London - New Olympic Dicipline

I am at the Olympic Games in London. After almost 6 months in 3rd world countries it could not be more different.

This Olympic Games there seem to be a new dicipline: Buying Tickets. To win Gold you only have to get one. It would be nice to have one. Any ticket would do, any event - just one.

Before you can even check which tickets are available you have to register on the 1990ies looking website which is the easy part. Once you have done that you search for a ticket, unfortunately one dicipline after the other - the marathon starts. If you are lucky and found one then click on the link and wait. If you are lucky again that you got further, select the category and the price.  Most times only the 450+ pound  tickets are available. Then log in and the go though the identification check where you have to re-type some words. Usually once you are at the next step - to pay the tix - the tix which were available before , are gone. Go back to start and repeat the steps described above.

After you have repeated the step above a couple of times (in my case for hours) you might are a lucky one (I haven't so far) and you reach the payment page. Put in your Visa card number. Excuse me? What's about Amex? Mastercard? Paypal?...No no no. The box office exclusively only accepts Visa card as they are a 'partner' of the Games - not a sponsor of course. And believe me, by the time you find somebody with a visa card or even obtained one (which is pretty hard if you travel in places like Mongolia), the tickets you wanted so desperately are gone - again. Go back to start...

Olympic Spirit in London - just not at the ticket box office...

Foodsafari Mongolia - Mutton, Goat or Horse?

If you are vegan, do not go to Mongolia as you will starve to death.

If you are a vego, consider not to go to Mongolia as you will slim down or consider catering for yourself.

If you love fatty meat, no vegos and some fermented and blend and deep fried food, this is your country.

Fact is, Mongolia is not Masterchef's destination of choice. Bottom line is, the land is not very fertile and as the winters are very harsh (-40 degree), everything will die including. The only chicken you will be able to eat is in the capital Ulaanbaatar, otherwise it is your choice of mutton, mutton, goat, goat and if you are lucky horse, beef, marmot or camel meat. Be aware that every part of the animal is being eaten, the skin is used and there is no waste. For the beginner buuz (steamed dumplings filled with meat - either mutton, goat or the better one are with horse meat), huushuur (deep fried flat dumplings filled with mutton or goat) or tsuivan (stir fried noodles with mutton or goat meat) are the way to go. The standard meal is a mutton soup with noodles, no vegos of course, and made from dried meat. The only available veggies are potatoes and if you are lucky a carot.  You get it, it is either meat with noodles, noodles with meat or noodle dough in dumpling form filled with meat. So it will look very different but the taste is consistent. For the more advanced experience go for a boiled sheep head which I could not win any takers over as I wanted to try bits like sheep lips, cheeks, eyes, ears, tongue or brain. The other more advanced meal is called khorhog of a marmot. For that the stomach of the marmot is being removed and the fellow is filled with heating stones and then burned from outside with a torch. As soon as tender it is being sliced and served.

The Mongolians are always concerned about fattining up the animals (and I believe themselves) up for winter so that they can survive the extreme temperatures. The love the real fatty bits which are a little bit hard to chew.

Good Appetite and Welcome to Mongolia. Believe me, after a while you are getting use to the smell of mutton if though you don't believe it.

Ah there is hope, at Khovsgol Lake we had some smoked fish, don't ask me the name, but it was probably the best Mongolian food we had...



buuz - dumplings filled with meat (photo: internet)



huushuur - Flat deep fried 'dumplings' filled with meat (photo: internet)

tsuivan - noodles with meat (mutton)

tsuivan - the fatty bits are the best (say the Mongols) as it will
fatten you up for Winter so you survive

Gourmet tsuivan - noodles with mutton and as a treat
potatoes and carots



Only available in gourmet restaurants in bigger cities:
noodles, rice, carots, cabbage, sausages (from can and
deep fried) and topped with an egg - what a feast



Horse meat is really good, similar to beef.



This one came as a veggie soup. Well it turned out
that the soup had meat (mutton) in and the veggies were
pretty standard: potatoes and carots



Our own feast prepared by our guide Sarah: goat meat with
veggies: potatoes and carots

Desert as a present from the nomads family: fermented chees
and something we were not sure of.



khorhog of a marmot - filled with hot stones and then burned
with a gas burner until it is cooked - yummie

Boiled sheep head - The best bits are the lips and cheeks, maybe the eyeballs...
(photo: internet as I couldn't photograph it...)

Our favorite meal: local smoked fish from Lake Khovsgol

Ulaanbaatar - Pickpocket Capital of the World

I am at the (in)famous Naral Tuul Black Market. Well it is not primary a market for illegal goods but more for new ones. I have been warned several times before, do not take anything as you will loose it. So, I leave my camera and my cards at home and put some play money in my pockets. One bill worth only a couple of cents sticks out in my back left pocket to distract the thieves from my bigger bills in the front pockets. Lets see what will happen...

Naral Tuul Black Market.

 Photo: internet - as I did not want my camera to be stolen...

