9 Hour Bus Rides and Unexpected Visitors

Last week was my first trip back to UB since I came to site in August. It was interesting and full of the usual unexpected frustrations of traveling in Mongolia. It was nice to be back in a city, with sidewalks and taxis. And the abundance of good places to eat and things to buy was amazing, though a bit frustrating with my severely limited budget. UB is the only place in Mongolia where you can find just about anything you want, from the extensive Black Market, the State Department Store and all the various food markets that have things like ginger and real cheese.
There is a bus that goes to and from UB every day from Tsetserleg, which is really nice because the Mikrs are miserable and take forever. The bus is much faster, we actually made the trip in 9 hours (compared to the 18 it took me by Mikr when I came to site…) They have also done quite a bit of work on the road to UB since last I traveled it. The road is an interesting story. They are currently working on paving the entire road to UB. Once that is completed it will be amazing, as the difference between driving on pavement and driving across a field is vast. When I say they are currently working on paving the road, what I mean is they have been working on it for the past two years and are a little more than half-way finished. Things in Mongolia don’t generally follow what Westerners would consider “logical.” Before they began paving this road they tore up the entire 500 kilometers of existing dirt/gravel road, leaving travelers for the past two years to take the bone-jarring driving-across-the-field option. The only reason for this I could come up with is that it’s possible there are only about two road-tearing-up machines in Mongolia, and they are also working on roads elsewhere…
I went to UB for a Mercy Corps training. We are going to start value chain analyses, which is apparently the new big thing in development work, of Yak wool and meat production in Arkhangai. We attended a three day training on how to do a value chain analysis. The training was, of course, all in Mongolian and I was the only American attending (except for one morning when Meaghan, a Fellow at the UB Mercy Corps office also attended). I struggled to really get much out of the training because my translator has, at best, weak English. The first day I understood almost nothing, but then the second day a translator from the UB office was there and she did a great job translating. And then the third day I found a woman who works at a Mercy Corps office in a different Aimeg who speaks nearly fluent English and she also did a great job translating for me. I was actually able to participate in the activities and understand what was going on, which made it a lot more worthwhile for me to be there.
I also got to see several other volunteers who either live in UB or were visiting for various reasons. I was hoping that I would see Cady, as CHF is also doing a value chain training this month. At first we expected to be there at the same time, but CHF kept changing the dates and we ended up missing each other by one day. Oh well. I did manage to finally (after several tries and calls to various people) find the veterinary clinic that is run by an American to buy shots for Sophie. Mongolians outside of UB generally don’t immunize their dogs, so it is impossible to buy shots out in the countryside. I’m a little nervous about giving Sophie her shots myself, but I think I’ll be able to handle it.
During my stay in UB I learned from another PCV in Arkhangai that he was under a Plague and Anthrax warning... I think Mongolia is one of, if not the only, place in the world where plague is still an actual threat. And anthrax occurs naturally. This past August a boy died from plague in another Aimeg, and the current plague scare was caused by a boy in Arkhangai who got sick after, I think, butchering a marmot. Not to worry though, the plague is now completely curable, and I actually have the necessary medicine in my handy Peace Corps-issued Medical kit. I think it might actually be kind of cool to get the plague. But I was a little worried that Arkhangai would be put under a quarantine, and I wouldn't be able to go home. Luckily that didn't happen.
My trip got interesting on Thursday. After finishing our training I asked Uunee when we would go to buy our bus tickets. You have to buy the ticket the day before, and you have to go in the morning or they sell out. I had been told we would leave on Saturday, and Mercy Corps had only given us a per diem through Saturday, so I was a bit shocked when Uunee said “on Sunday.” I then asked her “But aren’t we leaving on Saturday??” and she said no, that since it was the weekend we didn’t have to go back yet. When I asked her where we were supposed to stay (as Mercy Corps would not pay for our hotel longer than Friday night) she said she would stay with family. Well, thanks for thinking of me…. So I told her that was fine, but I was going back on Saturday. I could have stayed with another PCV, but wouldn't have had the Mercy Corps per diem to pay for my meals, and I was expected back on Saturday to pick up Sophie. Then a few minutes later Uunee said she had changed her mind and would also go back on Saturday, and that we would go buy our tickets the next morning at 9. I told her that if she wanted to stay that was fine, I could take the bus back by myself, but I would really appreciate if she would go with me to buy the ticket because I didn’t know where to go. She said she would.
