The last day in Mongolia was completely uneventful.
John left at 6:30 am for the airport, had a 4 hour layover in Seoul , and by now should be comfortably
ensconced at home.
I drove Zoe to the train station at 9 am, to take the fast
train to Darhan, and she made it home without trouble.
I drove the rental car to the airport, and had no problem
returning it given the excellent job done by the car wash folks. We did exceed
our allotted 3,250 km by 500 km, so had to pay an additional 150,000 Tugriks,
but that is nothing compared with the fun we had.
As I sat waiting for my flight I thought about a couple of
things that maybe I should have added somewhere in this narrative. For example,
I should make some mention of the national drink—vodka! My personal brand is
Chingis Khaan, which can be found just about everywhere. Even the dinkiest
store will carry it, in sizes ranging from the 12 ounce personal bottle, to the
1 liter party bottle. Everyone knows that vodka has wonderful medicinal
properties. Is your head aching? Take a shot of vodka with two lumps of sugar.
Ia your stomach upset? Take two shots of vodka with a spoonful of milk tea. Are
your muscles sore? Take three shots of vodka and rub some mutton fat on the
afflicted part of the body.
Vodka is also the national pastime amongst men, who love
nothing more than gathering in groups of three to polish a bottle or two. And
certainly we should not forget the caretakers of seedy hotels, like the one who
was so far gone that he kept checking his pockets for the keys over and over,
until eventually was rescued by the lady of the house. In short, alcoholism is
a serious problem throughout the country.
I also should mentioned that, although we had glorious balmy
weather at the start of summer, the winters here can be unbelievably cold
(another good reason to stay warm inside your ger imbibing vodka al day long).
How cold? Well, how about -40 degrees C. That is right, negative 4 – 0, and
that is run of the mill cold temperature, with the record reportedly being –55
degrees C! The funny thing is that precipitation across the country is not
really that much (5 to 20 cm per year from south to north), so the brutally low
temperatures are accompanied by not much more than a dusting of snow. The
freezing temperatures are also the reason for the much damaged asphalted roads
across the country; the ice wedge effect busts the asphalt very easily, a small
hole develops, and within a few months the holes are large enough to swallow
our poor Suzuki Jimny.
I was reminded about another Mongolian peculiarity when I
sat down to my last breakfast at the hotel and was served a steaming bowl of
noodle soup. Soup for breakfast is a very common occurrence because it is easy
to reheat and gives you another opportunity to ingest mutton fat, with its many
health benefits. And speaking of foods, I should mention the Boloneski sauce
(the Russian version of spaghetti sauce) and the Mongolian ketchup, without
which a table would be practically naked.
OK, we are ready to board and I have just taken a quick look
to my itinerary: Two hour flight to Beijing , a
10 hour layover in Beijing ,
and an 11 hour flight to Addis. Oh dear Lord, I am going to die.
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