Overland Journey

The Taj Mahal, one of the World Marvels.

There is roughly a distance of a thousand miles between Delhi and Mumbai for a traveler willing to see the Taj Mahal and the capital city of Rajasthan, Jaipur. This was the road I planned to take as I arrived in India.

Delhi Tuk-Tuk and rickshaws.

My plane touched down at four in the morning, and I took my time passing the immigration checkpoint and collecting my luggage. I had no hotel reservation, and arriving as early in the city would not help.
I left the airport to reach the center and try the first of the hotel address I had wrote down. The place was full. I switched from the airport minibus to a three-wheel tuk-tuk, a common means of public transportation in urban India, and continued my quest for a place to sleep.

Alley in Delhi's wedding district.

The multi-layered mess of Delhi.

One should not mistake tuk-tuk drivers in Delhi for friends. All of them will try to squeeze every rupee out of an innocent traveler pocket. They will use all methods available at this effect. You do read about it in India’s guidebooks, but experiencing it first hand is so striking, and the guys are such great actors that you can’t help but wonder if the tales you are hearing are legit or not. And of course it’s all lies.
One of the common scams goes like that. You ask to be transported to a hotel of your choice. If they figure you don’t have a reservation, they tell you that the place closed two weeks ago, or is under renovation, or even burned down the previous night. They will then drive you down to a hotel where they get a hefty commission when bringing a victim.
In a variation, they could also drive you to a fake government tourist office. There, you will be told that due to festivals in the city, all the hotels are booked, and there is no way of staying in the city for less than US$150 a day.

Quiet alley in Delhi.

In my case, after several similar experiences, I went to one of these tourist offices where I seemed to agree to use their services to get a room. “But first”, I asked, “Can I check my emails?” Few minutes after they agreed, using their computer I had booked a room in the city at a rate of US$22 and fled in the street toward a well deserved bed.
Of course I still had to fight with a new tuk-tuk driver, insisting to go to the place even if the hotel had been demolished recently. Of course it was not, and around 11 a.m. I was able to crash in a bed.
Few hours later, I was back in the streets, this time trying to arrange for transportation to Mumbai where I would retrieve my truck. My new “friend”, the manager of the hotel, guided me to a travel agency he knew. There, I was told there was no available seat in the train to from Mumbai to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. It was true as well for the train to Agra from Jaipur. By now I was not trusting anyone, and found it even stranger when the agent added that there was only one bus on the Mumbai – Agra route, and that the bus was not suitable for tourists. The best – and only – solution for me would be to take a car with a driver…

Delhi counts 12 millions inhabitants.

In all the countries I crossed during this trip, I always have been surprised by the multitude of bus running between the most unlikely locations. I could not believe it would be so difficult to get around in India…
I left the tourist agency and started shopping around. An hour later, I was in possession a bus ticket Mumbai – Agra (US$13) and a train ticket Agra – Jaipur I paid US$14, which is double the usual price, but was enough to persuade the railroad employee to give me a ticket in the already “full” train. Another ticket in the overnight train from Jaipur to Mumbai arriving Sept. 1st did set me back another US$32.
Now I would finally be able to enjoy some Indian food. And that was a highlight. The best food I had in a long time, probably since Ethiopia, the last country where they used some spice in the cooking. Of course cold beer was also nice to have after the restrictions of the past few weeks. Back at the hotel, I continued work on the logistic of the following days, and book hotels using the internet.

Inside the Red Fort.

After a short night of sleep, and now that I was done with the advance planning, I went out to enjoy a day visiting Old Delhi. I paid a visit to the Red Fort, the greatest of Delhi’s Moghul palace-cities. Built in the 17th century, the palace saw imperial elephants court ladies carried in palanquins and armies of eunuchs. The British moved into the fort in 1857.

The mosque courtyard.

Diner at Monika's relatives.

Ironing in the street.

Also in the city is India’s largest mosque, Jama Masjid. It has the reputation of being one of the most beautiful place or worship in the world. It took six years to 5,000 workers to finish the impressive building.
I spent a lot of time walking up and down the old streets Old Delhi is made of. I continued to eat like there is no tomorrow. I lost some weight during Ramadan, and now was time to gain it back. In the evening, I visited the relative of Monika, a former AP colleague, which is a good occasion to try some of Indian home-cooking.

The Taj Mahal is also visited by millions of Indian tourists.

Inside the Taj Mahal.

