vendeursdereve: Mongol hording

This was always going to be the easy bit – tourism by numbers. We were collected from the train by Dairii and Pilgung who would be our guide and driver for the next couple of days. The train carpark is a kind of organized chaos but it seems to work and without the contingent shouting and blasts of horn that you might expect. However the roads are a more familiar kind of chaos which is only strange in that it is surprising to see them working. There seems to be an unspoken code in which everyone drives as proactively as possible but still within the bounds of common sense and so cars are allowed to nudge into seemingly stationary lines of traffic and the natural order prevails – which doesn’t stop the pretty girls in big cars getting through first, at least with our driver.

The currency exchange counter at the bank is run along similarly unfair lines – foreigners don’t need to wait but go into a little office apart, still furnished with the reinforced glass screen and can change money without waiting on the ticket system installed for the other tellers.

We were taken to a buffet style restaurant in a department store for lunch where we ordered four different dishes of typical Mongolian fare. The traditional noodles with beef were excellent – really delicately flavoured with cinnamon and anise and all four dishes very distinct and flavoursome. Already the prejudice of stodgy boiled mutton is blown out of the water.

Then we hit the road at the height of the rush hour to leave the city for the Terelj national park where we will be spending the night in a Ger camp. The driving remains resolutely proactive on the roads leading out of town and the overriding necessity appears to be overtake or be overtaken, regardless of oncoming traffic. Things can only get more exciting as we turn off for the national park and all semblance of sealed road is left behind. There are sections of road, and vast tracts of non-road where we choose the least pot-holed looking track, avoiding cattle and goats as necessary, allowing the 4x4s to pass in their great hurry on the less even track. Given that we are travelling in a small sedan it is amazing we get anywhere at all but there is never a doubt in the drivers mind as to this despite the frankly worrying squeaks emanating from the front drivers side wheel. The countryside opens out to a stunning river bed and we begin to spot unusual rock formations, the pace gets ever slower and finally we turn off into a tiny collection of houses accessible via a sliding gateway operated by bored security guard.

Passing more rock formations, we leave the village, chasing squirrels along ever more bumpy tracks and suddenly we arrive at a further gateway, “Welcome to Temir” and turning the corner discover a small camp of ger (Mongolian word for yurt). The setting is exquisite and this is the end of the track – it feels remote and serene.

(This seems awfully long.... let's do two posts.....)