July 17th-18th (Day 5-6): Clinging to luxury

After sending off our last blog post we went to hang out with a couple from Montreal we had met at lunch time in the ger camp's restaurant. They had recently purchased a set of 99 sheep ankle bones and showed us some ankle bone games. We played with them and their Mongolian driver for a bit before one of the camp employees (who spoke English well) corrected all the mistakes we were making. The driver had probably tolerated them ''cheating'' at the games the whole time as he didn't want to overcome the linguistic challenges needed to explain the detailed rules.

From Ulaanbaatar to ...

On day 5, we cycled 85 km to Kharkhorin. About midway, when we had stopped for a break, we saw a couple cycle tourers coming from the other direction. It was a middle aged French couple that greeted us like we were long lost family. Over the last 8 months they have cycled from France to Mongolia and are blogging about it.

From Ulaanbaatar to ...

In Kharkhorin we decided to splurge on accommodation by staying in Dreamland: a Japanese themed lodge and ger camp. At first we had a look at a luxury air conditioned ger, but after suffocating on the bug poison we sprayed to calm down the resident flies, we decided to switch to a room in the lodge.

From Ulaanbaatar to ...

By western standards Dreamland is a bit run down. Most depressing is the fact that there are virtually no other guests staying here. Due to low volume, the restaurant, listed as the best in town in the Lonely Planet, has reduced its menu to basic Mongolian food. In a twist of irony, we're hoping to find something better in the neighbouring lower priced ger camp's restaurant. Nevertheless, we are enjoying our spoiled days while we can.

We spent day 6 exploring town and replenishing our fat reserves. We found a great restaurant in town for breakfast. We had the largest meal of the trip, and the staff didn't know we were biking. They must have thought we were total pigs as we ate a loaf of bread with butter and jam, two small omelettes, a large plate of fries, three cups of coffee, and five cups of tea. We then returned within four hours for lunch!

From Ulaanbaatar to ...

Kharkhorin was the capital of Mongolia for a short time around Chinggis Kaan's rule. After about 40 years the capital moved to Beijing. The main attraction in town is the Erdene Zuu Khiid monastery. Although far from its glory days, it remains Mongolia's most important monastery. We enjoyed visiting it and ran into the spanish cyclists there.

Here's our route for day 5 (view it in google earth):


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