A single star and the moon hung in a dark blue sky, with a creeping of peach over the mountain tops that enclosed the flat, velvet brown planes of Mongolia. It was 6.30am and our 5 day journey on the Mongolian Express was coming to an end. We were eager to put our feet on terra- firma, our earth had moved enough!
A herd of horses grazed in the mist that was beginning to lift off the surface of the steppe. It was barren rather than bleak. Snow lay in light drifts around the fencing of the train tracks. I saw my first circle of Gers as the sky turned marshmallow pink then cerise and bruise blue.
We pulled into Ullanbattor station and were collected straight away and whisked off to our guesthouse. Once again our world had dissolved and reformed itself. Gone were the neighbours of the last few days, smiling, dutch Rob and new Zealand Bob. We were to start again. Our mini-bus was a jumble of tired people needing showers, washing done and a fresh, still bed. We laughed and joked in the early morning light with irish Lu and Seamus. Once showered, we handed over our laundry and set off through the town looking for the internet, the post office for postcards amd somewhere for a decent breakfast. We were now dealing with tugriggs-only 1240 to the pound! 700 for a tip, (How much?) amounted to the princely sum of 50p.
Ullanbattor was a glorious shambles of soviet blocks and 'posh' hotels. The ramshackled ger district would have made any shanty town proud. There were generally smiling faces and the odd curious look, there were uneven pavements and huge broken kerbstones but it felt safe and it seemed very easy to find your way around. There was a little English but information was limited as we were there at the end of the tourist season, and when they assured you that something would happen it was not necessarily the case, however, it felt wonderfully relaxed after Moscow.
Each day we woke to a summer blue sky and a bright sun but the air was fresh and cool. The dryness of the air surprised us and caused some breathing congestion. I watched a patch of black ice all week and it failed to melt, despite the sun, which intrigued me.
The open countyside has the fabulous contrast of the Gobi-desert and the grassland or steppe. Youngsters went off for treks of 6 or 9 days, moving around. We were content with the city, visiting the art gallery and two museums, and finishing our visit with an overnight stay in a ger.
Our hostel was great. The UB hostel. Clean and friendly, efficiently run but with a very small kitchen. It was quite hard to socialise and a lot of people seemed to move on quickly to the countryside treks
The ger visit was overshadowed by the killing of a horse for the next menu and a sudden spate of minus ten degree weather!
We had arrived on the Tuesday at around 12. It had taken us an hour and fifteen minutes to get to the Terelj National Park. There were vast undulating brown velvet hills, strange rock formationsm reminiscient of early Star Trek Martian sets, and the famous white felt circular ger tents of the nomads. There were also a few tepees and camels, which was confusing on grassland!
I stepped, Maria like, (aka Sound of Music), into the hills and headed joyfully, towards out ger, whilst a Man, up a ladder, yelled, "Meat? Meat?" at me. I indicated yes, as did the others without thinking, as we were to eat with the family whilst we were there. Inside it was decorated with brightly coloured cloth and had only four wooden beds around the edges and a stove in the centre. This was the nearest I was going to get to my desert tent fantasy! Fabulous. After a brief chat with the other four we realised that dinner was to be in two hours time so, some went off riding, not me as I had decided that to inflict myself on some poor unsuspecting horse would be cruelty. Bob and his wife Sarah, from southern England, had decided to go for a walk and invited us. Lee was actually considering it but I had already realised that they were serious walkers and declined on the grounds of infirmity! Once they had set out I sat on the ledge outside the ger in the glorious sunshine looking at the fabulous scenery. That was when I noticed the two men, directly in front of me, walking towards the tethered chestnut horse with a huge plastic sheet in their hands!
I looked around but they kept coming into my line of vision so I went for a walk over the hill and behind sone rocks. It was so still I just sat, and worried about the horse. It was quick and efficient, the kill. The others were shocked when they returned because the horse had been reduced to neat joints of meat on the plastic. It was all collected up later in the 4x4, and that was that! Practical and efficient but quite shocking for me. The next two meals were very subdued affairs, while we stared at the thin strips of meat on our plates among the noodles, carrot and potato and reflected a little. ! We are very hypocritical about eating meat in the west.
It began to get dark about 4 and, with the loss of the sun we were at the mercy of the cold, so when one of the men appeared in our ger with a large bundle of logs we were very grateful. We tried to unhuddle and look a little less frozen. We probably looked pathetic! A warmth spread around us and we felt brighter. We visited our neighbouring ger bearing gifts of vodka and coke. Everyone had a little, then we retired to out now warm ger and had a game of cards. I won best of three.
As the dark advanced it became hard to see the cards in our spluttering candle so we retired to bed. It was only about 9. Periodically the door was ripped open and the man top[ped the fire up ,or threw a pile of logs on the floor. His last visit was at about 11 when he filled the stove with logs and topped it off with coal. We sweltered beyond endurance. I stepped outside to cool off. It would not have bothered me if the whole Mongolian nation had been out there I was so hot!
It did not work. It was unbearable!. I had wondered how the others were getting on sharing as they had only met that afternoon which was not conducive??? to stripping off! At three in the morning we had the reverse situation as it was now -10 degrees and we had drafts blowing under the felt! We woke up frequently and were relieved when the morning came. We could not believe that we had paid for the priviledge of these extremes. We were glad that it was only for one night!
We returned to out hostel at 12 amd had a shower. We went out for a meal amd caught the taxi to the airport at 6.30. We were now heading for Beijing and then an internal flight to Chengdu, on the borders of Tibet, where I am sitting now, writing this , in an oasis of heavan, known as Simm's Cozy Guesthouse. It is the most wonderful hostel I have ever seen. It is a traditional chinese house with every facility that you could wish fir, including plenty of room to converse with other backpackers, consequently we spent happy hours with Emma and Tina who have moved on this afternoon, and we are setting out on a 4-day visit to Tibet with a Polish couple on Tuesday, when we hope to ride the high altitude train for two days through the Hi malayas to Beijing, to fly to the warmth in Cambodia. I have started Vikram Seth's book about Tibet, and we are off to see the Pandas tomorrow. Life seems amazing.
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