After the tiring day, I sleep for four hours and wake up before sunrise to take the uncomfortable bus to Agra, some 150 miles (250 km) south of Delhi. Upon arrival, I throw my bags at the hotel and immediately go visit the Taj Mahal.
Set on the river Yamuna, the Taj construction started in 1632 and took twenty years to complete, while the Mughal Empire was going downward. The cost of the monument was high, and the emperor Shah Jahan who built it in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal was imprisoned by his own son for overspending of state funds.
Some three millions tourist visit the Taj every year, as the mausoleum is regarded as one of the world wonders. On my part, I am always nervous about visiting these huge tourist magnets as you can be easily disappointed after hearing so much about such monument. But the visit was pleasant, and the stroll in the outside garden worth it. I found the inside of the monument a bit disappointing, but overall it was a nice visit. Probably one of the costliest in a while as well, at US$17.

The Taj Mahal in Agra, India, seen from the the Agra Fort.

The Agra Fort.

After leaving the Taj, I took a Tuk-Tuk to the Agra Fort which dominates the center of the city. It is the most important fort in India. The rulers lived here, and the country used to be governed from here. It was visited by ambassadors, travelers and the highest dignitaries coming from all over the world.

It is also a good place to see the sunset on the Taj Mahal, which I did before getting back to my hotel. After this other well-filled day it was not difficult to fall asleep. Few hours later, at 5 a.m., I found myself on the train to Jaipur.

Seen in Agra Fort. Some guys travel alone, others live with 5,000 women...

The train from Agra to Jaipur.

In the last few days, I seem to have gain the ability to fall asleep everywhere I stop for few minutes. So as soon as I am in the train, I collapse only to wake up as we arrive at destination.

A gate leading to the Old City, Jaipur.

Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan is also known as the pink city, thanks to the pink wash that most buildings are given. There are some atmospheric places to see in the old city, including bazaars and palaces.

The Palace of the Winds, detail, Jaipur.

The “Palace of the Winds” is possibly one of the most famous buildings in town. It was built for the ladies of the harem, and features almost 1,000 windows on its façade, enabling cool air in, and allowing the ladies to take advantage of the spectacle of the street.

Jaipur City Palace.

The nearby futuristic observatory.

The City Palace is still a royal residence and has a vast array of courtyards, gardens and buildings. Just outside is an observatory, Jantar Mantar. It was built around 1730, and each huge stone and marble instrument was used for a particular function to give an accurate reading. For Hindus, the horoscope is very important, which explains the vast interest in the science.

Selling vegetables in the street.

I am scheduled to stay for two days in the city, which I use to take a lot of rest, and also try multiple restaurants. On August 31, after lunch, I take place in a sleeping car part of the train to Mumbai. There, as usual, I fall asleep and remain in this state for most of the trip.

Street of Jaipur old city.

Arriving in Mumbai early in the morning, I took a cab to see an old friend. Vikas, who I met few years back in New York where he was working for the New York Times, now lives in India, and invited me to share his flat for few day. As I arrived, I checked the status of the container I was waiting for and was supposed to arrive the same day. It turned out that unfortunately, the box was still laying in Iran. After speaking to people there, it seems that it may arrive in Mumbai Sept. 10. But that remains to be seen…
As I write this overdue entry in the blog, it seems that I felt sick. Not sure exactly what it could be, but I am running a fever since yesterday. It has been the first time since the beginning of the trip I felt ill. Hopefully some small food-related issue.

Arriving in Mumbai.

AJ: “Who is the boss out of mum and dad?”
Dad: “Mum is the Chenggis of our family!”

Conversation on the way to Oondarkhan as night fell - all of us admiring the orange full moon:

AJ: “Oooooh! Look! - the first night-time star!”
Dad: “Make a wish!”
AJ: “How many planets are there on our earth”
Jessica: “There are no planets on our earth. Earth is a planet. There are ten planets in our galaxy and earth is one of them. There are thousands of galaxies in our solar system. Earth is the third planet away from the sun.”
Dad: “I couldn’t have phrased that better myself.”
AJ: “Dad, your the weirdest person in the whole solar system.”
Jessica: “AJ, do you even know what a solar system is?”
AJ: “No, but dad is still the weirdest person in it!”

Jessica: “We should make all the cattle wear hi-viz jackets” (commenting on nearly knocking them over several times in the dark)

On seeing our first sightings of gazelles:

Jessica: “Look at them, they’re beautiful!”
AJ: “Wow!”
Dad: “How many children do you know who have seen herds of gazelle roaming freely across the steppes in their natural habitat? It’s what I would imagine having to go the Serengeti to see.”

Excepting a one night stay east at the Terelj National Park area, we spent a fortnight in Ulaan Baatar (UB), checking in and out of the hotel we previously liked and also the Oasis Guesthouse. We relaxed and busied ourselves making border control permit arrangements for the Khalkiin / Halh / Halhyn Gol (Dornod Province) right in the far east bordering China (a strictly restricted area), also making arrangements to service our Land Rover before leaving.

