Climbing the wall and a few albums

Although I have been continually prodding MC to get some posts together, my computer monopolizing ways are shining through. Hopefully some of her insightful remarks and observations will be coming shortly. To keep you entertained in the meantime her is a video of some fun we had while out visiting our brothers out in Montreal a couple weekends back.



We also have some new pictures added to our photo site. Check 'em out!

Winner of funniest video on Wednesday

I forget exactly how I came across this video, but it was Wednesday's winner for the funniest video. Apparently there are some pretty funny things that happen on the shopping channel. I've seen it over ten times in the last two days and still laugh.


I love the "Look at that horse" quote. He even has some slight dramatic pause.

Exudation

I thought I made a new word today - exudation. I was using it to express my education and experience for a job posting. I figured that the potential employer may not recognize my wittiness and changed the one word to three. Exudation is a word, just not how I used it:

the process of exuding; the slow escape of liquids from blood vessels through pores or breaks in the cell membranes

I will add my definition to a dictionary in due course.

Made it back to Ottawa

Wow, it's been a long time since we posted! I figured we should let everyone know that we've made it back to the centre of Canadian politics - that's right Ottawa. We've uploaded a picture album of our return but haven't done much online for a few weeks (expect signing up for facebook - I'm still intrigued by it...that may fade though). Marie-Claude has been in full schmooze mode with getting a new job with the government. Everything looks like it's set on that front - she'll most likely be starting next week at a new job. I'll let her elaborate.

In the meantime we have been catching up with many friends, staying with some (thank you Andrew and Kate!) and finding an apartment. We just moved into a flat a couple weeks ago in our old hood. It's even with our old landlord....strange. It's not as nice as the flat we had with him before, but it'll do. MC and I are thinking of house hunting in the not-so-distant future so this is good for us. I've also been testing out the IT job market here in Ottawa. I've seen some good opportunity so I'm pretty hopeful. I hope to pick something up soon so I don't have to be the stay-at-home cat sitter. Henri is demanding.

So, here are some plans for the future for this blog:
- it will be renamed again (hey it has to, we are back in the O-T-T-A-W-A hood)
- I will be pushing MC to start blogging again. What can I say, she has had critical acclaim for her insightful stories and blog entries.
- We'll be keeping it real as can be, but interesting - basically that means don't expect a post every day. Maybe every week. Even that's a stretch. Hey, we're busy people, what do you say we see how it goes. Quality requires a little time. Add us to your 'weekly website peruses'.

Clogs, Brothers and Kangaroos

A treat

They always said that San Francisco is a treat. Or was it some type of instant rice (Rice-A-Roni) that was a San Francisco treat? We have just arrived in the land of sour dough bread from Sydney. We are here for a few days and hope to take in some of the sites. Check out our pictures from Sydney, Cairns and the Outback.

Ciao for now.

The Great Barrier Reef

Aaron and I went on a two-day/one-night diving liveaboard trip to the Great Barrier Reef. It was amazing.

We went down seven times in two days and checked out three different sites. One of these dives was at night with a flashlight to visit the sleepy fishies. The night dive is almost easier than the day dives because the boat has a huge light beam in the water that guides divers back after the dive.

The Reef is an hour and a half out of Cairns. It felt like we were out in the middle of the ocean. We didn't have the best above water conditions; it was cloudy, rainy and windy both days but once underwater all was calm and peaceful. It was so peaceful I wanted to stay down there.

What we saw: sharks, rays, lots and lots of colourful fish. We touched a 150-year-old giant clam and saw it try to close up on our hands. A huge grouper came straight at us with its huge blue lippy mouth wide open (not threateningly but still impressive). I let out a little scream through my regulator.

Neither Aaron nor I lost our stomach contents on the trip despite the huge swells rocking the boat.

We're in the centre for the next few days. Harry is lending us his ute (aka Australia's favourite utility vehicle) and we're off camping.

Same Same But Different

We heard the phrase so often in Southeast Asia that we started using it ourselves. And cringing.

Australia and Canada: same same but different. Tomato sauce: ketchup. Quickies: Tums. Big W: Wal-Mart. The place is crawling with 7-11s and coffee shops. It's difficult to find regular coffee here but espresso drinks abound.

What I missed while in Asia: drinking tap water and eating whole wheat bread. I'm now fully sated. Mmmm... chlorine water. Best water there is!

What I first noticed when I arrived in Australia: all the extra space! The country and the streets seemed empty after China and Southeast Asia. I've become used to it now.

Some things are expensive in Australia. A 500 ml bottle of coke is $2.50 and up. Accommodations is a lot more than what we paid in Asia.

Aaron, Adam (Aaron's bro), Yindee (Aaron's bro's partner) and I drove from Sydney to Brisbane over the last several days. We saw a lot of coast, wineries, some really cool sand dunes, kangaroos (!) and koalas (!!). Adam and Yindee have now headed back to Sydney and Aaron and I are flying to Cairns tomorrow.

Australian Visa

Aaron and I almost didn't make it to Australia. At the check-in counter in Phuket, Thailand, the woman checking us in asked to see our visas for Australia. One of us said: "Oh we're Canadians, we don't need a visa." She was adamant though that we couldn't board without a visa. And we were adamant that we didn't a visa, why would we? Aaron had gone in 2003 and hadn't needed a visa...

There was much back and forth and we checked the Lonely Planet while at the counter and finally saw it written in black-and-white: everyone, with the exception of Kiwis, must obtain a visa before arriving. Oops.

Thankfully, there was an Internet cafe at the airport and we were able to apply and receive approval on-line within minutes.

Our lesson: always check even when you think you know.

