Heading North
When I arrived in Beijing three weeks prior a stiff wind had cleared the blanket of smog and dust that often drapes over the capital. When I left today the grit was so thick the buildings took no time to fade off into the distance. This is a good time to leave. We drive north, out past the perfectly mortared towers of the Great Wall at Badaling, past the craggy mountains in which it sits, and out onto the flat plain of Inner Mongolia.
The bus is typical of Chinese sleepers: cramped, dirty, smokey, and today packed to the ceilings with the shopping bags of the Mongolians on supply runs to China. I wake up at 1am and the first thing I see out the window is the Milky Way, a good start. We’ve finally left the smog and dust and are in the “big sky country” of Asia.
When the bus comes into the Chinese border town of Erlian at 4am a swarm of determined taxi drivers and hotel owners descend on me like a fresh kill. Disoriented, a young Mongolian women behind me offers to assist by saying, “excuse me, can you help me?” I know what she means. Her two friends and her have a quick chat and I guess they decide that I look harmless enough. We all pile into a mini bus and we’re off to a small hotel for 10RMB a night. Not bad.
After some awkward attempts at communication, Bidemar, the huskiest of this group of huskies asks “do you speak Chinese…no, do you speak French…no. I speak Spanish and Japanese.” When we woke up this morning Agie had finally built up enough courage to try out her Japanese on me and our communication has been smooth sailing ever since. Apparently they’re already making plans for us all to go see a big Buddha in Ulaan Bataar and we’re meeting for lunch in a few hours before it’s off to the barren wasteland. Stay tuned.
Tags: Eurasia: Marco Polo-in' it, Mongolia
Administrator
Good to see you’re doing well, Dan. Good luck in Mongolia and on into Russia next I guess, eh?