Week one. Blown tires, hospitality, and mutton soup

***From here on out we might have internet rougly once a week, maybe. I am still geting the hang of this blog thing and trying to be good about pictures. Please stick with me! Facebook is the easiest way to share this for me so if you don't want to see if in your feed my apologies.***

Well we have arrived in Erdennet, it was a journey. All told we have cycled about 220miles or roughly 370 k and have been beaten, battered, nearly blown over, nearly run over, and taken care of by complete strangers. Mongolia is an amazing country. The landscape is familiar but different all at the same time (think eastern Colorado/Wyoming) and the people are friendly and accommodating. Leaving Ulaanbaatar we attempted to decide what route to take. We had originally decided to take a more westerly route but after being told by multiple locals that the road was bad we decided against it and chose the north route. This may or may not have been the right decision but it was what we did. After braving some heinous traffic we made it out of the main city fully loaded and on the highway. Roughly 30k into our first day, disaster! In an effort to stay off the busy main road and ride a side dirt road I ran over a large chunk of glass and blew out the side wall on my rear tire. It sounded like it was slashed with a knife and was pretty bad.

I wish I had a picture of the gash, roughly the size of a quarter and plenty big enough to get your thumb through. Luckily I had some tire boots for just such an occasion and Kyle has seen this kind of thing patched before. With some team work, quick thinking, and a shit load of super glue, we were able to patch the thing and keep moving to a glorious campsite on a hill. Day one 45k.

Patched tire.

After the glue failed. Still trucking!

The next morning, fueled by some nescafe, we were off. The tire held up as well as cold be expected, the super glue didn’t last long, but there were no blow outs. We continued to work our way north towards the town of Darhan. There we hoped to either get a spare tire there or catch a bus back to UB to visit a bike shop. It was a long day, we rode 100k busted side wall and everything. It was also quite hot. This made the climbing hard work but the down all the more rewarding. Mongolia is truly a country of extremes, only a few days later we would be braving cold rain and battering head winds. We continued to work our way to Darhan hoping for the best and experienced some spectacular scenery. Some more spectacular camping, thinning traffic the farther we got from the city, and some relatively easy grades made for good cycling.

Typical scenery

We made good time on day two and were hoping for the same the next but the weather and winds had different plans. Like most high deserts the winds pick up in the afternoon here. We rode a good distance until the head winds beat us back and we took shelter in a roadside café. Luckily there was a young women working there who spoke decent English so we had a chance to practice our Mongolian and get some food and a few beers. While we were there the winds just got worse and the storm really blew in. After leaving and attempting to set up near the river we were beaten back to the café by collapsing tents, cold rain, and gust of at least 60 mph. We were able to bargain for a room at the café (more offered by the owner for a fee. A business man is a business man no matter where you are), not free but cheap 20,000mnt about $11, and at least had some shelter. There we ate some more mutton buuz, mutton dumpling things, and some perogskis, Russian meat pastries, and drank another beer. After all we only had 27k into Darhan and we hoped the storm would pass. It didn’t. The ride into Darhan was wet, cold and windy.

Accomodations at the Cafe

Darhan is the second largest city in Mongolia. Despite this fact there was no bike shop or hostel and the prospect of heading back to UB to procure a new tire was looking more and more probable. They do have a nice internet café we were able to post up in for a bit to start to figure it out, and the owner allowed us to store our bikes inside a locked room. Luckily the tire was doing fine. After some serious repair work with a tube of freesole (basically urethane) it seems that the thing will keep rolling but an extra tire was still necessary for emergencies.


In the internet café we checked the requisite e-mails and looked up a bike shop in UB. After some phone back and forth via skype we were able to determine that, supposedly, they could get some tires to us by getting them on a bus that night and sending them our way if we transferred the money into their bank account. Seemed too good to be true but alright. Then we had to figure out the hotel/place to stay situation. That was when we had a lucky break. We ran into Victoria, a Peace Corps coordinator from New York who helped us find a place to stay and a person to help. Enter Otgon!

Otgon and Kyle!

Otgon's awesome house!