Border Permit Arrangements

We tried and failed to obtain a permit ourselves by visiting the border office (a Mongolian has to apply on your behalf) even with the help of Eric, a man we’d managed to drag off the street in UB to translate for us (he spoke perfect English and it turned out he had also worked in Dublin, Ireland in a chip shop for 6 years!!!). We discovered we would have to first get a guide before being allowed to apply for our pass so approached the Tourist Information Office who put us in touch with two guest-houses. The first guesthouse was unsuccessful and the second could provide an English speaking person on the cheap but we decided he/she would be unfamiliar with the difficult tracks (no roads for up to 800 km from Oondarkhan) - let alone know even how to get there, the history, the sights and the area we were interested - add to this, we’d have to bring the guide all the way from UB and back again plus pay all expenses - so again unsuccessful. We asked also at the Oasis Guesthouse and it was basically the same story. We looked through our Mongolia Lonely Planet guide book and found nothing that grabbed us. Finally, a google internet search revealed a company called www.greatsteppes.com (excellent knowledge and very professional - we dealt with a lady called Sumiya), based in Sukhbaatar Square in UB, where we made arrangements for a 3-day pass along with a guide to meet us in Choilbasan city. Sumiya advised us that to her knowledge no English tourists had ever visited Khalkiin Gol - usually only and rarely American and Japanese historians or journalists, definately no foreign vehicles had ever been and definately no children. She wanted to know ‘why’ we were so interested (refreshing rather than the usual hard sell) as the area was not equipped for tourists hence not really promoted - and, Sumiya would have to put our reasons in writing to the border control office along with a detailed route plan to be able to obtain permission and a car pass. We later found out that booking through a small guest-house would have definately been a no-no as only a registered in-bound tour operator such as Great-Steppes can organise such tours via the permit control office.

Land Rover Problems and Leaving UB

Before leaving UB, we’d brought our Land Rover to an approved garage called Wagner Asia www.wagnerasia.com for a service - our diesel leak was getting serious. The garage took both fuel tanks off and found inter-connecting tubes split. One they tried to fix and the other they welded, warning us that this fix might not last. Meantime at Oasis Guesthouse, a French family living in Sweden (www.lesglen.net) with two young children around Jessica and AJ’s age arrived which was heaven for them all - playing in the mud with cars, toys and playfighting etc. Apart from supplies of food and drink every now and again - we’d almost forgotten we had children for the day - they were all so busy playing together.

We also got to see more of the reality of living for young street children - boys begging and running into to the cafe we’d visited to finish the scraps off our plates, learning more about the Christina Noble foundation which the Mongol Rally supports - an excellent set-up from what we read about and saw (we could see exactly where the funds were channelled including Educational Aid - an area that most interested us). The owners of the Oasis guesthouse, where we stayed, themselves having supported many causes - taking in a boy as their own for one year from an orphanage once he’d gotten too old to be able to stay, working with ex-prison staff on their own premises, providing wood, clothes, boots and soap to many Mongolian residents (often having to permanently brand clothes and cut soap into two to stop them from being taken away by others for onward sales in the black market).

On the trail of Gazelles

With our border permit and vehicle pass finally in hand and our Land Rover finally collected two days later, we left UB around 5pm. It was time to head off to the east, first to Oondarkhan along paved road (approx 220 miles / 350 km from UB) for a night’s stay to break our trip onward to Choilbasan to meet our guide. We had already committed to dates as part of itinerary and time was running out with unexpected delays in collecting our vehicle from the garage. We had to make our way late afternoon if we were to make it in time for our tour in just under a couple of days time.

En-route, as night fell, rather than cars - we had to watch out for cows, bulls, yaks, camels, sheep and horses crossing the road in the dark - no street lights anywhere - we’d seen it all - even beam lights couldn’t locate them until we were almost on top of them. The full moon was hiding behind mountains so not helping us any - a hairy-raising experience in more ways than one! From Oondarkhan to Choilbasan there was no road - instead driving tracks through the steppes and gentle green mountains for another 220 miles / 350 km - a very easy place to get lost! Night time on both days fell very early - 8.30pm day one and by 8pm day two - very weird as got very dark so quickly with no lighting or telegraph poles to guide our way across the steppes or mountains anywhere - nothing but sand tracks everywhere. Luckily, just as an orange moon appeared, we made it to Choibalsan before dark fell. But, not without our GPS coming out for the first time on our trip - luckily it told us, we were heading the right way! Driving to Choibalsan was a long and slow process (also a bit arduous for the children) due to sand tracks - again with camels, bulls, cows, sheep, horses and the like continuing our way, except this time, the further eastward we travelled, we started suddenly to be rewarded with sights of hundreds of gazelle everywhere - such amazing speed. In the distance we thought they were horses at first except they seemed to be on fast-forward - moving too fast, much, much too fast. As we got nearer, we realised they were gazelles running across the sand tracks in front of us in groups but still so quick, we coudn’t get our cameras out fast enough. The only way to catch them would be with extremely high zoom lens and ‘bionic man’ type reflex actions. Jessica thought the gazelles looked like a cross between giant rabbits and Bambi’s hopping about with their tails. We managed only a couple of just about passable photographs once in a while but all in all, not very good shots. Then the children got really excited as we could see a massive herd grouped together of at least 300 in the distance about half a mile away from us. We stopped the car so Jessica and AJ could get close up views through binoculars. As far away as the gazelle were from us, the experience was really stunning to be able to see them in their natural habitat. Andrew (dad) read later that if Mongolia introduces paved roads, it will mean the loss and migration of the gazelle population in the east which would be a terrible shame. We also saw the odd animal carcass along the way, reminding us of the state of emergency Mongolia was placed from the long and critical frozen winter recently (we’d seen on the news in the UK before leaving).

