The rain and wind
continued through the night – Kate and I know this because our beds
were extremely hard and neither of us slept very well. By the
morning, the wind had changed direction, but it was still pretty
chilly, with a few flakes of snow falling. After we had had some
breakfast and paced up, We got everyone together for a group photo
inside the family's ger, handed out a few gifts – mostly Zoe's
surplus clothing - and then said our goodbyes.
We had quite a long
drive today, through sporadically dramatic countryside, following
some pretty wild rivers for much of the way. We eventually arrived in
Terelj National Park and our first 'tourist' homestay, with a couple
who had been set up in business with the help of Panoramic Journeys.
The husband was away
leading a horse trek; his wife served us some milky tea and then
a lunch of wheat-flour noodles and fresh meat. Before and after we
ate, I spent a frustrating time trying to get in touch with Anna in
UB. Our train tickets to Beijing still haven't turned up and we won't
really have any time in UB before we're due to leave to sort
everything out, so we're starting to feel a bit nervous. We got the
message through eventually, however, and Anna is now on the case.
Once that was
sorted, we jumped back into the van for the last time - Nyama and
Tuul are leaving us here and heading back to UB. But we asked them to
give us one last lift – into the town of Terelj, which is reputedly
one of the settlements that has been more developed for tourism. We
set off with visions of backpacker cafes the served Italian coffee
and offered free wi fi. As we drove in, we got a glimpse of the very
expensive, five-star hotel that has recently been built in the town
and then we got to the town itself... oh. We drove through town and
out the other side, and all we could really see that was open was a
few very basic mini markets. After saying an emotional goodbye to
Tuul and Nyama we headed for one of the mini markets and bought some
Coke and few ice creams. Then for something to do, we visited another
one. And then we set off on the seven-kilometre walk back to the
camp. Thankfully it was nice, sunny day, although it was a bit windy
and quite cool.
After a dinner of
rice, veges and meat (with a Chinese soap opera playing on the telly)
Zoe and I went with the wife to see her cows being milked (Sarah
wasn't feeling well, so she and Kate stayed back in the camp). We
were transported nup the hill behind the tourist camp to our host
family's extended family's encampment, where they had a few more gers
and some animal pens, driving up in a 4wd with several other members
of that extended family. They were all rather merry, and at one
point, the wife explained that: 'My sister and mother drink vodka. My
sister, happy birthday to you.'
When we reached the
encampment we discovered that the promised cows were still somewhere
up in the surrounding hills. While we waited for them to arrive, Zoe
and I amused ourselves with a small piece of wood, hunched over
against the bitterly cold wind that was played blowing down off the
hills. Eventually we gave up and walked back down to the ger.
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