The Mongolia Trip 7/22/08 – 8/21/08

The Mongolia Trip

7/22/08 – 8/21/08

The journal covers the trip in six parts:

1. Beijing to Ulaanbaatar
2. Karakorum and beyond
3. Lake Khosvgol-Muren
4. Ulan Bataar-Terelj
5. To the Gobi
6. Trip Extended

The first five were sent as emails and I have left them pretty much as they were written. The last was never sent (just lazy, I guess) and so it is new.

I have incorporated some photos in the text. However there are more photos and they are available in the Kodak Gallery. I have sent a link to these photos but you should also be able to reach them by clicking here. Enjoy.

1. Beijing to Ulaanbataar

July 26, 2008

Beijing has been fascinating. It is enormous, complicated to navigate, and hot. We chose our hotel because it is close to the train station for our Mongolian train trip (in a few hours.) Unfortunately, the railway station subway stop is closed (security?) and I misread the map, which led to some fine adventures the first day.

People are very helpful but we don't speak each other's language, which is alternately funny and frustrating. We sought a meeting the first day and eventually found it by cab after giving up on the subway with the closed station. The ride was endless, the direction unclear, and I assumed we would end up in jail for nonpayment of the enormous fare -- the meter was not clear either. In the end, the trip cost $4. Meeting place but no meeting, so we had our own.

One thing we wanted to see an old neighborhood or hutong and we had that right around the hotel. Markets and other small businesses, people opening up their homes to the street.

The train station showed preparations for the Olympics. Security was high and by our second day, cafes had suddenly appeared in the plaza along with an elaborate musical water fountain.

Getting to the Great Wall was Day 2 -- it started out seeming elusive. "You should have booked yesterday." "You could rent a taxi."

In the end, we caught a ride done to the bus depot near the Front Gate of Tienanmen Square, and found a day trip. Our lack of language was a difficulty but everyone was helpful.

There were the inevitable side trips but the wall itself made the trip worth it. I have included a picture and am uploading photos so I will just send links in the future. Uploads on this shared computer are a tad slow...

July 28, 2008

Wonderful train trip from Beijing to UB. Passed through the Great Wall, actually tunneled under, through the hills northwest of Beijing where the Olympic cyclists will be working on their smog breathing, through some industry and a lot of farming as we passed into Inner Mongolia.

After 15 hours, we made it to Erelian, the Paris of northern Inner Mongolia. Here we stopped for 3 hours while they adjusted the train to fit the slightly narrower gauge of the Mongolian tracks. We sat around the enormous Entry Hall, watching the Olympic statue and listening to the weirdest collection of western classical and popular music, including the wedding march. We also watched the mostly Mongolian train staff load up on booze, toilet paper and other obviously hard to get consumables.

The train was all soft sleeper and we splurged on the private room. The food was Chinese for the first day (Our car attendant warned us to eat lunch early while the good cook was on duty. The second day gave us a Russian dining car and the food was quite good -- contrary to most warnings.

The sky got light about 4am and we began to see Mongolia. Someone had told us 'Montana without highways’ -- a truly beautiful and empty Montana indeed.

UB is 5000' and we crossed a pass at 6500' on the way. Endless vistas, a few sheep, a few horses, and gers (Mongolian yurt) scattered here and there. We passed along the edge of the Gobi but we saw mostly grassy steppes, streams whose flow had peaked in the spring, and distant blue mountains. No dramatic peaks in this part.

UB was a shock. Half of the 400,000 Mongolians live there and they are still working out the kinks. My favorite -- they drive on the right but most cars seem to have the steering wheel on the wrong side (the right.) If you can follow that. No stoplights, stop signs, or driver courtesy. The theory that this will improve traffic flow, a theory that some European countries are currently testing, is not my experience. I listened to a wonderfully bitter exchange between our driver and four Mongolian women in an SUV. Don't have clue what they said but their intent was clear.

Off to the country tomorrow for 4 days -- ancient sites, a farm family, staying gers and so on.

Note Ellen about peculiarities of Mongolia travel

July 28, 2008

Hi Ellen-

Well, we came up with a return flight [from Muren] on Friday August 8 so we will join you in UB and watch you recover from jet lag.

