Life in Rural Mongolia

Well, its day six in the countryside and I'm sitting in a tiny internet cafe/grocery store while clayt does an interview with a herder next door. There are only 2 computers and I'm on one, and there are four little boys gthered around the other one playing a game of computer billards.

This has been an interesting trip so far, and I'll give you just a few of the highlights for now, and we'll post a nice big entry with photos when we get back to UB. We are busy all day long. We leave at around 9 each morning and don't stop until after 10pm. Our time is spent either conducting interviews, driving to another tiny town, or asking for directions or getting help finding someone.

We've eaten lots of mongolian food, and I bet we will both have lost at least 5 pounds by the time we get back to the city! Its lots of dairy products. And when I say dairy I mean unprocessed, unrefrigerated, fly-covered dairy. We ate sheep meat that was about as fresh as it can get, and have had our share of both milk tea (boiled milk, a tiny bit of black tea and salt)and airag (the fermented mare milk). Needless to say, we've both had stomach issues already.

We have bathed only once so far, and almost none of the towns have had indoor plumbing. All of the places we have spent the night (ger camp or a room in a government building since there are no hotels in these places) - not one has had indoor plumbing or running water. We are pretty greasy looking and smelly at this point!

All that aside, the Mongolian countryside is really a beautiful and amazing place! We have seen all kinds of birds, baby yaks, horses, sheep and goats, giant grasshoppers, rivers, hot springs, and lots of cute mongolian babies.

Speaking of babies, can you imagine raising a child here? No diapers, no car, no bottles, no strollers or baby carriers of any kind! When they have to leave the ger to get something, they tie a long piece of fabric around the kid's waist, tie the other end to one of the indoor ger posts, and leave them there.

Another interesting sight: countryside mongolian men rolling cigarettes out of news paper. The ink can't be good for the lungs (and the tobacco of course).

We are meeting all kinds of people here. We've met a saddle maker, herdsmen, dairy producers, shop owners, homemade ice cream makers, ger furniture carpenters, felt producers... and more to come!

Today there is a possibility of a shower, but we aren't holding our breath. We bought four big bottles of water just in case. We've got 8 more days to go before a week break back in UB. After that, we fly to Khovd for more of the same. We were thinking about going camping on our week off, but after this I think we might just be happy to be back at our apartment with a hot shower and tasty home cooked food and our own bed. We'll see.

Going to the Country...

This morning we are leaving for 2 weeks in the countryside for Clayt's internship work. I am taking the time to write a short blog post because we don't have any hot water just yet for showers.

We ordered a new camera from the states and Wahid shipped it to us express. It hasn't arrived yet, which is a real bummer as now we have no camera for photos of all the cool stuff we'll see. We could buy a few disposable ones, but they cost about $9.00 each! Actually we had expected to leave Friday, which means we would definitely have the camera, but the plans changed and we had to leave today, Wednesday, instead, which messed up our camera plans!

Here are some of the places we are going to visit, all in the western part of Mongolia (the mountainous side!) : Arkhangai, Bayanhongor, and Uverhongai. Yeah, we never heard of them before either! We return August 1, and then fly out on the 7th to Khovd, a city (ha, "city") way out west close to where the Khazakh people live, and return from there on August 14th. After that, its back to English lesson training for the Turkish teachers, and then our school year will begin!

The summer has flown by and the weather has been really beautiful. Sadly, we've been told that it's going to start cooling off again in September, and be really cold again by November.

We'll post again after we get back, hopefully with photos...

Summer Trouble

The good thing about Mongolia in the summer time is the weather. Hot without humidity, breezy, and cool in the shade. The bad thing is that Mongolians think you're a tourist and try to con you or rip you off.