Khalkiin Gol (aka Khalkin Gol / Khalkyn Gol/ Halh Gol / Halhyn Gol / English : Khalka River / Japanese: Nomonhan Incident) - Dornod Province

Finally, having reached Choibalsan and after a night’s stay, we had a late start with our guide Tom due to him needing to find a childminder first (we couldn’t pronounce his real Mongolian name and in return Tom decided to call AJ ‘Jerry!’). Following a nice lunch at his sister’s restaurant in Choibalsan, Tom took us another 220 miles / 350 km further east (our third batch of roughly the same driving distance in three days), again on sand tracks. Our fuel tank had started leaking again so we had to watch as running repairs back in UB hadn’t worked as planned. This caused fuel starvation to occur and every so often we were forced to a stop to blow the fuel tank back to start us up again. We were glad to have Tom as even if we didn’t have a guide, even a GPS device and map would not suffice as much as local knowledge and experience would. Even Tom got lost as new tracks are made every year by the military bases and locals living in the area, making attempts to recover any last route used, difficult. The GPS therefore throughout our trip east was used only as a reference every now and again in conjunction with our map to obtain a general ball-park check on our final easting and northing location - if we were moving in the general direction, we were happy. The GPS also had a compass but as the tracks veered this way and that, we didn’t find it very useful. Meantime, driving the tracks alone were or are an off-roaders dream and felt a bit like driving to the ends of the earth.

We quickly learned that the far eastern parts of Mongolia has no infrastructure at all - no hotels, no roads, no toilets, no comforts, no petrol or diesel stations etc. especially between large distances We made sure we were as prepared as possible with diesel and food etc. before leaving. Arriving to the Khalkiin Gol area very late at night (there is a fuel station there!), we found the only place we could stay was at the Victory Museum - a small museum with a tiny room with 3 basic beds and separate shared toilet. Another Japanese party were also there - they come at least once a year to dig up human bones from the little known 1939 war in the 71 km wide battle ground area there (we were advised an estimated 38,000 Japanese were killed - the Mongolians/Russians were taken and buried but the Japanese are still digging for remains). The war which occurred there was between Mongolia/Russia against Japan on the border of China (then known as Manchu) in a dispute over border territory and is often referred to in reference to the start of World War II and the bombing of Pearl Harbour.

Late that night, on our arival, Tom’s friends who live in a small apartment in the Khalkiin Gol area cooked and brought us our first traditional Mongolian meal of mutton meat bones, boiled thin pancake shaped pasta sheets (we couldn’t remember what they were called) and tea - we ate with our fingers and the meal was delicious. In return, we paid for the supper and provided a bottle of vodka which Tom advised according to Mongolian tradition, gets passed around the table three times for everyone to share ( we had to oblige of course!).

Next morning, we saw the Japanese group leaving to set about their tasks of the day while we headed off first to look at many of the huge Russian/Mongolian monuments erected and in a state of neglect. This included the huge Triumphal or Victory Monument (54 metres high, 34 metres wide, made entirely with copper and weighing 110 tons). There were approximatey twenty such dedicated monuments dotted all along the banks of the Khalkiin Gol River and countless huge craters created by the shells and bombing of the battle - eerie and still evident - the actual battlefield being strictly prohibited to us to stand in or cross but excellent for the children and us to actually see. The children got to investigate the trenches, the high and low grounds, the tanks and artillery now forming part of the monument structures. Then it was back to the museum for a tour provided by the director which was very good to see artefacts collected and to find out more detail about what happened in the area during those troubled times. The director kindly provided us a guide book and a pin badge each, confirming Jessica and AJ were the first English children to have visited. Foreign western visitors altogether a huge rarity, let alone an English family with own vehicle. The last visitor had been a solitary Amercian man last yeat with phd qualification, interested in writing a book about the battle time. We were invited to sign the guestbook following a simple lunch of a bowl of rice, bread and tea. We headed off to Buir Nuur Lake in the afternoon, detouring at the huge Janraisag monument carved into the hillside (’Avalokitesvara’ in Sanskrit) originally built by about 100 craftsmen in 1864 - it is a giant stone Buddha approx 30 metres high, built horizontally on a slope of about 35 degrees with smaller stone Buddha stupas built all around. Except for a military base at it’s foot, it looked very unvisited and unloved on it’s hillside, miles from anyone to be able to enjoy.

