We finally returned to Canada on Friday night, and we're staying in the Sheraton Eau Claire in Calgary for 2 weeks while Imperial Oil house-hunts for us. With all expenses paid, we've been living pretty high on the hog! I had a grey-goose martini on Friday night and was convinced that they watered-down the vodka. Then it occured to me that high-quality vokda probably doesn't taste quite as horrible as Mongolian vodka...
Anyway, I'm convinced that we live in the best country in the world. I'll try to think up some deep lessons learned for a future posting.
PS: Some new pictures are up... I highly recommend the Mongolia ones.
Aug 19, 2007
Aug 6, 2007
Mongolia at last
Quick post.
First off, Irkutsk wasn't much, and definitely NOT the so-called "Paris of Siberia". Lake Baikal was awesome though, and I think most of us agreed that we might return there. Maybe we'll post more about it later. One thing to mention was that Amber's bag was stolen at our last sketchy internet cafe in Russia. [this is called foreshadowing, read on]. On to Mongolia...
Our border crossing was not that bad (supposedly), it was only around 6hrs or so. We wandered around some shitty Russian and Mongolian towns buying beer and drinking since there was nothing else to do. We arrived in Ulaan Baatar at around 6:30am (half hour ahead of schedule, if there is such a thing as a schedule here).
We checked in our hotel and took a much needed shower. No hot water. Then we napped until 9am because the train was so hot we couldn't sleep. When we woke up electricity was out in our entire block. Sean showered in the cold and the dark. Hehe. I bought some tasty deep fried breadlet that had nuggets of mushrooms and tasty asianesque flavours.
We conquered a bunch of sites here, and then had lunch. Mmm... tasty mutton roast, Mongolian soup, and some tasty tongue. Tried Chinggis beer, which is ok. In typical Hepler fashion, we were offered vodka by some Mongolians (a few shots each: 3 for you, oh you're Canadian, then 4...). We were accosted by friendly children who wanted to try out their English, and then climb on tanks and get their pictures taken. Just about 5 minutes ago some guy tried to pick my pocket. I slapped his hand and then yelled at him. He was dressed in a suit.
Lots of fun! We're going to see a traditional cultural dance and then eat dinner (mmmmm tasty goodness). Tomorrow we leave for the Ger camp (they have airag, fermented mare's milk there!).
Dan.
First off, Irkutsk wasn't much, and definitely NOT the so-called "Paris of Siberia". Lake Baikal was awesome though, and I think most of us agreed that we might return there. Maybe we'll post more about it later. One thing to mention was that Amber's bag was stolen at our last sketchy internet cafe in Russia. [this is called foreshadowing, read on]. On to Mongolia...
Our border crossing was not that bad (supposedly), it was only around 6hrs or so. We wandered around some shitty Russian and Mongolian towns buying beer and drinking since there was nothing else to do. We arrived in Ulaan Baatar at around 6:30am (half hour ahead of schedule, if there is such a thing as a schedule here).
We checked in our hotel and took a much needed shower. No hot water. Then we napped until 9am because the train was so hot we couldn't sleep. When we woke up electricity was out in our entire block. Sean showered in the cold and the dark. Hehe. I bought some tasty deep fried breadlet that had nuggets of mushrooms and tasty asianesque flavours.
We conquered a bunch of sites here, and then had lunch. Mmm... tasty mutton roast, Mongolian soup, and some tasty tongue. Tried Chinggis beer, which is ok. In typical Hepler fashion, we were offered vodka by some Mongolians (a few shots each: 3 for you, oh you're Canadian, then 4...). We were accosted by friendly children who wanted to try out their English, and then climb on tanks and get their pictures taken. Just about 5 minutes ago some guy tried to pick my pocket. I slapped his hand and then yelled at him. He was dressed in a suit.
Lots of fun! We're going to see a traditional cultural dance and then eat dinner (mmmmm tasty goodness). Tomorrow we leave for the Ger camp (they have airag, fermented mare's milk there!).
Dan.
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