In Mongolia Travelogue 2007

I'll get started on this post, but I'm leaving shortly (in about ten minutes) to head for another trek. This time I'll be gone for 8 days to the west and northwest of Ulaanbaator. First, we'll be heading to Kharakorum the 13th century capital established by Chenggis Khan then I'll be going north to the Five Rivers area and then Khovsgol Lake - the deepest and largest in Mongolia. Should be spectacular. If things work out well, I'll do some more riding and even see the Tsataan people - who herd domesticated Rheindeer.

I'm back in Ulaanbaatar after a tremendous five day trek NE of the city. All in all, I fished in four different rivers, stayed in two gers (with Mongolian families), visited a third family in their summer log cabin, caught three new species (to me) of fish, ate freshly killed and bbq Marmot, hung out with a dutch expat who showed me some good places to fish, and, if that weren't enough was offered a sheep (or a goat) of my own as a welcome/thank you gift by the most wonderful family I've met - and while spending time with them having one of the most profound travel experiences I've had in my life.

Whew!

A couple of quick updates:

• I just finished booking a 5 day flyfishing trip NE of Ulaan Baatar. I'm very excited. At the agency where I booked the flight, the fellow named Rick (from Holland) knew another expat who is a flyfisherman. He drove in to meet us and he'll be joing me for Thurs-Fri. Then I've got three more days on my own.
  
  
• Postcards are away! They are now in the hands of the Mongolian Postal Officials. I would imagine they'll be up to their usual post-Soviet efficiency. Translation, I'll be home in about 16 days - more than likely before they arrived. But, hey, you'll get nice postcard and (ideally) an interesting postmark from 11,000 miles away!
  

Another beautiful and warm day here in Ulaan Baator. In the hostel I got booted from my private room and stuck in a dorm. But at about $5/night for a pretty comfortable bed, I'm not complaining. Plus, I still haven't quite adjusted to the time changes, so I was just about all in last night. I shared the room with three folks from Ireland - so I had a strange conversation about hurling in the middle of Ulaan Baator. Weird.

After the usual coffee (instant) and some pastries and such I dug in earnestly to try and book a trek outside of UB. I'd been chatting with Byanbodol at the Golden Gobi and told him what I wanted. He was friendly, but so far nothing has panned out. One option I discussed with him was to rent a jeep and head for Lake Hvovlsgol for fishing, ger camps, etc. That trip would be about 8-10 days. Hopefully, I can find some other folks in the hostel to take the trip with me to cut the cost, but so far things haven't been too good. So, I headed over to an agency run be a Dutch guy who married a Mongolian woman who runs a pretty well thought of shop. I gave him the run-down of what I am interested in and I also mentioned I brought flyfishing equipment. He perked up at that and made a call to another Dutch expat who's into flyfishing. I'm going to meet him in about half and hour and we're going to try and hammer out a deal. With a bit of luck, I'll have 4-5 days of guided flyfishing a few hundred miles from UB. I guess there are at least three rivers that fish pretty well. I'm quite excited as I'll be able to combine some riding (horses) and ger camping with it...

Outside of trek planning, I walked around southern UB today ending up at the winter place of the Bogd Khan. It was quite a charming palace with a great set of buldings, some terrific Buddhist artwork, and some nice artifacts. I enjoyed it quite a bit, though this was the first location that was "swamped" with other tourists - meaning a busload of about 20 germans.

Finally, while eating lunch today I finished up writing the postcards to the 20 or so folks who signed up. I'll be mailing them later today - who knows how long they'll take, but they are on their way. If you want a postcard, just sign up and I'll get one out to you pronto!

My day began with a pleasant walk about 2km west of my guesthouse to the largest monestary in UB. Along the way, I walked along 'Peace Ave' the proverbial main street of UB. See my flickr photostream for some additional pics of the traffic and general unpleasantness of much of UB. Not having been in a lot of former Soviet controlled cities, but since 1990, UB has aparently gone 'dowhhill.' Many if not most of the public works are in dissary. The city has two bus systems - gas which is essentially just overcrowded cattle cars and an old vintage electrical bus system. I imagine Breshnev ordered it installed. But 40 years of harsh winters have it tattered to say the list.

So, that's the downside - it isn't much too look at. Plus, due to the harsh winter climate 9 months of the year, the city isn't really an 'outdoor' city. While there are plenty of things going on outside, there are not many shops (outside of ad hoc vendors) set up alah, say, Rome. And those that were, serve beer and food for dinner - so my typical vacation-coffee-newspaper in the morning routine doesn't seem to be panning out.

But, on to the monks. I arrived at the Guden Kiid monestary about 9am and the monks were starting to warm up. They are Tibetan monks, so they chanted as if they were extras in Kundun. There was some asynchronous drums and symbols and a few of those large horns (similar to Swiss Horns). Wonderful. Simply wonderful.

