Met up with the rest of the group ok - three kiwi's (can you believe it?!), one Aussia (a Crocodile Dundee type character) and one guy from Belguim. We all get on pretty well. I'm sharing with Jolene, a 25 year old girl from Auckland, on her way to London to do her two-year stint - we are having a great laugh. Christina is our Intrepid leader - she is very very cool. A mixture of French, Dominican Rupublic and Russian, so she translates everything for us. In addition, we have a driver, Mia and a local tour guide, Tuya, who is a wealth of information on everything Mongolian. We are ask her tons of questions all the time. So far, the pace is very relaxing, only doing two or three activities each day, so it's a big shock to my system needing to slow down this much after that crazy Tokyo life-style, but I'm sure I will get used to it.
Last night the group stayed in Mongolian Gers - a type of tent that is found all over Mongolia. The majority of the population still live in Gers, which are very basic, round tents that are moved every six months and re-erected for Summer and Winter. It was pretty cool, except I didn't sleep because it was actually freezing and the fire kept going out. Oridinarly I'm not the fire-lighting type of girl, and at 4.00am, even less so. However the scenery and the mountains were stunning. During the day, we all took off for a horse-ride. Horses are one of the main forms of transport in Mongolia. The horses are smaller and stockier than our regular horses but still it was my first time so I was a bit apprehencious. Then I started getting into it when we climbed a wee hill. Coming back down I had transformed into the Man From Snowy River. Except in slow motion and without hanging on to my hat. Then I got the giggles - it was just too funny.
Today, we visited some real gers, (as opposed to the touristy ones like last night). The people have next to nothing and yet are so friendly. The way they live seems so primitive to us, with no indications of our versions of toilets, kitchens, , but they are seem very happy, and are all very highly educated - this is the way they choose to live. We were given mare's milk and warm fresh vodka, with bread and home-made butter. Not too bad. The cheese tasted like erasers though.
Tulu was explaining there is a 93% literary rate in Mongolia and 86% of students go on to University. However the infrastructure is very poor - very bad roads, there is a lot of building and maintenance going on, but it is run-down. Even our brand new hotel's toilet's do not flush and the bathroom floods.
Been getting some great pictures on my new camera and hopefully they will turn out ok - I'll get them on CD Rom when I get to London and then get you all the links in this blog later on down the track.
Tonight we are back at the hotel in Ulaan Bator and back to hot showers - BLISS! We are going to see a traditional dance and 'throat singing' performance tonight before dinner. Not sure what that is all about. Tomorrow we have one last day here sightseeing before our two night train journey accross the Russian border to Urkustz.
Saturday, June 28, 2003
Thursday, June 26, 2003
Ulaan Baator, Mongolia.
I made it here from Tokyo okay. Got a bit teary-eyed on the bus on the way to the airport as it was so sad to leave Tokyo and especially all my mates. But after a relatively painless 6-hour flight, I made it here ok. First I had to change money at the airport, but nothing was open. In attempting to ditch a taxi tout who had attached himself to me like a magnet the second I got off the plane, I met some security guards in the deserted departure lounge upstairs. Those guards knew how to make a quick buck! One of them led me down a long back corridor of the airport and opened a closet. There she got out her purse and we calculated the exchange (not the best rate but beggers can't be choosers). Voila - Mongolian cash. Now how to get to the hotel? The taxi tout found me again and this time I relented - he quoted me $5 to the "Dream Hotel" where I was booked in for the night (yip - actual name). Locals would have likely paid 50c but compared to Tokyo it's still cheap and there were no buses anyway. The tout assured me he knew where the hotel was. On the way in I felt like I was in an episode of The Simpsons - you know when they all pile into their pink car and head off down a long straight road somewhere for miles, and there are all these enourmous billboards evenly spaced along the side of the road: "Welcome to Mongolia" and "Ulaan Baator 5 miles".
Of course the taxi driver didn't have a clue where the hotel was and after a long tiki tour around town and several stops at wrong hotels and asking for directions and then a small argument about not paying him any more, I was shown immediately to a room - no check-in at all... I think I am the only person at the hotel. Most amazing thing is, it's 8.00 at night and broad daylight! It didn't start to get dark until after 10.00. I decide to go for a wander in search of dinner. There are lots of cafes and restaurants but few menus that I could see and none I could read anyway. I attempt to find one of the spots listed in the welcome letter from Christine, our local Intrepid tour guide who arrives with the rest of the group today. But I can't find any of them without a map (and let's face it, even with a map I'd be useless). So eventually settle on a bottle of water purchased from a rather dirty supermarket and a visit to one of the cafes. I point to something a family is eating at the next table. Two please :-) They bring out some kind of fried bread triangle with lamb or mutton and onions in it. Not dissimilar to a cornish pastie. Not bad. I'm not sure but if I've got the exchange rate correct, dinner cost me 18c.
Today is chilly and I have to find something warmer to wear. Have now managed to purchase a map, after a visit to the Fine Arts Museum this morning. I have to go back to the hotel and check out now because this morning I got a phone call from the local Intrepid tour operator and we won't all fit in the Dream Hotel so I need to move. Looking forward to meeting the rest of the tour group tonight.
