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Early morning (and painful) wake up for us, but we feel excited at the idea of heading out into the wilderness. Xinthia, the Australian girl I mentioned earlier, was also meant to leave this morning for the Gobi but due to the fact that the girl she was supposed to travel with found herself a boyfriend during the night and wished to remain, she asked to come with us.
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Heading out in the desert with sleepy and snaily

Degrubenc
2005-12-09 13:55:04

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Early morning (and painful) wake up for us, but we feel excited at the idea of heading out into the wilderness. Xinthia, the Australian girl I mentioned earlier, was also meant to leave this morning for the Gobi but due to the fact that the girl she was supposed to travel with found herself a boyfriend during the night and wished to remain, she asked to come with us.

Xinthia (aka: Snaily, in regards to her carrying everything she owns on her back) joined us at the start point at UB guesthouse. We saw three huge army jeeps engulfing their loads of tourists; we were rather keen to get one of those monster jeeps but eventually our car turned up: a battered old Toyota, barely holding itself together. We were informed that all the jeeps were taken and this was the emergency car with the emergency driver. We grudgingly put our bags and kit in the boot and got in. The interior was decorated in a lovely tone of cheap soviet wallpaper with pink roses. Most of the electrics inside the car did not work nor did the fuel gauge (useful when heading out to the desert). The good surprise was

our driver. His name is Jugando but we called him Sleepy: he had a tendency to fall asleep if left alone for 5 minutes. He is a cheerful sort of chap, not speaking a word of English. He is getting ready for the Nadaam, as he is a professional wrestler, I have fun trying to picture him wrestling in his traditional g-string costume.

The 10 hour ride to our destination in this exhausted excuse for a car was one of the most surreal day I ever had. We drove out of Ulan-Bataar passing factory after factory. The more we drove, the more it became clear that Sleepy was a good driver but also an aggressive one. I would rather be in the car than a pedestrian in front of it. After about 15 minutes, we left Ulan-Bataar passing the old Ger camps(http://www.mongolart.mn/grafts_design_costume.html). They have clearly been moved out of the city ...