Tsetserleg was the last point on my ride towards the west fighting the wind. I then turned north… making my way towards Khovsgol, north of Mongolia bordering with Siberia. It was a tough ride through mountains, I climbed a few mountainpasses each day but at least the wind was with me. I passed by a few small villages that I don’t even know the existence of it, nowhere I found it on the map but it can be a bit confusing since some of the places here have exactly the same name. For example, after a few hundreds of kilometers of ride from Tsetserleg, I found another very small village called Tsetserleg also.
a zebra crossing.. eh.. I mean sheep crossing
Riding north towards Siberia… feels like its already autumn but without the falling leaves. Sometimes I feel that its getting colder each night even though the winter has left this part of the world. This is because I was heading north, towards the coldest place on earth outside the Antartica, Yakutsk of Siberia. The temperature there can plummet to the harsh frostbiting -70 celcius during winter and people still live there…. the toughest people. The day is getting warmer, somewhere between 10-15 celcius which is very comfortable for riding but each night I still turned into a human shaped ice cream wrapped inside a sleeping bag which feels like a plastic bag. And finally, I got sick… just a minor fever. My body is weaken and climbing mountainpasses pulling my heavy loaded bicycle that looks like a street fruitstall feels like forever.
sleeping under the sky of Mongolia
I didn’t stop riding while I was sick, I kept going for another 2 days until I reached a town called Moron! Hehe… what a moron! :) I stayed a day in Moron doing nothing but lying down on a comfortable bed under a roof… taking a good rest. I never take any medicine if I fall sick, I let my body fight it instead. My medicine is only by drinking hot water… and a good day of rest. Moron is considered a midsized town in Mongolia, nothing much here but there are some supermarket and cheap hostels, which is good enough for me. Surrounded by mountains, it feels like an oasis in the middle of a desert here.
approaching Khovsgol Nuur near Siberia
Frozen lake of Khovsgol Nuur, a younger sister of the Baikal Lake of Siberia
abandoned ships at the frozen lake of Khovsgol
After a good day rest and all my energy recharged into a full bar, I pressed another 100km towards Khovsgol Nuur, a beautiful high altitude lake in the north, which is located very close to the infamous Baikal Lake in Siberia. There is a small village here, Khatgal, at the southern part of the lake, which feels more like Russia, compared to Mongolia. Some people even greeted me in Russian. There are forests here, so the houses here are made by wood… which looks like a postcard from Siberia. I found a cheap ger to stay and the owner speaks good English and provided me a lot of useful information to explore the surroundings. So it’s a good opportunity for me and I made this place as my launching pad to explore the wilderness here. Weather is not so good here and the wind is now coming from the Arctic blowing through Russia, carrying very cold air that gets into my bones.
inside my ger in Khatgal
overlooking Khatgal village from one of the hills
shaman prayerflags
shaman prayerflags under the colours of sunset
Upon arriving Tsetserleg, I was welcomed with a group of curious young horsemen, probably as young as 10 years old, riding fast from the vast steppe to be near me, to look closely at my fully loaded bicycle. I cycled slowly heading towards the centre of Tsetserleg, tired after being fighting the endless headwind. I came here looking for a nice hostel, to celebrate my arrival in Tsetserleg with a good hot shower and a nice meal. It was a good feeling when I saw the town from afar, after hours of panting fighting the wind on the vast steppe, until I climbed over a false mountainpass when I finally saw the town of Tsetserleg from the high point.
Tsetserleg from afar
A Mongolian man wanted himself to be recorded inside my camera microchips
a big Buddha statue in Tsetserleg
This is the end of the good road for me… and soon I will no more be fighting the wind. I will turn north to get to the Siberian border, to a lake called Khovsgol, very near the Russian border and not far from the infamous Baikal Lake in Siberia. But the problem is, I cant find any way to get to the north. I will stay a while here in Tsetserleg to get some idea on how to get up north. Whatever my decision from here on, I need to complete this part of Mongolia by the 2nd week of April, so that I will have enough time to explore the southern part of Mongolia, crossing the vast Gobi Desert.
It was quite difficult for me to find a cheap place in Tsetserleg. Hotel owners refused to take me even the hotels were empty. And some said that they cant give me a room with bathroom. No shower in Tsetserleg. After almost an hour finding a place, I finally found a cheap hostel with a welcoming staff. And the owner is Australian… so all the staffs speak quite good English. As usual, I did my routine, once I get inside a hostel, I took a good shower, washed all the dirt away from my body to feel fresh and treated my empty stomach with good food. I then walked around the town to explore the everyday life of the people here.