Including the detour to the lonesome Buddha monument, we had to go through three border checkpoints in total throughout our trip showing our passports and permit each time - we were issued an additional pass at one point before finally reaching the lake. The area was completely devoid of any tourists - we had the Dornod region all to ourselves. On arrival, the hot weather had cooled but this didn’t stop the children from running and playing along the deserted long beach we’d found. The water wasn’t cold and Tom explained that ice fishing, walking and driving on it is possible when frozen. The only problem was that the water was quite polluted but generally well-known for it’s fish. We stayed to watch the sunset (around 7pm) and were joined suddenly by other locals coming to see the same - we couldn’t work out where they had come from as there was nothing around. The other side of the lake was China and like the battlefield area, we could see some houses and factories belonging to the other side. It was too cold to camp using our thin tents and a small makeshift guesthouse had closed down. Tom asked a local herder and his wife if we could stay the night in their ger and luckily they obliged. We were also fed a manti each, some mutton bones and steamed pancake thingys with milky tea (no salt! - Eastern Mongolia doesn’t do salt tea - yippeeeee!). We settled down on the floor of the ger for the night with our sleeping bags (apart from one little bed which AJ and Anne bagged!) along with the plenty of camels, horses and dogs outside for company. We had no light only our own candles and torches and it got very chilly and dark (by 7.30pm) - though not tired, all of us were in bed by about 8.30pm to keep warm.

Next day it was another 220 miles / 350 km trek back to Choibalsan where we saw our first fox and wondered in awe about how such landscape could support so much wild-life. This was followed by a delicious Chinese meal at another of Tom’s sister’s restaurants. Our vehicle was wrecked from dirt and sand that had gotten in everywhere - everything was black inside and out, including us. We also had a completely flat tyre - two nails stuck in one tyre which we’d managed to keep afloat on-going through the trip (we had two spares). Our roof rack had completely sheared away from the rear and was lop-sided - Andrew’s new wooden box not helping. The front had already gone previously and already been repaired. The only thing that had spoiled our stay was Tom’s need to try to persuade us to stay in his sister’s hotel - telling us untruths about the agency (Great-Steppes) and our original hotel choice (Chandanguud which was excellent), trying to spoil their reputation in the process. We didn’t like the approach and decided to make a complaint about it. A great shame which had otherwise ruined a very nice time.

All the best for now!

A, A, J and AJ
XXXX

AJ: “Who is the boss out of mum and dad?”
Dad: “Mum is the Chenggis of our family!”

Conversation on the way to Oondarkhan as night fell - all of us admiring the orange full moon:

AJ: “Oooooh! Look! - the first night-time star!”
Dad: “Make a wish!”
AJ: “How many planets are there on our earth”
Jessica: “There are no planets on our earth. Earth is a planet. There are ten planets in our galaxy and earth is one of them. There are thousands of galaxies in our solar system. Earth is the third planet away from the sun.”
Dad: “I couldn’t have phrased that better myself.”
AJ: “Dad, your the weirdest person in the whole solar system.”
Jessica: “AJ, do you even know what a solar system is?”
AJ: “No, but dad is still the weirdest person in it!”

Jessica: “We should make all the cattle wear hi-viz jackets” (commenting on nearly knocking them over several times in the dark)

On seeing our first sightings of gazelles:

Jessica: “Look at them, they’re beautiful!”
AJ: “Wow!”
Dad: “How many children do you know who have seen herds of gazelle roaming freely across the steppes in their natural habitat? It’s what I would imagine having to go the Serengeti to see.”

Excepting a one night stay east at the Terelj National Park area, we spent a fortnight in Ulaan Baatar (UB), checking in and out of the hotel we previously liked and also the Oasis Guesthouse. We relaxed and busied ourselves making border control permit arrangements for the Khalkiin / Halh / Halhyn Gol (Dornod Province) right in the far east bordering China (a strictly restricted area), also making arrangements to service our Land Rover before leaving.

