Trip experiences in visit to Ulaanbaatar Mongolia.
Going to Ulan Batar Mongolia.
Spent the weekend saying good-by to family.
4/29/01
Husband of youngest daughter took us to the Birmingham Airport.
We joked about going back for something we left behind on the way
and he said we would have to drive ourselves back if we did
because it was 4 AM and he wanted to get back to bed.
We had with us clothes and one leather coat for Sarah and a
leather jacket for me. I had spent the previous two weeks working
with the government blessed travel agency to get "our papers
in order" . I had to go to www.traveldocs.com and download
the PDF Visa applications. One Visa for Mongolia 180 days
multiple entry exit and one China transit visa to overnight in
Beijing for each of us. I got my visa pictures at a CVS pharmacy
in Columbiana Alabama and there was only a screen to stand in
front with no chair. They sent for the camera visa picture taking
expert and here came this little woman no taller than 4 ft 2in.
with the digital camera. I bent my knees as to be low as possible
and she held the camera over her head and still the pictures were
mostly of my neck and nostrils. Oh well, it's my fault I should
have insisted on a chair. I suppose I'll have to carry a chair
through customs in the countries so I can stand on it when they
check my passport/visa to appear the same as the photos? Anyway
flew United to Chicago and supposed to get the United 777 to
Beijing at noon after waiting 4 hours. Well, it was announced the
flight would be delayed until 6:05 PM. There goes the afternoon
trip to forbidden city before turning in at the Sino Swiss Hotel
for the night in Beijing. We were delayed for parts again and the
Tech's were swapping displays in the cockpit to make sure the
problem with the bad display would stay with the part and the
problem moved with the display so they popped the new one in and
we were off around 8PM 4/29/01 for a 13.5 hour flight to Beijing.
Movies /video/map were in the seat back in front of you but we
were in seats 17A and 17B which were first seats in the economy
section on left facing front with plenty of leg room and fold
down videos and trays in the arm rest. We could take shoes off
and put legs up on the bulkhead to ward off blood clots. Have to
drink water to help and get up and move around. I took an aspirin
a day for a few days before leaving to prevent clots but I have
never done it before and never had a clot during the last several
years while I filled the pages on my last passport. I have a new
passport and the picture is holo-graph protected to prevent
tampering if lost or stolen. We dozed and generally survived the
flight.
In Beijing we had to go through customs after getting our bags
and we took a Taxi to the Hotel for 100 Yuan or about 12 dollars.
We were exhausted and the room was adequate and $100 but it was
like a $48 room at a Motel 8.
We left for the Airport at 8AM 4/30/01 in Hotel Shuttle Bus .
When we got to the Airport we spent the best money we will ever
spend at 10 Yuan each for two young men each with an airport cart
for our two each heavy bags. They took them from the bus and
escorted us right to Pay airport tax of 90 Yuan ($11) each and
then escorted us right on path to ticketing and even lifted the
bags up to the scales and talked to the girl behind the counter
and things went smooth. The China Air 737 to Ulan Batar went
smooth for two hours and we crossed the Gobi dessert on the way.
We landed and went through customs easily (not like Russia) and
went out to meet Paul and Jeff . On the way to town we saw the
felt gers or yerts just on outskirts. There seemed to be more
Cabins or shacks than Yerts but it was a small community not in
Soviet style Apartments. We crossed the river which was clear and
not to deep and moving briskly due to snow melt. Looks like a
trout stream to me.
Arrived at compound with Peace Corps Office and a couple of
consulates in same building as the Apartments. If we lost power a
backup generator kicks in and we are back with power. Not like
Vladivostok where we were without power about 50% of the time due
to the city not being able to pay the power bill. Our Apartment
is on the 5th floor (no elevator) . Apartment is huge for us two.
Large eat in kitchen, large formal dining room with a small
balcony, living room with a small balcony, bedroom with a small
balcony, den with a small balcony, a full bath with bedet (or
however you spell it), and another 1/2 bath. The hallway is 10ft
wide so there must be at least 1600 sq.ft. All windows are double
and swing out into rooms. Couldn't ask for more on a three month
assignment. We had to retire from exhaustion and a good thing
because Sarah had to leave early Wed. morning for emergency
medical problem with a volunteer in a village about 6 hours away.
I worked on getting things from a list we made the day before. I
tried to email our safe arrival downtown at an internet cafe but
the connection was 15min of wasted time so I'll try tomorrow.
