DFR Travels: In our cozy Gers

Saturday, August 25. Rain.

What a busy day: The night before the train we had visitors in our cabin; first a Russian customs officer lady; then a Russian Border Control scanning our visa; then down the tracks a bit and a Mongolian Border Control officer looking at our passport. Only then at 1.30 AM did we nod off. Rough tracks but we both got some sleep.

We pulled into Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia at 9.55 AM, exactly on schedule. For the next few hours we visited bloody temples. [Plus a few other points of interest.] Our guide was Mongolian spoke English but hard to understand.

Mongolia has a population of 3,000,000, half of whom live in Ulan Bator, the capital. That city has an air pollution problem, believe it or not. There seems to be horrendous big-city traffic problems here, you can only drive in the city on odd or even days, depending on tour license plate number. Hard to believe!

We had lunch in a Mongolian Restaurant where one of our tour had their 88th birthday. Our group then split into two, five stayed in the hotel that night and five brave souls opted for the adventure of 'A Night in a Ger in the Mountains'. [Ger is a stationery Mongolian tent house, a Yurt is a portable one, apparently.] According to our guide for this adventure, Jack, who looks after us well and spent 2 1/2 years in Houston.

On the train, there were about 34 [?] that opted for the Ger adventure. We were all in one bus that took about 1 3/4 hour to drive the 60 Km out to this camp in a National Park, some 60 Km from where Ghengis Khan was born about 1268. [?]

The Camp has about 50 Gers, we occupied around 25 maybe I figured. We had dinner in a very large Ger heated by a wood stove. It was much more civilized than I thought that it would/could be. It is still a bit 'rough', but in a way that makes us feel like we are stepping a bit outside our comfort zone.

Toilets are fine and not too far to go. The rain stopped in the middle of the night so it is pleasant enough. The Ger we are in has electric radiant heat, some have a wood stove, we are just fine with the electric. The beds were of a good size, very, very firm, like a felt pad firm, with laundered clean sheets, pillow, duvet and a heavy wool blanket, quite cozy I thought.

There are no windows in here, just a four foot diameter plastic dome, that leaked in the rain. We were in bed by 9:00, and it was amazingly quiet and no rocking like on the train. We were both up once last night, responding to Mother Nature, no issues. I was wide awake and dressed by 6.00 AM and went searching for coffee, which was a bit complicated but we succeeded in having three cups each before breakfast, at 8.00, rolled around.

Fellette and I at least seem to be suffering from a form of motion sickness, we always have the feeling that we are on a small boat that is rocking when sitting or walking. I find it very annoying as on the rough stairs around here I am walking like an old man who has lost his balance. We used to get this when on a long cruise but I never figured we would get it from a long journey on a train.

Around 1:00 today, some busses will drive close by here with the rest of the train, divided into German, French, Italians and another English speaking group. There, wherever there is, we will have a performance of some sort to show Mongolian skills at a variety of things. After that I believe we rejoin the train and move towards the Chinese Border where we will change trains for the 16 hour ride to Beijing.