ENLIGHTENED CEILING../ HEIJING 23.5 2007

15 Yuan for a thin noodle soup. What a price for such a treat…eh. This was their lucky day. Anyway, it was warm and it even had meat in it. Small, small pieces of dried goat meat. At least it was not goats head soup. But the Beer was cold.

The heat from the stove was nice –fuelled by dried yaks dung. Good recycling. Ion this area one can see these piles of dried shit. Not only from Yaks but goat, horse, cow…. Whatever might be available. The room was a combined kitchen and bedroom. A big, hard and square construction in the corner. Our bedroom was next door with five beds in a row. It was comfortable and nice after four night camping. This Mongol village or group of five houses is only inhabited during the summer season. It is too cold here in the winter. Lucky for us that they arrived a week ago… Pat was afraid that they would not be here. He had this worried look just before we arrived. Good for him and good for us. He had actually started his journey back. Along the same route but accompanied by just two horses and a load of money in his pocket. He made more than an average salary for two months, but his input was invaluable – worth every cent. This little village has a shop – stuffed in a shack filled with gods and a satellite phone. These locals were quite young – the most active guy. Some kind of spokesman for them was in his thirties. With a baseball cap on his head and something that was supposed to be a moustache. His wife ran the shop. Ayken used the phone frequently – trying to get hold of our truck driver. Which he did. Long conversations…arguing.. - I told him to come here as soon as possible. That the horses need the corn. He was tired he said…tomorrow. Then I told that he would be in BIG trouble if he would not continue driving … Ayken looked content. It was as if he had grown at least 20 centimeters. - How long time will take for the truck to come here from Bayanbulak? I asked. Four hours was his reply. Hmm, must be shitty road.. But the expression on Aykens face changed rapidly when he heard how much he had to pay for using the phone - 80 quai !?...That is outrageous (= 8 € / 11 usd – for a 15 minute satellite phone call..Not bad I say) And when we left – with the beer in plastic bag Ayken was still muttering…that also the beer was expensive. Well, we enjoyed the comforts of their house. And the cold beer. But how can people live here? Now the weather was good. But these are rough surroundings. It must be in these Mongols blood.. Later on our host told Ayken that the road was broken - only accessible by jeep. So, off Ayken went with our host and his jeep to get the food for the horses – while we were digesting both the food and these fantastic previous days. The variety of the nature…the colors, high altitude flowers…wild animals We finished our meal and prepared ourselves for real beds. Then a knock on the door and to guys came in with a huge grey box. And attached to it was a cord and at the end of the cord was a lamp. They looked very proud and with a very distinguished choreography they switched it on – solar power. The room was illuminated - the ceiling was covered with golden/red tape – in some kind of tartan pattern. We had to enjoy this modernity for a while…then it was time to sleep. We continued our journey in the morning. Not too early – the horses where still tired. Even if they had been corn fed. The villagers bid us farewell with smiles – we had made their day.nope much more than that. After a heavy climb, mostly along the road we finally reached the pass – again at 3300 meters. Luckily we had a grass-covered plateau ahead of us – as far as the eye could see. These surroundings seemed to give our dear horses some extra strength. This area reminded us slightly of Kyrgyzstan. Twenty kilometers later we finally spotted our truck - o n the other side of a rumbling river. A river with ice blocks and stones. The last task of the day was to cross it. The Mongol city of Bayanbulak was getting closer. Just two days to go… Continues…

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