Stuck in Tsterleg

Some say that everything happens for a reason. I don't usually believe this. Most of the time it feels like chance or a logical progression of events. Sometimes, however, destiny lets you know she is there, shining her bright eyes right through what we thought would be. Needless to say, I never ended up in Blue Lake. Instead, I took a new interest in graphic design and Barcelona.

My bus ticket to Blue Lake was supposed to arrive by 6:00pm the day before my departure, but when I went to the main office at 11:00pm, it wasn't there. I had planned to stay up all night to work (in order to finish all my exams) but this freedom from my schedule gave me a breath of fresh air that made a younger me sparkle around the streets of Ulaanbaatar (probably not the best idea to walk around with a dopey smile on my face in the middle of the night). I walked by a child, maybe 12 years old, whose face was badly beaten. He pressed ice in a clear plastic fruit bag against his swollen face. I wanted to protect him, hug him, feed him. Knowing this wasn't a fight I could win and seeing him surrounded by people, I returned to the hostel.

The next day, I spent a remarkable day filled with sunburns and hailstorms around UB with my friend Filip. Perhaps lucky by nature, he seemed to pour that luck out on to me as well. His mother is from Texas, and I couldn't help but feel a strange connection to the younger her, so far away from home, love pouring over a world far from the one we grew up in. The day was a whirlwind in all respects, and Filip left for Russia, taking his luck with him. :) Once my body had gone through that much good, I was forced to go through a bit of an emotional hangover.

Saddened by my inability to understand the future implications of my actions, I have some sheep anklebones. These are normally used to play Mongolian traditional games, but they sell them as fortune tellers. "Fortune is with you," they told me. It didn't feel like it then, but now, I understand why.

I ended up on a 6 day trip through the Gobi desert with five beautiful french women Genvieve, Irene, Gaelle, Clotilde, and Marie-Eudes. I don't even know where to start in talking about the trip, besides that when you put that many women together there are bound to be epiphanies, arguments, laughter, and confusion. We spent most of the days driving around the immense road-less landscape. We travelled over 400 km on a rocky path forged by Russian jeep tires alone. We hiked the sand dunes, saw the flaming cliffs, a forest in the desert, a canyon of ice, and the Orkhan waterfall. We ate potatoes and meat and carrots and potatoes and meat and carrots... I'll write about all of them soon.

On the sixth day (of eight), I found a ride to Tsterleg, where I could do a shorter White Lake horseback trek with ger to ger. This way, I could do everything I had hoped to do before leaving Mongolia. I showed up in Tsterleg, found the ger-to-ger driver and he put me up in a hotel, despite my desire to stay in my tent. He asked me for his money upfront, but I didn't have it. I needed to go to an ATM, but everything was closed. No problem. We would do it tomorrow. I had a strange feeling in my stomach, however, as I only had 20,000 T left. This was enough to get a bus ticket back to UB, one dumpling, and thats about it. I didn't eat dinner because of this feeling. I woke up the next morning and tried every atm in the city, with no avail. The jeep driver forced me to ride around in a taxi, which I then had to pay (bye-bye dumpling). I also had to pay the driver a cancellation charge AND I missed the only bus to Ulaanbaatar (=tent sleeping). I didn't know what to do. I tried giving the jeep driver anything and everything I brought with me besides money, but he didn't much like dirty women's underwear. Finally, the ger to ger office called and said they would transfer a partial refund of my trip to the jeep driver's bank account. He would then pay me the money and I would be able to stay in Tsterleg for one night. I was originally excited about staying in Tsterleg, after I found out I would be able to eat, but every where I've gone has been decietful. Everyone has tried to milk me for as much money as possible, and when you really don't have any, its hard. Comparatively, the level of poverty and difficulty they see is high enough that no sympathy or support is available anywhere. I thought that the kindness of strangers was unparalleled! This town doesn't feel right in my gut.

If I've learned anything from this trip, its to be fine with what's happening right now, cause I can't hold on to it forever. So, right now, I'm going to go take a walk, get some food, and hurry the day along so that my 11 hour bus trip back to UB can start. Blechhhhh.

Love.

Either way, I've holed up in a room with some juice, and I'm waiting for tomorrow, so I can go back to UB. I'm a little disappointed, because I don't really want to spend the next four days in UB, but... it will be better to be eating and sleeping well.