Otgon is an ex-circus tumbler/aerialist with Ringling Bros. and gymnastics coach. He has lived and worked all over the world and coached in Austria, Germany, Africa, Australia and many other places. He has good English skills, is fluent in German, and to say he is animated would be an understatement. This guy, without ever meeting us or knowing anything about us, took us into his home, drove us around, translated, and helped us figure out the tire situation on top of giving us a great place to stay the night. He is a jokester to the extreme and all around a great human. He is quirky, never seemed to sleep, and is always smiling. He currently manages a women’s health clinic with his wife, still does some coaching, and several other things I couldn’t quite grasp. He is in the process of teaching himself English with the goal of teaching children in his spare time, which I am not sure he will ever have given how much he does, and is working on a book concept combining meditation and visualization techniques for athletes. Just to give you an example of his animated happy nature he invited me to join in his morning calisthenics routine he adheres to everyday, which I did, and then we continued on with the day. Otgon truly personifies the generosity of the Mongolian people. He bent over backwards for us and seemed generally excited to help us out in anyway he could. He helped translate for the tire debacle, let us use his phone, acted as primary contact with the shop and even negotiated the delivery price with the bus driver who delivered the tires (a day later than expected). He was home alone, his wife and daughter being out of town, and I think the company and chance to practice his English was fun for him. An amazing guy really. He made what was a stressful situation that could have been much worse about as easy as it could have been.

A satisfied Kyle

We left Darhan with full stomachs, spare tires, clean and relatively refreshed. We were able to ride about 35k and found a wonderful campsite.

Flowers at our camp

The two days following Darhan treated us to relatively easy riding but it was hot, very hot. Luckily we found a river for a lunch break got a swim in and relaxed. Families started to arrive and everyone was friendly and just went about their business, then we were approached by a 12 year old girl. We were surprised when she said her name was Michelle and asked us where we were going and from in perfect English! This turned out to be a great opportunity to practice our Mongolian, she was a fantastic teacher and explained she had been studying English in school. She was on the way to the country side with her family and the river was just a stop over.

Michelle, our Mongolian teacher for the

moment.

One thing that has become apparent to me here is the struggle presented by a rapidly developing economy. There is often trash in places that are frequented by people. Not unlike the U.S. easy access to disposable goods and growing incomes is leading to a throw away culture. This is especially true in cities or close to them. Fortunately people like Otgon and Michelle (and the soon to be met B and family) give hope. They expressed a desire for greater conservation and environmental ethics and thought in their country. The wealth of Mongolia is in the land and the people not in the minerals extracted it seems, a good thing for all I think.

The river.

The river bank.

Leaving the river in the heat of the day proved to be hard riding. It was windy, hot, and dusty. We have been forced to buy water continuously due to the lack of easily available surface water for pumping and were running low again. We hadn’t pumped from the river hoping to save our filter from the highly sediment loaded water. We approached a farm hoping to get some water but I wasn’t sure what to expect. This was a modern farm not a ger (yurt) or small house. I still haven’t quite wrapped my head around the hospitality here. We were immediately welcomed in by a man I assume was a foreman and offered shade and all the tea we could drink. Our water jugs were filled, the workers got a kick out of our bikes and thought we were crazy, had some broken conversations with Mongolian, English, and hand gestures and were invited to stay for dinner. Mutton noodle soup. Good enough and hardy. Once again the people here amaze. We were on our way with full bellies to another great campsite. This time on a small pass with a spectacular view.

The farm crew

Beautiful camp

I was woken at 3 am by Kyle outside my tent with his headlamp. Apparently something had crawled into his ear while he was asleep and was still in there. Wrath of Khan (Star Trek nerds that was for you, you hear me mom?) was all I could think as I slowly came to and tried to understand what was going on. I couldn’t see anything in there but it was decided we needed to get to town the next day and figure it out. The wind is what woke me up next. A peaceful sunrise was hiding the approaching storm but the howling wind sure wasn’t. We packed up, I caffinated, and we got out of there. Thankfully we had a tail wind for the first half of the day and managed to make 50k by lunch, top downhill speed 70kph! Then everything shifted and what was a pleasant tailwind became a strong cross and headwind. The last 27k to Erdenet was rough cold and on and off wet!

Some stormy riding.

We made it close to town, managed to borrow a cell phone and called our new friend B. She then opened her home to us and we were welcomed by her family with open arms!

