Arkhangai
5-11-2009
Traveling in this country is always an adventure. You can never know what to expect. A friend who lives in Arkangai came to visit my town and I decided to head back with her. We planned to take the post office car to a town called harhorin (the ancient capital of Mongolia) and then I would catch a ride, either on the bus or in a car, to Arkhangai. I had heard from many people that Arkhangai is beautiful and probably one of the more beautiful provinces of Mongolia, so I really wanted to see it before I leave. The day before we were supposed to leave, we got word of bad weather and wind storms coming the following day. All the schools were cancelled and the post office car decided not to leave that day. All buses and cars were not leaving the aimag that day, so we decided we’d wait a day and go when we could. The next day was absolutely beautiful and the wind storms never came…. So, we boarded the bus headed for Ulaanbaatar when we could and planned to get off at Sansar, the lunch stop. From there, we would (hopefully) catch the bus that is coming from Ulaanbaatar headed for Arkhangai. To our surprise, the bus stopped somewhere just short of where we wanted to get off. The way that traveling goes in Mongolia and knowing limited language; this would have been kind of nerve wracking if I were riding by myself. My friend and I prepared ourselves to be riding all the way to UB, just in case something went wrong. As usual, everything was fine and we got off the bus at Sansar. We sat in a guanz (small Mongolian restaurant) for about an hour and waited for the Arkhangai bus to come. The one thing about this trip is if the buses had passed each other, we would have been stuck at this lunch stop. We probably could find a ride from there, but it wouldn’t be very fun. Usually when I am at this lunch stop, there are many buses and cars stopped and many people around. Being there when nobody was around felt like the beginning of a horror movie; two female travelers waiting for a bus at a deserted rest stop in the middle of nowhere. We were sitting and talking, keeping our eyes out for our bus when a women came up to us asking where we were going. We told her and she told us that the bus was here, but it was parked on the other end of the strip of guanzes. We got up and headed for where she said, to our surprise to find the bus rolling up at exactly that moment, headed straight for us. We found the bus driver and asked for a ride. He tried to overcharge my friend a little bit who was headed for a town very close to where we were, and after a little arguing, he gave in. It is moments like this that I am glad I know Mongolian. Right as we were finishing up our discussion with the driver, a man walked up and asked in perfect English if we needed some help. We said no thank you, but proceeded to talk to this man. It doesn’t seem very often that we meet an older man who knows English, and especially not fluently. Turns out he studied in Russia for a while and then came back to Mongolia. After everyone finished up their lunch, we all boarded the bus, which surprisingly wasn’t full. My friend got off in harhorin and I proceeded to Arkhangai.
Arkhangai is absolutely beautiful! There are huge rock mountains, tons of trees and rolling (soon to be) green hills. The weather was great and everything was really beginning to take on the lush green color of the Mongolian summer. My town will not get so green because we are on the edge of the desert and don’t have much grass. There is a small stream of water coming from the freshly melting mountain snow running through the middle of the town. I now know of two parks in Mongolia; one in Darkhan, and one in Tsetsterleg (the province center of Arkhangai). The one in Arkhangai has way more trees. In Tsetserleg, I met up with a friend, dropped off my stuff and took a little walk around the town. I walked to the big Buddha on the hill and checked out what kinds of stores they have in town. We had dinner at the western style restaurant; a place I would eat 3 more times before I left Arkhangai. During the summer Arkhangai gets a lot of tourism and is equipped with large stores and lots of western things like tuna, American face washes and lotions, and an expensive guesthouse with western food. The following day, I got a ride out to my friend’s soum (a small village). I’ll explain how you get rides in Mongolia: you go to where the cars and drivers hang out, find a car going to where you want to go, give them your phone number and tell them where you live, and ask an approximate time. This time is never correct and you can expect to wait up to 3 or 5 hours for a driver. They will leave when their car is full and they are ready. To my surprise, the driver said he’d come at 3 and he came at 3:30. amazing! I headed to my friend’s soum and asked him what I should tell the driver if he doesn’t know where he lives. He told me, “that won’t be a problem”. He was correct. We stopped on the way to help a guy who’d crashed his motorcycle. He was slightly hurt and his bike wasn’t working so well, so one of the people in the car took his bike and he got in the car. Turns out, we were just over the hill from our destination. We dropped the biker off and proceeded to another hashaa, where we the women next to me told me is where my friend lived. This