Ok, I am on the road for more than 5 months now and - touch wood - nothing has been stolen from me. I wondered through insanely busy streets in Bangladesh, walked in the deep night by myself through Mumbai and had some too many drinks in some rough and seedy bars in Kathmandu or Bangkok and never felt unsafe. Until I came to Ulaanbaatar. At Nadaam Festival somebody tried to open my pocket and slide his hand in and today I heard from the 5th tourist that his bag or pocket has been made lighter or at least attempted to. Pickpockets and also some more violent crime has increased recently in Ulaanbaatar. I had a couple of bigger nights in UB's famous nightlife and walked home - admittingly slight intoxicated - and was watched carefully from a lot of suspicious eyes. Did I just get away or did they know that in the night I only carry the money arround which I am going to spend? Tourist are a prime target as they usually carry a neat array of gadgets, cameras and money out for display in public. Today I walked along Peace Avenue which is the main strip of pickpocketing and I saw a tough woman beat up a potential thief - Good on her! Sadly nobody in the crowd helped her.  Wait a second, thieves usually operate in groups of three. Two district from the front with a fall or a fight (you get it?) and the third one strikes from the back. Before of course they have followed you and figured out where your fat wallet is located.

Back to the market. My sensors are on 120% - where are you you little mean thieves? Maybe the guy who pushed through and touched my arm? Or the young lady who cut the corner running 'coincidential' into me? It is Sunday and the books warn as it is the busiest day of the week to go. I don't really think there were a lot of people but maybe there were enough to pick my pockets? After a couple of hours we are leaving the market exhausted from being alert and from walking the miles of shops. I slowly slide my hand in my back pocket and it is: empty. A slight shiver over my arms, I haven't felt anything. Ah wait a second, this was my right pocket. My left pocket still has my little attractor for the thieves - maybe it wasn't enough to get them hooked...

Mongolia - The North - Khovsgol Lake

After some incredible scenery around the Khorgo Volcano we are heading further North towards Khovsgol Lake. We realise that it is getting more touristy as soon as we hit the lake and see some of the reindeer herdsmen posing for some local tourist's cameras - for money of course. The reindeer actually need higher terrain however sadly the herdsmen figured out that posing generates more money than following their traditional way of life.

After a steep descend the road hits Lake Khovsgol which contains 1% of the world's fresh water supply and 65% of Mongolia's fresh water reserves. It is crystal clear and icy cold, in winter a one meter thick layer of ice covers the lake and only in 90ties oil trucks were forbidden to cross the frozen lake to Siberia after some ended inside the lake.

It is our last major stop of our journey and we finish it off with two days on horse's back. Horses are the only mean of transport once the road ends even though my bottom (still) doesn't agree. The smiles in the faces of the others show me how ridiculous my trotting skills on the horse are...how on earth can I adjust to the rhythm of the horse without crushing my favourite bits? Anyway a slight painful experience but at the end, Gobi II (my horse) did much more what I wanted him to do than not. Until the lightning started and he got slightly scared...

From the lake it is another 3 days of driving back to Ulaanbaatar to conclude our more than 3000km or dirt roads and potholes. On the way back we spend a night in a 'fancy' Soviet style hotel in Erdenet. The city is only existent as one of the biggest mines of Mongolia found its home here. And that's also why we can follow the only sealed road all the way to Ulaanbaatar. Thank you guys for a great trip.
more images here

Tsaatsan Reindeer Herdsmen - Photo: internet

Lake Khovsgol and our horses around our tent site - prime pristine waterfront.

Mongolian horse seats

Not the most comfortable seat for our horseman,
ours had more padding and no metal plaques - thanks for that!

Our horseman on the left - done for the day.

Horse's paradise if you know what you are doing - Lake Khovsgol

Only flying can be better than riding horses here.

Biggest office work place in the world - might get a little bit
chilly in winter. The national park fee collector. 

Final stop before Ulaanbaatar: Edernet with...

...Soviet style housing...

...hotels and...

...more housing for all the mine workers...

Mongolia - Central

After leaving the Gobi, we are heading North towards the Central part of Mongolia. The landscape becomes more hilly, green and we can feel during the night that we are going up a little - the Himalayas sleeping bag pays out again. An overnight stop at a family ger with fresh horse milk and some unidentified others eatables gives us the smell of horses, so it is time to ride the famous (half) wild Mongolian horses. And it is later at Terkhiin lake that the horse guide gives me a horse, helps we onto it and let me go - excuse me how do I go forward or left and right? What's about start and stop? Basically the horse - I call it Gobi - is doing what it wants. The guides just smile and don't necessary understand that I haven't grown up with horses. What did they say: "Show the horse who is the boss..." ? Just yell "Shuu" and hit the poor horse hard with your heals and it should move. Easily said so the first hours turn out to be quite exciting - hmmm or more nerve wracking?

Anyway, my bottom realises quickly that it is not used to a Mongolian horse seat, well to be honest not used to any seat except my bike seat at home...(to be cont.)

Before we actually reach the lake and the volcano, we drive past one of the biggest monasteries of the country, Erdene Zuu. Unfortunately with the arrival of the communists in 1930, the monasteries in the country were all destroyed and the monks were either killed or deported and only with the indepence in 1990 they are slowly coming back to life.

more images here

Take a horse (female preferred) and pair it with it newborn and...

...you get fresh milk.

Granddad is watching carefully after the horses.

Erdene Zuu, Kharkhorin

Ladies day in the monastery

Boys, sure you want to touch the fellow,
he might just have your fingers as an appetizer.

Russia 1 : Germany 0

Russia 2 : Germany 0 (watch the water coming out of the door)

Once somebody get stuck, everybody stops - Russia 4 : Japan 0

The winner is a Russian van - ours of course.

End of the life in sight...

...and over for this ones just to end...

...here with the ladies in the blue uniforms.

View from our next camp site - nobody there.

And finally we arrive at...

...our ger at...

...Terkhin Tsagaan lake. Horses are waiting to... 

...take us to the volcano - if they would just go where we want to go.

Khorgo volcano