Border Permit Arrangements

We tried and failed to obtain a permit ourselves by visiting the border office (a Mongolian has to apply on your behalf) even with the help of Eric, a man we’d managed to drag off the street in UB to translate for us (he spoke perfect English and it turned out he had also worked in Dublin, Ireland in a chip shop for 6 years!!!). We discovered we would have to first get a guide before being allowed to apply for our pass so approached the Tourist Information Office who put us in touch with two guest-houses. The first guesthouse was unsuccessful and the second could provide an English speaking person on the cheap but we decided he/she would be unfamiliar with the difficult tracks (no roads for up to 800 km from Oondarkhan) - let alone know even how to get there, the history, the sights and the area we were interested - add to this, we’d have to bring the guide all the way from UB and back again plus pay all expenses - so again unsuccessful. We asked also at the Oasis Guesthouse and it was basically the same story. We looked through our Mongolia Lonely Planet guide book and found nothing that grabbed us. Finally, a google internet search revealed a company called www.greatsteppes.com (excellent knowledge and very professional - we dealt with a lady called Sumiya), based in Sukhbaatar Square in UB, where we made arrangements for a 3-day pass along with a guide to meet us in Choilbasan city. Sumiya advised us that to her knowledge no English tourists had ever visited Khalkiin Gol - usually only and rarely American and Japanese historians or journalists, definately no foreign vehicles had ever been and definately no children. She wanted to know ‘why’ we were so interested (refreshing rather than the usual hard sell) as the area was not equipped for tourists hence not really promoted - and, Sumiya would have to put our reasons in writing to the border control office along with a detailed route plan to be able to obtain permission and a car pass. We later found out that booking through a small guest-house would have definately been a no-no as only a registered in-bound tour operator such as Great-Steppes can organise such tours via the permit control office.

Land Rover Problems and Leaving UB

Before leaving UB, we’d brought our Land Rover to an approved garage called Wagner Asia www.wagnerasia.com for a service - our diesel leak was getting serious. The garage took both fuel tanks off and found inter-connecting tubes split. One they tried to fix and the other they welded, warning us that this fix might not last. Meantime at Oasis Guesthouse, a French family living in Sweden (www.lesglen.net) with two young children around Jessica and AJ’s age arrived which was heaven for them all - playing in the mud with cars, toys and playfighting etc. Apart from supplies of food and drink every now and again - we’d almost forgotten we had children for the day - they were all so busy playing together.

We also got to see more of the reality of living for young street children - boys begging and running into to the cafe we’d visited to finish the scraps off our plates, learning more about the Christina Noble foundation which the Mongol Rally supports - an excellent set-up from what we read about and saw (we could see exactly where the funds were channelled including Educational Aid - an area that most interested us). The owners of the Oasis guesthouse, where we stayed, themselves having supported many causes - taking in a boy as their own for one year from an orphanage once he’d gotten too old to be able to stay, working with ex-prison staff on their own premises, providing wood, clothes, boots and soap to many Mongolian residents (often having to permanently brand clothes and cut soap into two to stop them from being taken away by others for onward sales in the black market).

On the trail of Gazelles

With our border permit and vehicle pass finally in hand and our Land Rover finally collected two days later, we left UB around 5pm. It was time to head off to the east, first to Oondarkhan along paved road (approx 220 miles / 350 km from UB) for a night’s stay to break our trip onward to Choilbasan to meet our guide. We had already committed to dates as part of itinerary and time was running out with unexpected delays in collecting our vehicle from the garage. We had to make our way late afternoon if we were to make it in time for our tour in just under a couple of days time.

En-route, as night fell, rather than cars - we had to watch out for cows, bulls, yaks, camels, sheep and horses crossing the road in the dark - no street lights anywhere - we’d seen it all - even beam lights couldn’t locate them until we were almost on top of them. The full moon was hiding behind mountains so not helping us any - a hairy-raising experience in more ways than one! From Oondarkhan to Choilbasan there was no road - instead driving tracks through the steppes and gentle green mountains for another 220 miles / 350 km - a very easy place to get lost! Night time on both days fell very early - 8.30pm day one and by 8pm day two - very weird as got very dark so quickly with no lighting or telegraph poles to guide our way across the steppes or mountains anywhere - nothing but sand tracks everywhere. Luckily, just as an orange moon appeared, we made it to Choibalsan before dark fell. But, not without our GPS coming out for the first time on our trip - luckily it told us, we were heading the right way! Driving to Choibalsan was a long and slow process (also a bit arduous for the children) due to sand tracks - again with camels, bulls, cows, sheep, horses and the like continuing our way, except this time, the further eastward we travelled, we started suddenly to be rewarded with sights of hundreds of gazelle everywhere - such amazing speed. In the distance we thought they were horses at first except they seemed to be on fast-forward - moving too fast, much, much too fast. As we got nearer, we realised they were gazelles running across the sand tracks in front of us in groups but still so quick, we coudn’t get our cameras out fast enough. The only way to catch them would be with extremely high zoom lens and ‘bionic man’ type reflex actions. Jessica thought the gazelles looked like a cross between giant rabbits and Bambi’s hopping about with their tails. We managed only a couple of just about passable photographs once in a while but all in all, not very good shots. Then the children got really excited as we could see a massive herd grouped together of at least 300 in the distance about half a mile away from us. We stopped the car so Jessica and AJ could get close up views through binoculars. As far away as the gazelle were from us, the experience was really stunning to be able to see them in their natural habitat. Andrew (dad) read later that if Mongolia introduces paved roads, it will mean the loss and migration of the gazelle population in the east which would be a terrible shame. We also saw the odd animal carcass along the way, reminding us of the state of emergency Mongolia was placed from the long and critical frozen winter recently (we’d seen on the news in the UK before leaving).

