We had a good few weeks with the girls but it was time for them to go back to work - unlucky! We said our farewells at the airport then headed back into town.
We collected a parcel from the TNT office. An exhaust downpipe, front indicator, side lamp and number plate light. All of which fell out or broke on the crap Mongolian roads. The van took a fair beating in Mongolia. Thanks Baker, Whitey and my parents for getting the bits out to us.
Our priorities for the next few days was to get the van fixed and have a send off party for Mongolia. We met up with Sanchir, Arry, Jaruu and others and had some beers at their summer house. The next morning we fitted all the parts to the van which went well.
We received an email from our Chinese tour agent saying that Tibet have clamped down on issuing permits to foreigners and the road from Tibet to Kathmandu is closed due to a landslide. So at this point we still don't know where we are going after China. The original plan is Nepal then India but plan b is Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia then ship van to Australia, sell it and fly home. Not a bad second option! We will find out on September 15th.
We left a few days to get to the Chinese border, in case of bad roads or van problems. It turned out the road was one of the best in Mongolia. We got near the border with time to spare. The drive down was awesome. Driving through the Gobi with next to no other cars, amazing views of nothingness as far as you could see and the odd camel plodding across the road.
Dunny received the sad news that his Grandfather passed away. We dropped all plans. We bought a load of beer and a litre of Mongolians finist Chinggis Khan Gold vodka and headed to the Gobi for a wake. We found a remote spot in the desert and parked the van up. Out came some fancy dress outfits and the three of us had a party for Ken... to Ken.
We woke up with sore heads and all went for a turn out in the desert. I shouted over to the lads, 'come over here and see this, it's genuinely worth a look'. They walked over a bit confused. There were two dung beetles rolling in my dump. They crash landed next to me shortly after crimping off and began rolling it into balls. We watched fascinated for 20 minutes, Stew and Dunny both did the same and without fail two more dung beetles arrived! Interesting stuff!
We tidied up from the night before and drove to the border.
Mongolia has been brilliant, never seen so much of nothing before, which was what made it so good. Rolling hills, desert, mountains, lakes, volcano and loads of people still living in Gers with a nomadic lifestyle. It's the most sparsely populated country in the world, 3 million inhabitants (1.5 million live in the capital) in a country 6 times the size of the UK. Loads of wildlife, eagles flying overhead, vultures covering hillsides and we road horses and camels. We met loads of nice people who we stayed in contact with during the 7 weeks we were there. Thanks Mongolia you have been good!
Bring on China!
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