Step 1

Day 473
I was lazy. Had things gone the right way I would have left the night before. I only had on sorta thing on my list left to do. After lying around for while I packed up and put my things in storage. I had planned to go to a monastery, but it was cold and raining a bit and I couldn't be bothered. Instead I went to the internet cafe and called my parents. I then sat there for a while and typed up a whole lot of blog entries.

When I couldn't take it any more I went to the supermarket to get food for my train ride. I killed the remaining amount of the time watching movies at the hostel.

I got a lift from the hostel with 2 guys from Liechtenstein and we ran into a couple that I had met on the train from Beijing. The five of us chatted while we waited for the train. I noticed a few local men hovering around us and I told everyone to keep a close watch on their things. One of the other people pointed out that they weren't starring at the bags but at my hair. I can't wait until being blond is normal again!

Once on the train I found out that I was sharing a compartment with three French guys who didn't speak much English and didn't seem very friendly anyway. I ended up hanging out with an English couple for the majority of the evening. At one point I also locked myself in the toilet and couldn't get out. That was when I knew it was time to go to sleep.

Dinomite

Day 472

The other girls in my room had to be up for an early train and I never managed to fall asleep once they had gone. I ended up just getting up and having a really early breakfast. I also ran into Rafael again. We decided to go for a while. I had underestimated the weather, it was really very cold, in no time my feet felt like blocks of ice.

I had wanted to find the Lenin Museum even though I heard that it had been closed. This turned out to be the case, it is now a camera shop. Instead we spent about an hour wandering around and just taking pictures of the city. I have a huge amount of photos of very communist style buildings now. Due to the cold I couldn't stay out too long and eventually ended up heading back. Rafael's luggage had been lost enroute so he headed to the China Airways office to see if they had found it.

Back at the hostel I waited for the museums to open by reading a book for a while and getting some warmer clothes on. Eventually I was joined by Dutch JW and Austrian Bridget. We chatted for a bit before I headed out.

My first stop was the Natural History Museum. Most of it was pretty crap with old and poorly taxidermied animals. They all seemed to wear confused expressions on their faces. The dinosaur collection is the real reason for coming here, even though it is poorly displayed. I don't know much about dinosaurs but they still impress me. They had the arms of a deinacheirus, the only part of the reptile ever found. The most impressive bit was a velociraptor in enternal combat with a protoceratups.

When I was done with the museum I went for lunch at a Korean place. They gave me more than five people could have possibly eaten. I ended up sitting there and writing for some time. I am determined to get up to date with the blog at some point in the near future, if anything at least by the time I leave Russia, my next country.

After lunch I went to the Fine Arts Museum. I really liked it. It was easy to see the Turkish influence in Mongolian art. For unknown reasons many Mongolian artists would study in India. Some of the art included ferocious looking gods copulating with their other half's, just like in the museum in Mumbai. There was also a rather large selection on impressive looking needlework wall hangings.

When I was done I found a stationary store and picked up a new journal before heading to the internet cafe. I meant to work on my blog but ended up chatting with a friend instead over Skype. It might not be as easy I had thought to get all caught up. By the time I had finished in the internet cafe it was time for dinner.

I dropped some things off at the hostel and ran into JW and Bridget, we went out with a German guy and an American Lebanese guy for dinner and drinks. We hopped around a bit trying to find a cheaper place. In the end we weren't out too late, the four of them had the same tour in the morning that I had done a few days before.

Busy Bee

Day 471

The yert stayed warm all night long and I slept quite well. By the time we were up there was only about an hour and a half until we would be picked up. After downing some cookies and tea I spent the rest of the time reading my book. I was very happy to see the van when it arrived. I really wanted a shower and some food that didn't have hair and bugs in it.

When we finally got back to Ulaanbaatar I quickly checked into the hostel again and showered. I then ran out before getting the combination to my room or even some sheets. After eating, well, inhaling really, a rather strange potato and meat dish I headed to the National History Museum, which had been highly recommended by my guide. Overall I would have to agree. My only complaint was that it skipped around a bit and seemed to forget bits of history all together.