Khalkiin Gol (aka Khalkin Gol / Khalkyn Gol/ Halh Gol / Halhyn Gol / English : Khalka River / Japanese: Nomonhan Incident) - Dornod Province

Finally, having reached Choibalsan and after a night’s stay, we had a late start with our guide Tom due to him needing to find a childminder first (we couldn’t pronounce his real Mongolian name and in return Tom decided to call AJ ‘Jerry!’). Following a nice lunch at his sister’s restaurant in Choibalsan, Tom took us another 220 miles / 350 km further east (our third batch of roughly the same driving distance in three days), again on sand tracks. Our fuel tank had started leaking again so we had to watch as running repairs back in UB hadn’t worked as planned. This caused fuel starvation to occur and every so often we were forced to a stop to blow the fuel tank back to start us up again. We were glad to have Tom as even if we didn’t have a guide, even a GPS device and map would not suffice as much as local knowledge and experience would. Even Tom got lost as new tracks are made every year by the military bases and locals living in the area, making attempts to recover any last route used, difficult. The GPS therefore throughout our trip east was used only as a reference every now and again in conjunction with our map to obtain a general ball-park check on our final easting and northing location - if we were moving in the general direction, we were happy. The GPS also had a compass but as the tracks veered this way and that, we didn’t find it very useful. Meantime, driving the tracks alone were or are an off-roaders dream and felt a bit like driving to the ends of the earth.

We quickly learned that the far eastern parts of Mongolia has no infrastructure at all - no hotels, no roads, no toilets, no comforts, no petrol or diesel stations etc. especially between large distances We made sure we were as prepared as possible with diesel and food etc. before leaving. Arriving to the Khalkiin Gol area very late at night (there is a fuel station there!), we found the only place we could stay was at the Victory Museum - a small museum with a tiny room with 3 basic beds and separate shared toilet. Another Japanese party were also there - they come at least once a year to dig up human bones from the little known 1939 war in the 71 km wide battle ground area there (we were advised an estimated 38,000 Japanese were killed - the Mongolians/Russians were taken and buried but the Japanese are still digging for remains). The war which occurred there was between Mongolia/Russia against Japan on the border of China (then known as Manchu) in a dispute over border territory and is often referred to in reference to the start of World War II and the bombing of Pearl Harbour.

Late that night, on our arival, Tom’s friends who live in a small apartment in the Khalkiin Gol area cooked and brought us our first traditional Mongolian meal of mutton meat bones, boiled thin pancake shaped pasta sheets (we couldn’t remember what they were called) and tea - we ate with our fingers and the meal was delicious. In return, we paid for the supper and provided a bottle of vodka which Tom advised according to Mongolian tradition, gets passed around the table three times for everyone to share ( we had to oblige of course!).

Next morning, we saw the Japanese group leaving to set about their tasks of the day while we headed off first to look at many of the huge Russian/Mongolian monuments erected and in a state of neglect. This included the huge Triumphal or Victory Monument (54 metres high, 34 metres wide, made entirely with copper and weighing 110 tons). There were approximatey twenty such dedicated monuments dotted all along the banks of the Khalkiin Gol River and countless huge craters created by the shells and bombing of the battle - eerie and still evident - the actual battlefield being strictly prohibited to us to stand in or cross but excellent for the children and us to actually see. The children got to investigate the trenches, the high and low grounds, the tanks and artillery now forming part of the monument structures. Then it was back to the museum for a tour provided by the director which was very good to see artefacts collected and to find out more detail about what happened in the area during those troubled times. The director kindly provided us a guide book and a pin badge each, confirming Jessica and AJ were the first English children to have visited. Foreign western visitors altogether a huge rarity, let alone an English family with own vehicle. The last visitor had been a solitary Amercian man last yeat with phd qualification, interested in writing a book about the battle time. We were invited to sign the guestbook following a simple lunch of a bowl of rice, bread and tea. We headed off to Buir Nuur Lake in the afternoon, detouring at the huge Janraisag monument carved into the hillside (’Avalokitesvara’ in Sanskrit) originally built by about 100 craftsmen in 1864 - it is a giant stone Buddha approx 30 metres high, built horizontally on a slope of about 35 degrees with smaller stone Buddha stupas built all around. Except for a military base at it’s foot, it looked very unvisited and unloved on it’s hillside, miles from anyone to be able to enjoy.

