Dave & Meredith’s Travel Blog

It’s taken longer than I would have liked but I have just uploaded picture galleries from our trip to Mongolia. You can click here to see pictures from Ulaan Baatar, here to see pictures from western Mongolia (Ulgii and Tavan Bogd), and here for pictures from the Gobi Desert. As usual, the Photo Galleries page has also been updated with these links.

The pictures posted are a larger size than previous galleries which I think looks much better but download times may be longer. Please let me know if there are any issues.

I’m now working on some of the panoramas that I took on the trip and will post again when they’re ready. As always, feedback is welcome. Enjoy!

- Dave

The day we returned from our trek to Ulgii was election day in Mongolia. The next day, when we were back in Ulaan Baatar, we saw news on the TV in the lobby. There was coverage of a violent protest going on with people throwing rocks at buildings and reporters excitedly talking into a moving camera. It had all the signs of live TV. The Mongolians working for the hotel were all watching the TV intensely. We found out from them that this protest was in Ulaan Baatar in front of the Communist party headquarters which is just a few blocks away from the hotel. The protesters were from the party that lost and they felt that the Communist party (the incumbent party) had tampered with the elections. We felt safe (and were safe) even though it was so close to us but it was interesting to learn more details in the next few days.

Mongolia is a young democracy (starting in 1990 when the USSR dismantled - no, Mongolia was not part of the USSR but it was heavily dependent on it) and all the Mongolians we spoke with were very concerned that this happened. They said this has not happened in Mongolia before. While we only saw rocks thrown on TV, it turns out that the Communist party headquarters was burned. Five people died, more than 300 were injured, and about 700 people were arrested.

Above, the burned Communist party headquarters in Ulaan Baatar

Especially interesting were the measures the government took to try to calm the situation down. For one, we got a different story depending on what TV channel you watched. During the event, the state-run channel showed what seemed to be a smaller protest with some people simply throwing rocks at a building. Other private channels, though, showed the building being burned as well as police hitting protesters. The following day, private TV channels were off the air, a state of emergency was declared, and sales of alcohol were banned. Also, major roads to the center of the city were blocked off.

We went to the Gobi for a few days and by the time we returned, things had returned mostly to normal. Unfortunately, an innocent bystander in all this was AeroMongolia whose offices are in the same building as the Communist party. All of their paper records, manifests, passenger lists, etc. were lost in the fire and from what we learned, they were scrambling to piece their business back together as fast as they could. We found this out because the next horse trek with our guides was leaving in a couple of days and their flight west was booked on AeroMongolia so they were involved in the mad scramble to piece things together.

If you want to learn more from an official news source, here are four articles on BBC World News as events progressed:

Mongolia votes in key elections

Mongolia calls state of emergency

Fatal clashes in Mongolia capital

Streets calm in riot-hit Mongolia

And if you want to learn some background about Mongolia, the CIA World Factbook (a great place to learn basics about any country) has their Mongolia page here.

- Dave

Well, I’m happy to report that I managed to get through our trip to Mongolia without injuring myself.  Unfortunately, I can’t say the same thing for Dave.

While we were in the Gobi, Dave started complaining that his finger hurt and seemed swollen.  At first, it looked a little like it does if you have pulled a hang nail when you shouldn’t have.  But by the next day, his whole finger was swollen, and the back of his hand was red.  By the time we got back to UB, the lower half of Dave’s forearm was swollen and red, and he seemed a little feverish to me.

Our guides from the Western Mongolia trek were still in UB and both have extensive emergency medical training.  We saw them when we returned and before we asked what they thought Dave should do, they said, “You have to go see a doctor.”

So, we called the SOS Medica Mongolia International Clinic, where they have an English speaking doctor, even on weekends, when we needed to go.  There was no ambulance this time, just a cab ride with a driver who overcharged us to go to the clinic.

When we arrived at the clinic, I sat in the waiting room while Dave saw the doctor (based on Dave’s description of what happened inside, I’m glad I waited outside).  Apparently, there was lots of iodine, a big lance making a sweeping movement between Dave’s fingernail bed and skin up to his knuckle, some oozing, etc.  When Dave came out to the waiting room, he looked like this:

Remember all those pictures Dave took of me and my ankle?  Well, turnabout is fair play.

The doctor gave Dave the sling to keep his hand elevated.  His finger is wrapped in gauze and he has to keep the bandage moist “to promote oozing”.  He’s also now on antibiotics for the next week.

The big question is, “What happened?”  Clearly this could not have been a hang nail gone awry.  We wondered if he got a bug bite of some sort, but couldn’t find bite marks anywhere.  I guess it will remain a mystery.  Dave simply calls it his “Gobi Finger”.  The good news is that he got on antibiotics before the infection moved further up his arm.

The patient leaves the SOS Medica Mongolia clinic, clearly in intense pain, but putting on a brave smile for the readers of this blog

- Meredith

We’re back from the Gobi.  Here is the view from our window at the Bayangol Hotel in Ulaan Baatar - it’s our last stay here before coming back to the US.