This is also about the money. Our flight there is on Eznis Airways and our return is on Aero Mongolia. The former takes credit cards, the latter wanted $US and the airport tax in Tug. It cost me $348 to buy $300 in cash. I had just enough with me but wanted to preserve it for later in the trip because it is clear that $US are used. I could not use Travelers Checks or a card.

So bring enough cash.

Also, maybe get Toroo [our guesthouse host] to set the reservations for the trip to the desert early so we don't end up with this kind of nonsense. These airlines write their tickets by hand. If you pay by card, the agent issues a bill, which you take to the card person, who charges the card. Then back to the agent to issue the ticket. To get the round trip, I went with Toroo's assistant for these things, to one agent, one card person, one bank for cash, another agent to buy the return. The return to Khongor involved rush hour, which in a city of 250,000 with no stoplights, stop signs, or driver courtesy, was quite a show.

I think you said 8/12 for going to the Gobi so once you decide, ask Toroo to make the reservations (for us as well.) Kathleen did find an on line agent to issue our MIAT Beijing ticket but I think you want Toroo to handle internal flights.

We have a flight on 8/18 from UB to Beijing at 10:45pm. We can come back on either the 17th or 18th just so it is in plenty of time to make our Beijing flight (check in 2 hours before flight -- which will delight Kathleen when she finds out that we have to check in at 4am on 8/3 for our 6am flight to the lake.

We are off to Karakorum tomorrow - 4 days including gers, nature, history, etc. So you won't hear from us for a while, although we will probably check mail before we leave.

Jim

2. Kharakorum and beyond

August 1, 2008

We are back in Ulan Bator after 4 days exploring the backcountry in its vicinity. First night in Karakorum, the capitol city of Genghis Khan's empire. Not much left from the 12th century, understandable for a city that was only the capitol for 30 years -- Kublai Khan, 3 Khans following Genghis, moved the capitol of the empire to Beijing. The empire then stretched from Prague to Tokyo, from St. Petersburg to Tibet, from Baghdad to Java. Biggest ever in one way of looking at things.

What's left of the original capitol has been incorporated into the walls of a 16th century Buddhist monastery. There is a violent history here continuing into the 20th century.

Getting there was half the fun. It is about 220 miles west of UB, of which 140 miles is paved. Unfortunately, that does not include the first 80 miles, although a road has been engineered and rough graded. So, we followed ungraded jeep tracks in our Russian jeep. Our driver searched for the best, sometimes having to choose from as many as 20 alternatives. Lot of bouncing. In all we covered more than 600 miles, less than half paved.

We stayed in Ger tents all three nights. The first night was a campground near the monastery; the second and third nights were gers in the midst of grazing areas -- sheep, goats, yaks, cows, and horses. The last night was on a working nomadic farm. Each had its charm and a lot of you know what. Flies, that is.

The scenery was incredible. The valleys are long and green, many carpeted with mint, which gave the air a delightful smell. As we moved further west, the low hills turned more mountainous. No trees the first day.

Before leaving Karakorum, we shopped for supplies, our guide doing more of the work.

This is like camping with a driver and combination tour guide and cook. The butcher shop was a trip (horse head soup, anyone?) but the groceries were just that. Kathleen found the sandals she wished she had brought.

We headed southwest along the Orkhon River, visiting a monastery perched above the valley, traversing the first forests we have seen (larch we were told), and following the river upstream. By the time we bounced to a stop, we were at 6000' in a meadow that had a sub-alpine feel (and was littered with lava.) Our 4-Ger camp was surrounded by herds of all the animals and a friendly but noisy dog, who kept us up much of the night with his barking at shadows. Beautiful sunrise.

In the morning, we saw the Orkhon waterfall (60 feet into a lava sink, I forgot my camera.) We also saw chunks of meteorite and a stuffed fox and wolf that looked a lot like a coyote to me.

The 3rd day we looped back and with a nomadic farmer. Kathleen got on famously with the three kids (the oldest, a 10-year-old, spoke excellent English and goes to school in nearby Lun.) Kathleen took the horseback ride the next morning (I was in bed suffering from the local tourista.)