5/3/01
I got up early and started on this update of trip. Sarah has been
gone about 22 hours now so maybe she will call with a report of
what is happening. She came back and had the volunteer with her
after an all night train ride. He is doing fine. They were in a
village that had a physician and he thought it was appendicitis
and wanted to cut . She determined it wasn't and brought him back
and he is recovering and is fine. She thanked all locals for the
concern and care given. This is the only medical thing I will
mention in this whole narrative but I wanted to present a more
typical call out which was in the Gobi desert. She said the land
cruiser started off out of town and there was pot holes etc. but
pavement so she thought "this won't be too bad" and
shortly the pavement ran out and everything was paths going in
different directions . The driver took one of them and away they
went. They saw marmots and wild life such as Camels and the trip
wasn't far but took 6 hours. So. she was up 24hrs with a snooze
between stops on the train.
5/4/01
Awake at three AM again . We are 14 hrs earlier than Central Time
in the States. Going to try to find an internet service provider
today.
.Found MagicNet. and signed up for three months internet access.
5/5/01
Spent the day shopping and walking.
5/6/01
Getting TV installed to inside connection to dish. Also have a
VCR to watch movies which can be rented at the Mercury store. On
the dish we get CNN international and financial news and National
Geographic channel and Animal Planet and Star sports which is
mostly European football (soccer) with occasional day late golf .
Not roughing it at all over here. Paul showed us remaining
markets to see the container market where they sell from the back
of shipping containers. We witnessed a small physical spat
shoving mostly between two down and outs ( a man and a
woman-older types ) Shoots Pauls theory of the locals being non
violent. I think it was a spat between the two over territory
rights within the container market for begging purposes or
pickpocket rights etc. Paul got several calls about a new medical
problem with a volunteer that is way out and will need to come in
so the weekends are busy here too. On the cell phone a lot.
5/7/01
Monday Sarah back to work clinic all day. We were invited out to
dinner tomorrow with the Country Director and his wife.
5/8/01
I was able to use internet for a few days before my modem
software got clobbered by a short power outage. The big generator
comes on right away but if you don't have a UPS system on your
computer you can get bit. Anyway, my diskette drive was bad when
I brought this old mac powerbook so I didn't bring any back up
software hoping for three months of luck. I should have known
better! We dined at a so called African /French restaurant. It
turned out to be ok but nothing to talk about. I left my hat but
didn't want to go back that night to get a ball cap. By the way
it's May 8th and we have had some sort of snow flurries every day
but the sun comes out and it back up to 50 -60 deg.F.
5/9/01
I must have walked 5 to 6 miles today. I started out with a taxi
driver but there was no communication between us to find Magic
Net. I wanted to take my internet service provider contract with
me and see if I could get a portion of my three month fee of $146
since my modem was broken etc.. After walking a great distance in
what I thought was the correct direction I saw the landmark I was
looking for. After walking a couple of kilometers I was in Magic
Net building. I was hot from all the walking because it decided
to be in the 70�s today after I started out with a leather
jacket. Magic Net was very understanding about my bad computer
problem . They turned out to be a top notch company and returned
the entire $146. I think there was a Magic Net in Ukraine so it's
probably a big enough company to not want to treat cash customers
poorly. I was looking for a pro rated refund but did not argue. I
also stopped by and picked up my hat I left in the restaurant the
night before. So the running around turned out to be a success.
5/10/01
Spent the morning reading Train Man
Afternoon tried to get Sarahs broken anniversary necklace fixed
but the lady turned it back and said she couldn't do it so I
showed her my glasses with that needed a screw on left side. She
said no. I gathered she only works on watches. She had a watch
gutted in front of her on the table. Her booth is in a store and
is about a 6 square foot booth. I left half of my glasses there
by mistake and went back later but she was gone.
5/11/01
Going back to see if I can get my glasses parts back from the
booth watch repair lady hoping she saved it when she cleaned up.
Not to be true!. She said she didn't have it. I must have dropped
it somewhere. I decided to go to the German bakery . Sarah wants
some German breakfast rolls and pretzels to be heated up for hot
pretzels. A few doors before the bakery I found a jewelry fixing
place and had her necklace fixed. It has the surrounding links
tarnished from the blow torch to join the broken link but it will
probably come clean in jewelry cleaner. I picked up a set of
ear-rings I thought but it was a round metal container full of a
white solid that turned to powder when scrapped away but no
earrings inside! I'll take it back next week and ask what's up?
5/12/01
Saturday doing nothing so far. Just walking around
5/13/01
Same as Saturday Sarah on call for this weekend.
5/14/01
Went to lunch with Jeff, Heather, Paul and Sarah at Korean
Restaurant.
