After two not so fun Chinese commuter trains I made it to the border town. In the border town I got out off the train to a notable weather change. It’s starting to get pretty chilly as I move north! In the border town I started to notice some changes. It wasn’t like the typical Chinese towns I had seen. It seemed more Russian… There was Russian writing under the Chinese on the sign as well.

As I walked through the town I finally made it to the bus station and got my phone charged and used the suprising fast wifi there. After a couple hour wait my border bus was ready to depart. I got on the bus with some Chinese and likely Mongolian people and we headed for the border. We got to the Chinese border and got out of the bus to proceed with the exit paperwork. A Chinese soldier seemed really curious to see a foreignor at the land border crossing since they probably don’t get many. He asked to see my passport and spent time turning through each page of my passport. Often when I see officials do this they seem very procedural, but he had a glimmer of genuine intrigue and interest in the places I have been. He smiled at me and said, “American!” as he handed me back my passport.

Back onto the bus and then a stop at the Mongolian entry point. More paperwork and more waiting. Then onto the bus one last time and then we we’re shuttled to the center of the Mongolian border town. In all it took probably 2 hours to get through.

Immediately, I started to notice some things about this Mongolian border town. It wasn’t at all like I expected. It seemed more Russian then Asian, and really it wasn’t much of a town. Historically, the Mongols are a nomadic people. Town and city building isn’t really their thing and it shows. Most of the buildings here are left over from the Soviet occupation it seems. Mongolia was a Soviet satalite state from 1924-1990. During that time Russia pumped in money and built hospitals, schools, theaters, and a lot of public services that were previously foreign to the Mongolian people.

Even today 30% of the countries population maintains a nomadic lifestyle. That is one of the reasons Mongolia is unlike any country I have ever visited. The picture above is a “ger.” Gers are homes made easily transportable for when the nomadic people move to a different pastures. It’s said there are 10 sheep for every person in Mongolia. This nomadic culture and reliance on horsemanship is apparent in most respects when observing the country.

There is a huge respect for the great Genghis Kahn and his likeness appear everywhere from posters to cigarette and vodka brands.

I said the border town initially made me think of Russia and Soviet times, and that isn’t helped by the dilapidated look of the public park. Then picture makes it look like a depraved town during the dust bowl, but these are the realities when towns flirt close with the Gobi desert. The majority of the country’s land isn’t arable, but is a grassy steppe. This is one of the larger reasons why the nomadic lifestyle still prevails.

The train station in this border town looked like it was built by the Russians probably in the 50s and then closed when the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. However, in fact, it was still open. It was ornate, almost like a church. You could tell it it’s hay day it would have seemed extravagant, right on par with the the image of Trans Siberian Railroad when it first opened. By looking at the building, however, one would ha guessed it hadn’t been used in years. The majority of the doors were barred shut and you actually had to go to another building, a more modern one, to buy tickets. Stepping into the old station revealed a waiting room and a luggage room and not much else. Walking into the waiting room was like stepping into a time capsule. There was a cigar lounge and and a bar. It was the type of bar you could imagine Western travelers enjoying a scotch at during one of there stops along their Trans Siberian journey.

The train itself was like something straight out of the Polar Express or Harry Potter. While, the steam locomotive wasn’t quite on par, the cabins and the carriages carried an aura of excitement for the coming journey. I couldn’t help but grinding the whole time.

A 6pm departure got us out of town and into the vastness of the Gobi right in time for sunset. Out of the East window you could see the vast stretches of uninhabited plains. Out of the West window you got a spectacular view of the sun setting over the desert. I couldn’t have asked for a better send off on my first official leg of the Trans Siberian Railroad. Though Beijing is generally considered the start (or end) of the railroad, I could hardly consider that a proper start since this train was my first experience with a sleeper car.

I slept like a log through the night, and only awoke once when I gained two roommates at a stop along the way. I barely noticed and continued sleeping. In my 8 days in China I had only slept in a proper bed 3 times. The rest was either on a train or a bus. So to me this 2nd class sleeper car feels like luxury. I awoke in the morning to rolling hills and the desert blanketed in snow. From time to time we would pass a little settlement with a couple buildings and numerous gers.

