3rd Aug - Finally get to the lake

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I woke up at 6.30 with a man outside cutting wood. Jenna was still dead to the world and so I enjoyed some time to myself writing my dairy and listening to the news on my ipod. Having spent the first few months of this trip really enjoying not following the news and having some time where I was not challenging my brain my brain is now craving things to think about and challenge it. Thank-you radio 4! I love the podcasts of intelligent debate about so many things. I have worked my way through loads of the documentaries and news reports. I am also working my way though some of the classics thanks to Fibrox at supply free audio classics.

We got ready slowly and we were on the road by 10. The lady wanted 15000 for the nights accommodation but she had said 10000 last night. She seemed to say that her husband said we should pay more when he returned in the morning. I was not happy about that and she accepted 10000 (but I then bought her lovely kids some sweets to the equivalent amount).


It was a gray morning and was raining when we left. The roads were wet and muddy. The route to the lake is not great as they are building a new road and this runs parallel to the other tracks. It is difficult to find a good route and we ended up going on and off the new road. Fortunately the skies cleared and it was then a lovely morning. We stopped about 20km along the road at the top of a pass for a cigarette break for Jenna but just ended up lying in the sun for ages. It was lovely and warm on the face after the miserable rainy morning.

As we were lying there, a German called Andras pedaled to us to say hello. We chatted to his for a while and then all headed off towards the lake together. Andras is 3 months into his journey. He biked from Holland to St Petersburg, then traveled on the trans-Siberian to UB and wants to head south into China after Mongolia.

Not long after we meet Andy, we then met another cyclist traveling in the opposite direction and stopped to chat. He was the first Mongolian cyclist I have seen touring. He was cool. He is carrying very little in terms of supplies and instead just does long distances to make sure he can get to towns to eat. He only carries 3litres of water and chocolate and biscuits. His bike and equipment weighs half of mine.

I was rather jealous of the distances and sped which the Mongolian cyclist could do with so little weight and then I realised that I actually really don't mind going slower and carrying some things that I really enjoy like a laptop and camera to take good photos, fresh coffee, fresh fruit and veg.....


There were loads to tracks into town and I lost the others and could not see them behind me and so I assumed they might have just taken another route. As there were 2 now I headed on into town and found the closest restaurant on the main street and ordered us 3 meals. When they still had not arrived after 1 hour I was getting rather worried. I could not get through to Jenna on her mobile. Their food was getting cold. I asked a couple of trucks coming through town if they had seen 2 cyclists and they said they were on their way so I stopped worrying. It turned out that Janna back pannier rack had snapped in two and they had to stop and fix it using her bike stand.


We left town after waiting for a storm to pass and biked over the hill up the lake. Once we got there we had to spend another hour fixing Jenna's pannier rack.


We found a lovely campsite out of the way of other people with a pre-existing fireplace and built a fire, cooked our dinner of pasta, veg and tuna on the camp fire, had a bottle of wine and some beers and listened to blues music on my ipod :-)


We even went for a swim and a wash in the freezing cold lake! Good cyclist tan-lines everywhere.....


At the campfire I added up the distance to the border in the west (where I have to leave by the 17th on my Mongolian Visa) and found that on the short route (via the river with no bridge on small roads) is 975km where as the longer route on the "main" roads (still dirt tracks) is 1107km. It seems to make sense to go the longer more reliable route. I only have 14 days todo it, which is 14 days of solid biking at 80km per day. Possible but very very hard on these roads and it partly takes the enjoyment out of seeing the country.I will have to hitch some of the way.

2nd Aug - Moron to Alag-Erdene

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We planned to get on the road early today and we were packed and ready by 9 but then had a relaxed breakfast with Hishgee and Tovo.


We started talking about our route and asked their option. Grandpa joined us and told us that the shorter route on the back roads crosses a river where there is no bridge or way to get across. That is at the place were google maps stops plotting the route across.

