Mongolia

Ok, Mongolia was never planned but as always the best experiences never are...It was down to Om, (That handsome chap I met in Hohhot) why I had such a precariously awesome time in a country full of wonder, tiny horses, beautiful women, a harsh climate and once home to the great Genghis Khan and of course V O D K A…!

So I managed to get the fastest ever Visa (30 minutes) for 2 weeks…our route was a bus to Eren Hot a smallish border town then catch the Trans Mongolia-express which starts in Beijing and ends up in St Petersburg…! Along the way met some interesting characters…from the dodgey men in the 4x4 that ripped us off at the border crossing to the strange drunk who followed us to our cabin on the train and demanded money from us...to Suhne and Baggi who were the best drinking partners anyone could have hoped for…!

Mongolia was by far one of the best 'off route' countries I visited and mainly because we had to be on the look out for most of it...! We spent quite a bit of time in the hostel in fear of our lives as the Capital is ‘no place for old men.’ Pick pocketing happened on a regular basis, drunks and taxi drivers who pulled a guy out of our hostel and beat him up...plus it was minus 0 C for most of the time…However I don’t want to paint a bad picture…it’s just with a harsh climate life is hard and it proved to be for many of the Mongolians at that time…well the ones we encountered...!

Approaching the border crossing...was the best Introduction to Mongolia we could have hoped for...literally as we made it to the border between China and Mongolia a huge sand storm greeted us...along with a giant artificial rainbow...! (you can't make this stuff up...)

I ve tried to let the videos do most of the explaining...although the train into Ulaanbaatar was definitely one of the highlights....!

We soon hooked up with Suhne and Baggey who offered Vodkha, arm wrestles and were such great company...thank you guys...!

Beginning of our little expedition into the Mongolian countryside...We teamed up with Canadian Chris...who we met at the hostel...he also managed to survive the Vodka..! cheers !

As you can see in the Pic below we enjoyed ourselves but it was exhausting...I have to say nothing happened to us...we weren't robbed and and I survived the most amount of Vodka my body has and will ever consume...EVER...
The only injury I incurred was running into a post when a wolf/dog growled at me and I got scared and ran from it...(check the scar-wound on my forehead in th epic below) other than that not a scratch...

written by  willrob on March 19, 2010 from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
from the travel blog: Rob Williams 'a year in the making'
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