In a ger in Mongolia
Oct. 4th, 2008 09:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
julietI really am in a ger in Mongolia: the guesthouse I'm staying in in Ulan Bator is a mixture of buildings and gers, and the net access is in one of the gers. This seems to be common here; I'd kind of expected that gers would be just for tourists, but a significant chunk of the population even in cities, outside the very centre, seem to at least partly live in them.
It's very cold (as I was leaving Terelj this morning, of which more anon, some of the little streams and riverlets by the road were still frozen over; and when I woke up in the small hours last night I had to put my hat & scarf on, despite the pile of thick blankets, to get back to sleep). But gers have stoves, and stoves are very efficient, so right here is OK.
The train journey from Irkutsk was uneventful, in particular in the total lack of any events that took up the 8 or 9 hour border crossing between Russia & Mongolia. We sat at the border station on the Russian side for about 4 hours before passport control and customs showed up, whereupon they removed everyone's passports and customs searched all the compartments (they're not really interested in foreigners; mostly in the Mongolian traders). Then we sat around for another 2 or 3 hours before finally deciding to chug v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y the 25km to the Mongolian side of the border (though we were presented, as if as some kind of reward, a truly glorious sunset over Mongolian mountains. About half the carriage were backpackers, who all congregated in the train corridor gawping.). Whereupon the whole thing happened again, but this time it only took about 2 hours, so good work there.
Thankfully we were told at the outset how long we'd be there, so I took the opportunity to head out of town (Naushki, the Russian border town, is quite small, so it didn't take long) and climb a path up the nearest hillside to see what was on the other side. I expected the answer to be "more scrubland, but without a town in it", so was quite surprised to find a graveyard. Each grave was surrounded with a little blue iron fence, looking a bit like a bedstead without a mattress, and some fake-fir wreaths that looked disturbingly like Christmas decorations. I pottered around a bit more - climbing the hill next to some kind of red-and-white satellite-dish pole, which I carefully ignored, went nowhere too close to, and took no photos of, having been warned about the famous Russian tendency to get very *irritable*, sometimes to arrest-related levels, at people taking photos of hardware. Then headed back down again with what I thought was an hour and a half to spare (turned out to be more like 3 hours) but nevertheless slightly anxious as to whether the train was still there. As it turned out, the rest of the train wasn't, having headed off back to Irkutsk, but our carriage was, so that was OK.
We got into Ulan Bator at ungodly-o-clock: specifically, 0605, which was a bit of a problem as I'd told the picking-me-up people 0705 (the error is to do with summer time, which Russia observes whilst Mongolia doesn't). No sign of a sign for me, so I waited in the waiting room for an hour, then wandered out again. Still no sign, so shouldered my rucksack & set off to walk.
And got hopelessly lost (it turns out that the scale on the LP map is out by at least a factor of 2, possibly 3). Eventually, after walking up a dirt track between some buildings, fetched up on a road and was hailed by a taxi. Who overcharged me by about 300%, and didn't know the whereabouts of the actual guesthouse, but got me to somewhere in the vicinity, and more importantly, somewhere I could identify on the map. I set about locating the guesthouse. Eventually found no 22, but it had no identifying marks and I couldn't work out how to get in. Tried to phone them - couldn't make that work either (though have now figured out what I did wrong). Tried to phone Pete. Suddenly worked out how to operate door, and was told by the proprietor of the property that no, this was not Gana's Guesthouse. He pointed over my shoulder. I turned round, to see a big GANA'S GUESTHOUSE banner on the building behind me.
[sigh]
Anyway, I took myself in, there was much apologising on both sides about the train station cockup (I suspect it was my fault; they definitely *sent* someone, so...), and they offered me *breakfast* which pleased me greatly. Then sent me off to Terelj National Park (up the road from UB) in the company of my guide, a Japanese chap whose Mongolian was (I assume) excellent but whose English was pretty ropy. We conversed largely in German.
Terelj is *stunningly* beautiful. We drove all the way through it till the road ran out, and fetched up in a little hut/ger village. I'd seen various "Tourist Ger Camps" on the way through, but this appeared to be a village largely inhabited by yer actual Mongolian, although the ger I was in was obviously set up for visitors. I assume it's a small-scale operation based on personal links. Anyway, I dumped my bags & the guide vanished, so I took myself off for a walk.
