A very long drive

I thought it would be a great idea to catch a ride with Bolor and her crew from the Gobi back to UB (the capital city of Mongolia).

Unfortunately, it took two days to do the drive and we were on some of the WORST roads I've been on in Mongolia. I whacked my head against the car window a few times while dozing off. I also had stomach problems, which made the drive even more pleasant.

On the way back, we stayed overnight in a small town. To my delight, the local community hall was hosting a concert. We went. It was pretty interesting. I was told they were singing traditional Mongolian songs. But the music was cranked so high, that it kind of reminded me of karaoke.

Oh and get this. As we were driving into UB (and literally FIVE minutes from my hotel), our van died in the middle of rush-hour traffic. We had to call a cab. It was my first breakdown in a Mongolian vehicle (which is amazing – because it happens all the time). MAN I was glad it happened in the city and not on some rural road in the middle of nowhere.

Kids in the Gobi

I'm recording a workshop on dinosaur fossils that Bolor (Mongolian paleontologist) is doing with 32 children from four different towns (called “soums") in the Gobi Desert. This is a first for Mongolia. The country has an extremely rich dinosaur fossil record, but the kids here don't learn about any of it in school.

The kids in this workshop range from ages from 7 to 15. But they all look way younger than they actually are -- at least compared to the monster-sized children in Canada. I met an eight-year old girl today who looked about five. The children are beautiful. Skin browned from the Gobi sun, freckles and round faces. They smile at me eachtime I look their way. They are so excited to be part of the workshop and are participating 100 per cent. They’re very well-behaved, listening intently and doing exactly as they are told. I feel really lucky to be a part of all this.

Day One (September 7): The workshop is held in the classroom and the kids are getting a basic introduction to dinosaurs (many think dinosaurs had red eyes and breath fire). Bolor has brought Molly Ward with her to Mongolia from the Museum of the Rockies in Montana. Molly is an educator. We’re also sharing a “ger.” Molly helps everyday people (like these kids and me) understand the work scientists and researchers do. She helps make science simple.

Day Two (September 8): Field Trip! We went to a fossil locality and the kids ran wild on the sand dunes. Then they got to “prospect” for fossils.

Day Three (September 9): I helped Molly, Baska and Bolor make “mini-dig sites” for each kid. Basically, it’s sand (from the Gobi) and plaster mixed a put in a paper bowl. Then we hid one tiny fossil and a plastic dinosaur in the mixture. Now that it’s hardened, the kids have to “excavate” their mini-dig site using dental tools (for delicately scraping the plastic specimen) and toothbrushes (for sweeping). Once the workshop is over, the kids and teachers presented us with gifts (handmade, sheep-felt purses…with money in them!) and candy. Then we headed on a hike up a beautiful mountain where we spotted a mountain goat, a poisonous snake and 3000-year old rock paintings.

I just rode on the back of a dirtbike...

to get to the one and only computer that has internet in Bulgan.

Bulgan is a small town in the Gobi that I was dropped off at this morning (this is DAY EIGHT in the Gobi for me). My guide flew back to UB today and I am supposed to meet Bolor, the Mongolian paleontologist, here in Bulgan at some point today. She's driving from UB and there's no saying when she'll arrive. But she has to be here today because she's teaching a course on dinosaur fossils to nomadic children tomorrow morning! That is why I am here, to record her work with the kids.

Bolor told me were staying in a hotel. Hotel is the wrong description. It's really just a few gers in a local family’s backyard. ("gers" are what we know as "yurts" in Canada...but you are not suppossed to call them that in Mongolia because that's the Russian word and the Mongolians don't really love the Russian...that whole Soviet-rule thing). I call it HOTEL GER. And for $8 US/day for a bed and three meals, I’m not complaining. Except that the outhouse smells like death. I hold my breath when I go it and when I come out, I can still smell the stench all over me. Gag.

The ger is pretty spacious. Actually, I just did yoga in it.

