Kirsten Melis goes
Mongol Derby 2013
Officially in Mongolia!
30 July 2013
At the announcement that we will be landing soon, I look out the window where the sun isn’t properly awake yet, I get a glimpse of my first few gers! So exciting, I’m getting butterflies already!!
After all those months of stressing, arranging and running around I’M FINALLY HERE!!
I met up with another Derby competitor Todd Cranney, a Queenslander, who was on the same flight as I was. After some discussion with a Mongolian taxi driver about how much we would have to pay him, he agreed and loaded our bags in the cab and we drove off.
A pretty bumpy ride from the airport to Ulaanbaatar, big potholes in the road and we are swerving from left to right of the road, quickly over taking the person in front of us and dug back in front of him, before the big truck from the opposite direction comes quickly towards us! A very interesting ride to say the least!
When we arrived at my hotel I gave him the money that we thought he agreed upon.... However it wasn’t enough, so some more discussing and he said we can drive to the closest ATM to get some money out and then it’ll be fine. After getting some money back to my hotel and check in. But as we arrived at 5.30am there hotel looked rather deserted, a bit of knocking/banging on the door, andfinally someone’s head popped around the corner and let me in. Checked in to my room, a neat room but with a funny and slightly unpleasant smell. The first thing you want to do after such long days and flights is having a nice warm shower. I get in the bathroom, look at the shower and see a hairdryer hanging in it! Safety standards in Mongolia must be slightly different than in Australia or other more developed countries around the world.... Took the hairdryer out and turned on the shower, but..... the water was COLD! I waited and waited but unfortunately it didn’t turn warm, but no chance for a hot shower just yet. Oh well then, bit of deodorant and I surely smell decent again.
Off to the Ramada hotel were Tamara Hudleston and Alex Embiricos are waiting for me to go to the Chinggis Khaan statue. One of the ladies that worked in the Ramada had offered Tamara and Alex to drive us to the statue. She was a very smart woman that would tell us lots about the country and other little things. The trip to the statue is about 55km out of Ulaanbaatar but it nearly takes you an hour to get out of the city due to all the traffic and then nearly another hour because of the bad roads. Lots of potholes everywhere, you have to drive over to the dirt tracks alongside the bitumen roads, they are very bumpy and weren’t very fast going. Along the road we stopped were a couple of men offered tourists to have photo’s taken with their vultures and golden eagles. Those birds are massive!
After about 2 hours we saw the massive statue that measures 40m (130ft) high!
We had a walk around the statue and then the climbing started to the top of the horses head. At the top an amazing view of the surrounding and offcourse of ‘Chinggis Khaan’ up-close. Downstairs was an exhibition room of all the bronze things, like stirrups, bits, arrow points, belt buckles ect, they have found throughout Mongolia dating back to the Chinggis Khaan time (1206-1227).
Then it was time to head back to Ulaanbaatar, again along the bumpy road and all the traffic in Ulaanbaatar. Tamara and I decided to have something to eat after the long day and went to Cafe California, great food and not expensive. After that I went back to the hotel and meet my roommate Katie for the first time, it was great to finally meet each other in person. I got a message from some of the other girls, asking if we would like to come down to the Ikh Mongol pub and meet up with a few other riders. At the pub we met up with Lynne Gilbert, Lydia, Devon, Todd, Sandra, Alex, Tamara and Shelley Bates. We had a few drinks and some good laughs but then the exhaustion kicked in, so we went back to the hotel for a good night sleep.