Travels with Kathryn

Its 6.50am and I am at the airport. I am tired. 5.15am alarm, my final (cold) Mongolian shower and a 6am taxi to the airport.

Very quick to check in (as opposed to the people in front of us in the queue), straight through security, and then in search of breakfast. Ulaanbaatar airport is tiny – there are six gates, a handful of shops, and one cafe where a panini was purchased for breakfast (and perfectly pleasant, it was too, but not worth photographing).

We boarded as some of the last people on the plane to see whether our attempts to have an empty middle seat (the plane configuration is 3:3:3) between us worked. It did! We are luxuriating in the extra space.

I need to work out what time it is and how to best attempt to nap or not nap. The flight departed at 10am local time, which is 2am London time. We will land it in London at 4.20pm local time, which is 12.20am. I will be tired. So far, I am working my way through America’s Sweethearts on Netflix (its the same films as on the way out), and I have even done a bit of my cross stitch so it was not a complete waste of time carrying it around with me on this trip.

I can also use this time to reflect on my trip to Mongolia. I would absolutely recommend it to people, and say that you must come duing Nadaam. You must. As I have written before, I had thought Mongolia would feel like Central Asia or China in terms of culture, tradition, architecture, etc. However, it really is a whole place of its own. Mongolians are fiercly proud of their history and culture (Chinggis Khan is an almost God like figure) and they have really retained them, probably in the same way that it is one of the only countries in the world which still has a decent proprtion of its population continuing to live as nomads. Continuing to live in gers etc. At the same time, it is not a difficult place to travel – there is a set tourist route south into the Gobi and the tourist gers are basically hotels just with shared bathrooms. There is a level of “roughing it” (the Mongolians are not ones for many tarmac roads) in terms of long travel days, cold showers, and relatively repetitive food. However, it is far easier travelling than other parts of Central Asia, and the scenery makes the long drives worth it (as do the Russian Vans) as it can change dramatically even in the same day of driving. 

5 hours to go…

I have now finished the series and am currently watching The Bodyguard (MIAT have not updated their films since the flight over, and there was not much choice to begin with). We were served a perfectly nice meal of beef stew, rice, mashed potato, and a single slice of courgete. Interesting. No ice cream (which made me sad) and instead carrot cake which Colette ate. There was then enforced nap time even though it was not sleep time in either our departure or destination location. Colette and I were shushed for talking. It is now just 1.5hr before landing and we were provided with what I think was meant to be breakfast – an incredibly dry brown bread roll, three slices of chicken, a cheese slice, gerkins and a few bits of lettuce. Odd. Very odd.

Incidentally, the winner of the Nadaam wrestling was a young man named Orkhonbayan Bayarsaikhan which our guide was thrilled about as he is her favouriite and from where she is from. He wins: 1 billion MNT (about £200k) and a Lexus LX600.

We landed into Frankfurt just 10 minutes later than scheduled, and had three hours before our flight to London to make our connection. This felt quite leisurely for me even if we had to change trains twice (to get from terminal 3 to terminal 2, and then from terminal 2 to terminal 1). We also walked miles. However, we are now in what is called the “leisure zone” and I am in a reclining chair eating my bag of chicken and salted egg yolk flavoured crisps (a popular flavour in Mongolia). It is delightful.

Just before 3pm we headed off to our gate, only to find out that our gate had changed, and it was actually really closely to where we had been sitting. Oh well. On arrival at gate the Lufthansa staff DEMANDED to see everyone’s passports and then filled in a piece of paper with nationalities, or a line through if we were UK. I am not sure why Lufthansa is doing this when its evidently a border control issue. They were also asking pretty invasive questions as to what people were going to be doing in the UK and also asking to see a man’s German residency permits. All rather dodgy in my view.

It is now 10 minutes after take off, and I am sitting on the plane again with the middle seat free which is excellent. What would be more excellent is if the plane was actually moving whereas apparently we have to wait for two planes to pass behind us. I am kind of ready to be home now at is now 10.10pm Mongolian time.

It really was not a long flight and it was not before we landed into a hot and evidently parched Heathrow

We were quickly through security, and it is always exciting to see one’s bag on the baggage carousel. It was then time to say goodbye to Colette – she has been an excellent roommate throughout, and it feels odd to go off by myself. I hope she feels the same and would be up for another trip at some point? We will endeavour to actually meet up in London (where we both live), and she has promised to try and organise a London meet-up of her “approved” travel people to exchange knowledge/are nice people. I hope I make the cut…

Onto the Lizzie line,  which is marvelous – it is air conditioned, goes directly to Stratford, and I was home by 6.20pm. Slightly disappointed that the cleaner I had booked failed to arrive (apparently I was “missed” and they’ll come in later this week). But I have now mostly unpacked, had a shower and I am about to go to sleep. It is 3.30am Mongolian time and I have been awake for over 22 hours. I need my sleep before going back to work tomorrow. It does have to be done.

But yes, a fantastic trip and I highly recommend Mongolia. So, for anyone planning a trip to Mongolia, I have started a list of things I would recommend packing/doing:

• Colettes’ folding chair idea – once you leave Ulaanbaatar and drive south, you will stop off at a big supermarket (probably a Carre Four) and you should buy a folding chair and put it in the back of your Russian van. Ger’s always have nice beds, and there will be stools, but it would be great to have some back support. It also means that you can sit outside your ger being the envy of the rest of your tourist camp.
• A mirror – only one ger had a mirror, and whilst the communal bathrooms will (of course) have mirrors, having your own one means that you can more easily do your hair/make-up/whatever in your ger.
• Laundry – because we moved every day, there were more limited opportunities to get laundry done, and the prices varied widely. This is where the scrubba bag comes into its own and I now consider it to be essential along with laundry detergent sheets, a washing line, and a couple of foldable coat hangers.
• A power bank and multi/extension blocks- there is usually one plug in the ger, and everyone will have multiple things to charge. Colette and I both had plugs to charge multiple USBs and thus were able to keep everything charged, and also keep our power banks charged for nights when we did not have 24 hour electricity. However, a multi-block or longer cable would have come in useful.
• A wet bag – because you will be using a shower block, it is helpful to bring a separate waterproof bag to put what you need in it (shampoo etc) and take into the showers. As I have previously written, for shared room scenarios I am an absolute advocate of the two toiletry bags – one for in the bathroom, and then a seperate one to then free up the bathrom for someone else to use.
• Always ask when/if hot water will be available – many of the tourist gers rely on solar power (which is great), but it means that there may only be limited hot water or it may only be available between certain times. Not every ger has hot water, but when there is an opportunity, you will want to make sure that you are on it. I can still fantasise about the amazing hot/powerful shower I had in Kharakorum.
• Clothes – I could probably chucked a pair of shorts in as Mongolia is not a conservative country, and they are used to tourists in your sort of camping/hiking ensembles. However, even in summer, the weather can be incredibly changeable – high 30s all the way down to 3 degrees, really dry and also torrential rain. You will need options.

In terms of what you do not need, although you are in gers, the tourist gers are effectively hotels. The bathrooms are spotless – towels, shower flip flops, and toilet paper will always be provided. Family gers are different. and you may, like us, not even have a toilet. Be prepared.

Now, to sleep.