After I was shown to my ger, the father of the house – Poli – showed me his gorgeous greenhouse. Bulgan is known in the Gobi for its vegetables. A stream flows through the town and locals use this precious water to irrigate their fields. Poli gave me a bowl of his plump red and orange cherry tomatoes to snack on. I think they were better than the ones I plucked off the vine in Italy! Poli also grows cucumber, melon, watermelon, onion, carrot and potato.

Now back to "how I ended up on the back of a dirtbike..."

Mono (a pretty woman in her mid-20's and the Park Ranger for the area) saw me typing on my laptop outside my ger and introduced herself. She seemed to know who I was and why I am here, though she spoke very little English. She asked me if she could "help me" and I said..."internet?" Next thing I know I am riding on the back of her dirtbike through the village finding the guy who has the key to open the one and only internet cafe in Bulgan. I spent the afternoon catching up on emails (via an uber-slow dial-up connection).

Around 4:00 p.m. I went back to HOTEL GER. An hour later, Bolor and her crew showed up. I felt relieved. I met Molly, an educator with the Museum of the Rockies in Montana. She would be my roomate and English-speaking companion for the next week. We got along famously right away. Also with Bolor was "Baska", her grad student. Baska is doing her master's in paleontology. She speaks English also, which is great. Then there is her driver "Bimba" and a camera-man from Mongolian Education Television, named "Hootlay".

A day of luxury

** Gobi Desert - Day Seven **

The next morning, the weather has turned. It’s FREEZING. Plus, the wind is blowing. We boil some water for tea and each eat an instant noodle bowl. I’ve eaten a lot of instant noodle bowls in Mongolia.
After six nights camping, I decide to splurge and spend the night at a luxury ger camp. It’s run by Nomadic Expeditions, which is the same company that set up my trip for me. It’s called Three Camel Lodge and it’s pure beauty. Stone walkways, ELECTRICITY, warn showers, delicious four-course meals and immaculate gers decorated with beautiful orange wood furniture (and some have private toilets and showers, but I opted for the most basic and cheapest lodging for a mere $80 US/night). There was a coal and wood burning stove in my ger. I could finally go to bed without wearing my smartwool 'cause I was toasty warm! I hear Julia Roberts stayed there too. But maybe that's just a rumour...

Flaming Cliffs

More photos of the most famous rock formations in the Gobi Desert.

Today, I am a tourist

** Gobi Desert - Day Six **

We had camped in a beautiful meadow the night before that was 100 per cent fly-free (I forgot to mention the insane amount of flies in Bugin Tsav that never stopped buzzing around my face and ears…ahhhhh!). I could have stayed in our fly-free meadow for a few nights, but we had to keep going Azaa had a flight to catch out of Dalanzadgad on September 6.

Today, I get to be a tourist. We first drove to the sand dunes (and I know I’ve talked about sand dunes already, but these ones were REALLY big and looked like the ones you see in photos of Egypt and the middle-east). I ran up and down one for a bit, but not long because the wind was really blowing and I got sand in my eyes and in my mouth. We stop at one of the tourist camps for lunch and to re-charge the battery on my camera, which is dead. I have snapped over 100 photos since I arrived in Mongolia. At lunch, I am told that the price for lunch is as follows:

$5 US for Mongolians
$10 US for Tourists

So I paid double the price for my lunch (even though I was paying for everyone anyways, because that’s the rule when you hire a guide/driver … you have to pay for all their meals while they are working for you).

Regardless, the meal was great (three courses) and I got to take a shower at the camp and power up my camera. After that, I released my second driver and vehicle because we were no longer in a remote area and were safe to rely on one car since there was plenty of traffic on the roads.

Then we drove to the “Flaming Cliffs,” a beautiful red rock mountain range smack in the middle of flatness. This is where the first dinosaur eggs were discovered in the 1920’s.

The sun is out and the cliffs look especially red. I snap some shots of the view and get a few great photos where you can see my tiny shadow on the red rock across the gorge.