We watched them cook a goat's head with a propane torch, but were not required to eat the resulting stew. We also watched as they crowded 14 people into one of the Gers to watch dubbed Chinese TV at 10:30 in the morning after the chores were done, chores including setting the herds out to graze, milking the cows, the goats, and the horses. These are real cowboys.

Many Gers have satellite dishes and electricity, which may come from the nuclear power plant in downtown UB. Our guide had cell phone coverage along much of the route. However, we had running water in only one place, the Ger camp at Karakorum.

The star visibility is incredible. We got another treat, returning to UB in time for the eclipse. The full eclipse was far to the west but in UB moon gave us a crescent sun, which was visible through some polarized glasses that someone had bought. We are all blind now.

Off to Lake Khovsgol next week.

3. Lake Khosvgol-Muren

August 7, 2008

We have followed the Mongolian Golden Circuit, first to Kharkorum and the Orkhon Valley. Then to Lake Khosvgol. Finally to the Gobi Desert, which we will visit next week.

This week has been Lake Khosvgol -- enormous, 2% of the world's fresh water supply, Mongolia's deepest and very much like Russia. It is in a part of the country that juts up into Siberia, so it shares much of the look and the weather. Frozen 9 months of the year, snow covered for most of that time, it's a little chilly.

Getting here requires a choice. We decided to forgo the 20-hour jeep ride from Ulan Bator, so we flew to the unfortunately named Moron (or Muren, which I prefer.) Wrestling with the Cyrillic alphabet is a struggle for me, for book writers and for mapmakers. Therefore, you can find at least two divergent spellings of most any city and other mapped feature.

That left us a 100K from our destination. We were grateful for the couple who approached us in the quickly emptying airport offering to drive us to our desired Ger camp on the shores of the lake. Our gratitude dwindled a bit later when we figured out how that we were taken. About $30, this was more annoying than a real problem. Money is funny. Dollars are widely used and I wish I had brought more. You can get them in UB but it costs quite a bit. We are constantly going back and forth between $ and local money.

The Nature's Door Ger Camp was delightful with a beautiful setting at the edge of the lake. We walked, we kayaked a little (the kayaks weren't much and the water is very cold,) and we observed the scenery.

A British-American family and we were the only ones there the first two nights. They live in UB, work for the UN in her case and a private aid org in his, and were very helpful in solving some of the Mongolian mysteries (why no chicken -- Mongolians don't like chicken and they freeze during the winter in any case; why so many right-hand drive cars -- they are used Japanese cars -- Japan doesn't allow cars over 3 years old in order to keep pollution controls up to date.)

We watched the yaks and other cattle go back and forth. We watched the equestrian gallop standing up a la Genghis Khan. He was so successful in part because of the skill and mobility of his equestrians and the Mongol bows had twice the range of everyone else's.

Seeing the Reindeer people is one of the things you do in the area. They came to us -- they were just 5 km north so we went up and came back with blueberries. We did not bring back the freshly butchered beef. This is an identified subgroup and there are fewer than 500 left in the world. There are also just a few thousand of their reindeer left. Coming to the lake is an economic thing but it is bad for the reindeer, which are dying off.

The people themselves are disappearing, through intermarriage with Mongolians. They are in fact Tuvans, a country to the west, known to fans of the movie Genghis Blues. The real way to see them is to take a 20-day ride into the mountains. We passed.

We also saw touring cyclists on their way to UB some 500 miles away. I don't envy them or the others we saw west of UB -- bad roads, few points of resupply. The good news is that you can camp anywhere. I may get to that point some day but not there now.

A young British couple kayaked up from Khatgal at the south end of the lake and got trapped by the bad weather, which rolled in Tuesday afternoon We had been warned that we could be trapped as well by the miserable jeep track between our Ger camp and Khatgal. Germans and Koreans also showed up but they came with guides and drivers and left Wednesday afternoon as the rain continued.

Staying warm and keeping the fire going became a preoccupation. The stoves were generally small wood burners with no lasting power, so we had to pay attention.

Our hosts finally located us a Russian jeep van and we loaded the kayak and piled in. The trip was easier than expected and we had a pleasant evening at Garage 24, a Ger camp in Khatgal, based in an old Russian garage.

Thursday we got a ride to Muren and spent the night at the Dul Hotel. After 8 nights in various gers, we were ready for a hotel. It wasn't much but it was what we were looking for (and the sun came out.)