MC chillin' in a pool

MC is staring in her new clip shot in Ko Phi Phi, Thailand. It is truly amazing. We have also added a link to a map of our trip in China, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia to the links section on the right.


Checkout the new photos from Southern Thailand as well.

Keep it real - or something like that.

spoon - fork

We eat with a spoon as the fork and a fork as the knife. It's now weird to stick a fork in my mouth.

Papaya Salad

Papaya salad is my new favourite dish. Tangy, spicy, delicious. I could have it every day. We had one so spicy in Laos that Aaron and I kept our mouths open a long while after to cool things down.

More diving

Aaron and I are certified open water divers now. We went diving again today. It's so much fun swimming around with fish and other sea creatures. We saw a few moray eels today including one that was completely out of its hole. They're strange things. We'll post some boat pics soon (no underwater shots, sorry).

Creepy Crawlies Part 2

I wrote a while back about the ear-sized cockroaches in one hotel room and you would think we would take greater care choosing our rooms after that. We spent a night in a hotel in Ao Nang that had blood-sucking bed bugs. Luckily(!), they manifested themselves while we were watching a movie and we were able to request a different room before tucking in for the night. Aaron had bites all down his back and me down my arm. The bugs were the size of ants but rounder.


We're staying at a nicer resort on Phi Phi and the only nuisance we've had so far was a screaming gecko in the middle of the night. Who knew gecko could be so noisy? The bed is bug-free.

Visiting the fishies

Aaron and I enrolled in an Open Water Scuba Diving PADI Certification Course. We had our first open water dive today. Imagine a really large aquarium with a plastic scuba diver making bubbles in it and that was today. Except the scuba diver had a lot more freedom and the coral wasn't plastic.

We saw a turtle, baracudas, a venomous sea snake, a hiding lobster, a sea horse and thousands of colourful fish. The coral wall was so beautiful as well. Diving is a hundred times better than snorkelling.

Aaron got a little seasick and barfed overboard on the boat between dives. Other than that, it was a great day.

We dive again tomorrow.

Angkor Wat photos

We've just added photos for Cambodia. If you missed them, we have Northern Thailand and Laos photos up as well.

I hope to convince MC to relax in Ao Nang for a couple days before going to Ko Phi Phi.

Hmmm, I don't usually post on this blog. I am working behind the scenes though. Honest.

Temples and cockroaches

We made only a quick stop in Cambodia and spent four days in Siem Reap, home of Angkor Wat. Aaron and I spent two days biking around Angkor's temple ruins and another day at the back of a tuk-tuk checking out temples further away. We took many, many photos that we'll post soon. We're sorting through them.

Cucarachas

We've hopped to Southern Thailand for a little beach time. We splurged on accommodations after spending a sleepless night in a cheaper place that had unwanted squatters. The first cockroach we saw was on the bed (eek!) and about the size of a human ear. After finding another one under the bed skirt, we asked for a new room. All was well, until Aaron made a midnight bathroom trip and stepped on a crunchy one. For the next few nights we upgraded to a nice resort with a pool and buffet breakfast. The off-season prices are not too taxing on the budget.

We're now back to staying in cheaper places but we're a little more careful about checking under the bed before checking in.

Windy Road

We took a bus from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng and then another from Vang Vieng to Vientiane. The first leg was the windiest road either of us had been on. It snaked around mountains and made its way through some really hilly territory. The second leg wasn't as windy yet two people on the bus were sick (as in vomited, upchucked, threw up). They were locals too which didn't bode well for the few foreigners on the bus. There were plastic bags hanging in the bus for that specific purpose.

On the bus, Aaron chatted up a monk who was travelling with his brother, also a monk. We wondered: is that brother in the biological sense or spiritual sense?

On another note, I just realized that my skirt, which I wear practically every day, was last washed at Zoe's place. In Mongolia. The skirt's been through four countries since. Through sweat, spilled food, dust, muddy roads, cats jumping on my lap...

We're now in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Laos: land of many hellos

We've learned to say two Lao words: "sabaidee" (hello) and "kawp djii" (thank you). If you know these two words, the Lao people are happy.

In Mongolia, it was considered strange to say "sain bain uu" (hello) more than once to the same person in a day. Here it's perfectly acceptable. You can greet someone as often as you wish. There's no need to keep track of whether you've seen the person already that day, you can greet away.

Chickens everywhere!

In Laos, where ever we are there's always a chicken or two plucking about. Some are quite small, others are very plump and there's even the odd chicken that we call "pre-plucked": chickens that have lost a few too many feathers. Most chickens are free to roam around but there are a few that are confined to cages. Prized chickens? Feisty chickens? Roosters?

Old habits die hard

I may have spent most of the last year in developing countries but there are certain habits that I haven't shaken off yet. Like standing in front of a glass sliding door waiting for the automatic system to kick in and open it for me. Aaron and a woman passing by had a good laugh not too long ago when I stood in front of a door a little too long before figuring out that I had to open it manually.

Cats

Thai and Lao people like cats a whole lot more than Mongolians. There are cats everywhere here. And they're vocal cats. They make themselves known. I had one cat that jumped on my lap in a restaurant recently. Many of the female cats and dogs here are either pregnant, nursing or in heat. Bob Barker's "spay or neuter your pet" message didn't reach Laos yet.

Luang Prabang

Yesterday's cooking class wasn't quite as good as the last one. It was more of a watch-your-meal-be-cooked kind of class. Oh well. The food was still delicious and we did learn about some of the ingredients used in Lao cooking. Some ingredients come from the jungle. Like spicy wood. Add it to a stew and it gives a spicy flavour to the dish. I don't think we'll find that wood in the jungles of Ottawa.

