Archive for the Mongolia category
Mongolia
In Mongolia no one can drive 55As I mentioned in my previous post, there are no worse roads in the world than a Mongolian highway. Our vehicle for this expedition was a 4 wheel drive Russian van called a "Yaz". The ladies of our trip named it "Ivan", and later after we it had proved itself worthy, gave it [...]
{More»}
Mongolia
Journey to Lake KhovsgolWe’ve just come back from a 10 day trip out to western and central Mongolia. Babak, Bec, Josie, Sarah and myself hooked up with the worlds best driver and the worlds worst guide/translator for the obligatory big trip out to the countryside. The main destination was to Lake Khovsgol, which is the largest lake in [...]
{More»}
Mongolia
Mongolia Hash House HarriersOne of the things I’ve been introduced to down here is the group called the "Hash House Harriers." It’s been described best as a drinking club with a running problem. For the past three or four weeks, we’ve gone out on Tuesday nights to some location near UB to hike and jog in [...]
{More»}
Mongolia
Summer is here!It’s so cool to watch the changing of the seasons around here. In the past two weeks, the countryside and the city have both gone from a depressing brown to a vibrant green. We’ve been getting a little bit of rain, and that’s been the driving factor for the change. We haven’t seen snow for [...]
{More»}
Mongolia
Wild horses can’t drive me away
Actually, they can. From the urban settings of Ulaan Baatar, myself and 6 other friends headed out to Khustai Nuruu Reserve last weekend. This reserve is about 65 miles west of UB, and the main draw of the park is the presence of Takhi horses.
These horses are distantly related to modern horses, but are [...]
Mongolia
Life in UBThe social life here has been pretty good. For the past three weeks all the bars have closed at 10:00 pm in an attempt to contain SARS. Instead of going out and exploring (or even going to bed early and catching up on sleep) we had to stay inside and entertain ourselves. Finally this [...]
{More»}
Mongolia
Mongolian ReligionMongolia has an extremely rich history when it comes to its religious beliefs. Historically the native religion of the people was shamanism. Shamans would go into trances, dance, and pray to the spirits of the land for luck and health. Major beliefs in the religion included balance in the world, respect for [...]
{More»}
Mongolia
Tsaggan NuurFour of us from the Geekcorps expedition have successfully returned from a trip out to the countryside of Mongolia. We left Friday afternoon, and headed out to a place called Tsaggan Nuur, or "White Lake". We borrowed a Toyota 4 runner, and drove about 6 hours northwest to get to our destination. According to my [...]
{More»}
Mongolia
SARSSARS has hit with a vengeance here now. Actually the disease hasn’t, but fear and paranoia of it have. There were two suspected cases of the disease in the southern part of the country where the train from Hohhot, China stops, but they were later proved to be nothing more serious than a bad [...]
{More»}
Mongolia
The first few daysWell, I’ve been in Mongolia for almost a week now. I’ve met the other "geeks" and they seem to be a great group. We haven’t officially started our projects yet, so we’ve had a bit of time to go out and explore the city. There are a lot more restaurants than I’d [...]
{More»}