I bought a few “miniature hand-made felt gers” for gifts for people back home. When you open them up, there are tiny felt beds inside! Then Azaa and I walked down into the cliffs with a local guide. He was dressed in traditional Mongolian threads – a long red shirt, his head wrapped in a turbab, puffy pants and embroidered leather boots that had an “elf toe” on them. Half-way down the walk, he dug up a paint brush from the sand. Then we walked over to another patch of sand and he started sweeping the dirt away. Beneath it – NINE fossilized dinosaur eggs! He had discovered them last spring, after a heavy rain. The water had eroded the sand on some parts of the ground and made the eggs visible. I snapped some photos of the Mongolian and his fossil discovery. Then he told my guide that he wanted 2000 turgegs from me. That’s the equivalent of US $1.50. Apparently, he was making a good living off showing tourists his dinosaur eggs! I paid him and we left.

We camp in another nice spot that evening, shielded by some low cliffs. That’s a good thing because the wind really starts to pick up. We play cards until the sun sets and I sleep well that night.

Recovery

** Gobi Desert - Day Five **

Azaa is hung-over. She says she drank too much red wine at my birthday last night. I don’t share her pain, except that I found a giant scratch on my leg – from my knee to my ankle. I assume I got it when I tripped over a prickly bush the night before. Ah yes, I was racing from my tent to go pee. We tend to go anywhere, but I had a spot at the top of a nearby sand dune. I really had to pee so I probably wasn’t looking where I was going when I slashed the side of my leg.

Back to Azaa’s hangover. I hand her a pill. It’s the magical “Advil Extra Strength Gel Cap” … fast-acting relief for hangovers. She looks relieved. I tell her she should eat something greasy. We fry up the stale bread in some olive oil and also some of the smoked sausages. Tastes just like fried salami and rye bread if I close my eyes and pretend.

We pack up, say our goodbyes and begin the drive back to the more populated part of the Gobi from which we started. Bugin Tsav’s bumpy terrain, along with the smoked sausage (which I was sure had run its course), made my stomach start to churn. I got them to pull over. I found a bush and got a bit sick. Then came back and lay in the back of the truck. Azaa and the drivers make lunch and insist I eat a noodle bowl. I didn’t really feel like eating anything, but did as I was told. Soon I felt better and we drove on. We saw these nomads en route. Their motorcycle had broken down and we stopped to help them. They posed for me! I love the sky in the background of this photo. It perfectly depicts the "big sky" feel of the Gobi. Makes me feel really small.


I was really tired that day. Just kept dozing off. Energy was low. I had forgotten that it was my birthday until at dinnertime, when Azaa pulled out a bottle of vodka. She says it will help clear my system and make me feel better. I guess I still looked pale. We drink it with peach juice as we watch the orange sun fade away.

Birthday in the Gobi

** Gobi Desert - Day Four **

Today was the best day in the Gobi. Why? Because the weather was PERFECT. No wind and the sun was blocked out by a thick coating of clouds, which really cooled down the temperature. The camera crew left this morning, so I had Phil and Eva all to myself now. We headed over to the big quarry where a big excavation was going on. Some dinosaur that was as large as T-Rex but had way longer arms and legs and huge claws. The strange thing is, this dinosaur has “leaf-shaped” teeth, meaning it was most likely a vegetarian. Phil says it’s long arm and long claws may have been used to quickly scoop up ant hills. He says it's one of the weirdest dinosaurs he's ever come across.

Mid-day, the memory card for my digital tape recorder told me it was full, so we had to go back to the campsite to get another one. We went back, had lunch, played some cards and returned to the dig site around 4:00 p.m. for about an hour more of interviewing Phil, Eva and the sound effects.

Then we headed home and got ready for my birthday party! My birthday is September 3, but I was leaving that day, so the paleontologist decided to throw me a party tonight (September 2). Before we leave, Azaa gives me a bottle of red wine. She says she and the drivers bought it for me for my birthday. I couldn’t believe their generosity. These are people who make less than $40 US/day, and here they were buying me – a rich Canadian – a bottle of wine. Mongolians truly are generous people.

