der weg ist das ziel

After just five days on a train that travels at an average speed of about 60 km/h I am now in Mongolia. Let me start with my impression of Ulaanbaatar: I wouldn't want to live here. Obviously I don't mean this for the whole of Mongolia, I still find the countryside fascinating and assume I won't get disappointed over the next month here, but the city of Ulaanbaatar is very strange, and not necessarily in a good way. Imagine this bizarre sight: loads of Plattenbau buildings (there is no english translation for this sort of socialist-era-building made of concrete slabs...), many still under construction, and amidst this damning reminder of Soviet influence a buddhist temple, looking very ancient but still complete intact. Mind you, this is basically the only buddhist temple left standing here after Choibalsan's purges in the 1930's. It was left standing to "demonstrate the feudal ways of the past".

But let me go back to Moscow with my storytelling :-)
Did I mention Coco's paranoia of Russian police? I have to admit that it was weird knowing that there where I was is the place where Volker Beck, a German politician of the Green party, was beat up by the Russian police twice for taking part in the Moscow CSD (Christopher Street Day, which in Moscow is far from what it is most western European countries: basically just a peaceful demonstration advocating tolerance). And this was in 2006 and 2007. Coco and I were thinking of putting stickers with "I heart democracy" on our bags... On that note, I saw some nice oil barrels with the label "Gazprom" on them in Siberia.

The train we took was Mongolian and there were lots of Mongolian traders on it with boxes everywhere, in every compartment, and they wanted to leave things in our compartments. Eventually some boxes where stowed away under the floor of the train (and amazingly the Russian customs people in Nauschki looked in every nook of the train, even on the inside of the ceiling covers, but not in the stowaway space underneath the train...). Being on the Mongolian train we didn't have a shower, and washing my hair in the tiny bathroom sink (shaking all the time) was an interesting experience. Now that we've arrived I had a shower and am thus smelling fresh and clean again :-)
At this point I need to give a helpful tip to all my female friends: when you have terrible menstrual cramps and stuffing yourself with painkillers doesn't help (the shaking of the train seemed to have amplified my cramps), put a small lavender pillow on your belly: it helps! And at this point I would like to mention my dislike of the taboo that still exists around talking about menstruation. I have read many accounts of adventurous travels to the ends of the earth and never have these accounts mentioned the "special difficulties" of having your period when traveling.

I'm sorry for not being chronological: I just write what comes to mind. I was also appalled by the Stalin souvenirs you could buy in Moscow. Why not start selling t-shirts with Pol Pot on them in Cambodia and Towels with Hitler on them in Germany?!
Although with some of the symbols still on display I did wonder what country I'm in. The best example is probably the hammer and sickle with "CCCP" (cyrillic for USSR) at the train station in Moscow...

Anyways, I guess I could go on for ages, it really was an interesting and fun journey! Except for the food... Cup noodles and Tuetensuppen...

Obviously the organic tasted much better! But food just wasn't meant to be in the form of powder...

We're going to be in Ulaanbaatar for a few days now and then probably head north to Lake Khoevsguel...

By the way, Coco put more photos on facebook and I put some on studivz, since there's a limit here... And if anyone feels like calling us, we have just bought a sim card for our cell phone, the number is +976-99708912. But please remember the time difference ;-)