Nestled between China and Russia is one of the planet's final frontiers: Mongolia, the old stomping ground of Chinggis Khan. There are a mere four million people here and a million of those live in the capitol, Ulaan Bataar, a modern bustling city. My route took me from San Francisco to Los Angeles to Seoul, Korea at last arriving here about seventeen actual hours later but with a sixteen hour time change it was eleven at night in Mongolia. I had found a guesthouse on-line (instead using of the popular Lonely Planet Guide) called "Mongolian Steppes" and they had agreed to pick me up at the airport for a $5.00 fee. It was such a relief to see my roughly handwritten name on a piece of cardboard in the sea of unfamiliar faces.
The guesthouses are actually apartments that have been crammed full of beds in one of those dreary square cement Russian cold war buildings... how do you go from a gorgeous onion dome church to one of these things? The addresses are near impossible to find. First, everything is written in Cyrillic and second, addresses go something like this, "building behind statue around corner on left third door, blue, number 7, up three flights, MS on door". It is the new booming business here, to turn your apartment into a guesthouse. Our hostess was "Ieggy", a real sweetheart who spoke English very well. Of course that is not her real name. Apparently they use the fathers name first then add the given name, and none of them could I even remotely pronounce, so most Mongolians make up a western sounding name for us hopeless tourists.
My fellow apartment dwellers were older and quiet, from Finland and Switzerland. I was glad I had not chosen my housing from the Lonely Planet as sometimes their suggestions can get a bit crowded, dirty and noisy with a much younger clientele. This place was spotless and had a shared toilet and hot shower. I got a private room for $10 (dorms are $4) and Ieggy provided a breakfast of sorts every morning. That would be bread, jam, tea and that most horrible of scams big business has played on the world... Nescafe.
Ulaan Bataar is not the main reason to come to Mongolia, needless to say. It has tall buildings (not skyscrapers) and crowded loud streets with cars that don't even think about pausing for you. The way to stay alive is to just keep walking and trust that they will miss you; if you hesitate, you're a gonner. Having a map is a must but I can't say as it helped me much, I got hopelessly lost anyway. Again, all the signs are in Cyrillic and most people don't speak English. But it is not that big of a city so eventually you end up somewhere you recognize. While here it is worthwhile visiting the museums, the square, the big Buddhist temple and catching one of the cultural shows that include the dance, costumes and, most wonderfully, the Tuvan throat singers.
Oh yes, and you can't miss the black market! There you can buy nearly anything, but especially the traditional clothing and antiques. Be careful to get a receipt for anything that looks old because it can be confiscated at the borders. The Mongolians are trying to protect their cultural heritage, and rightly so. This time of year (June, July) it is really hot! and any style of clothing goes, they are quite open and modern with skimpy shorts and skirts. Of course you will also see the elders walking the streets in the traditional long jackets (dels) with sashes and the pointy toed embroidered leather boots, and fancy felt hats. It doesn't get dark until around eleven then light again by five, I found myself eating dinner at ten!. There are plenty of bars and discos though to keep you entertained if so inclined.
No, the main reason to come here lies outside of the city. There are literally no paved roads, or phone lines, or lights, or buildings, or cars, or planes. Just vast, open quiet space. These are a nomadic people.
They move their gers (known as yurts in Russian) four times a year to find grass for their livestock. There is no agriculture. They live on meat and anything that can be made out of milk. The most common meals involve mutton. Mutton, mutton and more mutton. Reminds you of Bubba and his shrimp in Forest Gump, "there's mutton squished, mutton fried, mutton dipped in flour, mutton in a dumpling, mutton with an egg...", you get the picture. Good thing I like mutton. You can also find the more durable vegetables; potatoes, cabbage, onions and carrots, which they import from China.
The only way to get around Mongolia is to rent some sort of vehicle. There is very little mass transit and it won't take you where you want to go anyway. You can organize a trip from your home country but it will cost you at least double what you will pay if you organize it from here. I found a little travel agency owned by a Dutch man and Mongolian woman (Tseren Tours). For $40 a day you get a driver, a translator, food, petrol and park entrance fees. The catch is you have to find the other participants for the trip. This took me about 4 days. I went to all the backpacker places putting up notices, I even checked on line and basically spoke to every foreigner I saw. As inefficient as it seems, it is the way things are done. I finally found Joris, a social worker from Belgium who had just biked 6 months from India(!) and Carmen, a surgeon from Germany. With three you can use a jeep, any more than that you need to use a van, and that just does not seem as cool to me. You should bring your own tent, pad, sleeping bag and other daily supplies for camping. Also clothing for all weather, especially wet, and good sturdy boots. Our plan was to be two weeks including four days by horse. We will camp and stay in gers and cover the central part of the country from the Gobi desert up to mountains and visiting a volcanic lake through a valley. The plan had a bit of everything. It is not the most popular route, but then, I like to take the road less travelled.