It's so *quiet*. Not entirely quiet; there's occasional people-noise, and cow-noise, and a really grumbly pig living somewhere in the village. But no traffic-noise, not even that low background hum you get basically everywhere in England. And surrounded by mountains - hills, really, but they *look* kind of mountainous. Grey-green sparse grass-type stuff, on very sandy soil, with grey-green rocks poking through at intervals; except for where there's clusters of golden firs. Really, stunningly lovely.
After lunch I got to go out for a horse-ride, which was top fun, although I am feeling the bruises a little today... I didn't have to do anything difficult like *steer*, as was on a leading-rein; just had to stay put. We forded rivers! And meandered through meadows and forests and along the river-bank; past gers and cows and horses and two pigs. And a squirrel (tuftier ears than yer UK grey squirrel). And it was all even more gorgeous than the previous bit, because even more out of the way (no roads at all, even dirt tracks; just paths).
The rest of the day I walked a bit more, and sat on the stoop of the ger and knitted, and was generally massively chilled-out. Someone lit the stove for me in late afternoon, so the ger was warm when I retreated to it; and it stayed warm until bedtime. Unfortunately when I woke up in the small hours it was absolutely bloody freezing, but the vast pile of blankets, plus putting on hat & scarf, solved this problem. Also I got to go out and look at the stars, which was also and predictably ace.
Today I have done some much-needed laundry; and it all dried in the sun which has been very warm despite it being cold *now* and in the shade during the day. (A bit like a sunny UK December day, but more so in both directions.) And then pottered down to look at the Mongolian National Museum, which is thoroughly recommended. I now wish to read up about Mongolian history generally as my appetite has been whetted. Particularly the Genghis Khan era stuff.
And now I shall conclude as this is already too bloody long, and the stove has died down & it's starting to get cold. Off to Beijing tomorrow morning on the last bit of the Trans-Mongolian.
It's very cold (as I was leaving Terelj this morning, of which more anon, some of the little streams and riverlets by the road were still frozen over; and when I woke up in the small hours last night I had to put my hat & scarf on, despite the pile of thick blankets, to get back to sleep). But gers have stoves, and stoves are very efficient, so right here is OK.
The train journey from Irkutsk was uneventful, in particular in the total lack of any events that took up the 8 or 9 hour border crossing between Russia & Mongolia. We sat at the border station on the Russian side for about 4 hours before passport control and customs showed up, whereupon they removed everyone's passports and customs searched all the compartments (they're not really interested in foreigners; mostly in the Mongolian traders). Then we sat around for another 2 or 3 hours before finally deciding to chug v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y the 25km to the Mongolian side of the border (though we were presented, as if as some kind of reward, a truly glorious sunset over Mongolian mountains. About half the carriage were backpackers, who all congregated in the train corridor gawping.). Whereupon the whole thing happened again, but this time it only took about 2 hours, so good work there.
Thankfully we were told at the outset how long we'd be there, so I took the opportunity to head out of town (Naushki, the Russian border town, is quite small, so it didn't take long) and climb a path up the nearest hillside to see what was on the other side. I expected the answer to be "more scrubland, but without a town in it", so was quite surprised to find a graveyard. Each grave was surrounded with a little blue iron fence, looking a bit like a bedstead without a mattress, and some fake-fir wreaths that looked disturbingly like Christmas decorations. I pottered around a bit more - climbing the hill next to some kind of red-and-white satellite-dish pole, which I carefully ignored, went nowhere too close to, and took no photos of, having been warned about the famous Russian tendency to get very *irritable*, sometimes to arrest-related levels, at people taking photos of hardware. Then headed back down again with what I thought was an hour and a half to spare (turned out to be more like 3 hours) but nevertheless slightly anxious as to whether the train was still there. As it turned out, the rest of the train wasn't, having headed off back to Irkutsk, but our carriage was, so that was OK.
We got into Ulan Bator at ungodly-o-clock: specifically, 0605, which was a bit of a problem as I'd told the picking-me-up people 0705 (the error is to do with summer time, which Russia observes whilst Mongolia doesn't). No sign of a sign for me, so I waited in the waiting room for an hour, then wandered out again. Still no sign, so shouldered my rucksack & set off to walk.