So the next morning, at 5 till 9:00 I knocked on her door, only to find her bleary-eyed and still in her pajamas. Obviously having just woken up. So I asked if we were, in fact, going to buy the bus tickets. And she sort of nodded and closed the door. Then about two minutes later she sends me a text message saying she changed her mind and was going to buy her ticket on Sunday. So I knocked on her door again and reminded her that she had told me she would go with me… She seemed very confused by that and eventually I ended up calling the Peace Corps office where the receptionist explained to me where to buy the ticket. So I went on my own. After paying 4,000 Tugrik for the taxi ride out to the bus stop, I decided to walk back into the city center. As I was walking I got a text from Uunee saying that the hotel said we had to be out by noon, followed almost immediately by another asking if I had bought my ticket. I don’t know if she doesn’t think about what is going on, or just doesn’t care. So I called her and told her that Mercy Corps would obviously need to pay for another night in the hotel for me, since the earliest I could leave was Saturday.
The next morning I got a cab to take me to the bus stop. Since it was early in the morning I took a registered cab, because sometimes the unregistered ones are a little shady at off-hours. I thought everything would be fine, and the taxi driver and I even had a little conversation. Then we got to the bus stop and he tried to charge me 10,000 Tugrik for the drive. I told him that was too expensive, one kilometer is 300 Tugrik and it’s about 14 kilometers. He hadn’t reset his odometer, so didn’t know how many kilometers it was, but tried to tell me it was more. I told him that just the day before I had paid 4,000 Tugrik, and he said that was a bad taxi. We went round and round in my broken Mongolian. Finally I slyly pulled out all the money in my wallet except my last 5,000 tugrik bill (which amounted to about 6,000) and said "bi arlove miank bakgue" (I don't have 10,000), gave him 6,000 and got out. They always want to scam the foreigner, and it’s not even tourist season anymore.
The bus ride home wasn’t too terrible. On the way to UB I was sitting over the wheel well, so my legs were all scrunched up and the heater was on overdrive and blowing hot air all over my feet the whole time. Not only that but I had the two inevitable drunk guys sitting right behind me ashing their cigarettes all over me. They thought they were pretty clever, putting their vodka into water bottles, unfortunately they effectively blew their cover by giggling like schoolgirls when they passed it to their friend a few seats ahead saying "os" (water). That and the fact that they were completely wasted by the end of the trip, and getting progressively louder and louder.
On the way back I had figured out the little trick of asking for a good seat, and I got a fairly good one. Unfortunately, I found out that the overactive heater runs the whole length of the bus, so it was still ridiculously hot. And we couldn’t open the vents in the roof because of the four small children, who were also taking turns screaming their lungs out (probably because they were hot). But 9 hours of such misery is a whole lot better than 18, so I’m not complaining. The bus is actually the Post Bus, which is apparently how I get my mail. It has seating for about 25 people, but since (I presume) the luggage compartment is filled up with mail, all luggage goes under the seats or in the aisle. That arrangement can easily lead to a bit of claustrophobia, especially when it’s about 95 degrees on the bus. There isn’t really a limit on baggage, so though most Mongolians travel extremely light, when they are coming back from the city they have inevitably bought several things, or have 10 empty aireg jugs they are bringing home with them. So getting on and off the bus is a precarious adventure, involving climbing over seats and luggage and hoping the old lady in the del can make it.
I had assumed that when we arrived in Tsetserleg there would be a swarm of taxis waiting at the bus stop, as it is obviously a good opportunity to make some money. Much to my disappointment, there were only two, and I was not off the bus quickly enough to snatch one. And you can't just stand on the side of the street and stick your hand out to get a taxi here, like you can in UB. Since I don't have any drivers' numbers, I had to walk home, which is normally about a 10 minute walk, but as I had brought a good 20-30 pounds of books back with me from the Peace Corps office, it was actually a quite miserable 20 minute walk. But then I got to go pick up Sophie from Andrea and Konrad, who were kind enough to watch her while I was away. Sophie had some sort of amazing growth spurt last week, and is now quite a bit bigger. And is starting to put on some weight and has a cute little puppy belly now, instead of looking emaciated.

Yesterday I had the unexpected pleasure of some visitors. There are a few girls who live in my building who I've become friendly with (mostly over Sophie), and every now and then they will knock on my door and say hello. Yesterday Ako and Bukee knocked on my door, and after a few minutes of chatting, asked to come in. So I invited them in, and apologized for the messy state of my apartment. They quickly said that was OK and that they would clean it for me. Many TEFL volunteers have this experience, students come over and are appalled by the state of their ger, so quickly begin a thorough cleaning. As a CED volunteer, I don't have students to do my chores, so have not yet encountered this aspect of Mongolian generosity. Ako quickly set about washing my dishes and scouring my sink and counter top, while Bukee quickly organized all my various papers and things. I felt awkward, and bad that my apartment was not up to Mongolian cleanliness standards, so I fed them some left over spaghetti, which they loved. Jeff was in town for some sort of teaching thing, and he came back to my apartment while Ako and Bukee were teaching me Mongolian Hutzer (cards), so we all played a couple games. Then Jeff left and the three of us had an impromptu dance party to various poppy American music on my computer (all Mongolian teenagers know Beyonce, Snoop Dog, Akon and Fergie and absolutely love them).