Itroducing B and family! Deserving of their own post and will certainly get one complete with pictures!

First off, as an update, it turns out whatever had crawled into Kyle’s ear had crawled out again thankfully. B was kind enough to help him out and translate for a doctor who took a look and cleared it. Her Aunt, who is a pharmacist also helped flush his ear out with warm water. This family is amazing! They helped us figure out some phone and internet stuff, showed us around, fed us, housed us. Amazing AMAZING people!

B is someone I met through a mutual friend. We were introduced via her husband Ethen and our mutual friend Roddy. What really happened was I was sitting around at the brewery in Bishop talking with Roddy and a few people and he essentially said "my buddy Ethen lives in Mongolia for part of the year and his wife B. is Mongolian, they are awesome people! You guys should connect!" When we finally did on our way to Erdenet (outside of Facebook messages) I wish we had much earlier! She is a wealth of information and was only too willing to help us out. She would have been a great resource for our initial route, other pointers, and getting around in general. Oh well it's all part of the experience, but once we did connect and make it to her home it was relieving, and amazing, to have someone there who we could speak seamless English with but could help us negotiate Mongolia like only a local can. She put us up in her spare apartment, showed us around town, fed us, let us use the internet, do laundry, and is even going to help us get a real taste of the country side by allowing us to stay with her parents and family for a night. Stay tuned for more and pictures!

Asanga, Johna, and cousin!

More to come

Setting off!

It is finally time to get on bikes! Today we are leaving Ulaanbaatar and heading roughly northwest to the town of Bulgan. From there we will try and meet up with a friend of a friend for a day or two then continue on our way west!

Ulaanbaatar has been good. Our hostel stay was fun, we met some great people and had a chance to explore a little bit. Hit up a large open air market, buy a few things, do last minute logistics (international Fedex is expensive!) and pack up. We had some great cheap meals and will be in the country side tonight. I would say all in all it has been a success. I am not sure when our next chance to update will be so from here on out post will be much less frequent! Wish us the best and let the adventure continue!

Riding in UB traffic!

UB

I am going to froit out on you so hard!

SOOOOOO! As promised, Froit!
First a definition:
Froit...
verb.
The action of froiting, or to froit.
Adjective
To describe something as froit, or froit like.

Usage: That was so froit. You are so froiting ridiculous. I am going to froit out right now! I will fucking froit you! Oh sorry I froited just then.

Definition: To be needlessly belligerent, angry, crazy, or just generally nuts.

Up until we stepped off the train in Ulaanbaatar everything had been ridiculously smooth. Everyone had been nice, the travel relatively easy, and everything was just falling into place. Even our cabin mate on the train was great and spoke English for froits sake!

Then we met this guy Froit. He came with good recommendations from the same cycle touring forum as Ray and Florence so at first it seemed like a great idea! WRONG!!!!! This angry Dutchman, picture a tall overweight guy with stringy grey hair and a funny hat, basically single handily tried to fight all of Mongolia in the roughly 45 minutes we were with him. First we got off the train. We had bikes and Mongolian customs wanted to inspect and then charge us, not unexpected but annoying. Rather than help Froit tried to fight EVERYONE!!!!! So after a 24 hour train ride we immediately had this Dutch guy yelling at us, yelling at the poor Mongolian guy trying to do his job, and eventually yelling at his wife who showed up to try and diffuse the situation. All this included Froit grabbing our bikes, Mongolian customs trying to reason with the guy, him trying to fight everyone, and eventually we paid the 900 mnt (about $0.50) to get the bike through and get out of there. Then! just when we thought the craziness was over we started riding through traffic. Froit promptly starts weaving in and out of heavy traffic proceeds to ride in the center of the road, provoke a confrontation that involved him getting rear ended on his bike and try to start a fight. He pulled out a hammer and the thickest crowbar I have ever seen, threatened this Mongol guy who would have torn him in half and we had to break up this whole scene. Kyle in between the two and me pleading for no fighting while holding bikes. We decided to bail but Froit had one of our bags.