On the way through town I spent a couple of hours trying to get an extension on my visa only to find out it would be a 4 day round trip to UB and back by bus! No thanks.... I decided that time would be better spent biking and hitching if necessary than 2 * 22 hour bus rides to the capital and back.

It was frustrating as it took a while to find the right building and then to find the right room and then to find that the woman I needed to speak to was not there. I had to wait for her to return and faff some more - only to find out that it is only possible to get extensions in UB. Oh well - just part of traveling.

We eventually left town about 1 and headed North towards the lake.


The weather was lovely and the road not great as there are many tracks which run parallel to the main road which is in the process of being built.

We stopped off for lunch and just as we were finishing a guy in a lorry pulled up and jumped out to shake our hands and stay hello. He seemed very friendly and guested to other passing vehicles to stop and all of a sudden we were surrounded by a group of about 10 people. It was only 5 minutes later after we had shared our our lunch and cigarettes that the lorry driver pulled out from his little book my business card with my Oxfam sponsorship details and contact information. For a couple of seconds I was shocked and wondered how he had this card when both Jenna and myself started laughing as we recognised him as the same lorry driver that had pulled over to talk to us only 2 days outside of UB! The lorry driver thought it was really funny we did not recognise him straight away. He was such a lovely friendly man!


Jenna was really not feeling well and so we did not get as far as hoped today and stayed in a lodge with no running water, electricity or sanitation but it was perfect timing as we did not have to put our tents up in a thunderstorm!


The children at the lodge were really cute and friendly.


I helped this Mongolian guy fix his tyre with my bicycle tools and parts. Good to give back! :-)

1st Aug - Day in Moron

I woke up at 8. I was really lovely to sleep all through the night in a lovely soft bed with white sheets and not to wake up in the middle of the night.

I did not want to wake up Jenna as she had a few beers last night and so I took myself off to the internet place down the road to upload some photos and update my blog. It did not open until 9.30 so I sat outside and wrote my diary. A few people arrived looking for a room to take a shower after a long 22 hour bus journey from UB to Moron. I am so glad that I am not traveling by bus! It would be really uncomfortable on the dirt tracks and I don't think you would get the same appreciation for the country. One of the guys that arrived was a fellow cyclist and Brit called Mike. He was bemoaning the lack of his bike as he had cycled from Thailand to Beijing but was now traveling with his sister who did not want to bike. It turned out that he was cycling through parts of China with another female cyclist that I know through a cycling forum and has a website devoted to solo female cyclists (add in the link). Small world. Apparently Louretta is currently biking through Pakistan on her own. Good on her. I would not like to be doing that on my own but apparently she is being followed by a tv crew..... cool!

I always find it great to chat and meet other nutters - even while sitting on a floor waiting for an internet place to open!


I got back to the room about 10.30 with enough time to shower (I'm properly clean now) and pack up and leave by 11.30. When I caught up with Jenna outside the hotel she was trying to fix a spoke with help from the 3 guys from last night. It ended up being a mammoth task as they needed to remove the rear hub in order to get the spoke in. Too many cooks and all that so I left them too it and washed my bike, tightened up all the screws and added even more wire to the front pannier rack to give it some extra strength. I popped to the shops to get some final supplies and water only to find that nearly everywhere is closed on a Monday. I am really glad that I went shopping yesterday instead!

It took several hours for Jenna to fix her bike and so we did not end up leaving town until 4. The boys had left us an hour or so earlier saying that they were going for a swim in the river. As it was on the way out of town towards the lake we said we would join them for a while before heading off.


The river is only just out of town and is a really lovely place to sit and chill and have a swim. There were loads of people from town there having picnics and a beer or two. The current is strong and so you have to be a good swimmer to get across without floating downstream.


Some of Tuk's and Hishgue's friends have young babies. Mongolian babies are so cute! They are all born with a huge amount of body fat (presumably to keep warm in the very cold winters). Looking at the six packs of the Mongolian men, they obviously loss it as adults!


