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Ok ok this is my last UB post I promise! If I remembered the names of all the places that I stayed at then it would obviously have another title/place name in the heading.
Right then, after spending three days or so killing time in UB between tours including a visit to the natural history museum where there was an interesting selection of stuffed animals that (they beat those dogy ones on display at the Bogd Khan palace hands down) including a Great Bustard, puffer fish with eyes that looked like its eyes were glued on dolls eyes and various other exhiits that looked like they had seen better days. Its a shame that I didn't get a photography permit so that I could share those treasures with you!
Oh before I forget I also sampled one of the UB guesthouses as it was cheaper and safer than staying at the Kharkorum Hotel.
MONGOLIAN EXPEDITION TOUR
Now when I say that I thought that on this tour I would see a lot of Mongolia I wasn't wrong, however I (and the other 10 people on the tour) just wasn't prepared for the sheer amount of driving that this tour entailed, I think we spent something like 7-9 hours a day travelling accross Mongolia with some stops during the day at various ruins/temples and local towns to stock up on the essentials - snacks, vodka and beer of course! (obvioulsy there was not much to do in the evenings so they were spent eating and drinking vodka mostly - so much so that by the end of the tour I couldn't drink another shot of vodka!).
We had a local guide called Hische (I know that's the wrong spelling but she won't know!), a puesdo cook/helper called Minda, three drivers, Bayer, Puska and Chile (I think thats how their names are spelt!) oh and three Russian jeep vans (I want one of those!).
Due to the weather our tour itinerary was reversed so first stop was the Gobi. It took two days to get there, via a stopover at Minda's nomad home that had some guest gers. To begin with the travelling wasn't so bad, the track (there are hardly any roads in Mongolia) was ok, not too bumpy and we chopped and changed jeeps to mix up the company each day (apart from a Belguim couple who never changed jeep the entire journey). During these first couple of days the group also had its first of many illnesses, well, it was an allergic reaction really, poor Richard got carried away with the fermented mare's milk and had to go to a local hospital to get some anti-histamine.
The Gobi was stunning particulary the sand dunes, sunset and the clear sky at night. We also went to a place called the Yol valley where we went for a welcome 10km hike and for a change we camped rather than stayed at a Ger camp (family or tourist variety). The following day we went for a camel ride, which to be honest, I didn't feel all that well to One of the final places we went to around the Gobi area was the where loads of Dinosaur bones have been found over the years, unfortunately one half of the Belguim couple decided that he wanted to smash a Dinosaur bone out of the rock and take it home with him to put of display with his "other travelling relics, which I beleive include a polar bear!" one of the drivers, Bayer, managed to stop him whilst the rest of us looked on in shock not really sure what was happening as we couldn't beleive it was actually happening.
As you can imagine after that the Belguims were not everyone's favourite people on the tour and we were all secretly pleased that they did not move van for the rest of the trip.
The rest of the tour included:
-one more camping stop (rather than staying at a guest ger or tourist ger)
-trip to a waterfall (famous in Mongolia apparently)
-a stopover at the hot springs (we were all well happy by then as the travelling was taking its toll on us and we all needed a shower)
-a stopover with a family who lived by a beautiful river and killed a goat for us!
-A two day stop at the White lake where we went for a horse ride to a dead volcano, I also tried some Marmate which apparently taste like horse meat, one of the guys, Christoph, decided to eat more of it and drink honey vodka, neeless to say he got a bit ill from it all!
-a final stop at a famous monastry that I just don't know the name of
All in all I really enjoyed the tour despite the horrendous makeshift road conditions (which by the end we all couldn't wait to get back to UB), the people I met (I was really lucky to have such a bunch of great people on the tour) and the places that I saw. The only downside was the constant travelling, it would have been better to have more than one, two night stopover just so that we could have more time to enjoy the places that we stopped at as by the second week it sort of all turned into a blur of places..........
Oh and before I forget I haven't mentioned getting used to using makeshift toilets or just peeing etc in nature, I won't take for granted a western toilet ever again, infact the long drops at Glastonbury are nothing compared to the toilet facilities in Mongolia!
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