We walked up to the main campsite and I was in shock. The paleontologists had lined up about five picnic tables in the sand dunes and piled them with food (YUMMY food...potatoes, rice, fresh tomatoes and cucumber and KOREAN BBQ meat -- this is because the expedition was a joint venture between Mongolian-Korean-American and Canadian paleontologists). Everyone at the camp was there (Mongolian drivers, guides and cooks too) and the booze was flowing all night.

They also stacked up these curly twigs that grow in the area and lit them on fire. A big bonfire! If you were looking at us from the distance, all you'd see is one huge glowing orb in the dark Gobi night.

However, I doubt anyone saw us. We were in a VERY remote region (even nomads don't live there because the nearest well is 100km away). To be so alone but surrounded by 30 people eating, laughing, wrestling (yes, some of the Mongols showed off their skillz) -- it was surreal.

Then they cranked the music on one of the trucks and I broke out some of my West-African dance moves. Yes, I was a bit tipsy but didn't have a hangover the next morning! I did, however, get a very long scrape on my leg -- from my knee to my ankle -- racing from my tent up a sand dune in the middle of the night to go pee. I couldn't see where I was going and I REALLY had pee after drinking all night and well, I guess I tripped one of the ten-thousand prickly bushes in the area. I didn't even notice the scratch until the next morning.

So that was my birthday. I turned 29-years old in the Gobi Desert. A birthday I'll never forget.

Mongolian Card Games

** Gobi Desert - Day Three **

The next morning, I met Phil and Eva in the main camp area with Azaa and Mongol and we drove to one of the sites they were working on. They were reconstructing the crest of a duck-billed dinosaur. It had been smashed to pieces when some fossil poachers vandalized the site. It was a very hot and windy day, too windy for me to record most of the time. But that’s the Gobi for you. Big wind. In fact, the wind is so strong that it has smoothed out most of the pebbles in the area. I collected a few of them. When the wind did finally settle down, I recorded Phil for about an hour, but for the most part, I spent the day exploring the beautiful area by foot. I found a sheep’s skull and leg, but no big fossils.

Also, the British camera crew was doing its last day of filming and trying to its final shots, so I left the dig site around noon with Azaa and Mongol to go back to our campsite. We had lunch and then they taught me a Mongolian card game. Once I got the hang of it I was addicted. I felt this card game was something that bonded me with the two drivers who didn’t speak English. Luckily, you don’t have to know the same language to play a card game.

Between 5:00 - 6:00 p.m., all the paleontologists began to return from their various dig site. I went to greet them and ended up being offered an ice-cold beer (score!). Then I went into the big “meal” tent to chat with Phil. I noticed something scurrying around. At first, I thought it was a giant rat and jumped onto my chair and yelled to Phil, “What the fuck is that!” He walked over to it to take a closer look and said, “WOW, it’s a hedgehog!” He ran outside and called all the other paleontologists inside to have a look. They all went crazy and one of them touched the hedgehog and it curled up into a ball. Just like I’d seen in cartoons! I was so awesome to see one live and I gently touched its needles. Unfortunately, my camera was not around to capture all the action!

How to use a GPS in the Gobi Desert

** Gobi Desert - Day Two **

The next morning, we on the road by nine. I kept dosing off in the truck, but would get jerked awake every few minutes by a bump in the road. I forgot to mention that there are no paved roads in the Gobi. Just barely-there tracks in the dirt. So, while it was only a 500km drive to Bugin Tsav, it took us two days and 14 hours to drive that distance. Apparently, we did it in record time. It can sometimes take three days to get where we needed to go. But Mongol is a Nascar driver. He goes fast but knows when to slow down and navigate around the tough bits of road. I felt lucky to have him because he’s an extremely skilled driver who knows the Gobi inside out. You would not want to be driving out here with just anyone. The tracks are not that defined and it would be easy to get lost in the great desert abyss.

