Mongolia, pt. 3

This is a ridiculously long post. If you read it in one sitting then I am humbled and honored. Before we get started, I want to say that I miss you all very very much.

Part I: The Train from Beijing - Ulaanbaatar
I had been struggling to try and get out of Beijing (see here, here), but I finally did. The night before the train, after the bookstore, I went to a bar/restaurant called the Rickshaw, planning to do some writing. Maybe writing in a black notebook in public is inviting distraction, because two Austrian women began talking to me shortly thereafter. Granted, they thought I was passed out when my head was really just hunched over my notebook. I guess they were curious as to what I was dreaming about. Talked with them until the bar closed, headed back to the hostel, packed, and made it down to the train station by 6:45.

The train station was packed for my 7:40 train. It seemed as if even the employees didn't know which track the train was coming in on. They figured it out and I boarded. My ticket was for a "hard sleeper." Two bunks side by side in a room about 5 feet wide and 7 feet deep. Luckily, I only had one roommate. We used the other beds for storage space. He (I forgot his name) is 25 and Chinese and was headed up to Ulaanbaatar to bring his Mongolian girlfriend back to China so they could be married. Very happy for him. What I wasn't so happy about was his inclination to listen to music on the speakerphone of his cell. I've noticed a lot of Chinese doing this. It's annoying. What's worse is when the only song he seems to listen to is "Stan" by Eminem. My iPod came in handy. I hope that song doesn't remind him of his girlfriend or something. That wouldn't be right.

Made friends with the people in the compartment next to me. Incredible people. Gill and Sally, Grace and Ted. Gill and Sally are a British couple who basically have figured things out pretty well. They are a little more than a handful of years older than me and have spent the last three years living in Asia. They've traveled more than maybe I ever will, and have spent their last block of time living and working in advertising in Singapore. They just figured they'd see what was out there. With the talent they have (a lot, mind you), they found work doing art direction and copy writing, respectively. Their trip to Mongolia is just part of their passage back to London via the Trans-Siberian Railroad. They left yesterday and are currently headed towards Irkutsk, stopping by a lake containing more water than all the Great Lakes combined. A link to their blog is to your right, so please do yourself a favor and check it out. Their pictures are too good, their adventures too enviable. I am loving traveling by myself right now, but one day I think it would be incredible to do it the way they are.

Ted and Grace are friends from New Orleans. Grace is a few years older than me and freelances her way around the world, while Ted has lived in Barcelona for the last 25 years, where he translates Spanish into Catalan, rolls cigarettes and plays the keyboards in his band.

The train ride had some beautiful moments, as exhibited by the pictures that will eventually be below this text. The sunset was incredible.

(pictures)

Had a four hour stop at the border where they had to literally lift up the train (while we were on it) in order to change the gauge of the trucks. Apparently China and Mongolia didn't work out the standard weights & measures before they built their railways.

(pictures)

Part II: Ulaanbaatar and Central Mongolia
All five of us ended up going to the same hostel. We ended up deciding to get dinner together. We ended up deciding to go on a trek around the countryside together. We did. The pictures I've posted tell that story. But, to round it all out, here are some details...

Our driver is a true Mongolian. Ikme (his name) has an English vocabulary that consists of "no" and "good." His most repeated phrase is "yo-e, yo-e," which means "let's go...now." We drive out in an awesome van and head out into the wild. Roads are non-existent, and the van bounces up and down without fail for hours on end. The first day's drive was about nine hours. Nine hours of bouncing. The sun went down before we found the ger we were supposed to stay in. We were lost. Found out we needed to cross a river to get to our place. Our van could not ford the river. Luckily, vodka and my guitar helped quell the situation. Gill's pictures better document the drama, and I'll fill them in to this post when I can.

