Mongolia: 2 Viruses and a punch in the face

The train journey to Ulan Bator/Ulaanbaatar was pretty hellish thanks to the train pretty much being a mobile market with Mongolian and Chinese traders dragging stock backwards and forwards all night. On the first morning we went out to find a massive computer market called Computerland so that Pete could replace the lost mp3 player. We managed to find an apparent bargain for only £10 but it came bundled with a lovely virus that infected the laptop and everything that touched it. It was eventually healed but I suspect it had already infected Pete as he had to spend nearly all of the next day in bed. There is a chance that it wasn't the computer that infected him but the vast quantities of very cheap "meat" dishes we had been eating... Either way he made it out of bed to watch Spurs at quarter to 5 in the morning!

The next day we took a trip to the Terelj national park where we would be spending the night in a Ger, a traditional Mongolian Nomad tent that was surprisingly comfortable and (whilst the fire was going) exceptionally warm! Unfortunately the fire went out at night time when the temperatures dipped below -15°C; waking up in boxers in that weather is not nice when you went to sleep in what felt like a sauna! On our second day there we went on a horse ride for a couple of hours, unfortunately a bit of an anticlimax after waiting all day for the horses to return from the vast surrounding nothingness!

On our return to the capital we decided to have a night out at a Mongolian club (they do exist!). A group of about 10 of us from the hostel went and half of us ended up exceptionally drunk thanks to cheap drinks prices. Pete had set off home a few hours before me, still recovering from the food poisoning, so me and a girl from the hostel and John, a Spurs fan we had been travelling with since Ulan Ude got a taxi back at the end of the night. This seemed fine until we got back and the driver started demanding more from us. We all went to get out but there was no handle on my door so by the time I had climbed across the driver was blocking the door leaving me trapped. In the end I barged past him but he grabbed my coat at the chest and would not let go, repeatedly shouting “5000, 5000!” in my face. Me and John tried to fight him off me for a while as we had no money to give him but he was a big guy and we were out muscled. Eventually an American guy we had been out with earlier in the night heard the fuss and came over to pay him, the driver finally let go but then took a swing at me, glancing my cheek. All of this took place in a children’s play area in the snow, certainly one of the more surreal experiences of my life! 

One more thing from Mongolia; we finally caught a train on time thanks to a lift from the hostel!

Ulan Ude

This was probably the stop we were least looking forward to as it was 3 nights in a place with very little to do and the hostel sounded pretty nasty. Things didn't start well, we arrived at about 6 and after failing to find a tram stop we decided to walk. The instructions seemed simple enough; turn left at an obelisk then turn right 500 meters later.... so obviously it took us 2 hours 3 strangers and a taxi (who had to phone 2 people) to find it! Turns out the Russian idea of a street is quite different to ours...

The next day we decided to visit a nearby Buddhist monastery, apparently the centre of Buddhism in Russia. The place was quite impressive, 35km out in the middle of nowhere, with chanting audible from quite a way off. We had a walk around the outside spinning prayer wheels, went into a temple and general felt out of place. The plan had been to spend the night at the monastery but it wasn't possible as it seemed to be some sort of special occasion and there were a lot of people around. We returned to the city and visited the other major attraction of the area... the worlds largest head of Lenin. The day was recovered by a meal at Happyland, our cheapest in Russia accompanied by beer for only £1.20 a pint.

The second day in the city we spent visiting the natural history museum. We had seen posters advertising a special Gobi desert dinosaur exhibit so for less than £3 it seemed like a good deal. When we got in there it turned out the special exhibit was just some dinosaur bones stolen from Mongolia and put up in front of an old exhibition covered with black sheets. There were also a few other rooms with exhibits that literally hadn't been updated since either of us were born. Taking photos was not allowed but some stealthy moves meant that I got a few.

The next morning we set off for our train, again determined not to cut it fine. We got to the station with plenty of time (enough time for Pete to realise he had already lost the gloves he bought in Irkutsk) but still ended up boarding with only 5 minutes to go. It turned out the board was broken and wasn't updating with platform numbers and the train we had spent about half an hour staring at in platform 1 was ours. Oh well; to Mongolia.

Irkutsk and Olkhon Island

Irkutsk only gets one sentence here; it is boring and expensive and not worth hanging around in.

It is good however as a stopping point to get to Olkhon island on lake Baikal. After our second night in the hostel we caught a minibus at quarter to 8 for the 6 hour drive to the island. It turns out the paved road on the route didn't last too long so it was gravel tracks for about 100km. After a short and freezing cold trip on a tiny open car ferry we arrived on the island where the road was even worse for the last 40km. At the hostel on the island we were given an individual room in an all wooden buildings, ours even had a log burning stove to heat it.

The island was a rediculously picturesque place with perfectly clear, clean water and surrounded by mountains. On the day we arrived we took a walk up the coast and back through the town/village. A very strange experience as there were more cows and stray dogs roaming around the streets than people. The hostel provided full board accomodation and was certainly the best food we have had in Russia. Omul, a fish unique to the Baikal featured heavily on the menu's in soup, fried and plain forms.

Where I took my "swim"

On the second day we took a tour in an old Russian 4x4 minibus to the North of the island stopping at several of the more interesting parts for photo opportunities. During one of these stops I managed to fall through the ice of a little pond behind a beach; thank God for waterproof boots! When we reached the very North you could really apreciate the scale of the lake with it stretching out much further than the eye could see. On the way back from the North we stopped at another beach that had a much larger expanse of ice just behind it. Everybody on the tour was soon sliding around on it, even after my earlier failure! 

On the way back the minibus broke down in the middle of a forest, though this was obviously not a rare occurence as it turned out the driver had a host of spare parts ready in the bus.

When we got back to the hostel we went for a Banya, a traditional Russian bath. This was quite a strange experience involving the hottest sauna I have ever been in followed by mixing a tub of water and pouring it over your head with a big ladle. After that evenings meal a musician with a Balalaika played a selection of Russian folk songs and some great covers of music from around the world (including, Gillis will be glad to know; Europe – The Final Countdown!). After this the evening was spent hammering straight vodka in our room with the other people who had been on the tour with us in the day.

The journey home took the same amound of time as the journey there despite a 1 and a half hour wait for the ferry. This was made possible due to our crazy minibus driver keeping a constant speed of nearly 150kmph (when he found tarmac) and making some "interesting" overtaking manouverers! 

The next day we were hoping to improve our record on getting to the train station and so we set off an hour early to get the tram. After a wait of 15 minutes with 4 trams going the other way and not one heading the way we wanted Pete suddenly remembered he had left his glasses back at the hostel (I count that as another loss for the list). During his 10 minute run back the hostel there were still no trams heading our way so we admitted defeat and tried to hail a cab. After 10 minutes of shaking heads we finally go one to take us, even if the price was pretty crazy! We made it for the train with just under 10 minutes to spare... another stressful journey.