There seemed to have been a lot of early human activity in the area. It was also interesting to learn that Mongolia had a lot of Turkish influence. There was a bit onGhangis Khan, who conquered s everal other kingdoms and expanded Mongolia. The black plague also orientated here. The early religion here was Shamanism, but that collapsed with the spread ofBuddhism.
Here's where things began to get a bit spotty. I think that China wanted to control Mongolia and that Mongolia didn't really like this. In 1911 they requested outside help, but no one would come to theirrescue. Then in 1919 the Mongolian government approached the newly formed Bolshevik government for help. They agreed and Mongolia began on the path to communism. Not everyone was happy with this, however, the small capitalist rebellion was quickly squashed. The communist part officially gained control in 1928. The government purged anyone who was against them, between 1933 and 1953 over 36,000 people were killed. When you consider that Mongolia population in 1935 was only 738,200, the number is staggering. The communists party wasn't wholly bad. Prior to their coming ot power only 2% of Mongolians could read. The communist brought in the Cyrillic alphabet and now 96% of people can read. events leading Then things got even more spotty. Mongolia wasn't in WWII, however they donated arms and horses to the USSR. Then things got even more confusing. I know that when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989 the satellite countries had to fend for themselves, most of them had new governments by the end of 1991. Mongolia was no different, but none of theup to decommunizaion were discussed. I think they were a bit on the slow side changing things as well. People couldn't own homes until 1996! At this point the museum ended.

I then moved onto Sukhbaatar Square, the main square here. Mongolia's communist leader was once buried here, but has been moved. The square has been redone with various statues of several different Khans and some new buildings. There is also soon going to be a Louis Vuitton, I would say that capitalism has arrived. After wandering thru a park and getting a picture of a Lenin statue I headed to the Museum of Persecution. The most interesting thing about it was that it as in an old building. There were propaganda posters and some remains from a mass grave. Nothing was in English and I didn't stay long.

Next up was the Communist era State Department Store. The stationary section was under renovation so after grabbing an ice cream I moved on. While walking back to my hostel I saw a poster that said that Michael Jackson had died. How shocking. After some time on the internet I headed back to the hostel. For dinner I went out with Swiss Rafael, but we headed back early on. It had been a long day.

Steppe by Steppe

Day 470 My alarm went off early, but I was already awake. Most of the other people in the room had been up earlier and woke me in the process. I packed my bagsadn checked a few of them. It really annoyed me that I had to pay to keep my bags at the hostel overnight. I already paid them for a tour, why should I have to pay more?

After a breakfast that consisted of bread and jam I joined Canadians Emily, Ben and Greg as well as SwissDomenic in the van. We made a quick stop at a supermarket to pick up some food and some beer for the evening. It was really a pity that the driver wouldn't stop for us to take pictures along the way. The scenery was really quite stunning. It wasn't long before we had arrived at our yert camp.

Our hosts told us that lunch was in 2 hours so we decided to take a short hike. I was so much slower than everyone. They kept having to wait for me and I was getting annoyed at being alone all of the time. I wasn't just moving slowly because I'm out of shape, I am, but because I really don't want to reinjure my foot, that would suck. In the end I decided to just turn around and head back. On the way I passed a group of horses being herded. It was pretty cool. I spent the next hour or so reading before lunch came.

Lunch was really gross and I could hardly get it down. Dominic ended up eating most of mine. After lunch everyone seemed to take a nap and then a couple people went on a hike. I decided to stay with my book until it was time to get on the horse.

Around six the horses were saddled. I had a Mongolian horse named Har . Despite her small size I still had problems getting on and tried to ask if there was something that I could stand on. Our guide said no and I don't know how I got up. The guide then used a table to climb on his horse. That just wasn't fair. My horse liked to be near all of the other horses, so near that she was touching them. Har would constantly wedge her way between two horses, even when there wasn't any real space. This meant that my knees were almost going up the small horses butts. At one point Har was so close when one of the other horses peeed that some got on my pant leg. Despite Har's strange personality the ride was really very nice, the scenery was amazing. I was happy though when the two hours were up, I was definitely aching! When we came back dinner was ready to go, it was just as gross as before and I couldn't eat it. Dominic ate mine again.

We then played some card games and drank some beer in our yert. At one point I came out to use the outhouse and was stunned to see that one of our hosts was in the women's room with the door open and going to the bathroom very loudly. I peed behind the yert instead. We all went to bed early, there just wasn't much to do.

Back in Time

Day 469

I woke up and was still hours away from Ulaanbaatar. After some time reading I fell asleep again. Around 2pm the train pulled in. I hadn't even used my ipod for the entire trip, it hadn't been so bad. At the train station I was greeted by someone from my hostel and climbed into a van with a lot of other people. In no time I had checked in, showered, and booked a tour for the next day.

When the chores were done I headed out for some hot food, my first in some time. On the train I had only eaten bread and laughing cow cheese. My meal wasn't so hot, it was super greasy and I had problems getting it down. The rice even had katchup on it, weird.

After eating I went to the internet cafe to let everyone at home that I had finally made it to Mongolia. I also worked on the blog for a while. It wasn't until I was done did I realize that not only was I staying in a communest era building, but even the playground looked communist!That evening I stayed in and called it an early night.