(reminder to insert Gill's pictures here)

The rest of the trip, like the first night, was pretty incredible. The countryside just blew my mind. Seriously blew my mind. Wild horses, yak blocking the road, gers with satellite dishes and solar panels, Mongolian cowboys with ridiculously awesome outfits (I swear they are Jedi), drinking airag (fermented horses milk...not tasty), eating nothing but mutton and noodles, all of it.

When we made it over the hill and got our first view of the White Lake, we were breathless. So incredible. It was there that we went on a six-hour horse ride along the lake. Ended up at our guide's ger, where we all watched him kill a sheep and skin it. Then the women got involved in cleaning it all out. Definitely one of the moments in my life I'll never forget. You can even see the adorable kids getting involved toward the end. A little different from what I'm used to in the states. This one girl was so sweet that I didn't even care that she was drooling all over me. I liked her so much that she's watching over my blog.

Met some kids outside a bar we went to a few days later. Turns out one of the kids loves to beatbox. I need to upload that video asap.

(sterling, upload that video)

Got a free guided tour at a Buddhist monastery because I have an id card that says I'm a student (thanks STA). Ended up buying some really old coins. Found a Mexican one peso coin from 1910...what was that doing there? I thought it might be fake, but who would go through that much trouble? Whatever the case may be, it's in my possession.

The entire trip was incredibly memorable, fun, exciting, new. All those adjectives. The five of us got along so well, it was almost too easy. Sometimes things just click.

Part III: Back in Ulaanbaatar
Came back, relaxed, went to a Mongolian folk art performance. Mongolian throat-singing is beyond comprehension. So were the 10-year-old female contortionists. Yesterday I met some people from the Arts Council of Mongolia, courtesy of a wonderful man by the name of Robert Ness (by way of Jerilyn Brusseau, by way of Judy Proffer). Thank you all very much for your help, because I got to see some very cool contemporary Mongolian art. It always really fulfills me to see the local, current art of an area. Art acts as both a catalyst and reflection of the current zeitgeist, and I know Mongolia has a lot more to contribute than the mass-produced "antiques" that go on sale in the black market and State Department Store. Still, I don't want to talk too poorly about the State Department Store...I got an amazing cashmere beanie for $20.

Just bought a ticket to Kathmandu. Ready to make some serious moves. Thinking about Everest Base Camp, the Annapurna circuit and a whole lot more. Also ready to start using that Indian visa I worked so hard to procure. I'm incredibly excited, but I'd be dreaming if things went perfectly according to plan. Got a great deal on a ticket, although the routing sucks. That's all well and good. However, since I have to connect twice (once in Beijing, once in Guangzhou), turns out that I need a Chinese visa to do so. The travel agent didn't say so; in fact, she said I'd be just fine. But, word on the street/common sense suggests that I couldn't take a domestic flight within China without a visa. That puts me in a bind...this is how I'm going to deal with it.

Show up at the Chinese Embassy at 9:30 this morning. See if I can get a visa processed the same day. That'll set me back another $150, but at least this headache will be out of sight, out of mind. If they can't process it until Friday (most likely the case), then my Thursday flight to Kathmandu doesn't seem like it will work without some help from Doc Brown. If I get the visa Wednesday, I'm golden. If not, then it's back to the travel agency, where I either need to bump my flights back until after I've acquired the visa, or change my routing to some place that doesn't require me to have a visa (e.g. Seoul, Hong Kong). I know this is all terribly exciting to read, but this is the sweat that goes behind the fun. Obviously, I'm thankful to have these as my problems, as opposed to those that many others face. I got it good. But while I keep it all in context, it's still a pain. No change that's worthwhile is ever easy, right? I believe that to be one of the fundamental underpinnings of this trip.

Time to get "sorted," as Gill would say. Adam and Eli, I want to let you know in advance that I offered our new couch to Gill and Sally when they come to NYC at some point in the future.

If you've made it this far, I applaud and thank you. Have I ever mentioned a band called Ra Ra Riot? They're on tour right this very moment. Kind of like me, except with six members, and instruments, and lights, and amazing songs, and fans, and run-ins with Conan O'Brien.