We made it to Ulaanbataar, Mongolia in one piece. Ragged, but in one piece. We
took a 28 hour train ride north and across the border.
Actually, the story starts before we left for the train station. Leavitt, Nat and me
spent our last night in Beijing going to see the Chinese Acrobats! It was the coolest
thing EVER!! They did things that only Spiderman or Mr Fantastic could do. The
girl acrobats could do this weird crazy contorted thing that was a little too creepy.
But then they got more daring and 15 piled on to one bike and cruised around on
stage. It was very cool.
The guys totally defied gravity and would do all these flips 30 feet into the air landing
on to some little chair held by a go on stilts. I don't even know if I'm painting
this picture very well-- suffice it to say, it was well worth the 160 yuan!
Afterwards we hopped on the subway to go to the bug market. Thats where you
find things that people that should just not be on a stick. This aint no corndog or
popcicle. We saw: silk worms, centipedes, scorpions, snake and even a tape worm.
The guy would bang on the counter and the scorpions would wiggle with a stick
through them. I wont lie, it was gross. We didn't eat them.
The train wasn't that bad. The three of us shared it with Keri from the U.K. In fact,
she's my hotel mate now. She's very funny and has a quick wit. We're really liking
her and have a blast hanging out together.
We walked around Ulaanbataar or UB and I must say, I love it soooo much more
than China. I feel a though Mongolia is more my speed. It's not as crowded, people
are nicer and we don't get anyone doing sneaky pictures of us. Not that the pictures
were a huge problem, I would shamelessly pose for all of them :)
UB itself reminds me of a cross between Comodoro, Argentina and Beijing. So basically
a concrete jungle with unrecognizable words. As we came in from the outskirts,
it's like everything you see in movies, large grassy landscapes with horses
crowded around a yurt or the Mongolian Ger. We'll be staying here in the capital
for a few nights and then head to the national forest where I will begin my black
hole communication part of the trip. So be prepared to be bombarded with emails!
Tonight we did the Mongolian BBQ thing and it's just like you would see back
home, except with one exception-- you can eat horse! I totally did! It was great, but
it felt almost wrong. The odd thing is, there isn't a McDonald's on every corner-- in
fact, I have yet to see one.
One thing that is kind of weird about this region of the world. Is that at the country's
borders you have to stop for about 2 hours while the border people change the
train wheels. I guess the wheels in China are different for Mongolian tracks. We sat
there at midnight waiting for these to get changed out. Then we got woken up at
1:30am to hand people our passports. It was an interesting night.
Despite being on the train that long, it was surprisingly not bad. I passed the time
by watching House Season 5 and playing my travel ukulele. In fact, I got the Dutch
girls to sing along! It was awesome, we have definitely livened up the place.
Well I better get some laundry done. I need to clean the China out of it! Talk to you
all soon enough!
Emily Khaan
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