That said, we did have to stop to talk to a nomadic herder to find out what was the best road to take to Bugin Tsav. Bugin Tsav is a huge area and there is a main road (a.k.a. deeper track marks in the dirt) -- it went too far south of where we wanted to end up. Had we had taken the main road, it would have added an extra 100kms to our day. The nomad drew us a map (which looked like cave etchings to me). But Mongel could read it and that was all that mattered. We made it to the Bugin Tsav area by 3pm that day. But, where were the paleontologists? This was the only time I got stressed out during my trip in the Gobi. Azaa pulls out the GPS she borrowed from Nomadic Expeditions (that’s the company that helped me organize this trip). Then she hands it to me and says, “Do you know how to use this? Because I don’t.”

Shit.

I’ve only used the GPS on my iPhone, which is dummy-proof. This gadget was way more advanced. It had a zillion different options – like “geological landmarks” and “historical sites.” All I wanted to do was plug in the co-ordinates of the site the paleontologists had sent me. And the little fucker wouldn’t let me do it. My basic request was too simplistic for this piece of shitty technology.

I did, however, manage to find the “Where am I?” button, which told us where we were. That was good because we realized we were not that far from the site. Or so we thought. After 30 minutes of driving west and me fiddling with the piece-of-shit GPS, I found an arrow that I could manually move around the map on the GPS. As I moved it, the co-ordinates on the map would change. I moved the arrow to the spot where we wanted to go, locked it in and created a route from where we were. Thank god.

We were about point-eight degrees east and a few degrees south of where were wanted to go. But we soon realized that was a 40 mile drive (yes the GPS mapped in miles – fucker!). 40 miles = two hours when you are trying to veer around sand dunes, hills and hoodoos. Bugin Tsav was the most treacherous drive of the entire trip. At this point, I think the heat was getting to me and my neck was starting to hurt from being whip-lashed around in the backseat of truck (Azaa and I took turns sitting in the front seat. So I was only car-sick half the time).

I got tired of holding the GPS and being the backseat driver, so I handed it over to Azaa who took charge. After an hour, I was pretty sure we’d never find the site and I’d be lost in Bugin Tsav forever. This is because each time we crested a hill, the landscape looked exactly the same: remote and not a single tent in site. I must have dozed off for a bit, because when we woke up, I was looking at a camp site! A huge wave of relief swept over me. Orange, yellow, red and green tents spotted the mountain in front of us. We pulled up next to a giant army truck (which is used to transport the heavy fossils). We stepped out and a bunch of Mongolians greeted us. I think I hugged one. They ushered us into a big tent where they ate all their meals, and fed us wagon wheels and tea. But the best part was when someone handed me an ICE COLD coke. That right. They had a fridge – and electricity – at this camp. They had brought generators to power the tools the paleontologists used to remove fossils from hard rock. I was in heaven. A cold coke on the hottest, dustiest day of my life. And it was in a can. You all know how I feel about canned coke. Absolute bliss.

Phil and Eva were still out digging, so I waited inside the big tent with my tape recorder close by. I wanted to catch the moment on tape when we first met. I heard some trucks motoring in the distance. I ran outside to see a 4-man camera crew jump out of the truck. They were from London, England and doing a story about “dinosaur gangs” – Phil Currie’s theory that T-Rex actually hunted in large groups, or gangs, and was not a solo fighter (which is the current and long-standing belief).

Not long after, a green van pulled up the mountain and out came Phillip and Eva. When they saw me, their eyes lit up. Eva said, “Oh my god, you made it!” Apparently, they all didn’t think I’d make it by August 31. Like I said, we made good time -- all thanks to Mongol! Some of the other paleontologist (from the US) told me I was "really brave" to have come all the way out here on my own. No kidding. We set up our yellow North Face tents and went to bed early. It had been a LONG day.