village is so small, they have 3 small stores, everyone knows everyone, and of course; everyone knows where the American lives. In this town, my friend and I walked around and hung out with some cows when walking to the rock formations that are at a distance from the village. It was beautiful and green everywhere. It felt like the longer I was in Arkhangai, the more green it got. After some time in this village, I headed back to the province center, met up with another friend and headed out to his village. His town was set up a lot different than the previous and had a certain quaint vibe to it. It was surrounded by large mountains, creating a beautiful skyline at sunset. The following day was a full day of traveling for me. I got a ride back to the city center, and from there found a car that would take me to harhorin (which is in Uvurkhungai). To my absolute surprise, this driver was ready to leave even before I was ready. Usually when a driver says he is leaving ‘now’, this means he is leaving ‘now’ when his car is full. I was eating lunch when he called me and asked to wait just a minute. When I walked back to my friend’s apartment to get my things, he was already there, waiting with a full car. This is unheard of! I put my things in the car and got in, observing the back of the truck piled with sheep skins and a wolf skin on the top (probably for good luck). Turns out, I was with a family who was really nice. We were caravanning with one other car carrying only a few people. We made a stop at a stream to help a man with his car and continued on. When you are getting off before the final destination of the car, many drivers will drop you off at the edge of town but this driver asked me where I wanted to get dropped off. I had him drop me off at the market, where I met a friend and found a car headed for my town that evening. Maybe two hours later, I was in a car headed home. With the amount of traveling I did on this trip, it was amazing how lucky I got with timely (and sober) drivers, not too packed cars, and really nice people wanting to help me out. I have never experienced such timely drivers in my town… maybe it’s from the tourism.
5-11-2009
Traveling in this country is always an adventure. You can never know what to expect. A friend who lives in Arkangai came to visit my town and I decided to head back with her. We planned to take the post office car to a town called harhorin (the ancient capital of Mongolia) and then I would catch a ride, either on the bus or in a car, to Arkhangai. I had heard from many people that Arkhangai is beautiful and probably one of the more beautiful provinces of Mongolia, so I really wanted to see it before I leave. The day before we were supposed to leave, we got word of bad weather and wind storms coming the following day. All the schools were cancelled and the post office car decided not to leave that day. All buses and cars were not leaving the aimag that day, so we decided we’d wait a day and go when we could. The next day was absolutely beautiful and the wind storms never came…. So, we boarded the bus headed for Ulaanbaatar when we could and planned to get off at Sansar, the lunch stop. From there, we would (hopefully) catch the bus that is coming from Ulaanbaatar headed for Arkhangai. To our surprise, the bus stopped somewhere just short of where we wanted to get off. The way that traveling goes in Mongolia and knowing limited language; this would have been kind of nerve wracking if I were riding by myself. My friend and I prepared ourselves to be riding all the way to UB, just in case something went wrong. As usual, everything was fine and we got off the bus at Sansar. We sat in a guanz (small Mongolian restaurant) for about an hour and waited for the Arkhangai bus to come. The one thing about this trip is if the buses had passed each other, we would have been stuck at this lunch stop. We probably could find a ride from there, but it wouldn’t be very fun. Usually when I am at this lunch stop, there are many buses and cars stopped and many people around. Being there when nobody was around felt like the beginning of a horror movie; two female travelers waiting for a bus at a deserted rest stop in the middle of nowhere. We were sitting and talking, keeping our eyes out for our bus when a women came up to us asking where we were going. We told her and she told us that the bus was here, but it was parked on the other end of the strip of guanzes. We got up and headed for where she said, to our surprise to find the bus rolling up at exactly that moment, headed straight for us. We found the bus driver and asked for a ride. He tried to overcharge my friend a little bit who was headed for a town very close to where we were, and after a little arguing, he gave in. It is moments like this that I am glad I know Mongolian. Right as we were finishing up our discussion with the driver, a man walked up and asked in perfect English if we needed some help. We said no thank you, but proceeded to talk to this man. It doesn’t seem very often that we meet an older man who knows English, and especially not fluently. Turns out he studied in Russia for a while and then came back to Mongolia. After everyone finished up their lunch, we all boarded the bus, which surprisingly wasn’t full. My friend got off in harhorin and I proceeded to Arkhangai.