Today we are back to UB to meet up with Ellen, Jim, and Griffin and get ready for the Gobi.

4. Ulan Bataar-Terelj

August 11, 2008

When we returned to UB, our friends Ellen, Jim Wiltens, and their son Griffin had arrived. Roy and his son Vince accompanied them. We are all off to the Gobi on Wednesday 8/13. Jim W. and Vince are starting out on a 3-month camel tour of the desert. The rest of us are there for a few days to week.

There is much to set up for such a trip. At one point, we were waiting for a guide who was out in the desert to climb to a high enough hill so that he would realize that we were trying to reach him.

Therefore, we were UB tourists for a while. We found the Soviet WWII memorial south of town, set between the 500-foot hill with Genghis Khan's picture to the West and the Buddhist temple to the east. We tried the Veranda restaurant and another time the Irish pub.

Kathleen, Ellen, and some of the others pursued culture (children's performances) and shopping (the outdoor "black" market, where Jim W. bought his Del, or Mongolian overcoat.)

On Monday, we took a Khongor trip to the nearby countryside, to visit Turtle Rock.

We rode horses, had lunch in a Ger, and spent a pleasant time relaxing by the river.

We have changed money and bought things at the State Department Store, just a long block from our Khongor Guest House. It has banks, a grocery store, several eateries, and all the usual departments.

Kathleen and I had eaten our first restaurant meal at the New Century Chinese restaurant.

I spent a fair amount of time at the very nice Cafe Amsterdam and the Internet Cafe. It sometimes has enough of a connection to support uploading, so this time you should receive a separate email linking to the album on Kodak Gallery.

In an earlier post, I had some of the basics wrong. Mongolia has 2.5 million people, of which 1.2 million live in UB. I have now found 10 stoplights.

Crossing the street is an adventure. Cars have the right of way and they often speed up to let you know they are going to claim it. There are crosswalks but unless they are governed by one of the few stoplights, its dodgem all the way.

We have now returned to UB several times and it has become our home away from home. We are now comfortable in a small room at the guesthouse, complete with hanging laundry. We do wake up to the closing of the Karaoke Bar across the backyard each morning when it closes about 2:30. However, they quiet down quickly.

Gobi next.

5. To the Gobi

August 16, 2008

We flew from UB to Dalanzadgad, our gateway to the Gobi. This is the fourth leg of our trip. Previously we have visited Ulaanbaatar (on several occasions,) Karakorum, and Lake Khosvgol. Neither Kathleen nor I gave high priority to the Gobi. We came because our friends wanted to and because you can't go to Mongolia without going to the Gobi. The visit changed out minds.

It helped that we upgraded our accommodations. Three Camel Lodge (http://www.three camels.com) is a high-class Ger resort, with excellent sleeping facilities, good food, and a very helpful staff. We were out of the starving student environment, which brought us some gains and some losses, I suppose.

A word about the photos. We bought the camera just before the trip and I did not get a battery charger, in part because I was uncertain of the availability of electricity at some of our destinations. I ran through batteries faster than I expected and the last of the local batteries are duds. Therefore, we only took a few pictures in the Gobi. Moreover, Kathleen stayed for an extra day and she has the camera. Therefore, I plucked some placeholders off the web and uploaded them to Kodak Gallery. They are all pictures of things we saw and did but we did not take them. If you go to the Three Camels website (above) you will see some of them there.

Only 3% of Mongolia is in sand dunes. Most of the Gobi is very dry grazing land and mountains. We did get to the dunes on our second day but on the first, we rode the 40 miles north to Three Camels. It could have been a very dry version of southern New Mexico -- enormous expanse, razorback mountains in the distance, and no fences. More sheep, camels, and goats, fewer cattle. It does go on forever, it seems.

It was a different trip in other ways. Now we were traveling as a group of seven, rather than just the two of us. We were used to making up our mind and going -- now we had to work it out with the group. We certainly knew that things had changed when we sat down to our first 4-course evening meal.

Kathleen and I were in the Gobi for only 4-5 days. Roy is leaving after two more days. Ellen and her son, Griffin, will depart at the end of the week. Ellen's husband, Jim Wiltens, and Roy's son Vince are in the Gobi for at least two months. They have found a guide and bought camels from a camel camp much like the one pictured. There level of commitment is a little higher than ours.