Gobi Desert - Day One

It’s 3:30 in the morning. Thank god I am still jetlag. My taxi driver helped me carry my garbage bag full of comfort food and one very heavy backpack (containing very few clothes but a laptop and 40 double A batteries for my power-sucking radio equipment) down the three flights of stairs to the ground floor of the apartment building where my hostel is located. The driver then drove over a curb and a sidewalk, then through teeth-gritting narrow alleyways to pick up my guide, Azaa. She is a warm and friendly English teacher during the year and a Gobi tour guide in the summer. We made small-talk as we proceeded to the airport. At the airport, Azaa took my passport and got us our boarding passes for the domestic flight we were about to board to Dalazadgad. I was charged about $20 US for my over-weight baggage (the limit is 20kg…that’s 15kg for checked luggage and 5kg for carry-on). They have to very careful with weight because the plane is very small. Propeller-style plane.

It was still pitch-back when we boarded the plane. The flight was short and pleasant. I didn’t sleep a wink despite my two hours of sleep the night before. I was too excited. We landed at sunrise in Dalanzadgad – which is the “gateway” to the Gobi Desert. It’s the largest town in the area and your last stop to by quality toilet paper. Upon arrival, I met “Mongol” – our lead driver for the trip. He speaks little English, but it didn’t matter. His facial expressions and hand gestures were easy to understand. And one of the funniest things on the trip was the fact that Mongol always talked to me like I was fluent in Mongolian. He’d look me in the eye and just blab away, smiling and laughing. He never bothered asking Azaa to translate. He always talked directly to me. In Mongolian.

It was just after 7:00 a.m. when we got our bags off the plane and got in Mongol’s truck. We had to buy seven days worth of food before we left Dalazadgad, but the stores don’t open until ten. So, Mongol took us to his ger to kill some time. He lived in a wooden-fenced community. It looked a lot like an African ghetto, but a lot cleaner. When we arrived at his ger, I did not get out of the jeep right away. I was on the lookout for a dog or dogs. Most of the mutts in Mongolia are rabid, and I wasn’t about to start off my journey with a bite. We were dog free and led into Mongol’s ger for more salt milk tea (ugghh). This batch wasn’t as awful as the first round. I was, however, offered some yogurt treats. Little morsels of sourness.
Gag.

Azaa ate my yogurt treat and I sat in a chair, while Mongol’s two daughters (seven and 13-years old) stared at me. The little one was less shy and started doing back-bends for me. Apparently, her aunt is a contortionist. I left the ger to go back to jeep and take a nap. Two minutes later, the curious seven-year old was in the front seat watching me. I decided this was a good time to reach into my pack and pull out a shiny red pencil with the word “Canada” etched into it. My CBC colleague, Lisa Robinson, did some research and bought some little tourist gifts for me to give children in Mongolia. I also gave her a “Calgary” postcard. Then we went and found her older sister and gave her the same little trinkets. They were thrilled and now, my best friends. We hung out in the truck. I gave them Tolberone and their faces melted in delight faster than the chocolate.

Then me and the girls did a photo shoot. I had them pose in front of their blue-tin shed, a stack of tires and their ger. They loved every minute of it. It was good practice for me too, since I was still getting the hang of the digital SLR camera my dad lent me. It was still early morning, so the light was fantastic. Then, their baby cousin (maybe three-years old) came out of another ger half-naked. (Yes, he is a boy, even though he has long-haired tied up in a pony-tail!) He squealed and laughed as we towed him around in his little cart.

Then I found my jump-rope. I brought it for exercise, but had yet to use it. We took turns skipping, but little cousin was the most excited about the new toy. He whipped it around and threw it around. His smile never once left his face. It was time to go, but like a good boy, he returned the rope to me and hugged my leg goodbye.

