After the ten days trip I was really looking forward to meet Annika and to pick her up at the UB train station in the morning of the 4th September (oh, inbetween me and David, Iannis and Max really went for dinner with the guys we helped out of the small gorge in the Gobi desert, what ended in a total drinking orgy) but in the evening of the 2nd September I received a call from a desperated Annika. She told me that she lost her passport in Irkutsk (she came by the Trans-Sibirian Railway) and that she won’t be able to travel further on with the train she booked. What a shitty situation, to lose your passport 8000km away from home and 3000km from the next german embassy. Of course I was pretty concerned about the situation but I guess it’s not comparable with the crunch Annika was now stuck in. I tried to keep a cool head and called the emergency number of the german embassy in Moscow and, uh, great surprise, the old lady who answered the phone just asked me for the name and the birthday of the young lady who lost her passport and gave me the contact details of a guy named “Dima” in Ikrutsk who found the passport. Great! So I already knew 20 minutes after Annikas call that her passport was found and she will be able to travel on but now the problem was that there was no way to reach her because she made the call to me with her last credit on her russian mobile phone card. Anyway, the story continues: When I called the guy who had Annikas passport (she lost it on the bridge to the train station) I recognised after maybe two minutes talking to the guy that his voice somehow was very familiar to me. Unbelievable but true: The guy who found Annikas passport was the Dima I got to know when I was in Irkutsk, too. The world (and especially this city) is so incredible small, it’s simply unbelievable, there are no other words for that. Annika didn’t get my messages with the contact details of Dima but she was able to find out where she can pick up her passport the next day after a night in uncertainty at a home of Anton and Zhenia, a young couple who were so friendly to help and to host her in this stupid situation. So, at the end, it was possible to cancel the train tickets, book new ones and to continue the journey one day later so that she arrived in UB in the morning of the 5th September, my birthday (that was the best present I got).
Now my trip will continue together with Annika for a while (as it looks we will travel together until Thailand when she maybe will head over to India and I will make my way down south to Australia).
Whatever, to short it up a little bit (I will let pictures speak again): My birthday was very nice, after the probably most delicious indian food you find in Mongolia and afterwards I had a small party with a nice round in the cellar of the Golden Gobi Hostel with people from a lot of different countries but actually the early getting up to pick up Annika at the train station made us go to bed pretty early.
The next days were pretty relaxed, we did some basic shopping together (like a new tent and a portable gas stove), I introduced her into my favourite UB restaurants and we prepared for our upcoming hiking trip to the Terelj National Park. We already were able to organise our vietnames visa, as well. Instead of horrible bureaucratic procedurs it was very easy: We just went to the vietnames embassy, filled out the visa application form, paid 40US$ and got hand-filled vietnamese visa sticked in our passports after 30minutes.
You don’t really come to Mongolia for Ulan-Bator, there’s just no sense to stay there too long (and I had the feeling that I already was a very long time there) when the great mongolian nature is waiting for you just in front of the door. One of the most beautiful areas in Mongolia is the Terelj National Park, located 80km northeast of the capital, where we went to to spent three nice days. Of course, a great nature sight so close to a million city attracts a lot of people but the very most of them just make it to the most famous valley (it’s very nice, definitely, but the real big points the national park makes with the silence it offers to you when go a little bit further and away from the crowds). Usually, in summer time, there are two busses running from UB to the tourist valley but the beginning of September is already the middle of Autumn for the Mongolians, so theres just one bus a day to the National Park anymore and this one leaves in the evening. Beside us, there was another girl heading to the Park (she just went there for a day-trip) so we shared a taxi with her for 5€ each, still pretty alright for an 80km drive. The bigger problem was to explain to our driver that we don’t want to go to the tourist valley, where he drove us to at first but finally he understood and we arrived in the small village Terelj from where Annika and me started our hike along the Tuul river for the next three days. It was just cool and we enjoyed it a lot, the only annoying thing were the river crossings. We probably had to cross the river 10 or 15 times because the trail (oh, i’m sorry, there was no real trail directly at the river so we had to find our way by ourselves through thick scratchy bushes, high-densed birch forests or across steep and high rocky mountains) was just impassable at the side where we walked. In the evenings we always looked out for a nice camping spot with enough of wood around (that was the smallest problem) to make a bonfire. The nights became very cold, it probably was around 0°C but well equipped as we were (we had three extra blankets with us + our sleeping bags, warm clothes and we put stones, that were heated up by the fire in our sleeping bags to warm our feed) it was still bearable. At the third day we decided to slowly head back to UB and to use more designated paths to be a little bit faster. The reason for that maybe was a weather change from very sunny 24-25° to maybe 15° and occassional rain, so it got pretty uncomfortable there. With this weather the crossings of the very chilly waters of the tuul river were not just annoying anymore, they became a real pain in the ass. I thought it’s enough if just one person of us gets wet and made the river crossing mostly three times: the first time I brought over the bags and then I went back to the other side and gave Annika a piggy ride to the other side. Ain’t I the greatest gentleman in the world? The last two river crossing were just not possible to do at all because the water was maybe 1,50m deep and the stream was very strong. But we had good luck and both times local mongolian riders saw us and our misery and helped us with a lift on the back of the horse through the river. Many many thanks for that. BTW: before we came back to the designated paths we saw just 5 or 6 persons during the three days. Anyway, at the end of this day we came to the main path which let to the main paved road to UB and we were pretty happy to catch a catch a car ride back to the capital with the 2nd car that passed us (but we still waited an hour). We booked the Golden Gobi again for a night and moved to Nikolas place (a couchsurfer from France who lives in Mongolia for job reasons now) the next day for our last night and just relaxed a little bit before we took the train to the chinese border (the train to the border town was very cheap, just 8€ for 500km in the hard sleeper category) on saturday evening and crossed the mongolian-chinese border at noon on sunday by jeep. This day was already the last day of my mongolian visa so I really had to cross the border, too. How fast 30 days are over, unbelievable. Bye bye, Mongolia!