After cooking class we hopped on a tuk-tuk with some friends and headed to a nearby waterfall. If you haven't been to Southeast Asia, tuk-tuks are the taxis of this region. In Laos, they're small pickup trucks with seats in the back. Our tuk-tuk had to stop once on the 30 km ride to the waterfall for some roadside repairs. But we did make it to the waterfall and back. We swam in the turquoise pools below the waterfall. So beautiful. Unfortunately, our batteries died on our camera and we weren't able to photograph it.

Sign seen at the waterfall:

What's out.
Slipperyway.

It's raining today so we will probably hit the museum in town.

Luang Prabang's architecture is French Colonial. Quite pretty. We'll post some pics of the town soon.

We'll be in Laos for a few more days before flying to Cambodia.

Sloooow boat

We crossed into Laos three days ago and hopped onto what they call a slow boat for a two-day ride down the Mekong river. Thankfully, it was slightly faster than a canoe. It's a pretty well travelled route for backpackers and our boat was full of young 20-something and only a few locals.

The Mekong is the colour of butterscotch pudding. I wasn't tempted to taste it.

It was a fun boat ride for the most part although the wooden bench seats could have been a tad more comfortable. The surrounding hills were quite pretty. Lush green. From the border crossing to Luang Prabang there are only a few villages along the river. Sometimes our boat would stop so that one of the workers could pick up a large lizard from a village. I guess they sell well in town?

True chefs

The Thai cooking class was great fun. We left the farm with full bellies and dinner in a bag. We liked it so much we're doing a Lao cooking class tomorrow. Can't wait.

Bangkok Shock

Bangkok surprised us. First came the heat. Hot, humid heat. We expected that. What we didn't expect were the hordes of tourists. We hadn't seen so many white sunburned faces in a long while. We spent our first night in tourist ghetto then moved on to a more secluded area. I pined for China during my first few hours in Bangkok. But then Bangkok slowly revealed itself. It may have been the public transport boat rides on the river. Or the street-side stalls and small shops. And just as I started to like the city, we moved on.

We flew to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand today. We're doing a Thai cooking class tomorrow on a farm just outside of town. It should be fun.

Weapons

I forgot to mention that on our hike up the mountain, there were people selling food, drinks and other goods all along the hike. We could have bought a handcrafted slingshot, a crossbow and a wooden sword... but we didn't. Then we wondered, are these mountains safe to hike? Should we be armed?

Tapirs!

We almost forgot to add this video online. It's from ages ago (2 weeks) when we were in Beijing. I don't have audio on this computer but I'm sure the video includes witty commentary.

Last days in China

While in Chengdu we dropped by to see some pandas.


We then took the train from Chengdu, Sichuan to Yunnan, Kunming aka the bottom of China. Yunnan is pretty cool, very eclectic. We met "my uncle" on the train. He was one of our cabin mates. We called him my uncle because he had the same gruffy voice as my uncle Gaston and the same curiosity in people. He would write us little notes in Chinese thinking it would help us understand him (it didn't). We still managed to have a basic conversation with him and his friend using the four pages of Chinese from our guide book. Aaron and I provided the best entertainment on the train: a chance to watch foreigners eating, playing cards, reading.

The food in Yunnan is still spicy. Plates are always peppered with little hot chillies. We had the best fish dish ever yesterday in this tiny restaurant. The menu are the ingredients displayed on shelves which you point at. Very fresh.

Yesterday, we went on what turned out to be a 16-kilometre walk up a mountain. Monks a while back carved caves up a sheer cliff so they could go from the bottom to the top of the mountain.

Tomorrow we fly to Thailand.

Counting, hot foods, cool ice cream bars

We can now count to ten in Chinese. That's both outloud and on our fingers. Chinese people have a different way of counting on their fingers. Three is done with the index finger and thumb touching so that the other three fingers are up. Six is the hang-ten sign. Ten is an X made with the two index fingers. It leads to less confusion if we stick to their counting method.

Secret note to Bav: I don't know what number the "Rock On" sign is. To be investigated.

We're in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China. The food is hot. Full of chillies and oil and yumminess. The temperature is hot too. But not too hot, about high 20s I would say.

Suprising discovery: China makes some really tasty ice cream bars. My favourites so far are the ones with juicy raisins frozen in them. We haven't ventured for the corn ones yet.

Train and Bejing

This just in - our pictures for the train trip from UB to Beijing and Beijing pictures have been added to our Picasa site. Click through for fantastic images! You will be wowed!

Goodbye Beijing, Hello Xian.

Beijing is too big for Aaron and I. We keep on trying to walk everywhere in a city with huuuuuge blocks. We should have done like the Beijingers and biked. It was saved us a few blisters and leg cramps.

We're now in Xian. About smack dab in the middle of China. It was a 12-hour train ride to get here. We haven't seen too much yet, we got in late and slept in. We'll go out of the hostel soon enough... Xian is home to the terracotta warriors and to a city wall that seems out of place. The city inside the wall is totally modern (that we've seen so far anyway) and shouldn't be inside a brick wall...

Beijing

We had a nice train ride from UB to Beijing. We had a four person sleeper cabin that we shared with a Russian girl and an American substitute teacher. The countryside was nice, especially in the Gobi Desert. We had our first glimpse of the Great Wall of China from the train.

Beijing is huge. The city is a strange mix of huge new buildings and little winding streets with tiny shops and tiny homes. Our hostel is on one of these tiny streets.

The food is great. Mmmm, Chinese food. We ate some Peking duck one night. Delicious but rich. You buy a whole duck which seems super huge but really you only get two plates of meat out of it.