I made it here from Tokyo okay. Got a bit teary-eyed on the bus on the way to the airport as it was so sad to leave Tokyo and especially all my mates. But after a relatively painless 6-hour flight, I made it here ok. First I had to change money at the airport, but nothing was open. In attempting to ditch a taxi tout who had attached himself to me like a magnet the second I got off the plane, I met some security guards in the deserted departure lounge upstairs. Those guards knew how to make a quick buck! One of them led me down a long back corridor of the airport and opened a closet. There she got out her purse and we calculated the exchange (not the best rate but beggers can't be choosers). Voila - Mongolian cash. Now how to get to the hotel? The taxi tout found me again and this time I relented - he quoted me $5 to the "Dream Hotel" where I was booked in for the night (yip - actual name). Locals would have likely paid 50c but compared to Tokyo it's still cheap and there were no buses anyway. The tout assured me he knew where the hotel was. On the way in I felt like I was in an episode of The Simpsons - you know when they all pile into their pink car and head off down a long straight road somewhere for miles, and there are all these enourmous billboards evenly spaced along the side of the road: "Welcome to Mongolia" and "Ulaan Baator 5 miles".
Of course the taxi driver didn't have a clue where the hotel was and after a long tiki tour around town and several stops at wrong hotels and asking for directions and then a small argument about not paying him any more, I was shown immediately to a room - no check-in at all... I think I am the only person at the hotel. Most amazing thing is, it's 8.00 at night and broad daylight! It didn't start to get dark until after 10.00. I decide to go for a wander in search of dinner. There are lots of cafes and restaurants but few menus that I could see and none I could read anyway. I attempt to find one of the spots listed in the welcome letter from Christine, our local Intrepid tour guide who arrives with the rest of the group today. But I can't find any of them without a map (and let's face it, even with a map I'd be useless). So eventually settle on a bottle of water purchased from a rather dirty supermarket and a visit to one of the cafes. I point to something a family is eating at the next table. Two please :-) They bring out some kind of fried bread triangle with lamb or mutton and onions in it. Not dissimilar to a cornish pastie. Not bad. I'm not sure but if I've got the exchange rate correct, dinner cost me 18c.
Today is chilly and I have to find something warmer to wear. Have now managed to purchase a map, after a visit to the Fine Arts Museum this morning. I have to go back to the hotel and check out now because this morning I got a phone call from the local Intrepid tour operator and we won't all fit in the Dream Hotel so I need to move. Looking forward to meeting the rest of the tour group tonight.
Tuesday, June 24, 2003
Well~ after a rocky start, everything seems to finally be coming together. Had a very dodgy touch-and-go episode with the Russian visa during my last week in Tokyo. After filling in all the forms and getting all the photos, and lining up for two and half hours, the embassy turned it down because the voucher that Intrepid sent me from the tour agent in Russia did not have enough information on it.... he reckons they needed the whole intinery for getting in and out of Russia - just to get one little stamp! (actually, they are not that little - why is it that all the Asian visa's take up a whole page in your passport?...mad). So anyway, raced home from the embassy and called Intrepid straight away with the first of what will likely be a long list of near misses and and life-threatening dramas that seem to happen to me on a regular basis. So Intrepid tell me `but that voucher works for all the other Russian consulates around the world!`... and I`m like, `ok, but help me pleeeaaaase`. It was very touch-and-go as to whether I would have enough time to get the visa... but they pulled out all the stops and the Russian tour agent faxed them an updated copy of the voucher Thursday morning, which they faxed to Bea. I went into work with Bea on Tuesday morning to get the fax and was lining up outside the embassy by 9.15 am (in the pouring rain). This time they didn't turn it down - major Phew.
I was nearly in tears about the whole thing as Intrepid told me I wouldn't have been able to get any money back on the trip at this late stage. It turns out that Intrepid knew about this system from someone who did the same trip from Tokyo last year.. so quite frankly I was pretty annoyed at them. They kept saying to me that it's ok with all the other consulates around the world and that the Japanese Russia embassy staff were just being tossers... (hmm - not he~~lping...) ... the fact that they've had it before but still expected it to work this time around was pretty dense - Embassies don't change and they truly could care less whether you go to Russia or not.
Was so sad and depressing saying goodbye to my friends in Tokyo - they are the absolute best - I love them all.
Posting this from Yahoo cafe at Narita (gotta love Terminal 2). but have to go now as they are boarding in 20 minutes and I have to find the gate. Don`t worry Ikuyo - I learnt my lesson last time!!
Stay tuned for the next installment - Mongolia!!
I was nearly in tears about the whole thing as Intrepid told me I wouldn't have been able to get any money back on the trip at this late stage. It turns out that Intrepid knew about this system from someone who did the same trip from Tokyo last year.. so quite frankly I was pretty annoyed at them. They kept saying to me that it's ok with all the other consulates around the world and that the Japanese Russia embassy staff were just being tossers... (hmm - not he~~lping...) ... the fact that they've had it before but still expected it to work this time around was pretty dense - Embassies don't change and they truly could care less whether you go to Russia or not.
Was so sad and depressing saying goodbye to my friends in Tokyo - they are the absolute best - I love them all.
Posting this from Yahoo cafe at Narita (gotta love Terminal 2). but have to go now as they are boarding in 20 minutes and I have to find the gate. Don`t worry Ikuyo - I learnt my lesson last time!!
Stay tuned for the next installment - Mongolia!!