At around 9am we pulled into the station. Yet another climate shock. We are getting colder and colder as I go! The picture above shows the trusty stead that carried us through the night. Now I am in Ulan Bator! This is the cpaital.of Mongolia and by far it’s biggest city. In fact this city makes up 45% of the countries population.

I first got to a hostel and then connected to WiFi to organize my next moves. I still needed to go back to the train station in the afternoon to book my train ticket taking me to Irktusk, Russia the next day. I stepped in and made plans to go see the famous monastery in the city. Inside there was this massive shrine of some person or god. I tried to discretely snap a picture since I was the only tourist and everyone else there was performing rituals and worshipping. I failed to get the whole thing, but it was massive and quite impressive.

The city has some mountains out to the South and to the East there is a national park and the world’s largest equestrian statue built in Genghis Kahn’s honor. Due to my time restraints and the steep price to take a tour there I unfortunately won’t get to see Genghis in his future glory. However, that just shows the true legend status he maintains in this country. I read about how Mongols are the best horseman in the world and learned that they start so young that they actually become deformed and have a hunched over back from riding so often at such a young age. By the monastery was the first time I observed this. I saw several old men in the traditional winter coats and boots hunched over to an average height of around 5′. It was crazy to see that in person. I reckon the older generation grew up in those traditions and some of the last who will experience that deformity.

My first day in Ulan Bator was literally freezing… During the day it was 0° Fahrenheit not including the wind chill! It’s a little bit of a shock coming from the 90°s of Thailand so recently. Luckily, my hostel owner was going to the black market and invited me to go along. I’m not sure why it’s called the black market, because it’s essentially just the popular local market. You probably have to know someone to get the black market items. But my purpose was warm close. For a grand total of $26 I came away with a sheep wool sweater, camel wool socks and a hat, and yak wool gloves. Mongolia is one of the largest producers of wools products and if I was heading home I would have loaded up on the cheapest cashmere clothing I have ever seen. If you are into wool, this place would be heaven for you.

Day 2:

I started the day by leaving my hostel at 9am. It was -12°! I sure am glad I have all this wool gear now otherwise I’d be in trouble. I started out towards the National Museum of Mongolian History with a pit stop at the city square. The city square, once again, reinforced the cultural significance of Genghis Kahn and the nomadic lifestyle. Below you can see a sculptures of (probably) significant men on horse back and a sculpture of Genghis Kahn ruling his empire.

At the museum I got a real glimpse of the rich history of Mongolia. The one thing traveling that has struck me is how much history is in some of these civilizations compared to the United States. Mongolia has one of the richest histories of any. There were the early people who were hunter and gatherers. However, then I found it interesting to see that some early cultures of Mongols developed cities and towns. That is especially interesting considering even today 30% of the country still lives as nomads with out permanent cities or town.

I got a better understanding of gers and how the nomadic people thrived in them. Then looking at the political history it was awesome to follow the rise of Genghis Kahn forming the largest empire in the history of the world. The Mongols essentially controlled all of Asia and as far as Italy in Europe with Poland and Hungary in it’s reigns. Genghis’s grandchildren even started a new dynasty in China.

Somewhere in there the Huns come out of the mongols and they have a rich history as well. More recently Mongolia was the second ever communist country and then recently in the 90s transitioned to a free market economy. So much history!

The owner of my hostel talked about how Mongolia was a special country and used the metaphor of the world being a body. “If the world were a body,” he said. “Mongolia would be the brain.” Not entirely sure what he meant by that, but he talked about how the land is so pure from the way people have used it for centuries. He talked about the pureness and how spirits rest everywhere in the country unlike most other places. From what I gathered that was supposed to be a good thing. Nonetheless, though I didn’t spend a much time here as I would have liked, Mongolia is one of my favorite and definitely one of the most interesting countries I have visited.

To put it simply, Mongolia is special. I look forward to returning for some more adventures some day! However, the journey home leads through Russia. Now, to start the train journey through Siberia.