Jenna was in her element with 4 Mongolian men.....


She managed to make herself a new family very quickly....


It was a lovely sunny afternoon at the river but we could see off in the distance a huge storm in the direction of the lake (North - where we were planning on going). We were debating whether to head of into the storm and camp when the storm arrived by the river. It became extremely windy and cold all of a sudden and everyone's things started to fly away. Hishge kindly offered to put us up for the night in his grandparents Ger. Awesome. We were so happy. We had both wanted to sleep in a Ger and it would work out great to get out of a storm and also to spend sometime with a Mongolian family that also speak the same language!


We biked into town and then put our bags in the back of one of Hishge's and Tuk's friends car and then we got a lift to Hishge's Grandparents (5km out on the edge of town) while the boys road our bikes (they loved it!).


We were fortunate that the storm stayed away from the town itself and just passed by very close. It meant that we could enjoy a sunny evening with Hishge's family.


They have 2 Gers on their plot of land and 2 small houses (1 in the process of being built). Mongolians generally stay in houses in the summer and Gers in the winter. The Gers are too hot for summer living and the houses too cold. Jenna and I were given a Ger for our selves. It only had 2 layers of cloth on the outside (for the summer) unlike the other Ger which had a layer of wool between the 2 layers of cloth (still like that from the winter. There was a sheet on the ground. It felt very cosy inside. We could take our bikes in there as well :-)

We were made very welcome and given loads of Mongolian food which we had not had before in their tiny house. They milk their own herd and have loads of milk and so dairy products are a major part of their diet. We were given fresh Mongolian tea (boiled milk with some herbs), yogurt, and a substance like clotted cream along with some little bread sticks - all of which Hishge's grandma made. It was really taste. There were 4 huge bowls of milk in different stages of going towards cheese in the kitchen area. With the smells from the dairy products and the hot stove in the middle of the room it was very cosy inside.


Hishge's younger brother of 13 is a really good singer and just stood up and sang for us while we were eating. He has a great voice and the Mongolian traditional music is very erie and very beautiful. I will upload a video of him singing if I get chance.


After dinner we helped out moving things around in the building site of the new house. The grandparents are moving into the house when it is finished and all of the grandchildren were helping out. We helped move all of the flooring inside and tried to get rid of all of the building rubbish and dust inside. It was a lovely change from biking and I enjoyed being helpful and part of a family having fun together. I miss that.

There was a little boy about 5 that took a liking to me and I enjoyed throwing him about the place.


Hishgee's buddies were messing around and ended up having a couple of spontaneous Mongolian wrestling matches. It was fun to watch especially when the little lads joined in. Mongolian men are strong! Even Hishgee's 13 year old younger brother was really strong as I was play fighting with him.


Once we had finished, Hishgee, Jenna, Tovo (Hishgee's friend) and I all went into town to play basket ball. It was inside and there were loads of Mongolian men playing. They were actually very good and fit too. I was not expecting the standard to be so high. I thought we were just going for a mess around on the court not a serious match. As I am not great at the sport, I left the others too it and went and used the internet for a little while at the place just round the corner and then headed back with them when they finished about 9.30. We did not manage to get a ride back and so walked.


When we got back Hishgue's Grandma had cooked us Mongolian noodles and mutton and we also had some yogurt. It was very cosy inside the little kitchen. We all had an early night. I loved sleeping in my new warm sleeping bag inside the Ger. I did not even have to wear my hat and gloves and I was still warm. I slept all the way through. :-)


It felt like I had been in Moron for ages and really got to know the town even though we only arrived yesterday lunch time. It was great to experience some more of Mongolian culture with people that speak English and it meant we understood far more. It was great to see some of the famous Mongolian hospitality rather than the other side of Mongolian culture: the drunken molesting men. Hishgue and his family and friends were really lovely and friendly towards us. It was a great couple of days in Moron!