Ulan Ude is a pleasant Siberian town but very different to Irkutsk. Whilst Irkutsk was almost entirely populated by European Russians Ulan Ude, like Astrakhan on the Volga, has a majority of oriental people which slightly confused us and often made us feel we were already in Mongolia. It has a well appointed opera house/theatre with a busy season of shows but we didn’t manage a visit. We enjoyed a walk round the town and the parks and beside the Selenga river, another tributary of the Yenisey, after it flows into and out of Lake Baikal. Had our pictures taken with the Lenin head in the main square which seems to be the tourist thing. It is the biggest Lenin head anywhere in the world apparently!
Met a pair of women bikers, Belle and Nadine, on mopeds in Ulan Ude, they had left UK in early May and had been through Kazakhstan like us. We were very impressed with their achievements. They had just met up with another biker, Will, who they had traveled with on an earlier trip to West Africa. All three headed off to Mongolia a couple of days before us. You can follow their progress at ENYATOPBOX.BLOGSPOT.COM and WILLWANDERING.BLOGSPOT.COM..
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| The world's largest Lenin's head, probably. |
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| Opera House/Theatre in Ulan Ude - had a beautiful fountain in front of it which did intersting things in time to the classical music played in the background - lovely place to sit and take in the atmosphere |
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| Nadine & Belle - also on the way to Mongolia (this photo was right way up before we transferred over but can't seem to right it now). They got to Mongolia but Belle's scooter 'blew up' in Ulan Baatar - see her blog. |
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| Around Ulan Ude (also below) |
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| In and around Ulan Ude there are lots of interesting old buidlings, mainly of wood. Sadly they are not being looked after and preserved and are gradually falling apart. |
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| Development like this all around Ulan Ude - for some reason we thought of Wimpey Homes? |
We left UU on 27 June and camped just before the border. A lovely site in a small pine copse on a granite outcrop. Scops owl calling there. At the border the next morning we spent five hours getting through the Russian and Mongolia formalities. We could not believe how slow the process was - our worst so far. The wait was relieved by Henry and Jennifer, an English couple living in southern France, who had brought their Toyota Hilux mounted camper to Mongolia . They were going back via Kazakhstan.
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| Carol does some last minute fruit shopping from an allotment market stall on the way to the border - fruit is in notoriously short supply in Mongolia (outside the capital) we heard |
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| KBAC - or Kvass - is a very popular drink in Russia and is sold at the side of the road from small tankers l ike this one. It is non alcoholic but made from Rye bread so Carol had to give it a miss - Mike didn't think she was missing that much though |
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| A Buddhist shrine on the way to the border - there were several |
Mongolia
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| Jennifer & Henry with their Toyota camper |
Our first experiences in Mongolia were unfortunately rather negative. Just through the border we thought we would have an early camp in some fine hills off to our right and headed for them. We had just gone through the ritual of getting the Tab level for sleeping when a minibus with dark windows arrived with a couple of guys in civilian cloths who wanted to see our passports. We suspected some kind of scam and refused and quickly got in the LR. The older guy in a Tshirt (lifted up to reveal his rather well fed belly which he rubbed throughout the conversation!) was most insistent and so we asked for his official ID. He produced an ID card with a picture of him in a uniform that would impress the Admiral of the Fleet. At that moment the minibus disgorged about eight soldiers (some armed) in uniform. They had obviously got the message that they were going to have trouble with these two! We showed our passports and everyone was happy - well except us because they told us we could not camp their because it was too close to the border. It was a stupid mistake on our part, we had just not thought. We camped on a scrub covered hillside about 10 miles up the road. The other occasion for disappointment was when Mike was deliberately shortchanged on the purchase of some drinks. The first time we have experienced this on the trip, to our knowledge.
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| Our first camp in Mongolia |
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| A Mongolian caravan |
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| Statue on way to UB |
We had two other great campsites before getting to Ulaan Baatar (UB) both overlooking huge pasture landscapes with masses of domestic stock, gers (or do they call them yurts here?) and nomads. The countryside north of UB is hilly but not mountainous and the valleys and hillsides are green as can be, with pine and birch forests mainly on the northern slopes. It is really beautiful scenery and we are loving it. We experienced a massive thunderstorm shortly after we camped on the first night with amazing forked lightening - quite a show from our cosy Tab. It cleared overnight though and we have had lovely big blue skies and temperatures in the mid 20's since. We saw our first Yaks on 30th. We got to UB at lunchtime on 1st July
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| Second Mongolian campsite - starting to really love it |
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| We found this hare near our camp - it didn't move at all and we think it must have had a blow to the head |
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| Horses in a village where we went to get water |
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| As we were having lunch this herdsman attempted to get his sheep and goats across the stream (also below) - some really did not want to go! |
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| There are horses, goats, cows and sheep everywhere in this part of Mongolia |
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Throughout our trip we have communication problems of one kind or another. In Kaz we did not seem to be able to get our gmail accounts and could not use the internet on our laptop, not even to view our own blog. In Russia we were unable to buy a local sim card, because of bureaucracy, and could not get emails or check the internet until we had a hotel in UU with WIFI.. In Mongolia we found that our UK Virgin phones do not work at all not even for texts. That’s something else we will change when we get back home. We have therefore bought local sim cards, Mike’s is 94198623 and Carol’s is 624, both preceded by the dialing code for Mongolia which is 976.
We will write more about UB and our excursions to the country later. An updated bird list for June will be posted to the file sharing site soon.
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| Third campsite in Mongolia (spot the Tab!) we climbed up to the top of the hill behind and felt on top of the world |
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| Nearby ger camp. |
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| Many areas of countryside are now being fenced off (as in Arabia) and fancy new houses being built - a sign of things to come |
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| Some horses raise a bit of dust - below a skillfull hoseman sorts them out |
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| Buddhist shrine just before UB |
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| Entering UB! Not the best of experiences as a new road is currently being put in - a lot of the haze was from vehicles having to drive on dirt tracks for several miles - but the west of the city is also the industrial area |
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| View from our hotel which has the interesting name "Luxoil" - not the most salubrious part of town but it is a good hotel with an excellent restaurant and, most importantly for us, secure parking for the vehicles. Tab will rest here a while when we go off on short trips around the city |
We arrived in Ulan Bataar at midday on 1 July, more or less on schedule. So we have achieved our first objective. The next is to see the country and then to get home in one piece.
We have added a few new pics to the Invertebrates pages.