I write this article on the 2nd of October, lying in a hammock in a small village called Cai Cun in China at the foothills of the Himalaya mountains, so I will keep it a little bit shorter but for that with some more pictures that hopefully will give you enough impressions about this ten days (anyway, the most of you just look at the pictures ).

The last days in Ulan-Bator were pretty the same like the days before with the difference, that we had to buy and to organise stuff for our trip through the country. Our group was made up by David, Iannis and Max, which I already met before Mongolia in the bus from Ulan-Ude to Ulan-Bator, Leon from Wuppertal and Stefan from Greifswald which we met in the Golden Gobi Hostel, our great and funny driver Mogi and me. So at all we were six german guys plus a mongolian driver We started on monday the 24th of August our car was an old Landcruiser from Korea or Japan (no idea), usually a more or less reliable car but maybe six tall germans and 2000km through the wilderness on streets that don’t even earn the name “path” were a little bit too much for it . So it was not really surprising that we already held our first pit stop one hour after we left the mongolian capital because the damper of the right back wheel gave up. But Mogi was clever and took two additional dampers with him – just stupid that the 2nd one broke already 200km later. It really was a long first ride 600km south on extremely bumpy and dusty roads – just the first 30km out of UB were paved – and it took two full days. In the first night we camped in the area where the steppe with some hilly mountains is slowly changing into the Gobi desert. The evenings of camping mostly were just great, so this first day as well. Mongolia has the nickname “the country of the blue skys” and most of the time it’s really like that. There are hardly any clouds and it’s just an amazing thing to put up the tents in the middle of nothing with not even the smallest kind of lights (and light pollution) around you for next maybe 20km. The sky above you with millions of visible stars and the easy to see Milky Way is just indredible amazing. Mongolia is the country with the smallest population density in the world. With a more than 4 times bigger than Germany it counts just 3 million inhabitants – half of them living in the capital Ulan-Bator so the rest of the country is almost uninhabitet (just some nomads live there in their so called “Gers” [round tent houses where the whole family lives in] you can see sometimes in all parts of the country). At the second day in the evening hours we arrived´in the desert city and Aimag-capital (an aimag is something like a state) Dalanzadgad where we found new (brand new!) dampers for our jeep and bought some food to prepare the vegan curry dish in our 2nd camp, again in the middle of nothing in stony desert. Day three began with some work. We helped some guys from UB out of a shitty situation. They drove with their jeep into a small canyon they didn’t see. They really were stuck and it took some time to get them out there but finally we it worked with the help of a lot of stones. We built something like a bridge in the canyon, hard to describe how. The stucked stucked guys were very thankful and invited us for dinner and beers back in UB. In the afternoon the first major sight of Mongolia waited for us, the Jolyn Am. In the middle of the desert a mountain range raises to a high of nearly 3000m and inside there you find a gorge which is up to 500m deep (or high, that depends on your viewpoint). Populated with a lot of eagles, falcons and milans (where it got it’s name from – “Jolyn” means vulture) it’s a very scenic and beautiful place. Usually the gorge holds snow inside all year round but thanks to global warming there are a few days in late August and September you can’t roll snowballs anymore and yes, we were there just in that time. But even without snow it was impressive. After this we drove further on in the direction of the sand dunes of Kongurin Els where we arrived in the evening. The probably most scenic spot you just can imagine to put up the camp was found at a dry river bank with the golden sand dunes and the southern Chengai mountain range in the back of them. Just gorgeous, look at the picture. A small surprise waited for us in the next morning because Mogi, our Vodka-loving, hard-joking, good-wrestling and mellow-mood driver was afraid to drive closer to the dunes. The problem was that we could get stuck and the risk was just to high for that. So we walked into the dunes which took around one hour, enjoyed the silence in there (or just rolled down the dunes) for some time and went back to the car to start the second big stage. It was a way around 400km north-west through an even more remote and less-populated area. One day we just saw 8 cars at all making this way (one of them from Spain). But at least our dampers were fine, still. The time in the car, which sometimes was a little bit too long (if I would plan the trip again I would plan 12 or 13 days for it, 10 days was just a pretty tight schedule with a little bit too much driving on too worse “roads” between the stations) but most of the time it was funny and interesting, with some card or other games it was pretty alright. To navigate in this area a GPS system is very very helpful, as well as at least one person in the car who speaks mongolian to ask the locals for directions due to the