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!