (ankle length overcoat/kimono like affair, very beautiful) with wraparound sunnies and a mobile phone.
There was a massive economic crisis in Mongolia in the early 1990's when the Soviets pulled out. Food shortages and unemployment were a huge problem to say the least. A lot of people lef the city and moved back to their traditional nomadic lifestyle in the countryside, where, with their huge herd of sheep and cashmere goats they were able to support themselves. Even now 45% of the population are considered nomads, moving at least twice a year in search of good pastures. There's not too many places in the world like that these days!
Hiking in a hidden green gorge, camel riding (here they have the two humped Bactrian camels, ugly critters) to massive 800m high sand dunes, climbing said sand dunes, sunset at the Flaming Red Cliffs (a suitable name) where the first dinosaur eggs were found, Buddhist temples in the middle of nowhere, more eagles, kites, buzzards and falcons than you can possibly count, moon rises of stupendous colour, star crowded skies and a blazing milky way, playing with our host families kids, mountaintop sunsets. It was all just too wonderful for words. And the quiet and stillness. I had forgotten how much I loved that in the desert.
Suffice to say had an excellent time. Am now back in UB, bumming around, doing lots of shopping. Have sorted out Chinese visa and got a train ticket for Friday morning, with absolutely no hassles which was a relief given all the panic stories I'd heard everywhere. Might be going on a hike tomorrow to a mountain monastery.