Central Mongolia:the Green Route

Before starting to tell you about this amazing trip,first some other remarks.
1. Although we are in a major internet cafe in Beijing, uploading pictures is impossible. You'll have to wait (again)
2. Advice from F&E: Go to Mongolia!!!! all of you,but prepare yourself, and don't make the same mistake as we did. We are happy with the trip that was arranged for us by Tiara tours, but we feel scammed. We paid about E500 each for this trip, only to find out at our hostel that Tiara bought these tours from a local travel company for 250$. So they chrged us more than double. So our advice is to let Tiara just arrange your train tickets and maybe some hostels ( as the transfers and advice from local contacts are very handy), but order your tours by yourself! It'll save you vast amounts of money; precious, precious money...


OK

The tour we made through the Mongolian countryside was magnificent!!!! We were driven in an old communist era bus, which was highly uncomfortable, but sturdy as hell!!!
We had a guide and a driver for ourselves and another great Dutch couple, Wessel and Fiona. We saw amazing landscapes and camels, as well as flocks of hawks (we think they're the local equivalent of pigeons, which makes game theory a bit harder to explain here...(economic insider joke)). We slept in ger tents with our own stove.
The first day was great, but it only got better. The second day, we made a shortcut, and had to ask for directions, which caused us to meet a true nomad family that had never seen a tourist from up close (at leat not the children). We were invited in and had to drink Mongolian tea (with milk and salt) and eat Mongolian cheese (which was aweful.... oh the memories cause sickness). But it was an amazing experience. We had to show to everyone the pictures we made on the lcd screen of our cameras, and the hospitality gave us shivers.
Arriving at the family we were staying for two nights, we never felt happyer. The scenery was beautiful, and being in the middle of the farmer's life of these people was a once in a lifetime experience. The food was great,although Eline and Fiona discovered the environment in which it was cooked the day after, which gave it a strange after taste... (flies, flies, thousands of them!!!! in one small ger tent)
The next day we went horseriding. We climbed the volcano (on Foot!!!) and enjoyed the magnificent view of White lake. I (F) was a bit afraid first, due to my strange relation with horses ( I hate them and they hate me), but everything went smooth, except for the fact that my horse wanted to lay down in a pond to refresh itself, while I was still on it.... (Luckely in the beginning, Eline had insisted on changing horses, as I was given the wildest horse in the beginning. They must have thought that I was the most competent man in the group (they noticed...) )
Afterwards, we treated ourselves with a beer that we chilled in the icecold river behind our tents.... (aahhhhh)
the next day we got shaken up again in the bus, and that evening we arrived at a ger tent that had a hot spring. We enjoyed the warm water that smelled like rotten eggs till we looked like 90year olds.
The days after, we visited the oldest monastery in Mongolia, and we also visited Hustai National Park, where we saw Przewalsky horses, deer and marmots... The ger next to ours was the Royal ger suite of Prince Willem-Alexander and princess Maxima,who were not there of course.
The last day we arrived in UB, where we had lunch at BD's Mongolian BBQ, an American all-you-can-eat restaurant. Although this might seem a tourist trap,and maybe even a pervers concept in a semideveloped country, we must say that we enjoyed it enourmously! Good, safe food!!!!

The last night we slept at the new Dream Hotel. It was great to watch BBC world,especially as it was one day before Steve Jobs would make an announcement, but we didn't dream much, as some Mongol (hehe this joke is getting old) started his bulldozer at 23:40 to clean up a few tons of concrete blocks. (they stopped in the morning).

We took off at 7 am, and left for Beijing by train.

See you next time...
Miss you!!!!