Yesterday, we hiked the Great Wall. Not the whole thing... just 10 kilometres of it. It was beautiful up there. And quite the workout. Up. Down. Up. On uneven steps and crumbly bits.

Today we do the forbidden city.

Daylight Savings Time

This year, Mongolia decided to forgo springing forward. The UB time on the right is actually one hour fast because few were notified that the change wouldn't happen.

Strangely, Aaron and I have been getting up earlier ever since the change was supposed to happen. We wake up every day half an hour to an hour earlier than our alarm clock.

In three days

In three days, we'll be on the train heading towards Beijing. It's a 30-hour ride that goes through the Gobi as it cuts south and east.

In three days we'll be saying goodbye to Mongolia. It's harder saying goodbye when we don't know if we'll ever be back.

Our plan is to head south for a bit before heading home. Southeast Asia, Australia... warm places.

Camel videos

We took a lot of photos and videos when the camels came to town... Camels are exciting!

If you ever wondered what a camel polo game looks like here's your chance to experience it.




Aaron plays reporter in this next video. Please excuse my camera work... a little on the fast side.

Seen on a menu in a small UB pub

Chicken tasted by Singapore.

How many people live in Singapore? Will there be any chicken left for me if I order it?

Mongolian food

As I see it there are three categories of food in Mongolia: (1) meat, (2) white foods (literal translation from the Mongolian, meaning dairy products) and (3) Russian-inspired food. These don't stay totally separate and do intersect from dish to dish.

(1) Meat.

Mongolians love meat. They love their animals but they have no problem eating them. The more fat, the better. The younger generation is starting to move away from fat a bit but they may just be telling me this to make me feel at ease when I pick the fat out.

I've asked students many times "What's your favourite food?" and inevitably the answer is buuz (steamed meat dumplings). Buuz is considered the national food and is a special occasion and any occasion food. A variation on buuz is huushuur. It's a deep-fried flat meat pancake. Think beavertail with meat inside. In canteens at lunch, I often see students and workers downing several huushuurs for lunch. Another lunch favourite is tsuivan; homemade noodles mixed with bits of carrots and cabbage and sprinkled with meat.

Meat is omnipresent in basically any dish in Mongolia. Even the salads have sausage bits. In cheaper canteens, there won't be as much meat in a dish such as tsuivan but there's still some.

(2) White foods.

These comprise of snacky things like dried milk curds and crusty butter and of the national drinks: salty milk tea and airag (fermented mare's milk). I love the tea but I could do without the mare's milk. Just recently, I tried a drink I had been avoiding for a while now: aarts. They call it a yogourt drink but it's not as pleasant as that. Think dry milk curds (some of you got to try those when you saw me in November) in hot water and mixed until the texture is fairly even but grainy. Yummy!

A popular meal is salty milk tea served in a bowl with meat dumplings. White foods are especially popular in the summer.

(3) Russian-inspired foods.

Mongolians took some Russian meals and ingredients and made it their own. They have their own version of shepherd's pie usually served with a bit of salad and a well-shaped hill of rice or two. Another popular meal is a ground beef patty topped with a fried egg and some brown sauce (with sides of salad and rice). Goulash (or gouliash in Mongolian) is an all-meat stew which often features on the menus here. Ketchup, mayonnaise and pickles abound.

Where are the vegetables??

Vegetables here come in the form of salads and carrot bits strewn about in the food. When I say salad I don't mean the green lettuce kind. I mean grated carrot or coleslaw or potato salad. Most salads are drowned in mayonnaise.

Prices (CDN$)

In a cheap lunch canteen, buuz are about 15 cents a piece. Huushuurs are 20 to 25 cents. A small plate of tsuivan is 55 cents and rarely do the meals go above $1.00. Salty milk tea is 10 cents a cup.

In other more swank places, the prices do go above the dollar mark.

The verdict

I've come to like most of the Mongolian food. It's comfort food really. But, I could do with a few more vegetables.

Everybody is famous in Mongolia

Or is at least related to someone famous. In the last six months, Aaron and I have met the first woman driver of Mongolia, a man who was instrumental in bringing the market economy to the country, various high-ranking officials including the city’s mayor, former Miss Mongolia’s gynaecologist, the Prime Minister’s doctor, famous horse trainers and the list goes on.

In a country of only 2.6 million people and 35 million cattle heads, it may be easier to be famous. You could even call me famous. I’ve managed to get on stock street video footage for one of the national networks and every so often, someone tells me, “Hey, I saw you on TV!”

Camel mania!

This past weekend was all about camels. There was a camel festival in town which meant we got to see a few games of camel polo, a camel race and a camel parade.

We saw big and small camels, white camels, camels with attitudes, camels pooping, camels slipping on ice, camels weeping, you name it, we saw it.

The camels and their owners came from far and wide. Most came from the south, from the Gobi Desert where camels are more common. The polo teams represented their respective regions.

Camels in Mongolia are bactrian camels (the two-hump kind). They're hairy things and the size of some of them was impressive. I did the tourist thing and did sit on one for a little bit. They're quite comfortable...

Aaron and I added one more to our list of weird food experiences: fermented camel's milk. Description: very creamy with a slight tang. People at the festival were lining up in droves for the stuff.

Comments

Aaron and I are disappointed in how few comments we get on our blog. We pour our hearts and souls into our stories yet we rarely hear from you.

Alyssa gets regular comments. Why not us? Aren't we worth the effort? What about Billy, isn't he worth the effort? He sacrificed his life for your entertainment!

