A decent night of sleep for both Cin and I, considering the rolling clatter of steel wheel against rail. We ate the last of the noodles for breakfast, and enjoyed the Mongolian scenery, rolling hills, the gentle steppes, with horses, cows and the occassional yurt a visual reminder of accommodation arrangements tonight.
The Mongolian countryside is so lush and green that it amazes that such a large country has only 2 million people, especially given its history of outward conquest. Also surprising that China never invaded Mongolia, however when remembering the history of China involved internal dynasty conquests for nearly a millinea, it is not as surprising. In recent times Mongolia acts as a buffer between China and Russia. Russia had an almost controllng influence during the era of the Soviet Union, however Mongolia abandoned Communism shortly after Communism's failure in the USSR. In recent times the West has had significant influence on Mongolian life. Mongolia now presents the paradox of modern times, a country that receives CNN.... whilst also having a high proportion of people continuing to live in Gers in the nodamic manner of their ancient ancestors.
Sleeping in a ger was quite a nights experience, although the existence of electricity took away from the feeling that we were doing it tough like the 13th century Mongols.
One thing that has surprised us is the similarity between Mongolian and Russian languages, both using the cyrillic alphabet. This commonality does not extend to the langauge itself, which although sounds similar to the ears of a foreigner, are actually very different.
We finally arrived at Ulan Bator and were picked up at the Station by our Mongolian guide and driver. It didn't take long for us to conclude that as university students, they were not widely experienced in all aspects of Mongolian life. As such, we refrained from asking too many political or economic type questions.
Cinthia's first impression was that it's the most chaotic place she has been to. Messy. Unlike China and like Australia, they drive on the right side of the road, however, cars have their steering wheels on either side... it's weird. There are barely any traffic lights and no lanes on the road, so first in best dressed. Cars drive soo close to each other she couldn't help but close her eyes every 10 seconds. At major intersections, cars pull out in front of each other, just crazy, much worse than Ho Chi Ming City. Huge pot holes all over the streets, and foot paths are not paved. There are also no trees. Buildings are old, ugly and resemble Russian buldings. There is junk everywhere you look. It looks like an abandoned city or a city under construction.
Even though it's a poor city, the people don't look miserable like Cambodians do. The girls look after themselves, most of them wear heels and fake branded clothes and bags. The Mongolians are generally nice people (unless they are behind a wheel).
We stopped for lunch at a very posh Mongolian restaurant where each one of us had own "foundue" like pans where we could cook our own soup.
With full bellies, we were ready to head toward the countyside. The condition of the road was awful, in much poorer condition than the city. Giant pot holes and unlevel, rarely tarmac, and often not graded. In order to take our minds off the roads we looked at the landscape, full of the gers, green mountains and beautiful rocks on the way. The livestock was also frequent, sheep, cattle, horses and even a family of camels. Whilst Mongolia does not quite have as many sheep and cows as Australia, its per capita ratio of 25 livestock to every person gives some indication of how important it is to Mongolia overall.
We arrived at the Ger Camp! It was so beautiful! The ger, the mountains, the flowers!
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