Travels in Mongolia/6 tourists crossing the Gobi desert in a russian van

Well I think the title says it all. As you can see from my post below we arrived in Mongolia just in time to arrange visas for China (it turns out we could apply for chinese visas in Ulaanbaatur although it took 2 days to cobble together the application, lots of dead ends and lots of supressed internal screaming) and then arrange a tour of the Gobi desert. Travelling Mongolia solo seems to be something that only very hardened travellers attempt in order to impress the folks back home. So instead of catching local transport to see the Gobi (a 6 seater indestructable russian mini-van packed with 14 people and a goat) we chose to see the country on an organised tour (a 6 seater indestructable russian mini van with 6 tourists, a translator and some bottled water) . Here we are at the start of the 2 week trip, very excited to be leaving one of the less inspiring cities in Asia and heading off into the open spaces of the desert.

From left to right: Steven (New Zealander!); Boloroo (Mongolian - our guide and translator); Gaelle (French); Ogi (hostel owner); Sinead (Welsh); John (Irish); Mario (Argentinian/Italian/Spanish); Orta (driver - I spelt his name wrong but it is pronounced Orllta and you can say that if you are welsh!); and Ali (American).



Here we all are after a few hours of driving, or maybe a day or two. The back seat passengers bear the brunt of the bumpy road. The other day Ali was asking how she could possibly describe in her diary the incredible amount of time we spent crushed in this van, clinging onto the windows and the roof.... I have no idea. I guess at least we were only 6 people rather than 14. The distances we travelled seemed even more massive because we averaged about 25 miles an hour once we left Mongolia's only few sealed roads :



Stopping for lunch on the way:



A vulture looking for stray tourists:





Mario attempting to eat his lunch en-route.



Almost everyone outside of Ulaanbaatur lives in a Ger, which is like a Yurt. We mostly stayed with herding families in the nights, and here is a Ger that we slept in. Thats my towel hanging off the side ruining the photo by the way :) In the south of the country, people keep goats, horses and camels, and in the centre and north, goats, sheep, cows, yaks, and even further north reindeer.



A rainstorm in the Gobi. I have never experienced rain like it - you can drive along, pass under a raincloud and get heavily rained on for about 60 seconds, then come through the other side into the sunlight - amazing!





Ali waiting for the longdrop toilet. She'll be delighted I used this photo on my blog:



Checking out a newly finished Ger:



An animal that stayed still long enough for us to snap it!









We had a small fly problem when we hit the greener pastures and steppe north of the Gobi. It was more unpleasant than a hot day in the van, and each person was constantly surrounded by their own swarm. The only way to be rid of them was to drive as fast as possible in the van with all the windows open.



Walking up a hill the van couldn't quite manage with all of us fatties inside:



A game of rounders in the evening:



Um, this was the 7th member of our team, a football we named wilson (after the ball in the Castaway film...) Wilson kept us company until he finally gave up the ghost on the last night of our trip. Here he is with some dead animal bones in the sand where we left him. Somehow this all seemed normal in the middle of the desert....



A waterfall in a ravine west of Ulaanbaatur:



A dog with yoghurt on his head outside a ger in the hills, central Mongolia:



This spot would have been blissful if it hadn't been crawling with flies!!



When Wilson was out of action we were forced to entertain ourselves. With the aid of a herder's gun here are John and Mario posing as a Mongolian freedom fighter and one of Osama's henchmen. Just a little bit troubling how realistic they appear...





Fun with some very cute kids on the way:











Our driver was incredible. Here he is one evening in the Gobi helping another driver remove the entire back axle of a van, repair it, and replace it ready to go in the morning for another 180 kilometres. They only stopped to drive off around the various Gers in the area looking for spare parts. Another night he lit a fire using cow dung to solder together more van parts.



A baby goat!!!!!



Every night we were entertained by gorgeous sunsets, and then a sky packed full of stars and the milky way.



We met some lovely people on the way, another van going the same way as us for a lot of the trip, were welcomed by very friendly mongolian families, and saw some beautiful places. Of course I'm not going to try and describe a 15 day journey in one blog post, so I will just list my favourite parts of the last 2 weeks on the road:

Getting out of the van each day and discovering a new place; trying to herd goats around the desert and getting upstaged by a 6 year old; drinking hot tea with yaks milk, fermented horse milk, yak 'vodka', and the cheap russian stuff; playing games in the Ger and discussing the important issues of the day; jumping in a freezing river after 3 days without washing; finding the same joke hilarious even on day 14; trying to pronounce mongolian sounds; camping in the mountains; camel riding on the sand dunes, galloping with horses on the steppe; watching the sunset in a vast empty sky; getting drunk and looking at the stars; playing volleyball, football and rounders; chasing strange insects; running down sand dunes; sneaking out food to the dogs; getting the best seat in the van; getting away from the flies; not having to think about anything but what we'll get for dinner that night; taking photos on Steven's camera; talking about photography; eating, drinking, driving and sleeping (although more sleeping and less driving would have been even better!).

Now I can't wait to get to China (we leave tomorrow evening) so I can stuff myself with chinese food. We managed to get a visa for 18 days, so that will be the next stage of our trip. How exciting!

Tonight we are going to an all you can eat mongolian barbeque, where I'm going to eat...... all I can!