On the second and third days, five of us set off for the sand dunes of Khongoryn Els, about 70 miles to the west. This river of sand dunes runs for at least 100 miles, typically with metallic mountains in the background and sparse plains in the foreground. We stayed at a Ger camp at the edge of dunes arranged by Three Camels.

We went camel riding. Ellen, Roy, and Griffin went out for two hours, Kathleen and I for just one, somewhat to Kathleen's regret but not to mine. Kathleen fell in love with the Bactrian (two humps) camels and is trying to figure out how to bring one home. I didn't fit on the beast's back and spent the hour in a fair amount of pain. I guess I need yoga for flexibility. The horse ride a couple of days earlier had been just fine but this was torture. I did not impress the guide.

We went to dinner just in time to watch Mongolia win its first Olympic gold medal ever with Tuvshinbayar Naidan's victory over Kazakhstan's Askhat Zhitkeyev in men's 100-kilogram judo. There were a dozen Mongolians and they led us all in the cheering. When the gold was awarded, we all stood up and the locals sang the national anthem.

It rained that night. They did not expect this and we had some dripping through our muslin Ger.

The next day we found a local Naadam. The national version happened in early July and we had skipped it for a variety of reasons. Nevertheless, Kathleen especially had hoped to find a local one. Long ago, such Naadams, or contests, were what constituted the Mongolian definition of civilization: wrestling, horse riding, and archery. Mongols maintain that their "Three Manly Sports" separate the real men from the boys. Children as young as five ride bareback for 15 miles in the horse races, which continue for two days.

The races had started the previous day but just as we drove up, a race was finishing. The riders were young boys, mostly under ten, riding bareback and shoeless. Since we did not have a guide, we were not clear on exactly how things were proceeding. Another race was started a little bit later and there was to be wrestling at some point. Our driver tried to help us understand, but he spoke little English and we spoke very little Mongolian.

He did arrange for us to go into one of the 20 or so Gers that were set up. We were offered airag, fermented mares milk. Several of us declined and a couple accepted. Then the vodka. If you do not wish to drink, the polite procedure is to dip your right hand ring finger into the vodka, flick it to four directions, and then touch it to your forehead. Kathleen did this correctly. I dipped my hand into the vodka, flipped it up in the air, repeated this a couple of times, and then touched my vodka-wet fingers to my forehead. My error could have been offensive but they found it quite funny and we all had a good laugh.

We returned to Three Camels by heading directly though the mountains rather than the roundabout way we had come. Very dramatic, especially when no one could seem to figure out the way. Nevertheless, we arrived through a herd of fleeing gazelles in time for another 4-course dinner.

The next day was to the Flaming Cliffs, about 25 miles away. It was given this name by American paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews, who visited in the 1920s. The area is most famous for yielding the first discovery of dinosaur eggs. Other finds in the area include specimens of Velociraptor. The rock gives off a glowing orange color, hence the nickname.

Kathleen opted out, deciding to try some of the features at Three Camels, including a massage. We returned to have a dinner with all seven of us for the first time. I also finally saw the sunset from the rocks behind the camp. Kathleen joined me and we saw a beautiful sunset and a green flash, the second time for both of us but the first time together.

Today, I returned to UB. Kathleen stayed on Dalanzadgad for a day, mostly because she was not ready to leave the Gobi. The town itself is limited -- two hotels, one store of consequence, and a museum.

She will be back in UB tomorrow and late tomorrow night we start homeward. It's been a great trip.

Dalanzadgad – Message from Kathleen

Sunday, August 17, 2008 3:15 AM

Hi sweetie, Greetings from DLZ. Its main charm is that we don't have to live here. I was a bit down this morning after we dropped you at the airport and then Baht left and the hotel turned out to be a soulless redone 1980's sheet-marble place but after a rest, some Mongolian TV and a shower, I went out to explore. It is dusty, glare-y, poorly maintained, wide sand-swept streets w/o much human or vehicle traffic. Dogs abound and bits of bone, fur and animal skeletons scattered about.) For real, I stepped over a sheep leg complete w. hoof) and the women are dressed in heels and makeup to market. Dalanzadgad, the Paris of the Central Gobi.