And got hopelessly lost (it turns out that the scale on the LP map is out by at least a factor of 2, possibly 3). Eventually, after walking up a dirt track between some buildings, fetched up on a road and was hailed by a taxi. Who overcharged me by about 300%, and didn't know the whereabouts of the actual guesthouse, but got me to somewhere in the vicinity, and more importantly, somewhere I could identify on the map. I set about locating the guesthouse. Eventually found no 22, but it had no identifying marks and I couldn't work out how to get in. Tried to phone them - couldn't make that work either (though have now figured out what I did wrong). Tried to phone Pete. Suddenly worked out how to operate door, and was told by the proprietor of the property that no, this was not Gana's Guesthouse. He pointed over my shoulder. I turned round, to see a big GANA'S GUESTHOUSE banner on the building behind me.
[sigh]
Anyway, I took myself in, there was much apologising on both sides about the train station cockup (I suspect it was my fault; they definitely *sent* someone, so...), and they offered me *breakfast* which pleased me greatly. Then sent me off to Terelj National Park (up the road from UB) in the company of my guide, a Japanese chap whose Mongolian was (I assume) excellent but whose English was pretty ropy. We conversed largely in German.
Terelj is *stunningly* beautiful. We drove all the way through it till the road ran out, and fetched up in a little hut/ger village. I'd seen various "Tourist Ger Camps" on the way through, but this appeared to be a village largely inhabited by yer actual Mongolian, although the ger I was in was obviously set up for visitors. I assume it's a small-scale operation based on personal links. Anyway, I dumped my bags & the guide vanished, so I took myself off for a walk.
It's so *quiet*. Not entirely quiet; there's occasional people-noise, and cow-noise, and a really grumbly pig living somewhere in the village. But no traffic-noise, not even that low background hum you get basically everywhere in England. And surrounded by mountains - hills, really, but they *look* kind of mountainous. Grey-green sparse grass-type stuff, on very sandy soil, with grey-green rocks poking through at intervals; except for where there's clusters of golden firs. Really, stunningly lovely.
After lunch I got to go out for a horse-ride, which was top fun, although I am feeling the bruises a little today... I didn't have to do anything difficult like *steer*, as was on a leading-rein; just had to stay put. We forded rivers! And meandered through meadows and forests and along the river-bank; past gers and cows and horses and two pigs. And a squirrel (tuftier ears than yer UK grey squirrel). And it was all even more gorgeous than the previous bit, because even more out of the way (no roads at all, even dirt tracks; just paths).
The rest of the day I walked a bit more, and sat on the stoop of the ger and knitted, and was generally massively chilled-out. Someone lit the stove for me in late afternoon, so the ger was warm when I retreated to it; and it stayed warm until bedtime. Unfortunately when I woke up in the small hours it was absolutely bloody freezing, but the vast pile of blankets, plus putting on hat & scarf, solved this problem. Also I got to go out and look at the stars, which was also and predictably ace.
Today I have done some much-needed laundry; and it all dried in the sun which has been very warm despite it being cold *now* and in the shade during the day. (A bit like a sunny UK December day, but more so in both directions.) And then pottered down to look at the Mongolian National Museum, which is thoroughly recommended. I now wish to read up about Mongolian history generally as my appetite has been whetted. Particularly the Genghis Khan era stuff.
And now I shall conclude as this is already too bloody long, and the stove has died down & it's starting to get cold. Off to Beijing tomorrow morning on the last bit of the Trans-Mongolian.
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no subject
Date: 2008-10-04 01:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-04 07:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-05 12:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-06 11:27 am (UTC)Obviously knowing that it won't help doesn't always prevent the argh, so I spend a certain amount of time promising myself that I am allowed to burst into tears or whatever once I've sorted it out. (By which time I don't really need to any more, but if I *want* to I can.)
no subject
Date: 2008-10-06 04:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-16 04:31 pm (UTC)(Hm. Hanoi (current location) not quite so much; it's nice, but it hasn't grabbed me in the same way that Russia & China did. Mongolia was lovely & I would quite like the opportunity to go back there & do some trekking or similar; but Russia & China I am determined to learn the damn languages & return to.)