…I’m gonna climb it.

Just a note, this is pretty much a short essay on thoughts that came to me in the park and while running.

If there’s a Mountain

I got out of work a little early today, so I decided to go to the park early and get my workout done and out of the way with. However, when I got there I felt compelled to sit down a park bench and think. So that’s what I did.

As I sat there I asked myself, “How did I get here?” I am sitting at Lumphini Park in the middle of Bangkok in 95 degree heat during February while back home there is likely several feet of snow and certainly below freezing temperatures. So how did this happen? How did I get from Chicago, 134 days ago, to this park bench in Bangkok?

It’s a pretty easy answer, to be honest. Anyone can read through my blog to see the different places and modes of transportation I took to get here. But I guess my questions more lies in why rather than how. So why did I decided to do this? Why do I decide to do a lot of the things I do?

The more I thought about the why of my journey the more I started to think about the why of everything in my life. Why do I truly decide to do anything I do? My first initial answer to the why of this trip was, I simply felt compelled to. It was one of those deep down, better do it or you’ll regret it, type of feeling that made me just know this is what I should be doing. I have a lot of those feelings, but I’ve never really contemplated them.

Now, with this sudden realization, I am looking at some of the biggest decisions and “mountains” I’ve climbed in my life and I’m suddenly racing back to them and asking why?

Looking back, as a kid you don’t really get to make a lot of your own decisions, so some of my first memories of these “mountains” I decided to climb surface in high school. Wrestling was the biggest mountain, by far and away, I decided to climb in high school. Then in college, for whatever reason, I felt compelled to graduate in 3 years. I thought, “why not?” I also felt compelled to climb as quickly as I could in my college athletic department as well. It was in college that I felt compelled to go to Nicaragua alone at age 19 resulting in my first backpacking experience. On this trip, however, the major compulsion was to get in a Muay Thai ring; not just as an artifice or gimmick, but to really mean it.

Now, with these previous “mountains” in my head I really start to question the why for each one. If anything I determined my biggest goal in life is to be all that God created me to be, and if by my own sheer laziness or lack of effort I fail to squeeze any amount of talent and ability from the gifts I was blessed with than it would only be a shame and considered a loss.

So to me each of these “mountains” came with the same goal, but maybe different initial motives. Wrestling just seemed like a given since my oldest brother, Clifton, wrestled. Graduating college early seemed a given as well, because if I could put in more effort why wouldn’t I? Taking 4 years would have been like climbing a mountain in a blizzard, but instead of hurrying and summiting quickly to minimize time in the storm deciding to take a casual stroll up instead. Well, maybe not that extreme, but you get my point. When I consider trying to climb the ladder in my college athletic department, I’m not quite sure what my motives were. I hardly know what I want to do with my life now, so it surely wasn’t to achieve a dream or goal of being an athletic director. While parts of me may like that Idea, my conclusion is that this mountain got climbed simply because it was the only “mountain” in front of me. The trip to Nicaragua was an attempt to push me outside of my comfort zone and climb a “mountain” of personal development.

After running those thoughts through my mind I think I am finally ready to tell you why I am sitting here on this park bench in the middle of Bangkok. I ended up half way a crossed the world with 20 new stitches and a professional Muay Thai fight under my belt simply because I needed another mountain…

I mentioned early I still am not entirely sure what I want to do with my life, so what’s the point in rushing up a mountain that might not have the view I’m looking for? I know parts of me still wondered what athletic talent and ability I still had to prove. I am obsessed with being all that God created me to be, and it sure would be a shame to be 60 years old and wonder what if.

The real reason I have been missing from home and been gallivanting around the globe is because it seemed like the best mountain at the time. And, truthfully, it still seems like the best mountain. While I’m not at the top yet, the views along the way have been nothing short of breathtaking. From here I have nothing else to do, but continue climbing. I’ll let you know when I get to the top….

