terelj revisited

went to terelj on a saturday with the newly arrived batch of volunteers. there were 3 of us old-timers who joined the group. almost the end of summer, yet it was raining the whole night before our departure, and still was until late morning. david, gek and i walked to the office, through the rain and puddles. we reached the office with half-drenched trousers, which is why when we arrived at the ger camp, david and i had to wear improvised blanket skirts as we hang dried our pants by the fire.

with marielle, a dutch volunteer who just came back for a short-term placement. she is a nurse.

with the new volunteers by the river

two women (leslie and gek)

one hour from UB

the ovoo - buddhist practice is to get 3 pieces of stone, walk around it and throw one as u make a wish. recommended to do it 3 times.

volunteer summer conference

it was held in bayan khangai, northeast of the capital. about an hour's drive. the countryside vista of summer was a refreshing sight having stayed in the city during winter and spring. however, swarm of horseflies and other insects welcomed us upon our arrival.

group pic of vols

the big ger was where we had most of our meals

where we spent our sleeping hours

what a sight!

building for the comfort rooms/ballroom/conference hall/bar

after lunch at the ger

lazing out in the sun...

a mongolian child

going back to mongolia

stuck for a while at incheon international airport because of bad weather in ulaanbaatar, i went windowshopping. i got hungry and so went for a bite of tuna sandwich. i was looking at the sunset and saw this guard on the side watching tv. it looked quite nice.


actually while i was in the philippines, i was already looking forward to going back. strange but now i can relate to people who have been out of mongolia and have felt the same.

seoul, south korea

welcoming sunrise in seoul. on the ambulance to the hospital at 6 am. this was after getting stuck in immigration for an hour because my insurance failed to arrange for my visa. anyhow, after so many phone calls by the immigration officer, some browsings on his manual and questioning, he finally gave me an application form for visa. it was a special case he said, and warned me to get a visa next time i visit south korea again. i was allowed to stay for 59 days.

seoul at dusk. the han river which divides seoul into north and south. there are about 26 bridges that crosses the river connecting the north and south sides. the north is the old seoul while south covers the later developments. south seoul was where my hospital was located.

the seoul olympic stadium

typical tenement buildings. usually in clusters.

erdenet

erdenet is a city built around the copper mining industy. it is considered the city next to darkhan and ulaanbaatar. the downtown part is small and clean and the roads go up and down a bit.

a mini version of the UB zaisan tolgoi

downtown park

a view from another side

a mural of lenin on a school building

the outskirts

the nearby hills

going to uvurkhangai for tsagaan sar

a colleague at work offered the trip to me at noontime, thursday before tsagaan sar. tsagaan sar is the mongolian lunar new year and this was happening on the coming sunday. it was like a spur of the moment invitation but having come to know how mongolians plan, that was but natural. i did not agree to it right away but told him i will have to decide after lunch. it seemed a very good chance to visit the countryside down south and see how local folks celebrate their new year, aside from the fact that it was also going to be a free (costless) holiday since i will be riding with them. so i agreed.

we left after 11 in the morning. the city roads were heavy with traffic because everyone seemed to be going out to their hometowns/aimags. we dropped by a grocery store to buy some food for the trip. there were ox tongue, sausage, bread, water and juice. we have brought some milk tea (suuta chai) in the car. it was sunny and cold. there was a light pouring of snow but it did not go on very long.

we had lunch inside the car as we drove through the snow landscape of the countryside. about 66 kilometers outside the capital, and at 1:30 pm when our car engine stopped. we just had a full tank right after the city proper so it must not be the fuel. the battery was working. but the car just won't start again. to call for assistance, my colleague had to walk to the nearby hill to get some signal for his mobile phone. it was getting cold and we tried going inside some gers (it happened that there were some around). i was told that they serve paid meals and truly once inside, we saw them slicing meat. i saw how they get water by bringing in some ice in sacks and thawing them by the stove. they served us milk tea and my colleague seemed to have observed my hesitancy of having one, so he advised me just to sip a bit. we did not stay very long although i must admit it was a lot warmer inside the ger. we went back to the car.

to kill the time, we started playing cards and eating some more. i introduced a card game we used to do in high school during trips: hide one card, distribute the rest and come up with pairs. the one who will end up with no pair loses. we did several rounds. then we dozed off as well.

our 'rescue' came about past 4. tried to fix and decided to tow the car back to the city. it was not very long while going back when the other car started overheating. we just had to stop again. it was colder this time since it was already late afternoon. not soon after my colleague and the mechanics started drinking vodka which we have brought a box of it. i was offered and felt obliged to accept. after three rounds i had to beg off. my legs were freezing cold. i was afraid that instead of the alcohol warming my body, it would eventually make it numb that there would be no way of telling the difference between the cold and alcohol. we started walking outside to have some circulation but to no avail i felt even colder that i have to go back inside the other car. it was getting dark.

there were two cars (my colleague's friend and the repair guys) that came and it was already dark. we immediately transferred to the car taking us back to the city. a lot warmer yet i thought i was beginning to feel the freezing cold from my legs creeping up. i really felt terribly cold.

we left the other guys to tow the other two cars. we started driving back towards ulaanbaatar. after one and a half hours of travel, we arrived. i was back in my apartment. with the warm interiors, it felt so good to be back home. the visit to uverhangai can wait...

2006 in retrospect: first trip to mongolia

i was traveling to mongolia with an older lady volunteer from central philippines. it was her first time to leave the country.

our cathay pacific plane left manila at midday. that was after going through the early traffic congestions in the metropolis, the long cue for the airline check-in counter, and the usual intimidating interrogation of the philippine immigration officers. not so long a trip to look forward to because there were two airport stops before mongolia. i have always preferred several short flights than one for many hours. although this one just so happened because the south korean route was fully booked.

arrived on time at the new HK airport. stayed for a couple of hours at the airport, just wandered around. we flew via dragon air to beijing this time. we were in beijing at 9 pm - it was a late arrival. also, it was a new in-transit system for me - we had to get out of the airport and again get inside it. that meant we had to fill out arrival and departure cards (which were in chinese). by the time we reached the check in counter for ulaanbaatar, it was 1 minute before the flight and nobody was at the counter (closed!). with the aid of a chinese guy, we went to the airline office which was already closed. i did not worry but i was upset to have missed the connecting flight to mongolia. i have never spent a night in china, and had taken only short tours around cities near macau. now the same guy offered a hotel stay nearby. i spoke very little mandarin but was able to understand him and vice versa (with bits of english of course). we were picked up by a van and traveled about 10 minutes. it was past ten o'clock. upon reaching the hotel, i had to call the country manager in mongolia to inform her of our delay and that we will be arriving the next day. it was a relief to have spoken to her and she was very reassuring everything will be fine.

woke up early and had my first bath in china. left the chinese hotel at around 6 am. had tuna sandwich for breakfast at the airport. we boarded a MIAT (mongolian airline) flight for ulaanbaatar. the inflight meal was quite a treat. aside from the generous serving of wine, we were served haagen dazs ice cream for dessert.

as we got nearer to ulaanbaatar, there was this feeling of anticipated excitement in me. i have seen pictures of the landscape and people through the internet but this time, i just cannot wait to see what mongolia is like.

our plane landed at noontime. we had to wait for our luggage and we were the last ones to check out. unfortunately, they were not on our flight so we had to report to the information counter about it. and there we met our welcoming party - a program support officer and the logistics manager/driver who were already worried since it seemed to them everyone on the flight had already gone out and we were nowhere to be seen. a report form was filled out (in cyrillic scripts) for the missing luggage. now we were ready to leave for the city of ulaanbaatar.