Leg bits

Discarded hooves are a common sight in Mongolia. They usually have part of the leg still attached with fur and all. The first time we saw some was at the nomadic herding family's home. Aaron and I went out to explore a bit and found ourselves walking through what looked like a hoof cemetery.

Just recently, I noticed a hoof near one of the posher stores in town, probably dragged there by one of the stray dogs.

Dulaankhaan or the story of Billy's unfortunate end

Once upon a time (last weekend actually), a group of 14 dedicated volunteers (and spouses) descended upon a quiet little town named Dulaankhaan. Dulaankhaan (translation: Warm-King) is about four hours north of UB towards the Russian border. Pete, one of the 14 volunteers, had once lived in Dulaankhaan and was now playing tour guide to the other 13. Pete had worked there helping a group of women start a jam cooperative.

We stayed at Dulaankhaan's newest and only hotel which also happens to be the only building in "lower" Dulaankhaan with a second storey. A family runs the hotel, a convenience store and the public transportation to and from Darkhan, Mongolia's second largest city about an hour away.

The highlight of the trip was to be a horhog party on the Saturday with the women from the jam cooperative. A horhog is a Mongolian speciality consisting of meat (usually mutton) cooked in a pot with hot stones. It's usually done outdoors in the summer but ours was done inside.

We met Billy on Saturday. Billy was a nice three-year old goat who was kind enough to sacrifice himself for our party. One minute after I petted his nose, Billy was on the ground, hooves up with a man's hand deep inside his chest snapping off the main vein (or was it the aorta?) from his heart. Billy died to an audience of shocked foreigners. The man attached to the hand then brought Billy inside, skinned him and removed the internal organs. While Billy was being cut into pieces, the women were preparing blood sausages and cleaning the stomach and intestines. Mongolians eat just about everything on a goat. It was all quite quick. And bloodless. Not one drop of blood was spilled. Finally and again to the shock of the foreigners, Billy's head went into the freezer for future use.

Billy was cooked with hot stones in a big pressurized pot. He was joined by potatoes, onions, garlic and spices. We ate, we sang and then danced. The women tried to teach us the tea cup dance. The dance is all in the shoulders but our shoulders didn't want to listen.

It was relaxing to be in the countryside away from the city. Deadly quiet too. Hours can easily go by without a car driving down the main drag in Dulaankhaan. Most residents walk or ride their horse to get around town.

I'd go back to Dulaankhaan in a second. Perhaps not to live but another weekend there would be nice...

Happy Women's Day!

International Women's Day is celebrated differently here than in Canada. First off, it's a full national holiday with schools and businesses closing for the day. Secondly, the day is more of an appreciation day. People celebrate the women in their lives. Husbands and sons cook dinner and give gifts to their wives and mothers. Grandchildren visit their grandmothers. It's almost like having Valentine's Day and Mother's Day on the same day. Yesterday, in one of my classes, the male students brought chocolate to give to the female students and well, me.

Weather report

For two days last week we could feel that spring was on its way. The snow was melting, the mercury made it above zero and the clothing layers started coming off people.

Then, just to prove us wrong, 10 centimetres of new snow blanketed the city. Once the snow storm ended, the temperatures plunged and we've been waking up to temperatures below -30 every morning since. Some days it does warm up during the day.

Last Sunday, a few of us (Aaron excluded) went sledding. It was ridiculously cold but we had a great time. There was a small sled rental place at the bottom of the hill. So much fun. I'm almost hoping the snow stays longer so I can go back.

A herding herder

A herder takes charge with his whistling and herds some cows out of a corral. I give him a "good job" compliment. I think he's done it a couple of times before.

Things I do differently in Mongolia (than I would in Canada)

1. I never put my bag on the floor (except at home).
   Mongolians don't ever set their bags on the floor as the superstition goes that if you do, you will be poor.
   
   
2. I drink hot water.
   It keeps me warm and we boil our water anyway.
   
   
3. I drink instant coffee.
   That stuff has to be cancerous. It just doesn't look right.
   
   
4. I always have toilet paper on me.
   Most public washrooms don't have toilet paper.
   
   
5. My long underwear are just another layer of skin now.
   
   
6. I point with my whole hand not with my index finger.
   We were told Mongolians don't point at each other but after a few months here, I can tell you that they do. But now, it's a habit and I can't help it. It looks weird.
   
   
7. The first question I ask at a store or restaurant is "Do you have ..." not "Where is ..." or "Can I have..."
   Never assume they have something even if it's on the menu or that you saw it last week.
   
   
8. I say hello to children and sometimes to grownups I don't know.
   Only if they say hello first. This exchange is usually followed by a giggling fit on their part especially if they have friends around.
   
   
9. I hem holy socks, gloves and other clothes needing repair.
   To save money, yes but also because we're only here for a short while and we want to travel with a light load when we leave Mongolia.

Things Aaron does differently in Mongolia

1. He has my red backpack permanently affixed to his back.
   The backpack is home to his laptop, essential working tool of the IT specialist that he is.
   
   
2. He argues with taxi drivers that try to charge us too much.
   Most cars don't have meters but even with meters there's ways to add on extra mileage. The majority though charge us the right rate.
   
   
3. He says things like Yanaa! (Oh no!) and Teem uu? (Really?)
   
   
4. He sometimes eats potatoes AND rice at a meal.
   For some reason it's perfectly acceptable to serve both on the same plate.
   
   
5. He hangs out with people that are his parents' age!
   The common bond of volunteering in Mongolia is enough to forget about age differences. Old fogies John and Mary can hike up a mountain faster than fit 20-year-olds.

