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!
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
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