I found an outdoor market (about 1/1000 of the UB one) and .found notebooks for my group! I had lunch in a disco. The menu was 100% Mongolian but there was one dish I remembered so I ordered it.

No one speaks much English at all and my bits of Mongolian are still confounding to folks. Ex. me "Khaan khiid?' (Where is the monastery?) Repeated to blank stares. Showed them the work 'khiid" in the phrase book and “Ohhhh, KHIID” with many smiles and gestures. Go figure. Then searched for the store that Jim is coming to. It seems to be gone. (But the Internet attendant gestured that it is across the street! ? (If it is indeed gone, I'll write you back so you can call them at Three Camels Lodge and save them the long trip in. )

In looking for the Telecom office where the Internet is located, I found a sweet little Buddhist monastery with prayer wheels and an old caretaker who took me to meet the monk who lives in a ger in the yard. A bit awkward but interesting. What does one say to a monk when neither speaks the other's language? Went to a religious supply store for directions and when the woman didn't know about the Internet I continued my long trek. Suddenly a little boy rode up on his bike and said "Internet? I take you." He rode in front of me for about ¼ mile and smiled when I was so happy to see this place. Lonely Planet needs to work on its DLZ info. Tonight dinner out at the Ravenburd (sic) cafe next to the hotel. And tomorrow-- who knows?

I'm glad I stayed. It is not the beauty of the desert but it isn't the bustle of UB either. Tomorrow I'll be ready. Miss you and hope your reentry was OK.

6. Trip Extended

August 17, 2008

When we returned from the Gobi, we were to spend a little time in UB and leave Monday night for Beijing, stay the night, and head home on Tuesday. This was the third time we had to stage trips, starting with 3-day process of returning to UB from Lake Khosvgol with stops at Khatgal and Muren. I was going to wax eloquently about the 19th century feel of this pace of travel.

Little did I know the full extent? Airline travel is a little different here in the land of Genghis Khan. Kathleen felt comfortable staying an extra day in the Gobi and coming back on the 2pm Aero Mongolia flight because they also had flights scheduled at 3pm and 4pm. Imagine her surprise when she discovered Sunday evening that the airline had canceled all three.

She learned other things about Dalanzadgad especially that it had even fewer resources than advertised. The supposed State Department Store that Jim Wiltens was planning to use for supply at the cost of $98 US for the jeep trip no longer existed. She planned to stop by the Three Camels office in UB to get a message to Jim not to bother.

Eznis had a morning flight from Dalanzadgad to UB but when Kathleen went to the airport, they would not honor the other airline's ticket nor would they accept credit cards nor were there are cash machines available. She was advised to get money at the bank back in town, which opened at 9am, about 90 minutes after the flight left.

The airline ended up calling Toroo, our Khongor Guest House host, and he worked out a procedure. Down in the Gobi, Kathleen would hand over to Eznis personnel her passport and the Aero Mongolia ticket, which would accompany her to UB on the plane. Toroo would arrange to have $174 US sent to the airport before the plane's arrival (I happened to have $176 US in my pocket but Toroo, bless his soul, would have advanced the money had I not had it handy.) With that agreement, Eznis issued a ticket and Kathleen came to UB.

While she was in the air, we discovered that our evening MIAT (Maybe It Arrives Tomorrow) flight to Beijing had been canceled. This was a problem because it meant we would miss our United flight that next day and our guaranteed Beijing hotel room that night. Rescheduling planes and hotels in Beijing during the Olympics seemed like it could present some problems. Each part had been booked independently so there was no one number to call to fix things.

All four cancellations occurred because there were not enough paying passengers. In the US, I am used to at least a pretense (the inevitable 'mechanical' problem.)

We decided to take care of getting out of UB first, which revealed another problem. When we got the MIAT office, they had no record of an electronic ticket being issued. We had a reservation record from One Ticket Dot Com but no ticket number.

Off to the Central Post Office, which has a telecom office and an Internet center? I was full of doom and gloom, convinced that we had once again been ripped off. We still have an exception pending against another Internet vendor over the first version of our flights to Mongolia. I was also envisioning long expensive phone calls waiting on hold to get through to a US number linked to an outsource clerk in India.

