Part of the Mongolia experience involves spending lots of time in a vehicle of your choice. In our case, it was an old-school van straight out of the movie, Little Miss Sunshine.
Needless to say, we were all pretty excited despite having to sit through the very rough terrain. Vans like this obviously don’t come with state-of-the-art suspension and there were no proper paved roads outside of the city. Every few minutes, we’d be rolling along some rocks and hitting our heads and knees. Our trip started with a ride from Ulaanbaatar to Tsetserleg which took all morning and afternoon. The blue skies soon darkened and a storm loomed. We had asked about the sort of weather to expect previously and Scott, one of our riding guides said to expect anything between hail and sun. Still, it took us completely by surprise when we drove into a hailstorm. » Read the rest of this entry «
I got my roll of film back and the entire roll’s damaged. I didn’t want to be carrying my DSLR around when unicycling so I brought a toy cam instead. Besides, the landscape pics should be pretty cool. Because I still have those digital pics, I didn’t feel that horrid about the loss until a recent conversation about Pokemon. We saw a Pokemon on our ride one day and I got some pics of it in that roll of film.
I’ve read about the Jerboa before and I googled for the critter again and found articles stating that it’s on the Top 100 list of endangered animals. The one we saw was probably injured or ill. It stood in a spot and allowed us to pet it and get photos of it. It was really close to the main tracks so it might have been hit by a vehicle previously. Despite the size, it had these disproportionate ears and huge HUGE toes. And a really long tail with a bit of fluff at the end. Kinda like the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde cartoons.
How can you not like an animal that looks like that???
One of the guys got this pic of me walking on Riding Day 3. I was quite impressed with how fit I looked and went to the mirror to admire the lovely irregular tan (you can see the line just below the right side of my tights) and what looks like leg muscles. Then I realized I don’t quite look that toned.
Moral of story: Walk with a unicycle. It makes you look fitter.
On a rest day during the trip, I finished this book, Wolf of the Plains which is a historical fiction about Chinggis Khan. It chronicled his hard childhood and events that led to the start of his conquests. The story was quite poorly weaved but there was a poignant description of how the Great Khan’s steed served as companion, sidekick and sustenance. You cringe but in the harsh conditions of Mongolia – and you have to realize that the conditions 900 years ago has got to be much worse than it is currently – the arrangement makes perfect sense. » Read the rest of this entry «
The white dots are gers while the red ones are wooden cottages.
It was about 7pm at the gers. From what I can tell, there were two families living there and 4 daughters between them. I was introduced to my ger by the two older girls who are 14 and 15 who were my child slaves for the day, sent to see to my needs. Uanga was one of them. My ger had 4 beds, a table and smelt like dank wood and cloth. It wasn’t unpleasant though, partly because there was always the distinct smell of animals wafting through the air to distract you.
Because of a delayed flight, I missed my bus to Terelj, a national park about 70km away from the city. I missed the morning bus again the following day, mistaking the bus stop in front of the hostel for the one that I was supposed to catch the bus at. Bob, a local who runs the hostel tells me that the correct one is about a 10 minute walk away and asks where I was going to be staying when there. Tiara Resort, I say. I had reserved a bed (in the most casual of means by an email without mention of payment) but hadn’t the faintest idea how to get there; a reply to my email instructed to take the public bus and stop at about an hour forty into the ride AND walk 100m until I see a signboard (in Mongolian). It costs US$16 a night.
That’s expensive, says Bob. I have a friend, only 15,000 Tugriks (That’s about US$14.50) with meals. She can pick you up when there.
In Mongolia, Chinggis Khaan still rules. Everything from vodka to beer to hotels to the airport to food is branded Chinggis Khaan. In fact, two weeks is enough to have his likeness permanently branded in my head. In portraits around the city, what stood out most about him was the fringe, the eyebrows, the earring and like with all important historical Mongolians, eyebags. Eyebags are like the quintessential status symbol, featuring in the portraits of ALL important people. ALL.
(I can’t recall how his hat looks like but figured with all the animals roaming the countryside, there has to be some point in time he’d have wanted something like this. Also, I believe he’s a gruff sort of person so it makes sense to me he’d say things like ‘Oy!’) » Read the rest of this entry «
Late Friday night, I’d be flying off to be one of the first people to tour Mongolia by unicycle. I’m excited and a bit doubtful of being able to ride through all 240km of the tour. I packed most of my stuff today
In the massive round bag is my 29″ Qu-Ax Cross, helmet, guards, slackline and tools. The backpack contains 15 days of clothes, sleeping bag and necessities. That other blue bag is a dry sack with my water bag (ironic, eh?) and cameras.
One day, I hope to be able to look back at escapades like this and appreciate the sense of humor I have.
I found this picture from Unicon XV in New Zealand from the 10k race. For some reason, I have that permanent pained expression in EVERY SINGLE race whether on foot or on wheel. I think I need to develop a standardized camera-friendly face for use in such situations.
Eat your hearts out. My 95mm contact ball has arrived. Unfortunately, the shop was out of clear ones so I took up a blue one. I’d really be partial to a ebony one but I was afraid that scratches would ruin it. It’s very much heavier but the butterfly seems to benefit from the additional weight. It’s very intimidating though and I keep getting this bad vision of dropping it and having it smash a hole in the marble floor in my room. Or shatter my bookshelves. Or both.
And might I also add, my replacement glow balls have arrived. Shipping costs way more than I’d have liked but I’ve now got 8 glowballs including (at least) 2 faulty ones. I’ve yet to charge the new ones but I’m quite inspired to get a bit of filming done with these after seeing Thomas Dietz’s new trailer.
