TRAVELOGUE #11

When: Tuesday, June 20
Where: Mongolia (#5 Train)

I woke up this morning to timid tapping on my ger door. It was Saraa. She had come to tell me it was 9 AM, in other words, breakfast time. This was unfortunate news because I had to leave camp by 10 AM in order to catch the #5 train to Moscow. I had only an hour to eat, pack, shower, and purge a wicked hangover. Somehow, I managed to do all of those things except assuage my self-inflicted sickness. While packing, I realized I had ripped several pages out of the Monkey Shrine travel guide the night before in a drunken effort to start a fire in the wood stove at the center of my ger. NOTE TO SELF: Don’t start any more fires while inebriated! I threw my things together and walked 100 meters to the van. I was the only one departing, and yet, the entire camp staff gathered to see me off. Each member shook my hand and said goodbye in a touchingly authentic way. It made me feel like a total asshole because my head was cloudier than a mojito. I managed to say, “Ger camp lovely! You wonderful! Big horse!” I think they knew my heart was in the right place, even though my stomach wasn’t. As the van departed, the staff waved goodbye in unison; in slow motion. It was like the end of a very good movie. What could possibly happen next? A credit roll?

Once we arrived in Ulan Bator, the driver dropped me off in a hotel parking lot and told me to meet him back in an hour. We spoke via hand signals. I sought/found a grocery store and bought the following: 3 oranges, 4 apples, 1 box of chamomile tea, 1 box of English breakfast tea, One 200 g bag of dried rolled oats, 1 bag of orange candy, and one single serving pack of instant salted milk tea (as a souvenir). I had about 20 min after shopping, so I decided to stop off at an internet café. I composed a single salutation for those back home, but just before I got a chance to send it the computer froze. I didn’t have time to send another, so I just cursed loudly (a benefit of being in a non-English speaking country), and left. Now I’m on the train, sharing a cabin with a sharp nosed Canadian named Jeff.