The solution? Take a tour! So, after spending a few days chilling in Ulaan Baatar (the capital), searching out a tour that was leaving soon and going to places I wanted to go, and applying for my transit visa to Siberia, I headed out on the tour.
Actually, I took a bus (one of the few routes they did have in Mongolia). I couldn't leave with the tour I wanted because I had to apply for my visa, so instead I left a day later (day 2 of their tour) on a public bus, and intercepted them on day 3. While the mini van we had for our tour was a little cramped, it felt palacial compared to the bus. When they ran out of room below the bus to store luggage they just put it into the aisles, creating a 3 foot high barricade. This made getting out for rest stops quite an adventure. It was a long, bumpy, 15 hour bus ride, punctuated by the occasional rest stop, and the time when the woman next to me threw up on my leg. That was pretty awesome.
Once I survived the bus ride I was picked up by a local family, and stayed in their Ger (basically a giant 5 foot high cylinder with a gently-sloped dome over it), the dwelling of choice for nomadic Mongolians. The next day I met up with the rest of the tour (another instance where having a cell phone was invaluable), and we headed off on our adventures.
Over the next 9 days we played a lot of cards, slept in various Gers and tents, rode camels in the Gobi, climbed and then ran down a huge sand dune in the Gobi, were woken up by goats wandering into our Ger, took a 3 day horse trek, and more. To sum up the trip in three words: it was awesome. If you want more details than that (and I hope you do, I did give a pretty brief description), check out the photos below.
lunch time!
preparing dumplings. While I tried my hand at this, I was pretty terrible. However, I made up for it by being excellent at eating them.
goat skull in vulture valley
this is a typical road in Mongolia - not quite the same level of infrastrucure as back in the states. . .
our group (and some others) with our Camels
breakfast time in our ger
a view of the Gobi sand dunes
I'm the king of the world! Well, at least of this particular dune. For the next 2 minutes . . .
some wandering goats evacuating a ger they were raiding. One night the door to our ger blew open, and I was woken up to a goat wandering around at 6am. Despite being tired I was still awake enough to appreciate the humor value - wish I could have taken a picture of that, but this one will have to suffice
this is a typical bathroom we'd have during our tour. Except when the bathroom was just "nature." This might be a good time to mention that I wouldn't recommend this tour to people who prefer 5-star amenities. . .
look at me, I'm on a horse!!
one of the many "wow, nature is pretty" moments encountered on our horse trek
trekking along
our final destination, the hot springs. Each of these huts had a small thermal pool in it. Pretty cool, although overall the trek was much more about the journey than the final destination. It was a nice bonus, though.
our camp
Adrian were you not bored with the trip - there does notseem much to see or do.
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