Back to Ulaan Baatar
By jeep to the Park and the night spent in my tent. Morning--I rode a Mongolian horse for three hours. It was awesome. The wind was in my face and the horse at a full gallopwith barren hills zooming by. I understood better than ever the appeal of cowboys and the romantic adventures of T.E. Lawrence. My guide shook her head at my speed and with her hands indicated: "the horse will fall on you." Fortunately it didn't. The saddle was not a wooden one but had an iron ring on the front and back that were actually somewhat useful. Later that afternoon I drank salty milk tea and ate some type of Mongolian stew (with Yak meat). Then I decided to call it a trip, for it was getting windy and it felt like it might rain. I hitchiked back to UB with a dozen children in the back of a truck and gave out crayons that I bought just for such an encounter. And then when I got back to Nassan's apartment complex for the night, it began to rain. Lucky.
There are a lot of things I've seen that don't need real explaining:
a non-Mongolian seen being manhandled by two cops and shoved through some fence, the metal door closed after them
children live in the sewers, wrapped in trash for warmth
Mongolians sometimes tie a horse's legs together with rope so they can stumble around a field to eat but cannot run away
most horses are ratty and sad, skin and bones
there is wealth as well was poverty here, from Hummer H2s on down; gold mining and other types of mines are suggested reasons for such wealth, my guess is that telecommunications are another reason, as many Mongolians seem as attached to their cell phones as people in S. California.
there are deceptively more English signs in UB than in Beijing, but almost NO ONE speaks ANY English (the English signage is probably for those three crazy days during the summer's Nadaam festival where everyone in the world comes to Mongolia)
blue Russian vehicles are the norm in Ulaan Baatar--they pollute well and work poorly
And so on.
It truly is hard to get around in Mongolia without a decent chunk of change. I have met few English speakers besides my rather annoying French roommate Gadar. It would have been better to have come in summer months. If my Russian Visa started earlier it would be better. But you can't know some of these things in advance. I realize now something critical about myself---I usually move quickly when traveling (I knew this before but was never before limited by Visas).
I feel silly for buying two packs of Marlboro's to bribe Russians with---here you can buy the same pack of 20 for 850 Togrug. Yeah, that's about 75 cents. It's no wonder smoking is so popular in Mongolia. They don't get taxed like in the US and other countries.
Alan
There are a lot of things I've seen that don't need real explaining:
a non-Mongolian seen being manhandled by two cops and shoved through some fence, the metal door closed after them
children live in the sewers, wrapped in trash for warmth
Mongolians sometimes tie a horse's legs together with rope so they can stumble around a field to eat but cannot run away
most horses are ratty and sad, skin and bones
there is wealth as well was poverty here, from Hummer H2s on down; gold mining and other types of mines are suggested reasons for such wealth, my guess is that telecommunications are another reason, as many Mongolians seem as attached to their cell phones as people in S. California.
there are deceptively more English signs in UB than in Beijing, but almost NO ONE speaks ANY English (the English signage is probably for those three crazy days during the summer's Nadaam festival where everyone in the world comes to Mongolia)
blue Russian vehicles are the norm in Ulaan Baatar--they pollute well and work poorly
And so on.
It truly is hard to get around in Mongolia without a decent chunk of change. I have met few English speakers besides my rather annoying French roommate Gadar. It would have been better to have come in summer months. If my Russian Visa started earlier it would be better. But you can't know some of these things in advance. I realize now something critical about myself---I usually move quickly when traveling (I knew this before but was never before limited by Visas).
I feel silly for buying two packs of Marlboro's to bribe Russians with---here you can buy the same pack of 20 for 850 Togrug. Yeah, that's about 75 cents. It's no wonder smoking is so popular in Mongolia. They don't get taxed like in the US and other countries.
Alan