Having let that cavalcade of posting be digested, I'll now move on to Mongolia in full. This is the land where British English can still be seen, but is fading faster in favour of the American dialect (and dialectic) than seemingly in Beijing, where still in the Forbidden City signs still reference autumnal months as Autumn and not just there. The British English ideal was promoted in Mongolia by Soviet Russia (not all bad then, the USSR). But English as a whole is growing in Ulaan Baatar though there are still confusions (one shop sign read "COMPUTER DRY-CLEANING").
Back from China, Altaa and I spent less than one day in UB before heading out to the countryside. We had little time since Altaa had to be at work on Monday and it was Wednesday before. No problem it seems on the surface, but we were going to Lake Khovsgul and just getting to Khovsgul region's capital, Murun, would involve driving around the clock. We were packed tight into the minibus, five to three seats and it felt that my legs were set in concrete, so immovable were they. The journey took nineteen hours, leaving at 5pm. At around 4am the driver took a ten minute nap (the only time he slept) and then we were off again. There were breaks every few hours to get out and stretch legs for about ten minutes or so. Once in Murun, we had lunch, bought some supplies and saw another free-wheeling cow, walking down the middle of the road and lowing at the insolent traffic that passed it.
We arrived in Khatgal, the southernmost and biggest town on Lake Khovsgul at 7pm Thursday. By more luck than design we found the guesthouse, I wanted - Nature's Door. This was an environmental set-up, so conscious of preserving the purity of the lake that they had organic composting toilets in which all waste is removed and taken to a composting site outside the national park we were in (I guess they don't use solar-powered trucks to take it though); guests help the process by dumping a few scoops of the self-service sawdust on their waste after they finish.
Altaa and I chose to spend our nights in a ger, a Mongolian tent, rather than the dorms of the brick guesthouse. Being off-season, most of the food on the menu list was off the menu, so we had to make do with what they did have. Next day, we walked by the lake, saw this adorable kitten crawl out of this ramshackle shack and it fell in love with us and tried to follow us, and found this family who were willing to take us out onto the lake. Now, Lake Khovsgul is big. It contains 2% of the world's fresh water and to put this in perspective, all of the rivers in the world combined contain 0.5% of the world's fresh water. The curvature of the earth meant that we could not see the end of the lake, which is more than 200km long. The man took us out in a no-frills but effective speedboat for two hours and we could really admire the size and scope of the place with its beautiful tree-lined coasts. In the centre of the (southern part of the) lake, tumultuous waves crashed on the prow and we were refreshed by the spray. As the boat hurtled along I gathered up some water from here and we drank this pure water, straight from the lake - it had a bit of a tangy taste as I was using an empty orange juice bottle.
That night I could really appreciate the constellations in the sky though I wished I knew more about the patterns of the stars. The next morning, Saturday, we were off back to Murun. While looking for a jeep in Murun to take us back to UB, we met this Japanese man, Yoshchi, who with no ties, business or romantic, holding him back in Japan was exploring Mongolia by himself. I, at least, had a Mongolian translator always close by. Yoshchi was a true pioneer. He had quit his job to enable him to take several months off to see Mongolia. He liked the frequent mutton dishes he could not get back in Japan. We banded together as a threesome to get a discount on the journey back (20 hours).
On Sunday night, Altaa and I went to a mutual friend's place (Andre and Bagalmaa) for dinner, with fish from Lake Khovsgul. It was Bagalmaa who had helped Altaa in delaying the start of her teaching job. We saw their new baby and swapped anecdotes.
The rest of my time in Mongolia not much happened. I filled up my spare time in the day and with Altaa at night.
And now I'm back in the UK, which brings this all up to date. All posts will now be more recent.