Still less than one week since I have been in Ulaanbaatar and just had my first conversation about chimi chimi complete with dance moves from my 45 year taxi old driver. This segued into a conversation about his parents who were state musicians. Clarinet and violin. They live in miami now.
... ice cream. Same spot as seen here in September. I took this photo at 330pm today, about the warmest part of the afternoon: -8C (18F) with some light snow. Nowadays, it's not unusual for people to be wearing gloves, scarves, hats, thick coats, even fur-lined boots. But I also saw quite a few women wearing skirts today. Tonight's forecast low is -23C (-9F).
Unrelated: I periodically take a look to see how people end up on this blog. Increasingly it's the result of Google searches. The most popular searches have been in relation to Mongolian weddings. Today's query-of-the-day is "q=vodka+and+menstruation".
The last day I didn't work was 3-Oct in Bayan-Ulgii. Since then, I've been on 23 days, including the last 18 on the road in Suhbaatar aimag. Today was a long one. Four hours of sleep last night, a hangover this morning, sinus congestion, and no seats on the 450km bus (photo left) ride home - I sat on luggage for the first 7 hours and stood for the final 2.
But when I came back home tonight, I got quite a surprise - while I was away, the folks that own the place put in new wallpaper, new carpet, new lighting fixtures, a new kitchen faucet, and a new showerhead. And they cleaned up to boot. They had mentioned the idea of new wallpaper before, but none of the other stuff. At that time, I told them it really wasn't necessary. But I fell in love with the new place in all of 15 seconds, after I figured out that I hadn't walked into the wrong apartment. The highlight was the shower, since it was my first in 13 days. When I washed my hair the water came off the color of dirt.
Tomorrow - Saturday - I am going to take a full day off, all to myself. I don't think I've done that yet in Mongolia and I am pushing 300 days in-country. That means no work calls. No work meetings. No dealing with the 299 mails in my inbox. No managing or thinking about field data. And no blogging.
I'll be back to work on Sunday. That's when I'll start posting some of the stuff from my time in Suhbaatar.
On late Tues night I hadn't finished up with the recent Zavhan data, but I already had a Wed morning bus ticket for Suhbaatar aimag and was sleepy. So at midnight I decided to take one of my late-night "naps". Anyone who has lived with me from the start of college in 1995 until Andrei in UB 2007 knows what I'm talking about. I predictably woke up later than I planned, at 4am. A couple hours of Zavhan and then trip prep starting at 615. Shower took 2 minutes - no hot water and the water that was there was just a notch above freezing. Packing was no problem - just needed to print a few consent forms. Bus starts boarding at 730am 8km across town near Botanik. Paper jam at 7am. Out the door at 716. To the bus stop at 745. Bus left right on time at 8. Last time I took a bus between Baruun-Urt and UB all 28 seats were taken. This time we had that plus 9 extra folks. 30C outside and much warmer inside, especially for anyone wearing flannel-lined jeans. Arrived 14 hrs later, 3 hrs late.
They only show up after I come back from the countryside. And only in the sink. Plausible explanations?
Left Uliastai yesterday with colleagues from Ulaanbaatar. Now in Toson, still in Zavhan, near the borders with Huvsgul and Arhangai. Another 800km to go, so we should be back tomorrow.
I left UB for fieldwork in Zavhan yesterday. Since I planned to skip the aimag capital and go straight to a northern sum I thought I'd ride in an Uvs furgon to within 50km of my target. But when I arrived at Naran Tuul, I found a micro headed right to my destination. The catch was that it was another 5 hours before we left the city limits. Saw the worst road I have seen in Mongolia just outside town where a day's rain had turned a dirt construction bypass into chocolate fondue. Cars, trucks, and vans stuck all over the place at 11pm like beached whales with lights for eyes. Now it's almost noon and we are parked just short of Harhorin where we have been for the past 2 hours (see photo). Leaf spring is busted but they're performing some magic with a spare. 18 hours since I left home and one-third of the way there.
Now if we could just hook up the Cherry Garcia...
Fitting that on the way to the airport to go to megacity Beijing we hit the worst traffic I have ever seen in UB. Forty minutes from home to Dragon Center, about 6km. Yep, that's walking pace. I called the airline and they said boarding would end thirty minutes before departure. Made it with maybe 5 minutes to spare.
[Addendum: Posted the above from my phone as the flight attendants were closing the door on the plane. Even though we were already massively late, we had to slow to about 15km/hr on the final uphill to the airport as our Hyundai Excel taxi had 1-2 liters of fuel left and began to suck air from the tank.]
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