Including the detour to the lonesome Buddha monument, we had to go through three border checkpoints in total throughout our trip showing our passports and permit each time - we were issued an additional pass at one point before finally reaching the lake. The area was completely devoid of any tourists - we had the Dornod region all to ourselves. On arrival, the hot weather had cooled but this didn’t stop the children from running and playing along the deserted long beach we’d found. The water wasn’t cold and Tom explained that ice fishing, walking and driving on it is possible when frozen. The only problem was that the water was quite polluted but generally well-known for it’s fish. We stayed to watch the sunset (around 7pm) and were joined suddenly by other locals coming to see the same - we couldn’t work out where they had come from as there was nothing around. The other side of the lake was China and like the battlefield area, we could see some houses and factories belonging to the other side. It was too cold to camp using our thin tents and a small makeshift guesthouse had closed down. Tom asked a local herder and his wife if we could stay the night in their ger and luckily they obliged. We were also fed a manti each, some mutton bones and steamed pancake thingys with milky tea (no salt! - Eastern Mongolia doesn’t do salt tea - yippeeeee!). We settled down on the floor of the ger for the night with our sleeping bags (apart from one little bed which AJ and Anne bagged!) along with the plenty of camels, horses and dogs outside for company. We had no light only our own candles and torches and it got very chilly and dark (by 7.30pm) - though not tired, all of us were in bed by about 8.30pm to keep warm.

Next day it was another 220 miles / 350 km trek back to Choibalsan where we saw our first fox and wondered in awe about how such landscape could support so much wild-life. This was followed by a delicious Chinese meal at another of Tom’s sister’s restaurants. Our vehicle was wrecked from dirt and sand that had gotten in everywhere - everything was black inside and out, including us. We also had a completely flat tyre - two nails stuck in one tyre which we’d managed to keep afloat on-going through the trip (we had two spares). Our roof rack had completely sheared away from the rear and was lop-sided - Andrew’s new wooden box not helping. The front had already gone previously and already been repaired. The only thing that had spoiled our stay was Tom’s need to try to persuade us to stay in his sister’s hotel - telling us untruths about the agency (Great-Steppes) and our original hotel choice (Chandanguud which was excellent), trying to spoil their reputation in the process. We didn’t like the approach and decided to make a complaint about it. A great shame which had otherwise ruined a very nice time.

All the best for now!

A, A, J and AJ
XXXX

There has been a growing interest in fly fishing among overlanders, or perhaps it’s a growing interest in overlanding among fly fishing enthusiasts; either way there is no doubt that the two compliment one another wonderfully!

So, when Mountain Khakis told us about their latest sweepstakes, a 5-day/4-night fly fishing vacation complete with a resort stay at Squaw Creek in Lake Tahoe, a half day of training and over $3,500 in gear, we had to share it with you.

Registration in the sweepstakes ends on Wednesday, September 1, 2010. Good luck!

http://www.mountainkhakis.com/sweepstakes/enter-sweepstakes/

Here’s some of the cool gear included:

Amid and his family who kept me home in my last days in Iran.

It is a fact. I am now out of Iran. The last few days have been busy with the administrative side of shipping the truck to India. On Tuesday, I was done with it, and I can only thank my now friend Amir who helped me with the customs clearance in Bandar Abbas. (If you need an agent there, Amir[AT]daryadar.com tel.: 0098 917 1603280)

Back in the box. Amir and the customs agent inspect the papers.

When it was done, he brought me to the bus station, and made sure I was all set up for the long trip to Shiraz. He asked the driver of the bus to keep an eye on me and make sure I had somewhere to stay while waiting for my flight, two days later.

Oh yeah, some more papers.

It takes a long time to travel by bus in Iran, as the vehicle is frequently stopped by the police and searched for drug. At 2 a.m., we arrived in Shiraz, and the young guy sitting on my side was officially chosen to take care of me. In the following day, I would stay with his family until I could take-off for India. It was great to spend time at home with Iranians, and I am glad I had this chance before I left. They fed me as if I was a son, which saved me since I didn’t have a penny to my name.

Sleeping outside Amid house.

Amid lives close to Persepolis, so I had a chance to go back there, at night. What an impressive sight. There was a camp of nomads in the hills close to the site, as there always have been for thousand of years.
In the daytime, we ate the delicious cooking of Amid mother, and spend time with his close relatives. On the morning before I left, he cut my hair, and it was a sad moment when we said good-bye at the airport. I wish I would be able to see many people I met in Iran back home, but it is very difficult for people here to get a passport and visas. Maybe – hopefully – a change in the attitude of country leaders would make things easier in the future…

Good bye Iran.

Few hours later, I was in Dubai where I waited many hours to take another flight to Delhi. On Thursday, at 4 a.m., I arrived at destination just in time to see the sun rise on the demented city.

Welcome to Delhi, India.