Heading North - Getting ready to ride. 

Day 10: 8 July  Ulan Baatar - Erdenet

This was a very hectic day.  After the shenanigans of karaoke and far too much vodka, Eliza and I had between one and two hours sleep.  At about 9am we decided it was time to assemble our bikes.  Surprisingly, this went off without too much trouble.  The main issue was that the handlebar bag that Eliza was going to use wouldn't secure properly.  This was temporarily fixed with duct tape.  Building our bike took about 2 hours.

We spent about the same amount of time on a very hungover hunt for the train station to purchase our ticket to Erdenet.  After much wandering the streets past the market and getting in the way of many people trying to haul massive slabs of soft drink around we successfully managed to find the ticket office.  We then spent the next 30 minutes queuing, finally managing to purchase our tickets for a first class sleeper.  

The afternoon brought more rushing around, Eliza bought a new camera to replace her broken one and I went to the Russian embassy again to try my luck at a transit visa.  I didn’t have the right form and in my sleep deprived and hungover state I couldn’t even contemplate and alternative plan.  I went back to the guesthouse dejected, found Eliza and we tried our best at eating dinner. 

We went to a vegan, alcohol free karaoke restaurant.  What should have been grilled veggies on a stick turned out to be a stick full of fake meat with a token piece of onion. Disappointing to say the least.  With an empty belly we loaded up the bikes and navigated our way successfully back to the train station.  

Once the train arrived it was a stressful 10 minutes of trying to push our way through the crowds to get our bikes to the goods carriage.  Once the bikes were safely stowed and our receipt put in a ‘safe’ spot we found our cabin.  We had the top bunks was sharing with a young family with a cute baby.  Despite having no common language we managed to make friends and happily received some cold KFC.  That burger was the best thing I had eaten all week!. Soon enough it was light out and time for some proper rest.  

Getting ready to board the Train 

Courtney enjoying the train ride. 

Day 11: 9 July Erdernet - Moron

The kind family sharing our carriage woke us up in time to get ready to disembark from the train.  Unfortunately both Eliza and I didn't sleep quite as much as we would have liked.  Once off the train it was a very panicked 10 minutes of trying to find the goods carriage with our bikes.  We waved our receipt under the nose of many grumpy train ladies and got sent from one end of the train to another.  Finally we found the carriage, at the back of the train instead of the front!  Bikes once again in our grasp we found a spot in the shade and started sorting out gear.  This was our first proper opportunity to repack and lay everything out, the guesthoue in UB was just too small and we built our bikes in a muddy, gravel car park.  

Once this was done we were on our way into town.  Eliza and I had not eaten breakfast and the ride to town was a real struggle.  we were still trying to figure out what to do, whether to ride to Moron, or catch a share jeep or bus.  After a lengthy (1 hour!) wait for a burger which I couldn't eat due to ongoing nausea we made a beeline for the jeep stand.  It turned out a jeep was leaving in 2 hours for moron.  Decision made.  Whilst sitting in the car park at the jeep stand I went for a grocery shop and toilet finding adventure.  By waving my toilet paper at people I managed to convey that I was looking for the toilet, after a little confusion I made my way around the back of the supermarket.  There was a locked door and a window.  I called out and no one came.  I decided to jump through the window into a room which looked much like a bathroom.  Business was done and I exited the same way.  I returned to Eliza to let her know where the bathroom was and she was met by a very grumpy cleaning lady demanding 2000T (aprox AUD1.50) for the privilege.  

The share jeep experience can best be described as enduring.  We think that there were 20 people in the jeep, including 1 baby and 2 children, although can’t be sure of the final head count.  The was much reluctance and extra money handed over to put our bike on the roof of the jeep.  Mongolians seem to be so fearful of this.  So much luggage was shoved in every nook and cranny that could easily have been placed on the roof racks. 

During our 10 hour ordeal Eliza and I managed to make friends with and older lady, using only the brief translation section of the lonely planet and our 6 words of Mongolian.  During the rest stop she made sure we found the toilet, helped us order food and harassed the kitchen frequently when our meals were slow.  Arriving in Moron at 2 am we wished we had booked a hotel.  Luckily I found a guest-house just around the corner, it was cheap, clean and had large rooms.  We were both still running on a very large sleep deficit.  It would be a few more days before I caught up. 

