September 18

I spent the morning looking for a jeep and driver to get us to Moron or Khatgal, roughly 700km away.  Everyone I spoke to told me the quickest we could get there was in 2-3 days.  I understood roads here were rubbish but we didn't have that much time to waste in a car.  I went back to the hotel to call Puujee and wait for Marty.  When I spoke to Puujee he said the plane had arrived but the bike hadn't.  I was starting to worry now.  I met Marty at reception when he arrived and there he was with two bike bags.  I was relieved to see a familiar face as well as my bike, we were back on track.


We went to a tour company which was closed earlier and told the owner, Tseren, about our plans.  She told us were "very stupid" to come to Mongolia for two weeks.  Advice taken, our plans had changed, we were now heading for Tsetserleg, about 500km away, mostly on bitumen - apparently there is only 400-500km of sealed road in the whole country so best to make the most of it.  By this stage we were quite used to the appearance of a calculator to add up costs, even for the most basic of calculations, consultation was necessary.  Tseren couldn't even use the calculator so she allowed us to add it up for her.  I think the final price was much less than it should have been, but we paid and got out there satisfied we were finally going somewhere tomorrow.


People are very trusting, I bought a pair of sunglasses and once the lady realised she had no change, she happily ran off for five minutes while we attempted to sell her wares to passers-by.  The only sport we had seen was wrestling on the TV until we found a bunch of people playing speed chess in the square.  The other popular sport was shoving your kid in a remote control car and then sitting back laughing while they screamed and balled their eyes out.  We made it home in time to see the Doggies lose another prelim.

Marty selling sunnies

Kenny Rogers must be having a ciggie