A nice example of this is the experience we had Thursday night. We went out for "Quiz Night" at a british pub, and then went to a night club with some friends. At about 3 a.m. we left and caught a cab right outside the building. When we got to our apartment, be tried to tell us it was going to cost over 6 dollars! As a comparison, this ride usually costs about 80 cents. But this guy thought he could rip us off, thinking we were just tourists and didn't know the cab costs. So we said no way! The rate is 300 tugruks per km. He said no, it is 1000 per km. So, we gave him more than what was a fair amount, and got out of the car, Clayt giving him a little hell at the same time. He put the money on the front seat, but the guy got angry and chucked the money out the door onto the ground. Then the guy got out of his car and proceeded to try to fight Clayton. I was trying to collect the scattered bills when another man approached, seeming curious about what was going on. I tried to explain to him what was happening, but he didn't seem interested in helping. Instead, while I was trying to keep an eye on Clayt, he shoved me to the ground and yanked at our camera bag until the strap broke and he took off with it. (I had my purse and camera bag not just over my shoulder, but across my chest, so he wouldn't have gotten it if the strap hadn't broke) I called to Clayt and he took off chasing the guy. The cab driver took this opportunity to get in his car and take off. Then about 5 minutes passed and I had no idea where Clayt was. When he returned, he told me the cab had been waiting on the main road, and the guy who took our camera jumped in and they sped off.

We didn't get a plate number unfortunately, as it all happened so fast, probably less than 5 minutes total. Clayt got a banged up foot, and I got cuts and scrapes on my hand, elbow and back. We were feeling pretty foolish and defeated, and went upstairs to bed. About 15 minutes later, there was a knock on the door. It was 3 policemen and a woman we hadn't seen before. She lives on the third floor and saw the commotion from her window. she called the police and called her son, who speaks really good english. So, at about 4 a.m. we were at the Police station giving statements and trying to describe the guys as best we could. Nothing has come of it so far, except us learning an important lesson: don't take the cabs just sitting outside the tourist destinations late at night. And don't argue about the price, just leave the money and get inside. Next week is the biggest holiday of the year, and also the biggest tourist draw of the year: Naadaam Festival. So, I'm thinking this is a time to be extra careful. It sucks we lost our expensive digital camera - no photos for the blog for a while, until we can buy a new camera.

On a happier note, the woman's son who acted as our translator is in a band and asked clayt to play bass for them at a music festival this afternoon. He described it as the "Mongolian Woodstock." And, now that Clayt has his guitar here (Happy Birthday!) he was able to practice with them yesterday and hopefully will have a great time performing today.

Beijing

At the start and the end of our trip we had long layovers in Beijing. So on our first day of traveling, we visited 3 country capitals in one day: Ulaanbaatar, Beijing and Bangkok. Beijing is so different from Ulaanbaatar, even though they are only 2 hours apart by plane. It was clean, organized, very busy, and hot.


We visited Tiananmen Square, and saw this nice big portrait of Mao on the outer wall of the Forbidden City.


Here's clayt inside the Forbidden City. One of Clayt's first impressions of China: "Its too crowded."


Here I am at our hotel where we stayed at the end of our trip. It was a really nice place off the beaten path, affordable and eclectic. I was just happy to have a comfy bed with AC and hot water again!


Clayt is standing in front of the first McDonalds we have seen in 7 months. Mongolia has no western food chains, so while in Beijing and Thailand we enjoyed McDonalds and Dairy Queen. In fact, (sadly, I hate to admit it!) on our last day in China before returning to Mongolia we ate at McDonalds 3 times!!!


Here is a giant countdown clock for the Olympics. China is really pumped up about this, and olympics merchandise is sold all over. See the soldier in the corner guarding the clock so you can't get too close? We were thinking since our contracts will be finishing around that time next year, we might like to go see an event at the first olympic games ever held in China.

Bangkok

We got into Bangkok at around 9 a.m. and spent a very full day there, as our flights out were early the next morning.


This is a cool statue near where we were staying. Elephant icons are all over.


We took a short boat tour of the city and clayt was impressed by the size of the motor running our long skinny boat.


Men on another long skinny boat came up alongside us in the river and sold us beers, but it looks like there was a wide array of things for sale.


Here are some traditional style homes we saw along the river. It was like a whole little town, but instead of streets there was the river.


Things like this we saw everywhere. You couldn't go more than half a mile without seeing another picture of the King or the King and Queen. We passed schools that had giant posters "We love the King" and there were even airplanes at the airport that said the same. The King is really REALLY loved here, and all the places we stayed at had some sort of shrine for him, calendars with his picture, keychains, anything you can think of, they had a photo of the king on it.


Would you like to eat here?


Another giant golden buddha, this one in the reclining position. It was HUGE.