After we extricated the bag we decided that we better at least get to his house and scope the scene to make sure we can get our bearings. His house was equally as crazy. The place had nearly burnt down over the winter, was in various states of demolition and repair and full of workers. There were two large pig carcases in the back seat of an open van and all other sorts of ridiculousness. After we sat in his living room for a minute and he bitched about something and sprayed us with a water spray bottle he called the "air conditioning" the bail decision was set. Luckily we had an out and made some excuses to get to a hostel. We knew where Natalie was staying and got Froit to call and get us in there. After he frantically looked for his keys he had lost and argued with his wife some more we were off. Froit once again froited the fuck out in rush hour traffic and got hit and tried to start a fight in the middle of one of the busiest streets in town.

Luckily we made it to the hostel Idre's Guest House and lost Froit. Thank god! I wish I had a picture of this guy or some of that on video!

At the hostel we met back up with Natalie and I was pleasantly surprised by how nice the hostel was. The owner is super nice and very accommodating, they will do your laundry, and it is very nicely furnished and full of travelers. Great place to spend a few days!

Bishop, Beijing, Ulaanbaatar

****Warning this is long, verbose, poorly written, and potentially boring. Once we get on bikes these will be less chronological and probably more interesting, I will have slept more anyway, but until then deal with it. Or not, whatever.****

We made it. We finally stepped off a plane in Beijing and the journey began in earnest. However just getting to that plane was an adventure in itself. That trip began with a drive to Las Vegas.

Thursday June 11th was an eventful day. I actually quite my job. Cashed my last pay check, turned in my keys and computer and was done. Truly unemployed. Weird. I haven’t been unemployed in almost 7 years, and this may well be the longest period of unemployment I have had since I started working at the age of 13. On top of that I still had so much do get done before I could even think about being ready to leave for this thing. And to top it all off I had to drive to Vegas to pick up Kyle who was flying in from Atlanta at 10pm. It was all almost too much but I managed to get a short run in with a good friend, do a little packing, and get driving to good old Las Vegas.

Vegas proved to be its own epic. A far too expensive run to REI to pick up last minute odds and ends, multiple airport loops before I could get Kyle and then there was the hotel situation. We ended up getting a room at the Golden Gate for $49. A good deal, but there was an unexpected catch. Our room was facing Freemont and there just happened to be a shitty cover band playing far to loudly until 2 am. We were serenaded by the lovely sounds of Motley Cru and Black Sabbath as belted out by a bunch of washed up middle age musicians who never made it past the bar circuit until, eventually after too many renditions of hits from days past, they were thankfully done. That brought on a few hours of fitful sleep made all the better by the mediocre french dip sandwich and fries I ate for dinner. This following the almost no sleep I was running on from the previous night just helped to build the atmosphere of anxiety and building tension before departure. The next morning fueled by far too much coffee and a greasy omelet we made out way back to bishop taking care of any last minute city business we had in Vegas.

Back in bishop on Friday it was t-minus 12 hours to launch. Friday night was pretty stressful. I had to make sure I had all the last minute things tied up, bills paid, banking taken care of, gear bought packed and kind-of organized, and the bike packed. Thank sweet baby Jesus for friends. I already had to depend on Kyle way too much to help me pack up the bike, make sure my fenders were installed correctly, and get everything together and I could tell I was going to need to step it up. Operating on almost no sleep certainly wasn’t helping at all, but with help from Kyle, my friend Sirin, and the support of the Brian, Jeff and Amy it all got done. After some much needed bbq and a beer it was almost time to relax a little bit. I managed to find things to keep me up and stressed out until roughly 2am anyway knowing we had to be driving by 5:30.

The alarm went off at 4, time to shower drink coffee load up and get out. A few cups of coffee several last looks around and we loaded our bikes and gear and set off to SFO. I was in Brian’s truck Kyle was with Jeff. I don’t remember much of the drive but we did take 120 through Yosemite and got a chance to catch the sunrise on the eastside. It was a good way to say goodbye to the Eastern Sierra for a little while.
Arriving at the airport 6 hours later was a blur but also a little bit of a relief. After some almost tearful goodbyes to Brian and Jeff the requisite “good lucks”, “be safes”, and “have funs” they were gone and it was real. There truly was no turning back now. Time to check the bikes. Checking in and checking the bikes was easier than I had expected. Luckily all my luggage and bike was under weight (23kg) per so I had no additional baggage fees to pay. We had thought it would be $200 for the bikes, saving the money was a welcome surprise. Kyle on the other hand had to do a little creative repacking to get his bags to spec but he made it happen, I took a few things out of his bags, he took some heavier than expected packing foam out of the bike box, and we had a nice Chinese woman from Air China playing buffer between us and her overly aggressive manager so it all worked out. She even hooked us up with way better seats for our 12 hour flight. Once that was all taken care of we somehow managed to get pushed through TSA precheck, making that all the easier, and hit a bar. So far so good! Last phone calls to the families and anything else that required a phone and it was on a plane and off to China!