Not a whole lot. I’ve been pretty grounded this past week just staying in and watching way to much Netflix or working. I do like to make it out to the park for some nice runs and workouts, though. I did make a couple trips for visas, and I had one good adventure to a rooftop.

My first visa related trip was to this massive government complex. It was huge with offices for about any government related endeavor you might be after. It took me a while to even figure out where to go to get my Thai visa extended. Then there was some photocopies of my passport and current visa that I need done and they told me that photocopies were done on the first floor. So I went to the first floor and asked a security guard who didn’t speak much English, but he told me to follow him to the 7th floor. On the 7th floor they told me that I could get copies done on the first floor…

After some more wasted time I finally did get my copies done and then I waited for an hour and a half and then got my passport returned with my extended visa. I can now stay another 30 days in Thailand, even though I only plan on being here two more weeks.

My other visa expedition took me to the Russian Embassy. I stopped by earlier in the week to ask a few questions. I was under the impression that citizens of other countries must apply for a Russian visa in their own country of residence only unless they had a work, retirement, or some special permission to stay in Thailand over 90 days. I don’t have any of that so I just wanted to check. I was told that I could apply there to get my visa!

With that surprise I had to put together my visa application. First, you have to pay $15 or so to some Russian tourism company to “sponsor” your travels to Russia. I did that and then filled out an online application. Then I “figured out” my flight in and my flight out of Russia as I have done for my Thai and Chinese visas. However, this time I also had to come up with a medical insurance document. They want you to have at least $10,000 of coverage or something like that when traveling in their country.

I do have coverage under my health insurance in the US, but they don’t have a nice tidy little form that shows coverage in Russia. Through my insurance you have to look for in network care or pay out of pocket and then submit a claim to be reimbursed. I have a $10,000 credit limit on my credit card so its practically the same amount of coverage, but I didn’t think the Russian’s would but that explanation. So I did the best I could to come up with some supporting documents from the insurance company and I hoped the lady at the consulate would be pretty lax about that policy.

Fortunately, things went smoothly and I’ll be picking up my visa on Friday! When I submitted it, the lady just looked like didn’t care at all. She didn’t ask a single question. She also only charged me $75 for my visa. The minimum price for a Russian visa of any type for a US Citizen is supposed to be $160. I think, since there are way more British people applying there than Americans, I got charged the British visa price. I’ll take that nice little discount!

“How much do you bench?” – “I’m up to 34 inch rims now!”

Working out at the park is always fun, especially since you always see something different. They have all these weight rooms, well I guess it isn’t a room, that are just out in the open air in the middle of the park. They feel pretty old school and there is everything from free weights and barbells to machines and weird contraptions and benches with tires for weights. It costs 20 baht (63 cents) for a day pass. So I enjoyed lifting weights there especially with the older Thai guys because they love joking around.

Most often I just go to an area with a lot of pull up bars and gymnastics like stations. There are often younger Thai guys built like Olympic gymnasts doing flips and tricks off of the pull up bars. That is always really fun to watch as they try to out do each other with their tricks.

Another fun thing about the park is the hundreds of old people doing Zumba type classes. There are also hundreds of people running laps around the 2.5km trail around the outside edge of the park. That’s always a run run to, just because there are so many people there running with you.

On Sunday, since I don’t have a church in Bangkok, I went and sat at the the spot pictured above overlooking the pond and listened to some church sermons for my Sunday worship. It;s nice just to relax and enjoy the atmosphere there.

On Saturday night, I went exploring with a friend I made to some rooftops overlooking the city. It was pretty adventurous, and for a while it looked like it might rain which was trouble since there were lightning rods all over that roof! But things tamed down and it was all good!

We stayed and watched the sun go down. It was cool to watch the city change from it’s day time form to a sparking city skyline right before your eyes as the sun dropped. Honestly, I’ve always had a healthy respect for heights, but challenging that fear really makes me feel alive. My heart was pounding most of the time, but I couldn’t help but smiling!

Next blog update should be about me narrowing down and figuring out some travel plans. I just got my taxes filed and my return isn’t as big as I anticipated so I’ll have to work with the budget I got. Until next time, God bless!