After, a fellow who was trying to sell me everything but the kitchen sink even took a photo of me with a swell cap! Nothing beats a good foreign travel and a fine new hat!

For those of you faithful readers who haven't given up, I'll be quicker...after the monestary, I hike to the high point in the city for a few photos and a rest. Then down in the heart of the city to walk about ending in the Museum of Natural History. Next, a late lunch at "Modern Nomads" (sorry, forgot to take pix of the food) a salad and some meat filled dumplings known as buuz. Not the best but not as bad as many had said about Mongolian food.

Finally, a leisurely stroll home and a stop at the square, While taking pics a student of journalism at the local university approached me to chat and practice his english. Nice fellow.

Add to that a pint of Chinggis beer (lighter than Karakorum - have to sample them all!) and it was a good, albeit very tiring day.

At just after 10:30pm local time in Ulaan Baator, our wheels touched down on Korean Air flight 867 (an A330-300). It was a rough landing.

About an hour and a half later, I made it through customs and immigration and had my luggage in hand. Next: a taxi. LIke all airport taxis, I got ripped off, by how much i'm not sure. But it really doesn't matter. My driver took me to the Bank (still open at 12:00am) to change some money and then right to the Golden Gobi - my guesthouse.

Olgi was quick to set me up: a spacious room (might lose it tomorrow, but who cares) a bottle of water and a bottle of Karakorum dark Mongolian beer. What could be finer?

Although its late - nearly 1am here, it is beautiful outside. About 65 degrees, no wind and a bright moon. I'm very excited about tomorrow.

Finally, do you remember the board game Risk? In the Asian/Russian area was the region of Irtusk. As a kid I always thought that to be just about the most exotic of all lands. And now, I'm here. Wahoo.

I've just about finished up my day here in Seoul. I'll be heading for the airport soon and then I have to just wait out the next 2-3 hours before my flight takes off for the last 1200 miles of this little Odyssey. Once it is over, I think the fun will just begin.

I began this morning looking through my aggregator and, in particular, reading Will's post on rural Georgia and some of the barriers and opportunities to young people. In the past, when I've traveled to Asia (and too a somewhat lesser extent in South America) it has always struck me as somewhat startling that you can see the juxtaposition of abject poverty with the very latest in technology and modernity. In many ways, the same is true here in Seoul. Take a look through my flickr stream and you'll see some photos I shot in the local market which gave me a sense of just how poor some of the folks are here. Prices were extremely cheap, animals being butchered and sold at incredibly cheap prices, rats about in open view (and not the cute Disney Rat-a-too-ie rats). While at the same time, of course, everyone has a cell phone, but more than that are the first class districts filled with Chanel and D+G goods less than five minutes walk away; not too mention the LG headquarters and all the other industry.

I guess my point, if there is one, is that the so-called developing world is facing many of these similar challenges - how do you deal with the stark differences in class and economy while at the same time protecting your heritage? Additionally, how do you provide the opportunity to all while not furthering the gulf between the rich and the poor? I've often noticed that once you leave Europe and the US the "price of people" drops dramatically. Here in Seoul, the same is true. At a number of locations, I saw people (usually 3-4) doing rather menial tasks (and it was clearly their job) such as sweeping water off the walkway around a building that we'd rarely see in the U.S. Over here, it is affordable to hire someone to do the sort of tasks that we just couldn't pay someone in the US. I certainly don't think what I'm saying is revolutionary, but it does make you pause as you're touring about.

Aside from this little diatribe, I had a very nice day here in Seoul. Good food, nice people, and the rain did finally let up. Heading off to the airport now ... more later.

Much to my surprise, the Hotel Ibis Myeong-Dong is one hell of a nice hotel. You never really know when you're going on the recommendation of a couple of online sites and the reviews posted therein. I'm always a bit suspicious of pages that both have supposedly user-uploaded content (i.e. photos and reviews) along with lots and lots of ads and unabashed sales pitches. However, in the case of this hotel, the reviews and adds were spot-on.

Oh my aching shoulders. But, alas, I finally made it (to Asia, that is). I'm writing this from my hotel (the Hotel Ibis) in downtown Seoul. I've never been in Seoul and so far I'm really digging it and all the 10 million folks. I'll write more later, just wanted to touch base with both of my faithful steveinmongolia.com readers.

Getting here was a bit brutal. It went as follows:

Ahhhhhh....my vacation officially began yesterday (Friday, June 29th) as I finished up work at around 3:00pm. I'm sure there are a few loose ends that I may have overlooked, but I feel pretty confident that I managed to get all the projects I was working on in good shape for my three weeks off. As for the non-work related parts of my life, thanks to Jay (!) for house-sitting and more importantly taking care of Duncan. I feel very confident that Jay will do an excellent job looking after the best dog in the world.