The K23 arrived in Ulaanbaatar on a powerfully sunny day and after dragging our bags from the train compartment we said our goodbyes to new friends and trudged through puddles of water and mud fueled by recent storms, onward toward the LG Hostel. The over 40 crowd in Mongolia speaks Russian owing to the Soviet influence, which makes communication somewhat easier for us than in China, though we probably speak just enough pa ruski to be dangerous. (At one point later in the day, I was at the market with E and a drunk man kept trailing us, lifting up vegetables and then telling me not to take photos. I argued with him and told him to go away but still left feeling queasy).
We got lost walking toward the LG Hostel but a Mongolian woman and her sprightly little boy came to our aid and delivered us to our destination, the young boy clutching his mom’s hand and a container of m and ms while frequently smiling and saying “come on!” to these strange outsiders with their HUGE rolling bags. The LG Hostel was clean and the staff incredibly kind, but the $25 rate put us in a dodgy part of town right near the train tracks in a room without A/C. We borrowed a fan that clanked and rattled and ran only at 45-minute intervals but was wholly necessary to keep the flies at bay. The three of us squeezed into a full size bed and swatted bugs for most of the night, fighting our first head colds in eight months (since the evil days of day care besieged us).
The next day our contacts at Terelj National Park picked us up in a green wagon and drove us out to the ger camp, the driver’s concentration half focused on the pot holed road but also aimed at entertaining E in the backseat. This part of Mongolia resembles the Colorado landscape, with its rocky outcrops and stubby grazing lands and slower, mellow pace of life. Tog, one of young kids working the camp, took a liking to E, and by the end of our time here had propped him up on bicycles, ox carts, and behind the wheel of his truck (Momma B is going to kill me if she reads this) for a short ride down a dirt road.
We eventually moved from the ger to the adjacent motel on the property, which is currently under renovation and a bit of a crumbling ruin, its halls and rooms somewhat reminiscent of the Shining, though smaller in scale, and well, situated in Outer Mongolia. We explored many of the empty rooms in search of Swedish corpses and Big Wheels but found nothing more than plastic molding and paint fumes. Nonetheless, it was exciting! And from the window we could spot Bactrian camels and prayer flags and men on horseback, and every so often, a Landcruiser or Lexus driving west toward the setting sun, owing to the new wealth infusing Ulaanbaatar.
E has been an amazing traveling companion – surprisingly patient and funny and a real icebreaker here in Asia- and I wonder what adventures await him as he blazes his own path through this wobbly world. Although the Engineer and I often resort to This-Is-Our-Last-Time-Doing-This-Travel-Gig late night promises, deep in my heart I know it’s a bald-faced lie. We searched the world to find him, and it’s just so nice to have him here now, part of the same collective quest, along for the ride, intestinal duress and all.
We got lost walking toward the LG Hostel but a Mongolian woman and her sprightly little boy came to our aid and delivered us to our destination, the young boy clutching his mom’s hand and a container of m and ms while frequently smiling and saying “come on!” to these strange outsiders with their HUGE rolling bags. The LG Hostel was clean and the staff incredibly kind, but the $25 rate put us in a dodgy part of town right near the train tracks in a room without A/C. We borrowed a fan that clanked and rattled and ran only at 45-minute intervals but was wholly necessary to keep the flies at bay. The three of us squeezed into a full size bed and swatted bugs for most of the night, fighting our first head colds in eight months (since the evil days of day care besieged us).
The next day our contacts at Terelj National Park picked us up in a green wagon and drove us out to the ger camp, the driver’s concentration half focused on the pot holed road but also aimed at entertaining E in the backseat. This part of Mongolia resembles the Colorado landscape, with its rocky outcrops and stubby grazing lands and slower, mellow pace of life. Tog, one of young kids working the camp, took a liking to E, and by the end of our time here had propped him up on bicycles, ox carts, and behind the wheel of his truck (Momma B is going to kill me if she reads this) for a short ride down a dirt road.
We eventually moved from the ger to the adjacent motel on the property, which is currently under renovation and a bit of a crumbling ruin, its halls and rooms somewhat reminiscent of the Shining, though smaller in scale, and well, situated in Outer Mongolia. We explored many of the empty rooms in search of Swedish corpses and Big Wheels but found nothing more than plastic molding and paint fumes. Nonetheless, it was exciting! And from the window we could spot Bactrian camels and prayer flags and men on horseback, and every so often, a Landcruiser or Lexus driving west toward the setting sun, owing to the new wealth infusing Ulaanbaatar.
E has been an amazing traveling companion – surprisingly patient and funny and a real icebreaker here in Asia- and I wonder what adventures await him as he blazes his own path through this wobbly world. Although the Engineer and I often resort to This-Is-Our-Last-Time-Doing-This-Travel-Gig late night promises, deep in my heart I know it’s a bald-faced lie. We searched the world to find him, and it’s just so nice to have him here now, part of the same collective quest, along for the ride, intestinal duress and all.
2 comments:
Lovely post. I'm convinced y'all wouldn't have had any fun with E along!
XXOO
GTia
That is so funny, GTia! We'd probably get far more sleep but have far less fun. XOXO, KB
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