Tuesday, January 31, 2017

A couple of low distance days walking mostly in tough snow and wind conditions took me to Bayangol. My progress was slow but I was feeling confident that I would escape Mongolia before the really harsh weather hits. October and November are said to be cold months, December is when the cold really begins to bite. By this stage, the snow had melted for though the lows were around -10-12 C a strong sun fought its way through patches of black clouds. That night I made it to a cafe where the staff allowed me to sleep on a sofa in an upstairs lounge. As mentioned before when I want to eat in a restaurant I have a few techniques and depending on my mood, I decide which one I will inflict on the staff! By far the easiest one is to show a photograph of a dish. Believe it or not, the Moo Moo, Oink, Oink, Baa Baa or clucking with my flapping wings is often greeted by blank stares. Once or twice the cashier tried to charge me for a strangers breakfast when I pointed at another diner's plate and then to myself meaning ' I want that too' This has been taken for... " You want to pay for his meal!" Then there is the picking the most expensive thing on the menu and waiting to see what arrives! This is obviously only used in countries where it's affordable. However, that has its drawbacks as more than one occasion I have ended up with an aperitif with little eating! My latest technique is to throw a dart at the wall menu, except I don't carry around darts. I modified this by closing my eyes and throwing my hand at the menu, as seen in one of my photos! On that occasion, I ended up with a bowl of beef soup :(
Next morning at a village coffee stop I met a woman called Tuya from Ulan Baator and after we exchanged contact information she offered to take some of my baggage on ahead. I decided I would give her Karma and just walk with a backpack containing some food, my sleeping bag, and a lightweight tent. However, no sooner had she pulled away when I realized that this was a mistake! My days of humping a heavy backpack were well and truly over! That day I struggled to 27 kilometres and camped in a field behind a ditch. Finding discrete camping places is not as easy as in Russia due to the lack of forestry. In the middle of the night, I awoke to the sound of a dog and a galloping horseman! Luckily he rode in a different direction. In the morning I walked to the top of a hill where there was a cafe yurt, a round nomadic tent where a friendly man and his daughter cooked me my breakfast of four hard boiled eggs, some fried bread with minced meat and coffee. It was such a pity I hadn't gone that bit further the previous night as I am sure I could have slept there, or at least camped in a secure spot on their property. The friendly man helped me put my pack on for I was struggling badly. It was a long day, mind over matter, embarrassing pain and discomfort. That nightI made it to Jacks Cafe which was a popular stopping point for tourists and truck drivers. I could barely move when I took my pack off. It was a long 99 kilometres to UB, how would I manage, I had thought I would have made better progress, how wrong I was. I decided to sleep there. later that evening Tuya phoned to see how I was. She had been concerned as she hadn't heard from me in two days, mainly due to a poor telephone signal and my phone battery crashing. Previously she had been an English language teacher to the manager of Jacks Coffee and after a phone call had arranged a complimentary nights stay in their adjoining hotel! When she said that she would help ,e in whatever way she could I asked her to please come back with Karma! The weather was due to change and as she didn't like driving in inclement weather to her credit she hired a taxi man who made the 200 kilometre round trip from the capital with Karma, all for 24 Euro, and I was only too willing to pay!
I walked 36 happy kilometres that day, reflecting on how much easier it is pushing a cart, even up steep hills. I would think long and hard before I abandoned my buddy again! I made it to a restaurant where I produced the note that Tuya had written for me saying that I was walking around the world. On the other side a request in Mongolian to sleep there. I pointed to a spot and asked if I could camp. No sooner had I walked over to the patch of ground when the security man invited me inside for tea, bread, sugar, and butter sandwiches. They were a friendly bunch of lads and after I pointed to a picture of a bear on the wall I was brought outside to see that they actually had a small zoo. One of the lads went inside a bear cage and it was obvious that the bear didn't appreciate being awoken at midnight for he was pretty cranky. There was also a couple of cages containing wolves. I was given a sofa to sleep on that night and it took me a long time to sleep, for the bear growled his discontent at being disturbed for a long time after.
In the morning I got a better tour of the zoo and then by the time I got started it was almost noon, for the family insisted I stayed for a long time-consuming breakfast. Mongolians are fond of their meat, I don't think it's a destination for vegetarians! I have been told that one of the reasons they eat vast quantities is because not only do they need the extra protein because of the harsh climate, but also because there is a glut on the price as so many farmers want to quickly due to the short lifespan of the animals that die because of the cold.
That day the weather was pleasant and I walked long and hard. By eleven o'clock I got to a petrol station on the outskirts of the Mongolian capital, home to half of the landlocked countries 2.8 million people. I asked the woman who worked there to call Tuya and while I waited she invited me inside for a bowl of beef stew and tea, for it was a bitter cold night. Tuya'shouse was about 10 kilometres and despite the offer of a bed in the petrol station office I walked on for Tuya understood I need to get to the Vietnamese embassy the next morning. So when she insisted on wanting to help me in whatever way she could and it was not too late for her; I said thatI would meet her in two hours on the road. Sure enough, she was there, along with Tsogolo, the taxi driver who had driven her to Jacks Coffee a couple of nights ago, for he had become curious of my mission and now we were all friends! They escorted me to Tuya's house where we celebrated my arrival until 4 am. I had walked 55 kilometres that day. It was difficult getting up to go to the Vietnam embassy that morning! First I had to get visa photos and sure enough, Tuya knew the place. thanks to the Vietnam Second Secretary Mr. Do Dinh Tu for rushing through my multi-entry visa. I picked it up the next day, Friday and saved me a couple of days.

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