Nadamm celebrations in Erdernent 

 Getting the bikes ready for the bus 

On the bus with 20 other people and our bikes! 

View from the bus trip 

Classis Mongolian furniture. 

Day 11: 10 July Moron to Khatgal

In the morning I was feeling very nauseas, stressed about the Russian transit visa situation and sleep deprived.  We went for a short walk to find some food.  I ordered a vegetable soup, which I hoped would be a bland broth with carrots, potatoes and cabbage - standard Mongolian veggies, it turned out to have all of this plus an extremely large amount of fatty meat, possibly mutton. I drank my sprite and ate a tiny amount of soup, which only made things worse.  Racked with the feeling that I needed to spew I went outside.  I managed to make it back to the guest house, tools some ondansetron and went back to bed.  Eliza went on a shopping and information finding adventure.  She met two Brisbane girls that were headed to Khatgaal in the afternoon to check out the Nadaam festivities that were on the next day.  By the time Eliza returned to the guesthouse I was feeling better, and changed my flight so I could avoid the whole Russian transit thing and was happy to head straight up to Lake Khovsgol.  

That night in Khatgal we went to a concert in the town hall.  It seemed to be a very kitsch small town talent contest.  A classic mix of a scratched CD and fuzzy sound system with the volume turned up to 11 made for an hour of ear clutching cultural experience. 

Enjoying the concert in Khatgal 

"Vegetable Soup?" 

Day 12: 11 July Khatgal to Khovsgol

26km ridden, Total 55km

After finally having a decent sleep we were provided with what seems to be a staple breakfast in Mongolia - deep fried scrambled eggs.  I managed to only eat some toast, my stomach seemed to be protesting all the oil in every single meal.  After breakfast Eliza and I made our way to Naddaam, our directions we pretty much walk that way for about 4 km.  We were not told about the two 6 ft high barbed wire fences or air strip that needed to be crossed.  

The Khatgal Nadaam was quite small, although very entertaining.  We shopped for a couple of souvenirs and watched a lot of wrestling.  It was now Eliza’s turn to feel unwell, she napped at the side of the wrestling ring while I went and fetched sprite.  The wrestling was interesting, the men wear open chest vests which is apparently to ensure no women enter the competition.  They also wear speedo style underwear.  Many wedgies were pulled and some matches went for some time, the competitors having short breaks to readjust their vests when told to do so. The entire day there were about 5 old men in traditional outfits refereeing the matches.  The winner of each match would do an eagle dance around a totem pole like thing and then receive a handful of cheese, some to throw to totem ole, the rest to give to the crowd or eat them selves.  I managed to score a couple of pieces and it was very tasty.  Not dry or sour like that other traditional cheese I have tried.  

Once we were done with wrestling it was decided that we would finally embark on our cycling part of the trip.  At about 4pm we headed off, managing to get past all the Mongolian tourists until about 5km up the road we hit a dead end, our first navigational error of our bike ride.  We rode back into the head wind, found the correct road and commenced a 26km slog.  We were riding along a dirt road, with many cars flying past us very fast.  We soon found ourselves covered in dust.  Eliza was feeling worse for wear and I was very keen to get to the lake and set up camp.  The road north does not follow the lake for the first 20km, it winds up a valley inland, we did not have a lot of water.  It also turned out that we had been going up a false flat the entire way.  We crested the hill to realise how much elevation we had actually gained.  the way back down was very steep, on loose gravel, we took it easy.  Once back at the lake shore we rode for about another 6 km past many many ger camps.  It seemed as though half of UB is up here on holidays.  We settled on a mostly flat campsite, unfortunately near someone that was very fond of Mongolian rap.  Between this and the massive thunderstorm we found it very hard to get to sleep.  We had a quick dinner of ramen, tinned corn and pickled veges, it tasted about as good as it sounds.  

Nadamm

Off we go! 

First sign of the Lake 

Camp site

Scene from our campsite by the Lake.