Azaa, Mongol and I drove to town and went food shopping. We had to go to about five stores to find everything, Tea, bottled-water, toilet paper (which we almost forgot! Oy vey, can you imagine?) rice, pasta, instant noodle bowls, cookies, canned vegetables, canned meat (for the Mongolians – I did not want to even try the stuff) and smoked sausage. We also stopped at the outdoor market and bought some potatoes, onions and watermelon (which are grown in nearby town called Bulgan). It was funny because the two drivers had this concerned look on their face as Azaa and I were shopping for their food. I think they were worried we were only going to buy vegetables. These men LOVE their meat. Most Mongolians eat meat at every meal. There is a saying here that “goats eat grass, men eat meat.”All together, I spent about $200 CAN on all our food for seven days, which I thought was pretty darn good. I was feeding four people (myself, Mongol, Azaa and the second driver – did I mention I had to hire a second driver and second car for my trip to the Western Gobi? The area is so remote that if I was to rely on one car and it broke down, I could be stuck for two days).

At noon, we met up with our second driver (whose name I still can’t pronounce so I am just going to call him “the other driver”) and began our journey to Bugin Tsav. This is the area where I was going to meet Alberta paleontologists and husand-wife duo, Philip Currie and Eva Kopplehus.

Let me just begin by saying that it was extremely hot and dry my first day in the Gobi. I must have drank 5 litres of water that day. Within two hours on the road, I felt like a sinus infection from all the dust in the air. I actually wet a Kleenex and draped it over my face to bring some moisture into my nose and lungs.

The drive was gorgeous, to say the least. It began with big open plains with very little vegetation. After that, the landscape changed every five minutes. Suddenly their were shrubs everywhere, some of them were electric green in colour! Then the ground turned sandy and we were dodging spiky trees and bushes. We ended up camping that night against some barren brown hills (that look a lot like the mountains in Jordan) , where the ground was covered in smooth, black stones. We couldn’t set up our tents because the Gobi wind was so strong that evening and it was getting dark. We had driven later than expected since we started driving later than expected. So, we quickly boiled some water, ate our noodle bowls and camped in the flatbed of the trucks. It was very hot and I had to sleep next to Azaa, who snored all night. I couldn’t find my earplugs in the dark. So I just closed my eyes and let my body rest.

Impromptu visit to countryside

My second day in UB, I went to Café Amserdam – a hangout for foreigners and expats in the city. The café serves “European-style” food (that’s what the Mongolians call Western cuisine). What it means is you can order Illy coffee. Thank god. I eagerly ordered an Americano, my first non-instant cup of java since I boarded Air Korea from Vancouver to Seoul.

And you can’t have a real cup of Italian coffee without an Italian sandwich. They serve paninis at Café Amsterdam, so I ordered a salami and cheese one. Oh, the sweet taste of SEASONED meat (Mongolians love their meat but they can’t handle too much spice, so everything needs to be generously doused in black pepper).

While I inhaled my panini, Bolor (pronounced “bowl-dra”), talked to me about her work. Bolor is the Mongolian paleontologist who I’m doing a story about for Dispatches in the Gobi Desert from September 7 - 10. She’s 35-years old and one of the youngest paleontologists in Mongolia (She was born and raised in Mongolia, but educated in the US. She now lives in NYC, but spends every summer in Mongolia). It seems the older, Russian-trained Mongolian paleontologists didn’t do a very good job passing on the torch. That’s Bolor’s goal. To get Mongolian youth interested in dinosaurs so they will be a new generation of Monogolian paleontologists to promote and protect their country’s fossils.

After lunch, Bolor’s brother showed up to take her to the country to see her horse. He asked me if I wanted to come. I said sure, I had the whole day free. Next thing I know, I was in a Japanese jeep dodging traffic in UB. Ten minutes out of the city, we were in another world. Big sky (like Alberta). Green rolling steppes (much like Alberta’s Foothills). A sheep here. A few goats over there. The road was very bumpy (a prelude to my “adventures in dirt-road travel” in the Gobi). 30 minutes later, we pulled up to a ger (That’s the Mongolian word for a circular, felt tent. In Canada, we call them “yurts” but if you call them that in Mongolian you may get your teeth punched in. “Yurt” is the Russian word for “ger” and the Mongolians hate the Russians. That whole Soviet-era thing.)