I had never flown on a double decker plane before. It was packed to the gills but it was a surprisingly nice plane given the Air China reviews I had read online. The obvious language barrier made somethings more difficult than they would have been otherwise, also more hilarious given the lost in translation factor, but it was all smooth. Screens in the back of the seats, free movies and television, and a few free mediocre meals made for a pretty comfortable flight.

Arriving in Beijing was also much easier than expected. Customs was easy, immigration was easy, all the bags and the bikes showed up intact and the ATM was easy enough to find. Getting from the airport to where we were staying was a little different story. Trying to negotiate the cab situation with bike boxes was interesting. No one seemed interested in giving us a ride, I have very little haggling experience, and we were both running on a 20 hour travel day. It was a little rough but after Kyle bartered and we payed too much (our only real option) for a van charter we made it to the apartment building we were going to stay at for the next 2 nights.

Ray and Florence are an American couple who Kyle found through a cycle touring forum similar to couch surfing. Ray, a retired doctor who was born in Taiwan and has lived all over the world, including stints in San Fransisco has done a lot of cycling and Florence, a teacher born in France, who has also traveled all over were kind enough to put us up for free in their extra apartment. I can’t even express how wonderful it was to open the door and see a full and furnished apartment. It was air conditioned and amazing. We had the space to put the bikes back together, a shower, and we each had a full and extremely comfortable bed. To top it off when Ray and Florence got home she made us lasagna FUCKING LASAGNA!!!!!!!! And Ray procured a few beers. It was glorious!

The next morning bikes assembled we ate a leisurely breakfast and rode with Ray to the train station.

That guy was a godsend. He acted as guide, translator, negotiator, and all around bad ass. Without him getting our bike checked onto the train would have been a full day ordeal, but thanks to Ray we were in and out in about an hour and then wandering around Beijing in search of noodles. We ate lunch with some overly excited Canadians who were nice enough and then continued to wander.

Beijing is by far the largest city I have ever been in. With 19 million plus people it is hard to comprehend. The air quality is awful but not unbearable and city itself is brash and loud. But through all the chaos it seems to work. Biking was easy, if a bit crazy, and traffic seemed to move relatively smoothly with ample use of the horn. I am still convinced that I am not a city person but it was interesting to say the least to be in this one. I have never been in a place that seems so familiar but also so foreign at the same time. A big city is a big city it seems. We didn’t have time to get to the more ancient parts but we got a small taste.

After a great dinner and wonderful conversation with our gracious hosts it was time for sleep and to get ready for the train the next day. Once again Ray came through and drove us to the train station the next day, negotiated a baggage handler to take us and our overloaded bags to our train gate and gave a hearty handshake farewell. I can only aspire to be as cool as Ray and Florence when I am all grown up and can actually claim to be an adult.

The train itself was an experience. We had booked a sleeper car the “soft sleeper” which was comfortable enough and we were lucky to share our cabin with a nice German traveler named Natalie. Our roughly 24 hours on a train was overall a good time. The limestone mountains north of Beijing are beautiful, the plains north of that are even more so, and the train was full of travelers from around the globe. We drank wine and got to know our cabin mate and ate the random assortment of food we had purchased at an ex-pat market the day prior. Natalie has been traveling for 8 months and is on her final stop before heading back to Germany for a respite. She is a delightful girl who speaks very good English and even has great taste in music. Her company made for a great ride.