Arkhangai is absolutely beautiful! There are huge rock mountains, tons of trees and rolling (soon to be) green hills. The weather was great and everything was really beginning to take on the lush green color of the Mongolian summer. My town will not get so green because we are on the edge of the desert and don’t have much grass. There is a small stream of water coming from the freshly melting mountain snow running through the middle of the town. I now know of two parks in Mongolia; one in Darkhan, and one in Tsetsterleg (the province center of Arkhangai). The one in Arkhangai has way more trees. In Tsetserleg, I met up with a friend, dropped off my stuff and took a little walk around the town. I walked to the big Buddha on the hill and checked out what kinds of stores they have in town. We had dinner at the western style restaurant; a place I would eat 3 more times before I left Arkhangai. During the summer Arkhangai gets a lot of tourism and is equipped with large stores and lots of western things like tuna, American face washes and lotions, and an expensive guesthouse with western food. The following day, I got a ride out to my friend’s soum (a small village). I’ll explain how you get rides in Mongolia: you go to where the cars and drivers hang out, find a car going to where you want to go, give them your phone number and tell them where you live, and ask an approximate time. This time is never correct and you can expect to wait up to 3 or 5 hours for a driver. They will leave when their car is full and they are ready. To my surprise, the driver said he’d come at 3 and he came at 3:30. amazing! I headed to my friend’s soum and asked him what I should tell the driver if he doesn’t know where he lives. He told me, “that won’t be a problem”. He was correct. We stopped on the way to help a guy who’d crashed his motorcycle. He was slightly hurt and his bike wasn’t working so well, so one of the people in the car took his bike and he got in the car. Turns out, we were just over the hill from our destination. We dropped the biker off and proceeded to another hashaa, where we the women next to me told me is where my friend lived. This village is so small, they have 3 small stores, everyone knows everyone, and of course; everyone knows where the American lives. In this town, my friend and I walked around and hung out with some cows when walking to the rock formations that are at a distance from the village. It was beautiful and green everywhere. It felt like the longer I was in Arkhangai, the more green it got. After some time in this village, I headed back to the province center, met up with another friend and headed out to his village. His town was set up a lot different than the previous and had a certain quaint vibe to it. It was surrounded by large mountains, creating a beautiful skyline at sunset. The following day was a full day of traveling for me. I got a ride back to the city center, and from there found a car that would take me to harhorin (which is in Uvurkhungai). To my absolute surprise, this driver was ready to leave even before I was ready. Usually when a driver says he is leaving ‘now’, this means he is leaving ‘now’ when his car is full. I was eating lunch when he called me and asked to wait just a minute. When I walked back to my friend’s apartment to get my things, he was already there, waiting with a full car. This is unheard of! I put my things in the car and got in, observing the back of the truck piled with sheep skins and a wolf skin on the top (probably for good luck). Turns out, I was with a family who was really nice. We were caravanning with one other car carrying only a few people. We made a stop at a stream to help a man with his car and continued on. When you are getting off before the final destination of the car, many drivers will drop you off at the edge of town but this driver asked me where I wanted to get dropped off. I had him drop me off at the market, where I met a friend and found a car headed for my town that evening. Maybe two hours later, I was in a car headed home. With the amount of traveling I did on this trip, it was amazing how lucky I got with timely (and sober) drivers, not too packed cars, and really nice people wanting to help me out. I have never experienced such timely drivers in my town… maybe it’s from the tourism.
1 comment:
Great photos !...
Ciao from Italy
:)
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