Here I am dropping coins into pans. I'm not sure why, maybe for good luck or an offering to Buddha or something, but I just liked the way it sounded when they dropped in, one by one.


Some nicely decorated stupas (?) outside the temple in the courtyard.


Another scenic shot of the grounds outside of the temple.


This is backpackers central, a road in Bangkok that is chock full of souvenir shops, junk stores, bars and restaurants. And white people. lots and lots of white people. We tried to do some last minute shopping here, but it proved a little stressful as they all want you to haggle for the price. Clayt and I both are not very fond of that system.


This boy was 12 years old and selling roses. If you said no, he would challenge you to either paper-rock-scissors or thumb-war, and if he won, you had to buy the rose. So, Paul agreed to the challenge and was defeated in the first 2 hands of paper-rock-scissors. This photo is capturing his look of defeat.


The is the end of the day, our last full day in Thailand. We found a cool hookah bar to hang out in and tried blueberry flavored sheesha. It was good! It was hard to go to sleep that night knowing we would have to say goodbye in the morning.

Surat Thani

Surat Thani is the furthest south we went during our trip. By bus or by train, it was about a 12 hour trip from Bangkok. After arriving by bus in Surat Thani, we had to catch a ferry to the island of Ko Phanang (?) which was another 4 hour ride. Here it was less humid than in the north, and the water was a turquoise blue.


This is a view from the boat on our way to the island. We passed a lot of little islands along the way.


Here are the honeymooners enjoying the sundeck on our way to snorkeling. (actually Tia had some sea-sickness and Paul was keeping her company)


Here is where we did some of our snorkeling. It was an awesome experience. we saw electric blue fish, yellow fish with black faces, coral reef of every color, sea urchins, a sting ray, and lots of zebra striped fish. It was the most amazing and beautiful thing I have ever seen!


Here I am all geared up for snorkeling. I was more excited than a kid on christmas morning!


This is Paul concentrating on opening a bottle of water. Suddenly the power went out and it was pitch black everywhere. Paul yelled out a loud "Whooooooo!" But it was poor timing because just before he finished, the power came back on and he was exposed. His whoop was no longer anonymous and the look on his face when the lights came back on was priceless!


Paul, Tia and Clayt hanging out on the beach at the start of the "Full Moon Party" for which this particular island is famous. Its an all night beach rave party - mostly white folks and a handful of thais. Not entirely our scene, but were curious enough to check it out for a while.


Here I am with a "bucket" - a sand pail filled with a flask of whiskey, a can of coke and a can of red bull. Not to bad!


Here some goofing off on the bus. We were all a little stir crazy at this point in the trip, having just gotten off a 4 hour ferry ride, and on our way to the train station for a 12 hour train ride back to Bangkok...


We had some time to kill while we waited for our train to depart so we wandered the streets of Surat Thani and tried some of the street vendor food - it was tasty! We had pork and chicken kabobs, corn on the cob, and lots of new fruits.


This is one of the strange fruits we tried, called dragon fruit. Its sweet and soft, like pear and watermelon mixed.


Finally on the sleeper train on our way to Bangkok, and Tia and I are making fun of the boys about something and finding it all very funny.

Ayuthaya

*Remember to scroll down and read from bottom to top to read about our Thailand travels in the correct order. Otherwise you'll be reading from the end to the beginning!*

I have lots of photos for this post, since we did a lot of sightseeing here. Ayuthaya is the ancient capital of Thailand, and therefore has lots of ancient ruins - temples and palaces, etc. We stayed here for a little over 2 days to take in as much as we could. Instead of mopeds, this time we rented bicycles.


We arrived in Ayuthaya in the evening by train, and then had to walk around in the rain to find a place to stay. As you can see, I'm well prepared with my backpack rain gear.


Here is one of the first ancient sites we visited, built in the 1400's.


This buddha face in tree roots was a real curiosity, especially since we didn't have a guide to explain it to us - was the face placed there, or did the roots grow around it? Either way, it makes an interesting photo.


Statues like this one were everywhere in the ruins. Even if the heads had been knocked off (by the burmese we were told) or the statues were damaged otherwise, they still had the yellow sashes wrapped around them.


Our first up close look at the elephants! This guy was giving tours of the city, with a few folks on his back.