The train ride passed with little event except at the Mongolian border. The visa situation and customs was easy. If you want to travel to Mongolia, and are an American, go for it no hassle what-so-ever. It was the train itself. In order to travel from China to Mongolia the train needed to switch wheels to accommodate a different, Soviet, gauge track. Well we didn’t know that was going to happen away from the train platform. We waltzed into the duty free shop in the station, half cocked on a few bottles of wine and a Heineken or two, and promptly discovered the train had left. After initial, partial, panic we determined it would be back, we hoped, and proceeded to drink more $1.50 beers with some Norwegians, a guy from England, and an other German. If it hadn't come back, well.... adventure! The train did come back however, there was some doubt that it would, and we continued on our way to Ulaanbaatar.

The final hours on the train consisted of some half drunk sleep, Nescafe, and a very pleasant interaction with a Mongolian women who had gone to school in Houston. There was also some ample Gobi scenery, antelopes, camels, and some packing. We reconnected with our Norwegian friend from the night before and made ready to get off the train in Ulaanbaatar!

......Then we met Froit! He deserves his own post!

 

Emotional moments, moving forward, leaving a job

Something about transitions has always gotten to me. Changing jobs, changing location, change in relationships or friendships, change in general. I'm the kind of guy who hates to lose and hates to give up, even the perception or thought of giving up drives me up the wall. Usually what this means is I am simply tenacious, to a fault, about things I'm passionate about. Often times a good thing right? Well....... it's complicated and has gotten me into trouble far more than once. Not saying that I necessarily fear change, more or less than anyone else that is, but it doesn't come easy.

This tendency can cause relationship issues, undue amounts of work stress, and general stress around just about everything else, maddening frustration, and so on. I think this runs in the family. Some kind of quiet mid-western protestant work ethic ingrained in children from a young age. Grow up, get a job, have a family, never give up, keep your head down and nose to the grindstone kinda thing. Well bull shit. I love my father to death but the guy needs to do more fun things and work less. YOU HEAR THAT DAD!!!! GO HAVE FUN!!!!

I have been in a constant battle between wanderlust and obligation for as long as I can remember, also a trait I share with my father.

....Have you ever been drinking coffee in your robe listening to NPR in the morning and had the sudden realization that you have become your parent? It's a bizarre thing, but anyway... (all you grammar snobs I know I am misusing the ellipses so just leave it)

That put your head down, work hard, and get ahead vs. get out there live hard, get dirty, and have adventures internal struggle that so many have, but very few actually acknowledge. Luckily I have a family that embraces independence and I was the middle child so I skated under the radar most of the time anyway. Maybe this made the battle a little more existential than it needed to be, who knows.

Living in a place like Bishop it's easy to get lost in all this, it's easy to get lost in the thought that everyone around you is a bad ass out there doin' it and you are just wasting away at your desk. It is also easy to look up at the mountains and get lulled into a false sense of security knowing that those hills ain't going anywhere so there is no rush. Fuck that noise man! Get out there and do things!!!! I have failed utterly to heed my own advice, but that hasn't stopped me from noticing the issue at least.

Moving on.........

Cleaning out your desk after almost 7 years of work and accumulated responsibilities is an interesting, messy, and cathartic experience. On one hand it's relieving. You are moving on, clearing out the clutter of years. On the other it's intensely emotional. I can only imagine the feeling of being laid off after 20 some-odd years. Sounds horrible. Anyway here I am in my last days working for an organization that has been my professional home for more or less my entire post college adult life. There have been a lot of tears, and a lot of other things complicating this transition, but it is finally done. Tomorrow I will pickup my last paycheck and be out of there. I am going to miss it. Not the daily grind so much, but the valuable programs and the ability to change lives and make the Eastern Sierra a better place. Connecting people with place and making a real and lasting difference in someone's life or at/for a place you love is a pretty special experience.

However, that being said, if you have ever worked for a small non-profit you know what burnout means. The burnout culture that runs rampant in small passion driven organizations caught up with me in a big way this year. You can only be a martyr for the cause for so long. Passion can only take you so far and eventually the ends don't justify the means. All that just compounded already complicated issues in other areas of my life so naturally it's time to say fuck it, throw caution to the wind, spend all my money, and dive into the deep end. It only took 7 months of existential crisis preceded by years of that obligation vs. wanderlust thing to get there but hell everyone walks their own path I suppose. So now
I have a clean office...

and I am going to ride this across central Asia...

Because why not!