Erdenet

The train to Erdenet takes just under 11 hours. We left at night and arrived in the morning. We could have taken a minibus for five hours instead but we chose the train. Safer. And cooler. It was one of those older trains from Soviet times. Each car had a small coal fire to warm it up.

We shared our sleeper with two Mongolian women; one just had surgery while the other was seven months pregnant. The first was quite talkative and kept us occupied with conversation. We didn't sleep especially well that night most likely due to the strange surroundings.

I made a notable entrance in Erdenet by falling into the arms of several Mongolian men as I tried to step off the train. I blame the clunky boots and the small steps. The people from the hospital where Aaron worked for the two days were very friendly and made sure we felt at home during our stay in Erdenet.

Erdenet is one of the nicer cities in Mongolia. I said in an earlier entry that it's the second largest city but I was mistaken, Darhan had a growth spurt and Erdenet fell into third spot. The mine has been nice to the city and helped with some of the infrastructure. Erdenet has the largest pool in Mongolia and many sporting facilities.

We slept better on the train ride back to UB perhaps because we knew what to expect this time. This little trip is training for our upcoming 30-hour train ride to Beijing.

Off to Erdenet

Aaron and I are taking the overnight train to Erdenet tonight. Erdenet is Mongolia's second largest city at around 90,000 people and is a big mining town.

This is again a work trip for Aaron. He will be working at the hospital while I'll be enjoying the city. You know, drinking a nice tall non-fat latte at Starbucks, window shopping for the latest fashions and stopping by Tim Hortons to warm me up after my walk around the city's sights.

Or it may be slightly different.

We'll be back in UB on Saturday.

Wild for wild horses

Last Monday, we went to a national park about an hour and a half out of town to see wild horses. Called Przewalsky horses (or tahi in Mongolian), these horses were reintroduced to the area after disappearing in the wild several decades ago.

Tahi have 66 chromosomes instead of the usual 64 chromosomes for a horse. I don't quite know what this means but it's interesting.

There's 197 horses in the 50,000 hectare park. They hang out in groups of up to 20 horses.
We saw three separate groups while we were there. They were quite pretty and we spent a long time observing them from a safe distance. There were young foals in the groups. The baby horses are white for the first year.

We also saw deer in the park and hiked a mountain. Our group were the only ones visiting the park... all this space and only the wildlife to share it with.

Again, we'll upload our photos as soon as we can.

Amar bain uu?

This is the question you ask people during Tsagaan Sar (literally White Moon). Tsagaan Sar is the Mongolian New Year which sometimes coincides with the Chinese New Year, like this year. The celebration lasts a few days (for some, up to a month) and consists of visits to family. Tsagaan Sar is about starting a new year but also honouring the older members of a family. Everyone visits the eldest person in a family and then keeps on hopping from one house to another. At each house there's a spread laid out that includes a sheep's rump, Mongolian cheese and dried curds, salads, chocolates and meat dumplings. Meat dumplings (or buuz) are central to the celebration and you can't leave a house without eating a few. The women prepare buuz in the hundreds if not thousands.

One thing I haven't figured out is how they know when to visit and when to receive. It's all very confusing.

Aaron and I visited the family of Aaron's co-worker on the weekend. We were invited to her grandmother's place. Her grandmother is 86 years old and was the first woman to drive in Mongolia. On the day of our visit, she wore her nicest del (a Mongolian long coat) and sported two medals for having had 10 children (one medal for every five). When we first came in, we greeted her with "Amar bain uu?", which roughly means "Are you at peace?", "Are you rested?" while placing her arms over ours. She then sniffed our cheeks.

It was nice to see a big happy family together. It made me miss my own.

The city was crazy on the weekend with everyone driving around with their families. There were even traffic jams. It was great to look out the window and see everyone dressed to the nines in either Western clothing or Mongolian clothing.

We'll post photos soon...

Trip to Choibalsan

Choibalsan. From Ulaanbaatar, go east until you almost hit China or Russia and you'll be in Mongolia's fourth largest town at around forty thousand people and twenty thousand dogs. Aaron was asked to visit the town's hospital and dispense advice on their IT infrastructure. I went with him. We spent five days in Choibalsan last week.

It's very flat out there, much like the Canadian Prairies. The sky just keeps going and going.

The first sign that we were no longer in a big centre was the drive from the airport to town. We got into the hospital's ambulance (a normal mode of transportation in Mongolia) and drove off the paved parking lot onto a dirt road. The dirt road is the main road that connects the airport to the town.

There are a few VSO volunteers in Choibalsan. They and the PeaceCorps volunteers entertained us on a few nights. They gave a glimpse of volunteer life outside the capital. A life where you don't ever order the chicken in a restaurant because it's "all knuckles and bones". A life where DVDs are more precious than gold and are passed around because there is no DVD shop in town.

The Dogs

There are many stray dogs in Mongolia and Choibalsan seemed to have been blessed with even more stray dogs than the rest of the country. Big dogs, little dogs, fluffy ones, ones you'd rather not touch, frozen ones, limping ones, pocketable ones. They feed on garbage and on the scraps that residents surreptitiously give them. They try to keep the dog population in check with periodic dog culls. By dog cull, I mean that the residents are encouraged by the local government to kill stray dogs. Spaying and neutering would be a better solution but there are other more pressing problems that need addressing first (like poverty and tuberculosis and unemployment). When we went the dog cull had just recently happened. Nevertheless, they were still hundreds of dogs milling about. One dog was a small white fluffy thing. Not gray, white. I was amazed, how can a stray be so white?

