We meet Badarch Puntsag, famous Mongolian poet, outside of the city centre, close to a nice-looking ger of his choice. The ger’s owner is a man from Hovd, in the far west of Mongolia, a place famous for its throat singers. Sitting down slowly, the 72-year-old veteran poet orders us all a bowl of fermented [...]
Archive
Monthly Archives: August 2010
in Mongolian the word ‘Gobi’ means ‘desert’….
August 27, 2010 – 3:14 am
“There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.” – Robert Louis Stevenson And so stepping off our 16-hour bumpy bus-ride over dirt desert roads, stretching aching limbs and bruised muscles, we walk gratefully into an early morning Dalazadgad, capital of the South Gobi province Omnogov. Practically a ghost town at [...]
In the land of Chinggis Khaan…
August 24, 2010 – 8:22 am
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” – Mark Twain The What Took You So Long Team are travelling the world in search of camel cheese. This blog reports from Mongolia… Chinggis Khaan, the Mongolian name for who we call Gengis Khan, symbol of the steppe land, is not to be taken lightly. Mongolians reflect [...]
Patrick Bostrom reporting from Urumqi
August 22, 2010 – 5:37 am
As the dawn is approaching I find myself passing by a bustling and noisy night market. At 10pm there is a stretch of road centrally located in Urumqi that is packed with small food stands offering meat barbecues, seafood dishes, spicy noodles, whole chickens and wheel size naans. People pass by in endless streams while [...]
Sebastian Bond joins the team in UB
August 19, 2010 – 11:39 am
After three days of traveling from Stockholm-Moscow-Beijing-Erlian-Zamy-Uud-UB it was great to meet up with the team. Even do it was a great trip!
In Ulaan Baatar – home of the two-humped Bactrian camel
August 14, 2010 – 8:11 am
“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” – Lao Tzu And step we do onto the 5.35pm 16-hour train to Ulaan Baatar with just minutes to spare. Exquisite scenery accompanies our working train-ride. After 33 hours to Beijing 16 hours breezes by. We feel the difference in the people – [...]
How to cross the China-Mongolia border
August 14, 2010 – 7:00 am
“The journey not the arrival matters.” – T.S.Eliot We could have lounged in the luxury of the TransMongolian…..but that’s not the way we move. So here’s how to get to Ulaan Baatar (Ulan Bator) the What Took You So Long way. STEP ONE: From Beijing take a bus or train to Erlian (Erenhot). Buses are [...]
