Elusive Olgii
Getting to Olgii is no easy task either way you look at it. We couldn’t find a flight early enough so we’ve decided to fly to Khovd and take a jeep up to Olgii. After some shifting flight arrangements we board and have a smooth flight to Khovd and catch a junker taxi straight to the black market where you hire jeeps and vans. Getting seats in a van is no problem, but drivers don’t leave until the thing is packed to the brim with people and boxes. We sit from 10 to 4 watching the whole ride nogociating process take place. By the time we leave there are 15 people plus the driver and they have to add a roof rack for the baggage. They cram us in the back and we soon realize how thankful we are for not making the 3 day trip from U.B.
The scenery on the drive is incredible. The mountains are old and weathered, the dusty brown remnants of Central Asia’s tectonic past. The van doesn’t stop often but when it does we all pile out and enjoy the view around the small alpine lakes where swans and grey cranes swim. Nightfall seems to never come, the last glimmer of light clings to the horizon before us as we climb Buraatyn pass with ice forming on the windows to remind us how high we are.
We come into Olgii at half 11 and see no yurts, only the square cabin dwellings of the Muslim Kazakhs and roaming dogs of the night. Even though people are milling about in the city’s darkness, we decide to stay at the fight hotel we come to, the Dumas (думан), for the night.
Tags: Eurasia: Marco Polo-in' it, Mongolia
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