The Russians

Choibalsan was once buzzing with Russians. In the 1980s, as many as one hundred thousand Russians were based in Choibalsan. They were army, factory managers and workers. In 1989, everyone left. The Russians had built little towns around and in Choibalsan where they lived. They left big apartment blocks and other buildings behind that now just stand abandoned. Choibalsan went through a rough patch in the early 1990s and many of the abandoned buildings were gutted of anything salvageable. It's impressive to see these huge structures half demolished but still very much a part of the landscape.

Choibalsan has space. Lots of it. So if they get bored of the town centre in one spot, they just move it down a little further. There's no demolishing and rebuilding on top, it's more of a drop everything and move on. Many people live in big apartment blocks like in UB. The town doesn't really sprawl out. There's a definite line between countryside and town. Our favourite activity while there was to walk out into the countryside and see how far we could get from the town. We were like the Saskatchewan joke of the dog that runs away and you can see it run away for days. We tried to reach some abandoned Russian buildings on the horizon but never made it. They just kept on being further and further away.

It was a fun trip.

Now that's just wrong

Teaching has been an interesting experience. There are days when it feels totally natural to be in front of a class and the students are totally immersed in whatever we're doing and there are other days where I just can't get the students to participate in the day's activity. I'm trying to play more games with them lately just because they tend to forget that they're speaking English while doing it.

Yesterday in class, I wrote "The pen is in my hand" on the blackboard and a few minutes later I kept seeing "The penis in my hand" in students' notebooks. When I looked back at the board, I saw just how little space I had put between "pen" and "is". Oops.

Another Japan video, pictures and more

It took us a little while but we have gotten up two albums of pictures and another video of our trip to Japan. It was a great trip, but it's nice to be back home.


I have been busy since being back in Mongolia. I now have a contract with the WHO in Mongolia to assist with IT on several of their projects. My placement at the Chingeltei hospital consists of only 8 hours of work a week now. With the WHO I will be going to the far eastern part of Mongolia (Choibalsan) in a couple weeks to help them with their IT infrastructure. I think MC will be coming along. With only just over a month left in my contract with VSO (yes I am still working with under VSO for the WHO contract) we are starting to look into our plans of travel. I think Thailand is at the top of the list.

Raisin Juice

This is a conversation I had a few weeks ago:

Coworker: Mary*, do you want... (looks in dictionary) ...raisin juice?

Me: Do you mean grape juice? Sure, I'll have some. (She takes my cup, goes to the canteen and returns. I look at what she brought me back.)

Me: Oh, you really did mean raisin juice!

In my cup, there was this greeny-gray translucent liquid with bloated raisins hanging out in the bottom. It was pretty good, not too sweet, not too watery. Very refreshing.

The same coworker wants me to try aarts, a liquid milk curd drink. I've so far avoided it.

Raisins in Mongolian are called uzem. Grapes are ussand uzem which translates to "raisins with water". I'm guessing raisins came to Mongolia before grapes.

We often buy raisins (for the cabbage salad mainly) and once we got a pack of raisins made from grapes with seeds. Yum, crunchy raisins.

*They call me Mary at school. I just leave it be, it's easier.

Japan videos

I recently uploaded a few videos of our trip to Japan. A couple are videos of the Tokyo fish market, one is some live crab at the market and the video of MC driving rounds them off. Check 'em out!

No thanks, I'll walk

I was offered a ride to our flat today. I was about to say "No thanks, I want to get some fresh air." Instead I caught myself and replied "No thanks, I want to get some exercise." As Marie-Claude already said Ulaanbaatar is anything but a city that you want to get fresh air in.

Mon pays ce n'est pas un pays, c'est l'hiver.

My eyelashes were icicles this morning.

Sighting: Stray dog sporting full-on dreads. Quite a sight. I actually stopped and looked at him for a while. I wanted to take him home and shave him. I don't know dog breeds but he was like a tall, long hair cocker spaniel. I didn't have my camera with me (not that it actually works in this temperature).

Smoke

I figured it could theoretically happen but I hadn't seen it yet. In an earlier post I wrote about the open sewer holes all around the city. UB has a shortage of sewer grates, I'm not sure why but it does. Some of the open sewer holes are on sidewalks, some are on the streets. Some are huge gaping things, others are smaller but big enough to fit a car wheel. On my way home from work yesterday I saw a car stuck in one of the small ones. One of the front wheels had sunk into the man hole. The people riding in the car all came out and lifted the car front to free the wheel. A man walking in front of me rushed over to help them out. I can't imagine the damage this would do to a car. Poor car. Cars lead difficult lives in Mongolia.

If any of you look at the Ulaanbaatar weather forecast once in a while and see "Smoke" as the description, it's not a translation issue. It may look like fog but it's actually the smoke from the coal power plants and from the surrounding ger districts that has come down on the city. I could smell it in my first breath of "fresh air" when I got off the airplane on the way back from Japan. No wonder Mongolians always talk about the fresh air of the countryside.

The sentry and the driver

There are two jobs in Mongolia that have equivalents in Canada but somehow feel totally different here.

The sentry:

Jijuur is defined as sentry in my dictionary. But really, a jijuur is a door person. Practically every commercial and residential building has one or more door persons. In a commercial building, the door person is usually male and his main duties are to "monitor" who comes in and out.

Residential buildings usually have women acting as jijuurs. There's one for each entrance. The women sweep and clean the stairwell, take out the residents' garbage, roughly monitor the who comes in and take care of the sidewalk and street in front of their entrance. In exchange, they get a small salary and a place to live. Their apartment is the cramped space under the stairs on the ground floor. There's usually enough space for themselves, a small bed and a dresser. I was told that the women often come from the countryside following some kind of marital breakdown or family trouble.