not-existing street signs. Most of the times there are a couple of tracks and paths beside each other leading through the country without any marks or signs which path to take to get to the place you want to go to, so you just have to ask local nomads who (probably) will know it. Again, it took two days for this 450km drive (but with a big rest in Arvaikheer at a bathhouse to spoil down the desert-dust which covered all our skin [we looked sooo tanned!] since five days) until our next destination, the Naiman Nuur lake area. This area is of vulcanic origin and driving there is simple a pain in the ass for all – for the driver, the car and the passengers. It’s hard to find a way to the lakes though there are millions of big rocks on the path. Sometimes it is even hard to see something like a path so you have to find your way through this rocky area by yourself. The last ten kilometers are simply not passable by car, you have to use a horse or use your own feet. This day was Max birthday as well so we decided to stay in a local family Ger (the family moved out for us into another Ger so we had the Ger for ourselves – but no worries, they were happy with that and officially rented their ger for tourists) for a decent party, what was a little bit unfavourable the next day when Leon and me went for a hike up and down the surrounding mountains (up to an 3000m altitude) to the lake while the other four guys went there on horsebacks. It was exhausting, yes, it was very exhausting and we probably underestimated the way and the area itself but nevertheless it was the best day of the whole trip for me. So many huge eagles to spot, breathtaking views (and ways up) from mountain tops into the valleys and a great sunset at the end was worth the 25km of hiking. We came “home” to our Ger when it was already dark and were not really able to do anything except to eat some of the great Iannis-made fried potatoes before we went to bed.
The Gers by the way are usually heated from a stove in the middle of the tent which is fired by camel or horse poo. It smells not so nice but the poo does its job and keeps the Ger warm (with temperatures close to 0°C at night at an altitude of 1900m very important), at least for the most of the night. The toilets there were one of the best I ever had in my life. There simply were no toilets and you just had to go behind the next mountain, find a good sharp rock and go for it. Sounds not pretty comfortable and probably it wasn’t very comfortable but the view could easily be the subject of a poster print (that other people maybe buy and hang at their toilet door). We were already eight days around so the trip slowly came to an end and we just had two more things on our list: The Orkhon waterfall and the Erdene Zuu monastery. Both was not very far away from the Naiman Nuur lake area so the last days we saw the car less and had more time for other things. The Orkhon waterfall is perhaps not really comparable to the Gullfoss in Iceland or the Iguacu falls in Brasil but it definitely is a very nice area. We decided to stay in a ger again, it’s not very expensive (a whole ger with 4-6 beds inside costs something like 15000-20000 tugrik a night [2000tugrik=1€]) , saves time and you can see how the locals really live. Our “hosts” close to the Orkhon waterfall was an incredible nice lovely old mongolian couple with a lot of hospitality and big smiles and great dogs, unfortunately I lost one of these dog accidentially (I took the small dog with me, carried it over or through a river (because he was afraid to go alone) and walked with him for some time until another dog came what really scared my dog so he ran away like crazy and was not seen again. I was very concerned about that but good luck, the dog was back at the next day). Another, this time sad, story was a small wolve who lived not far away from the ger alone in a cave. We think the locals maybe shot his parents to protect their sheeps. It was just depressing to see this small, maybe a couple of month old wolve living there alone with no real chance to survive the winter (and the winter is coming soon there!) on it’s own…
The last night we spent in another ger outside the city of Karakorum, the old capital of the mongolian empire (at that time the biggest empire on earth – from Moscow or eastern Europe and the black sea to the Pacific!) until the city was conquered and burnt down from chinese warriors a few hundreds years ago. There’s nothing left in the city which reminds you of the big heritage it has but now the mongolian government is planning to switch the capital from UB back to Karakorum in 2027 for ten years to honour Djengis Khan (as if they wouldn’t honour him enough already today!). The only historic sight in the city is the buddhist monastery Erdene Zuu which was the most important and maybe most beautiful monastary until 1933 when the communists with their anti-religious campaigns destoyed it nearly completly. That’s really a pitty, nowadays there are just 3 temples left and the big wall that surround the monastery and just something like 50 monks live there today. In the good times the monastery had more than 100 temple and up to 1000 monks lived inside the walls. The way back to UB was a relaxed 300km or 7-hour drive on the only long-distance paved road in the whole country, we just had to stop once for a little bit longer because one tire bursted (but Mogi, our multi-genious repaired it quickly).