Went for a long walk after Sarah's work about 8 to 9PM.
5/15/01
Visited the art museum. $2.50 lots of 15th century cast bronze
figures of an early teenage woman At first they all look alike
but each is different . More bronze figures . Various large
pictures made like a quilt all silk, silk brocade, silk shreds.
Paintings were plentiful. Paper machete masks covered in jade or
other material.
5/16/01
Went to lunch at Millie's had a cheeseburger and fries
Shopped for groceries and boxed milk.
5/17/01 not much happening.
5/18/01 ditto
5/19/01 ditto
5/20/01 ditto
Tried to take a 1.5 hr trip in country but Sarah was called back
due to sick child.
Paul and I took a volunteer back to their village and I got to
see the river and countryside. The river looks like a good trout
stream.
5/21/01
Not much. Tried Internet Cafe again. Small children running
around bothering and hitting keys to destroy your data and a
cloud of Mongolians hovering around and Re booting the Server and
knocking down the internet modem connection every 15 minutes for
their own reasons when connection is OK? Anyway, I seem to be the
only one of 6 stations who ever pays so I'm giving them less than
the $1 / hour according to how many times they cause me problems.
Last time I paid equivalent of 10 cents and walked out.
5/22/01
Not much
5/23/01
Decided to tell about the open man holes all through town. They
don't fit and people get injured by falling through when they
step on the top and the top tilts and there they go. So city has
decided to leave all the ill fitting ones off. At least in the
day time you can see the hole and avoid it. What about walking
around at night? Well, you could fall into a category If the
packs of wild dogs leave you alone.
5/24/01
Went to internet cafe and they left the server up all one hour
for me I guess since they saw I was upset the last time in there.
5/25/01
Used Pauls computer to make a MS WORD Tables document for Sarah
and Paul to use in the clinic.
Tomorrow we go to spend weekend in a real Ger (yert). They call
them gers here and rymes with hair. Will try to upload a picture
to my web site.
5/26/01
Rode to tourist camp at Terrelj with Togtohk in her private car
$108 round trip. Camp with GERS to rent by the night (2 days for
$23) is located 2 hours out of Ulaanbaatar in mountains about
6,500 to 7,000 Ft. elevation . We had lunch of local dish called
"booze" (dumplings filled with mutton). Ger is fine and
we will be taking a lot of photos. Went for a long walk up the
left side of river and I fished with lures but no luck. The first
thing when we arrived we were asked "want to buy a
horse" means want to rent one by the hour. There were plenty
but we wanted to wait til tomorrow. We had our sleeping bags for
the night. Beds were slat boards covered by a couple of sheet
covered blankets. We got the stove going but wood burns fast so
we let it go out and it was cold all night about 45 degrees or
40?
5/27/01
I got up first and got the fire going and we covered the flap
over the top center of ger. It eventually warmed up and we went
for an hour ride on horses up the hill and around and took
pictures. After that we went to river most of rest of day fishing
with salmon eggs and cheese no bites! I don't think there were
any fish left. Must be the locals netted them out. It rained
about 7pm and we went to bed early due to not sleeping well the
night before. It was nice to hear the rain on the canvas top. The
ger is made with about 3/4" felt covered with canvas. The
ribs are wood and from the center top radiate out to the sides
(about 80 top ribs fitted into slots of a wooden center ring then
going out to sides) The sides are wooden lattice with V's at top
where the 80 top supports fit across and overlap about 2 ".
5/28/01
Waited til noon and ride showed up. The driver to be (not the one
that brought us) obviously had a big night the night before but
he brought his designated driver to drive while he slept. The
driver was good and we had an uneventful drive back.
5/29/01
normal work day
5/30/01
normal work day
5/31/01
normal work day
6/01/01
Mongolian Holiday . Paul and I went fishing. Followed Tuul river
past Airport west to southwest and fished several spots. I think
they are still spawning or something because no bites!
6/02/01
Played cow and horse on Paul's new basketball backboard hoop and
net setup out back at the end of the tennis court nobody uses.
06/03/01
Same as yesterday and also a trip to the container market.
Snapped one picture.
06/04/01
Went to lunch at Millie's and then I went to State Department
Store to get milk and eggs and a pound of ground meat.
Played COW basketball.
06/05/01 to 06-18-01
Same old boring stuff except for COW basketball every evening.
6/06/01 to 7/01/01
Not up to much. just surviving and started to work on my web
site.
Returned to Alabama and played golf in Beijing on the way back.
Sarah had to extend Contract another month til new hire gets
here.
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