We have a jijuur living under the stairs in our entrance. We say sain bain uu to her every day but that's about the extent of our interactions. Most times, she stares at us wide-eyed.

In the morning, there's usually an army of jijuurs out on the streets sweeping away. No matter the season, they're sweeping. Dust or snow.

The driver:

There are various types of drivers in Mongolia. Some organizations will have one person whose whole purpose is to be the organization's driver. VSO has one. Some are bus drivers and minibus drivers. Some drivers are entrepreneurs. They are taxi drivers or long-distance drivers. Their cars may be unmarked but this is how they earn a living. I think it may be a job Mongolian men do when they're unemployed. Or a job they do because they like being out and about. Instead of herding cattle, they herd people. When I ask my students what their dads do, a great number of them respond driver.

Dodging dodgy traffic

There's one thing that every foreigner learns quickly when they set foot in Mongolia: pedestrians do not, ever, have the right of way. That's just the way it is. Mongolians are very patient people but for some reason, if they're in a car, their patience vanishes and they will inch their way to their destination at the cost of traffic rules and pedestrians' well-being.

When we first arrived, we found that the easiest way to cross the road is to have an "escort". We would wait for a Mongolian to come to the intersection and simply follow him or her into the street. Unfortunately, there are times when escorts are hard to come by and we must venture out on our own. We've come to know certain intersections quite well and can predict when to cross.

Aaron and I have also mastered the multi-stage approach to crossing a street. One lane at a time. If we get stuck in the middle of the street for a while, I sometimes turn my feet to the side so they stick out less into the lane.

Now that it's winter, there's an added unpredictability to the traffic: slippery surfaces. The snow has been compacted down into ice and most cars only have bald poorly-inflated summer tires. Talk about fun.

Sidenote on the sidewalks: Many sidewalks now have a strip of ice going down the middle. Pedestrians have the choice between sliding down the ice to their destination or walking on the more stable compacted snow. The best one so far is a sidewalk that goes up a hill near our house. It's a long straight hill and you can just let yourself go down this nice ice strip. Our local grocery store is at the top of the hill so we get to slide home. Aaron's tried to slide up but it doesn't work so well (blame gravity). Aaron fell once going down but his fall was cushioned by the grocery bag. Thankfully, I was carrying the eggs.

Japan is so yesterday.

We left Japan yesterday and made it back to cold Mongolia. It was hard to pry ourselves away from all the wonderful food and the mild weather, but we did it. We saw Venita and Jean-François; Eric and Tanisha; Daisuke; Mike, Yuka and Heagan; and Peter and Shannon. We saw Tokyo, Kamakura, Okayama, Nakasho, Kurashiki, Kyoto, Hiroshima and Miyajima.

Tokyo

Tokyo was huge and bright and clean and sunny. It was fun to explore.

The weirdest things we ate

1. Fish sperm sacks (think silky smooth and creamy)
   
2. Cow tongue (delicious barbecued yakiniku-style)
3. Deep-fried chicken cartilage (crunchy, yet satisfying)
4. Half-cooked chicken (the Japanese have a thing for raw things it seems)
5. Pounded rice balls (really elasticky)
   

Christmas and New Year's

Christmas Eve dinner was a feast at Venita and JF's place. Tourtières, stuffing, chicken, chocolate cake, oh my. Christmas morning we woke up really early to go to a fish auction. We spent New Year's Eve with Mike and Yuka (Yuka for the first part of the night). We were in an amusement park for the countdown with thousands of others and saw fireworks from behind a tree. We were in Kyoto on New Year's Day visiting temples along with the Japanese who were doing their prayers for the New Year.

Dinner with Daisuke

One evening, Daisuke brought us to this hole-in-the-wall chicken yakitori place near Shinjuku station. It was pouring rain outside and we walked down this tiny alley that had one tiny chicken place after another tiny chicken place. We walked into one and huddled in the back corner and ordered one little dish after another. Chicken skewers. Shochu (a Japanese alcoholic drink). Raw fish. It was great.

Daisuke is Ryuko's boyfriend, a woman we met in Ulaanbaatar.

The vending machines

Aaron and I calculated (on a really long walk in Kyoto) that there's one vending machine for every 60 citizens of Japan. They were everywhere! We hiked to the summit of a mountain and sure enough, there was a vending machine at the top. And we used them quite a bit. Many offered hot and cold drinks; others, cheap cigarettes and still others, beer. There was also the ice cream vending machines.

The washrooms

Heaven! Pre-warmed seats, soap (a luxury in Mongolian washrooms), toilet paper (also a luxury, heck intact seats are a rarity) and loads of buttons that I didn't dare push. There's public washrooms everywhere too. Aaron's bladder seemed to shrink in Japan and he spent his time visiting as many facilities as he could. Only one thing, why the cold water for washing hands?

The trains

Japan's train system is plain amazing. It runs on time, it's frequent and the subway and longer distance trains are well-integrated. We had one-week rail passes (thanks Linda and Michael for the quick work on sending those our way) that allowed to hop and off anywhere in the country and they were the greatest things ever.

The ferris wheels

Japan is littered with ferris wheels. Every city has at least one. We didn't ride any.

Hiroshima

It was a strange feeling walking around in a city that 60 years ago had been obliterated by an atomic bomb. It looked like any other Japanese city with bright lights and lots of shopping opportunities. There is only one building left standing in the city centre that show damage from the bomb. The Peace Museum nearby tells the story of Hiroshima and they do it quite powerfully.

Peter and Shannon were wonderful hosts and took us around Hiroshima quite a bit. And we got to sleep in a real tatami room in their apartment.

Aaron will post photos shortly.