Mongolia really is an awesome country. In the countryside it can not differ more from Europe. It’s unbelievable how people live in this tough climate conditions and how they survive in such a inhospitable landscape.
It was a great trip with a lot of fun in a country which is hard to travel on your own but I have to say, too, that it probably was not my favourite way to travel. It has nothing to do with the people who were sharing the jeep with me, they were all great and it was big fun to travel with them, but I think I just don’t like to have a driver who easily drives you to the spots you want to see (even if it’s not that easy in Mongolia). I think I really prefer to travel more independent. But I guess if you want to see the natural beauteousness of Mongolia there’s just no other way to squeeze yourself into a jeep. I really wouldn’t recommend to hitchhike (maybe except on the only long-distance paved road) because I think it easily can become pretty dangerous, especially if you want to get to the south were the traffic exists just of about a handful cars a day and there’s nothing else around you than desert. But Mongolia is a fantastic country, anyway!

That’s the reputation the mongolian capital Ulan-Bator has in the world. But to say it in the very beginning: It’s not so worse here.
The time I spent here is very relaxed and even the application for a chinese visa was not so worse but of course connected to some troubles. If you apply for a chinese visa here China wants to see confirmation of your inbound and outbound flight to or from China. And as you see in this blog name I don’t wanna use an airplane at all so I somehow had to get around this stupid rule. Fortunately I’m not the first and will be not the last person who applied for a visa in UB with this problem so the travel agencies here in town know about this problem and are happy to sell you faked plane tickets which proof that you have a flight into and out of China. In my case I got documents that say that I have a ticket to Beijing and 28 days later a ticket from Shanghai to Tokyo. When the visa finally is glued into your passport nobody will ever care about that and you can go to China on the way you prefer. The chineses single-entry visa for 30 days costs 30US$ and takes 7 days to be issued by the way but I have to get a 2nd visa for China when I’m in Hongkong, too. It would have been just to complicated to apply here for a multi-entry.
The hostel I stay at at the moment is named “Golden Gobi” hostel and probably is the most famous backpacker hostel in UB. There are a lot of different people from different countries here who all have some interesting stories to tell, so it never gets really boring and the city is alright, too. For sure it’s not an asian beauty but to spent some time here and to relax a little bit until I have back my passport with the chinese visa is definitely ok. The prices here are cheap for the must stuff you can buy here, especially for food, but unfortunately the Mongolians tend to make almost everything with meat and the few vegetarian restaurants are usually a little bit more pricey. The only good and very affordable exception is the “Stupa Cafe” which is situated in a buddhist meditation centre. They sell very good vegetarian meals very cheap, so they see me there almost every day

Ulan-Bator as a city maybe is really not the best but the landscape around already gives a foretaste to the great mongolian landscape. UB lies in a vally between mountains in an altitude of 1350m (that’s the reason why it’s the coldest capital in the world. The average middle temperature in a years lies at -2°C, for about 5 months a year the temperatures fall steady unter 0°C) and it’s very easy to get out of the city for some pleasent dayhikes. It takes just 10 minutes by bus and maybe one hour of trekking and you feel like in a total different part of the world and not 5 kilometers away from a million city (but the overview out of the mountains to the city is very very great, too).
So, what else happend during the last days? We went singing Karaoke one evening what probably is the most popular style to spent an evening here and got totally drunk during that, we had some fine indian food for roundabout 10€ each (that was my first real restaurant visit during my trip!) and helped a guy to lift his car out of a big drain hole (they are everywhere here, you have to be very careful when you walk down the streets otherwise you maybe will fall down into the canalisation) where he drove into accidentially and I organised a trip into the countryside for ten days with 5 other guys (don’t know why no girls wanted to join us) which will start tomorrow. We rented a six seat car with a driver (you can’t hire a car without a driver here) for 50$/day (so per person 8$ plus petrol) and will go to the Gobi desert and some other nice national parks, I’m pretty sure that will be a great thing. So don’t expect an update during the next ten days, I’ll be totally out of everything.

Some pictures will follow maybe tomorrow or in ten days, when I’m back here.