The Journey Back to UB and Beijing

...The good news when we arrived for our lift is that we were early but expected with the shop owner doing an apparent stock-take before heading to the city to buy some more stock, so we presumed. Well we eventually hit the road 90 minutes late only to pull into her sisters ger at the nearest town. A phone was handed to me and an English speaking relative said that the driver wanted more money as they had been unable to find any more passengers (bare in mind that we thought we were just hitching on a trip that was being made anyway). Well, we explained the price had been agreed and we were nor prepared to pay double but increased to 80,000T. We were then fed while the driver did some last rounds to drum up support. A couple of hours later the van returned full but these people turned out to be helpers for the full dismantling of the engine which then took place. Evidently there was some problem! The rest of the afternoon was spent playing volleyball, Uno and reading while we were generously plied with milk tea and food. A few false starts and full bellies later we hit the road at around 8pm only for another problem to emerge, we had no fuel and all the petrol pumps in town were closed. We pulled up outside the English speaking sisters ger who explained the problem which we had already guessed. Fine, deep breath and count to 10, we will camp next to her ger and set off at 5 the next morning. We were aware of our shortening time in country and eager not to waste too much more, no matter how enjoyable the day had actually been. This was agreed to and the sister truly took us under her wing (she turned out to actually be the sister-in-law to the brother of the drivers wife!). She insisted that we sleep in her ger, which she moved out of leaving us alone, and gave us food and drink for the evening. It was a great experience to see and stay in such a place with there being hardly any possessions or luxuries evident, a stark contrast to the ger we spent the day in which had TV, computer, freezer and washing machine. The whole day had been a bit of a disaster but without which we would never have experienced the local life or been subject to their extremely generous nature.

Well, you guessed it, 5am came and went with us rising properly at 7am for some tea and breakfast. At this point our host was pretty angry at the driver, saying haw lazy some people were. She really felt responsible for us and dispatched her brother who came back with the expected news that the van was a non-starter and he had not been able to find any alternate transport. We headed for the road, our host refused to take any money but did say she would email, with the intention to hitch which had been our original plan in the first place. Miraculously the van that was fuelling at the petrol station when we arrived had a couple of free places and with no waiting we had a lift for 15,000 each to Tsetserleg!

A queasy 4 hours later we arrived, had a bowl of restoring mutton and pasta soup, checked into a cheap hotel and visited the museum and monastery that had been recommended to us and proved to be worth the effort. A quick sleep (well 2 hours), a much needed shower and some dinner later and we felt almost normal again. The following day (28th July) we were on the move again, this time to Kharkouren the ancient capital. The minivan was not due to leave until 2 so we thought we would hitch again. It took us 45 minutes this time but a van then stopped and we were on our way. The van turned out to have originally been booked by three cycling Spaniards for their use alone but there was already a load of locals that had then been picked up leaving us barely enough room with which to squeeze ourselves into. There is always room for 1 more! We ended up in a pretty ger camp just outside of town right by a river and the owner dropped us at Erdene Zuu Khiid, Mongolias first monastery. It was a huge walled complex and the remaining buildings were impressive however the vast majority had been destroyed in the 30's. The atmosphere was very tranquil and we could only imagine how it must have looked in its prime. We had buuz for dinner, Mongolian meat dumplings, and then headed to our ger with Amy feeling a little worse for wear. She then proceeded to have a bad night and was bed ridden for the following day. I stuck around, wondering outside for a bit and then checking in. The waterfalls and monastery 80km away which we had intended to visit would have to wait for our next trip to the area. Feeling better, we were up early the next day to get a minivan back to the capital, arriving at the bus station around 8am. Well, the ticket office opened at 9, the van was due to leave at 11am but then spent 90 minutes driving around town trying to find a person to occupy the single remaining seat. We arrived in town at 6pm and headed to our hostel which turned out to have been overbooked and so we ended up at our 3rd hostel in Ulaanbaatar though it was comfortable. It is a good job that Amy was feeling better at it was a long day.

Our final day in the country was spent relaxing and wondering round the massive market selling everything from horse tack to kitchen goods to tools to furniture, if its not there it is not worth having! In the evening we went to a cultural show where the music was the real highlight. The horse head fiddle was much more melodious than I had expected and the throat singing less so, but bizarre and enjoyable none-the-less. Our train back to Beijing was uneventful and much more civilised than cramming into the back of a minivan.