FIRST COURSE: As soon as I got out of the jeep, I was ushered inside the ger and served a tall glass of fermented mair’s milk. You have to taste anything that is served to you in a ger in the countryside or else you’ll insult the family. So I tried it. Not too bad, tasted like sour vodka. But I knew not to take more than a sip because if you’re not used to drinking the mair’s milk it will make you sick.

SECOND COURSE: Salted milk tea. That tickled my gag reflex. I don’t know if you know my history with dairy products, but I only started eating cheese in 2005 and I still can’t drink milk unless it’s cooked in something, like oatmeal. So the salted milk tea has not been easy to get used to. Even if all I have to do is take a sip.

After Bolor and her brother finish their beverages, we went outside and met her horse. She bought a horse but had never seen it. It was just born in the spring and was the most robust of all the colts. We snapped some photos, then took off back to the UB. On the way home, we got stuck behind a never-ending freight train (just like we do in Southern Alberta!).

They dropped me off at my hostel in downtown UB around 6pm. I grabbed my backpack and walked down to the “State Department Store” to buy some groceries before I went to the Gobi. Important things. Like Apple Jacks.

I noticed it was getting dark and I didn’t want to walk back to my hostel alone, so I texted another journalist I had met at the hostel to see if he wanted to have coffee at – you guessed it – Café Amsterdam. We met up around 8pm. At 9pm, he walked me back to my hostel. On the way back, we were harassed by street kids. They’re harmless, but nonetheless, I was glad to have a six-foot two tall white guy walking next to me.

I went back to my hostel room and packed my bags. My flight was at 5:00 a.m. which meant my taxi was picking me up at 3:30 the next morning. I didn’t get to bed until 11:00 p.m. and I was up at two the next morning to take my “last shower” before seven days of camping in the sandy and dusty Gobi Desert.

First impressions of Ulaanbaatar

1) I was told most people here speak English. They don't. Well, the teenagers do, but they are not the ones selling me bottled water. So, to pay for things, people show me the price on a calculator.

2) The language sounds like a cross between Chinese and Russian. The writing looks that way too. Thus, my background in Spanish is useless.

3) For a foodie like myself, the cuisine here is pretty disappointing. Bland soups. Rice with overcooked vegetables meat (what kind of meat, I'm not sure). I am pretty much a vegetarian now except I did find a European cafe that sells delicious salami baguettes. Breakfast is included at the hostel and it's just toast and tea, which is doing wonders for my growling stomache. Did I mention that I am in the CAPITAL city? God only knows what I will be eating when I travel to rural Mongolia. Thank god I brought oodles of freeze-dried soups and cliff bars. I expect to lose a fair bit of weight here, which I will quickly gain back when I start stuffing myself with Chinese dumplings in Beijing next month.

4) The PEOPLE here are really nice and not very pushy or loud. It's also not as crowded as I thought it would be. I went out to meet the people who put together my expedition to the Gobi desert (the company is called Nomadic Expeditions). They were great and made me feel much more secure about venturing out into such a remote area. I also met my guide "Azaa" who speaks perfect English and has a very friendly face. I think we'll get along just fine.

5) Today I am meeting "Bolor," the Mongolian paleontologist who will be doing a workshop and field trip with Nomadic children next month to teach them about dinosaur fossils and why they should not steal them. I will collecting tape from her field trip in the Gobi right after returning from another -- more remote -- region of the Gobi to interview Dr. Currie from the Tyrell Museum. Dr. Currie will show me some sites where dinosaur bones have been poached.

6) It's really cold here. Mom, thanks for making me take my down jacket.

7) The capital city of Ulaanbaatar looks like the post-communist satellite that it is. Run-down buildings and road, faded signs and garbage everywhere. But Ulaanbaatar isn't why people come to Mongolia. The travellers I have met so far are all here to see the vast, open country and take in a piece of the world that is still much like it was thousands of years ago.

8) That said, I am not buying a horse.

9) I am carrying 20 pounds of equipment and don't regret bringing a single thing! I have already used my laptop extensively, and expect to go through all 40 of my Double A batteries by the time I'm done here.