Skype saved out bacon (actually there are few pigs in Mongolia and not much bacon so I guess it saved the sheep equivalent of bacon -- sheep belly strips?) It took a while but eventually we got through to everyone and rescheduled. We now have an extra day in Beijing (maybe an Olympic event such as a preliminary round of synchronized swimming.) We will be back towards the end of the week. We were on the phone for about an hour to cover all three changes. The total charge for all the calls and Internet usage was about 89 cents. So much for my doom and gloom.

So Kathleen went off to a final temple youth cultural event.

I watched Olympic ping-pong and basketball in the specially constructed Coca Cola venue just outside the Grand Khan Irish Pub.

Then we went off about 5pm to dinner at the Silk Road restaurant. We had intended to eat at the Veranda, but the restaurant had closed its outside deck (that is, veranda) at exactly 5pm despite the 85-degree temperature, the delightful shade and breeze of this area, and remaining 4 hours of daylight -- another Mongolian mystery.

We were a little grumpy, me more than Kathleen. Too little sleep, too much heat, and too many travel snafus. However, we made up by the end of dinner and felt like we had a suitable last night in UB. Who knows what fun awaits tomorrow (another canceled flight?) or the next today in Beijing? We will presumably make it work and find our way back to San Francisco.

We had passed on our Beijing guidebook to another traveler because our original plan called for just an overnight in the city near the airport. She found another guest with a guidebook, took a few notes, and we will see what we will see. I don't want to get ahead of myself though. We have to check again today and make our MIAT flight actually flies.

August 20, 2008

We got to Beijing without incident and found our way to the Lantian Mansion Hotel in a business park not far from the hotel. Originally, we were only to be here for an overnight but the delay in UB pushed us back to Thursday, A day in Beijing by the airport?

The hotel is under-booked. It is grand in a worn out 80s sort of way. Massive lobby, second floor balcony with elaborately unappealing dining room, 4 floors of business offices, and rooms on the top three floors. I was convinced for some time that we were the only guests but there was one other person at the enormous breakfast buffet when we showed up at 8am.

I spend some time debating whether to wait in the room for 24 hours but Kathleen convinced me to come out and play. We spent a bit of time on the one computer-trying figure out where everything was and how we would get there. There was some paddling events at a suburban venue on the other side of the airport but the IOCs website proved singularly unhelpful in trying to work out transportation.

They did try on the subway links, which would not have helped paddling events, which were beyond the subway's reach. Nor did it help with "Synchronized swimming" at the Natatorium because the website failed to point out that China had built a special subway line to reach the cluster of main venues and that you could not enter that line without a ticket in hand -- we got that information from a helpful local once we were already on the train.

So we got a ride back to the airport, took the airport express towards town. After with a couple of locals, we gave up on the Olympics and header for Tiananmen Square.

It was holiday time, like a friendly Sunday afternoon in Golden Gate Park (with Chairman Mao staring down on you.)

We were looking for a bite to eat and Kathleen picked up a helpful local who directed us to Wanfujng, the next stop East on the #1 subway line. Wanfujng is Beijing premier shopping street and has many restaurants, including KFC and MacDonalds. It was hot and first we tried an air-conditioned mall. It was just like a US mall and we were back outside in a minute or two. Next, we tried a Muslim place but it was all Mongolian Hot Pot, not the perfect choice for a hot August afternoon. Across the way, we saw an alleyway with tables. It was one of the re-manufactured hutongs with a long series of food stalls.

A little bit Disneyland but the food was good and there was a nice breeze.

When we returned to the hotel, Kathleen found her way to the indoor swimming pool while I spent some time on the web, including check in with United. We were eventually contacted by Hotels.com and informed that we had not checked into our reserved hotel. More mysteries of the East.

August 21, 2008

Thursday the 21st we boarded out plane for a noon departure. Delayed by local thunderstorms, we left about 1 pm and arrived in SF at 9:30am the same day. We have had several days of jet lag and re-entry adjustments but it is always good to be home.

Kathleen had to go off to work. Jim celebrated his return with one of his groups. This one commemorated his twenty-fifth anniversary by wrapping him in aluminum foil!