On the evening of our first night, we took a tuk-tuk tour. A tuk-tuk is like a little pickup truck with only three wheels and the back is rigged with benches and a tarp-ish roof. Our first stop was an elephant farm. (?) There were probably 25 adult elephants (all chained up, kind of a sad life for them) and 3 baby elephants that were running around loose. We could touch them and play with them. One of the babies was very fiesty, and kept charging people. He would run up and ram into a guy, and then try to push him over from the side, giving a little kick with his back leg. Paul almost got rammed, but, not being a proud man, just turned and ran when the charging elephant came after him. They wrapped their little trunks around eveything - chairs, rocks, fruit. They look so soft, but in fact the hair on them is really bristly.


Here is clayt with one of them. They were a little unpredictable, so it was hard to get photos with us included. We were nervous to get to close and stay still for too long. But in general, they were harmless, funny and cute.


Here is the before-mentioned tuk-tuk.


Some more pretty ruins, visited the next day on a guided bike tour with an english-speaking guide.


A bug we saw just chilling out on a rock at one of the ruins sites. He was huge!!! Probably as thick as a man's middle finger and almost twice as long. We touched him and he curled up into a ball.


Here are the four of us on our bikes. The photos have no way of showing you how hot it was there. Thankfully on this day, it was a little overcast.


Here is Clayt inside one of the temples, standing next to a giant golden Buddha. The temples were really beautiful both inside and out, with lots of attention to detail - everything was ornate.


About halfway through the tour, it started to downpour. We stopped at a marketplace to shop and look around until it let up a little. Here I am enjoying the warm rain - something we see almost never in Mongolia.


And finally, here is Clayt with our bike tour guide, whose name was "R". The tour lasted about 5 hours and was a great way to see things and learn a little of the history.

Ko Chang

The next island we visited was called Ko Chang. A benefit of this island was well-paved roads, which made the moped riding much more enjoyable and safe. There were 2 main benefits to travelling to Thailand at this time of year. First of all, its not the peak tourist season, so prices are lower and its much less crowded. Also, its the rainy season. While this meant less sunbathing opportunities, it was a great escape from the extreme heat and humidity when it rained at least once a day - warm, heavy rain without wind.


This was our bungalo. At first we really didn't like the place because it was so far from everything else on the island, but it grew on us. Quiet and peaceful, right by the ocean - we fell alseep our first night to the sound of pouring rain on the roof and the waves hitting the shore.


First thing in the morning Clayt and I went for a walk along the beach to check out our new surroundings. Swings and hammocks were scattered here and there.


Exploring the island on moped gave us lots of views like this one. It was a very sunny and very hot day, so the moped ride was a nice way to keep cool while exploring the sights.


Here's the two of us at one of the scenic viewing spots. There were so many little islands off shore - we wish we had had time to explore some of them.


After a long day of riding mopeds, it was discovered I had forgetten to put sunblock on my legs! Hence the goofy sunburn line from where clayt's body (i rode behind him on a moped) shaded only part of my leg.

Ko Samet

So, I thought the easiest way to go through the photos would be to make a new blog post for each location we visited. The first place we went was and Island called Ko Samet, where we met up with Paul and Tia. Ko Samet is an island with beautiful views, bathwater-warm clear blue water, bumpy roads and lots of friendly locals. We spent our time here riding mopeds around to explore the island, playing in the water (a chicken fight left clayt with a sore neck) and eating about 4 times a day.


Paul and Tia were so happy to see us, they were speechless!


Here are our beachside bungalos. Most places in Thailand are pretty cheap, but usually don't have hot water or AC. It was so very very hot there that we didn't much miss the hot water, and usually were so tired at the end of the day that sleeping without AC wasn't much of an issue either.


We rode our mopeds to a nice place on the island to watch the sunset. We were the only people there, and it was peaceful and beautiful.


Like most places, there is a poverty problem. Here is one of the "houses" we saw while touring the island. Most people live in homes like pavillions - several feet off the ground, maybe one or 2 outside walls and no doors or room separation. This one however, was one of the most modest we saw. Its hard to even imagine people could live like this.


Here's a photo of clayt wowing the crowd at a local "Bob Marley" bar, singing karaoke - "My Way." They seemed to enjoy his theatrics, and now clayt can say he's sung karaoke in at least 3 different countries!