- Meredith

As I’ve mentioned before, one of the things I enjoy about traveling in countries where English is not the native language is the little nuggets of bad translations you find that end up being pretty funny. Most that you find are small and simply make you smile such as the homemade sign in our hotel’s lobby that says “The Post Office Works Here.” On the outside of the hotel elevator doors are the more amusing warnings:

- WARNING: DO NOT BY TOUCH HAND

- WARNING: DO NOT RECLINE FOR DANGEROUS FALL DOWN

Above, the warning stickers on the outside of the elevator doors

There is a sign, though, inside the hotel’s elevator that has become legendary among our trekking group. Apparently the Sigma Mongolia Company makes elevators and someone there was tasked with creating a sign of safety rules written in English. It seems like a classic case of some hapless person sitting down with a dictionary and doing a word for word translation. It also uses color and all-capitals to stress words or phrases that don’t make sense (at least to me). The picture of the sign is below but in case it’s hard to read, here is my transcription of it. All use of color, capitals, etc. is preserved:

SAFETY WARNING OF THE ELEVATOR TRANSPORTATION

- It is dangerous RECLINE and PUSH, to the elevator’s floor doors.

- You must to take CHILDREN in to the elevator cabin.

- You should carefull from getting door tuck your CLOTHES and OTHER THINGS.

- Before go to the elevator you should check ELEVATOR CABIN LEVEL to FLOOR LEVEL.

- If derive THE FIRE, you use BREAKAGE ON FOOT STAIRWAY

- Do not to do JUMP and OBSTRUCTIVE inside the elevator cabin

- Do not transportation TO OVERLOAD.

- Do not use BY THE IMPROPER PURPOSE.

- If the ELECTRIC TO GO OFF, the elevator has A BREAK you don’t act any movement, and press the button with FIGURE OF BELL and call up HELP.

At the bottom, apparently the company motto translates to “150 years were together, will together 150 years”. The tag-line in the lower right claims “The world best product, repair, service, assembling.” Some day they may add “translation” to that list but today is not that day.

Above, the warning sign inside the elevator

- Dave

Back in UB at the Bayangol Hotel. Here’s another picture from the window. Different room.

- Meredith

Sometimes things don’t go according to plan in Mongolia. Our trekking guides, Eddie and Amy, call this the Genghis factor (as in Genghis Khan).

Today, our flight to Western Mongolia was supposed to leave UB at 10:45 am. But at 1:00 am, the flight schedule changed to 6:40 am because of forecasted weather at our destination. Our tour leader wasn’t notified by the airline until 6:20 am. We made a mad dash for the airport, while our local guides tried to pull strings with connections at Aero Mongolia to try to hold the plane. Within one hour of being told to hustle, we made it from our hotel to the airport, checked in 15 people with outdoor gear and most of the food for the trip (with a paper ticket system!), got through security, and onto the plane which was being held on the tarmac for us for an hour and 10 minutes.

The people at the airport were so efficient. This never could have happened in the US. Of course, I’m not so sure a flight would be rescheduled to 4 hours earlier in the US either.

The kicker? Perfect weather with blue skies and no wind at our destination in Western Mongolia.

- Meredith

We went to see a cultural performance by the National Song and Dance Ensemble in UB. It was outstanding. We saw traditional performances from different parts of the country, including throat singing, folk dances and contortionism. Here are some pics:

Dancers in costumes of religious and folk figures

A Khoomii throat singer

Folk dancing

Part of the music ensemble playing traditional Mongolian instruments

Three contortionists in an impressive pyramid

- Meredith

As I mentioned earlier, we took a nice tour of Ulaan Baatar today.  It’s the capital of Mongolia, and the country’s largest city, with a population of just over 1 million people (for some perspective, that’s larger than the population of the city of Boston proper, and about 1/4 the size of the entire Boston metro area).  During the tour, we visited the Gandan Monastery (the city’s principal Buddhist monastery), the Bogd Khan Palace (the summer and winter palaces of the political/religious leader of Mongolia who ruled in the early 20th century), the National Museum of Mongolian History, and the Zaisan Memorial (a hilltop memorial to the political alliance between Mongolia and the Soviet Union, from which we had great city views).

Dave got some great pics, of course:

View of UB from the Zaisan Memorial

The outside of a temple at the Gandan Monastery

Buddhist monks at the Gandan Monastery

The giant statue of Avalokiteshvara-Janraiseg inside a temple at Gandan Monastery

The Bogd Khan’s Summer Palace entrance

More of the Bogd Khan’s Summer Palace

The Zaisan Memorial

- Meredith

This is the view from our window in our hotel in Ulaan Baatar when we first arrived in Mongolia:

FYI, this is dated to June 16, which is when we were in Ulaan Bataar (UB) the first time. It’s now really July 1, and we’re in UB again for a day and are going to post as much as we can about our trip to date - all posts will be back dated to the time we are writing about. Hope this doesn’t get too confusing.

- Meredith