While walking, a guy who looks like in his mid 30s, strong and tough… were looking at me with one kind of look. I can read from his eyes that he was filled with anger and hatred. He then shouted at me and walked fast towards me. I stood still… never moved an inch. He then shook my hand with a different kind of handshake. He shook my hand real hard… he was testing my strength. I tried to challenge his strength with the handshake. He introduced himself, saying that he is the head of the thugs in the town and he owns this town, not the police. He then asked me for money. I said I don’t have anything to give, I have some money but I’m a traveller, its not much and enough only for me to survive while I’m in this land. He pointed his finger to a nearby bank and wanted to drag me there, asking me to draw some money to give to him. I simply apologized, I said you got the wrong person. I’m not a rich tourist, I’m just passing through this land. He was studying my face, trying to find any fear inside me but I managed to kept all my fear away… so he couldn’t find any. After a while, he apologized… and told me to be careful on the road and finally said “Baerte”, which means good bye in Mongolian.
Cycling in Mongolia is easy to do if you start from the west heading all the way to Ulaanbaatar. The wind will push you… making you fly with over 120km a day without a sweat. But not the other way round… It took me 2 days just to cover 120km from Karakorum to Tsetserleg. I started quite late in Karakorum, I started to cycle at around 11.45am… slowed down by the good food in Karakorum.
me with the sexy Mongolian mamacota!
waterrrrrrr….
It was a good ride, not much climbing at about 2000m altitude and the wind was blowing against me as usual, but gentle. Took a quick break in a small village in Khotont before continuing my ride through the vast steppe. The sky was so blue… and under it was an endless grassland, which provide enough grass for the countless livestock that I saw along my way… and some horsemen. I cruised really slowly for some 70km… ended up in some beautiful spot to camp. Here in Mongolia, almost all the land is open free without any fence, which makes it so easy to camp… almost anywhere. I became a bit choosy when it come to find a place to pitch my tent… making sure that I’m a bit far away from livestocks and gers, so that the dogs wont come and disturb me with their barkings at night. But its good sometimes when I see horses or sheep nearby, so I know that I’m safe. I never been in any case of wolf attack… yea wolves don’t attack humans… but who knows if unlucky, when they come in pack and theyre dead hungry. But at least they will surely choose the easier target, those horses or sheep… instead of me.
the sky is so blue… so non-polluted here
The difference of the temperature here in Mongolia is so huge now in spring. At daytime it was a nice warm 10 celcius. But when the sun is down, it started to freeze slowly. As usual after pitching my tent, cooked dinner, watched the sunset and do some video editing from my laptop, I went to sleep early at around 9. And there you go, I woke up as early as 3am since it was too cold! The temperature dropped to -8 celcius and my sleeping bag which is as thin as a toilet paper was totally useless. I was freezing like an ice cream especially my feet. I then wrapped my body with whatever clothes that I have but couldn’t sleep still… I was really awake and feeling fresh! I then tried to boil hot water to drink some hot chocolate and oats but… all my water became hard pack ice. Theres nothing I can do but get back inside my useless sleeping bag and tried to sleep… which I finally did only at around 6am. I then continued to sleep until around 9am… waiting for the ice to melt a bit so that I can break it into pieces with my knife and finally can have a good hot chocolate and oats for breakfast.
A Malaysian restaurant is now open in Mongolia… with no customer…
the view from my hotel when the sun went away
I then just stayed for a couple of hours enjoying the sun… really really enjoying the heat that the sun gave me… doing some work from my laptop and charging all my electronic stuffs from my solar panel. I then started to cycle at around noon to get to Tsetserleg, a town with big supermarket and cheap hotels!!… which sits only another 50km away. The wind was harsh again once in a while… and I cycled fast whenever there was no wind.. taking advantage before I get slowed down by the wind again.
writing my journal while enjoying the heat coming from the sun. a peace of mind…
I took a day rest in Karakorum. I thought Karakoram exists only in Pakistan, but it exists here in the middle of Mongolia, with slightly different spelling. Its not a mountain range here like the one in Pakistan, but it’s a small town… with a population less than 10000. Nothing much here except the Erdene Zhu Khiid, the first ever Buddhist monastery built in Mongolia.
Erdene Zhu Khiid under the colours of sunset
But it was nothing like this back in 700 years ago during the 13th century, where this place was a happening place. Karakorum used to be the capital of the vast Mongol Empire. It was a city you know… like KL :) But Kublai Khan abandoned this place and moved the Mongol capital to Beijing… and finally the city was destroyed by the Manchurian army. And because of that, this place is now nothing but a place for me to take a day rest (from the fierce storm the day earlier)… to take a good long hot shower… eat good food and sleep in a proper bed… with soft pillow!
flying my Phantom for some kickass aerial videography. Hehe yeah I carried all these on a bicycle :)
I spent most of the days doing editing on the video I capture along my journey until when its near sunset, where the light and colours are always magic, I then took my camera gear out to film the monastery. When I reached the gate to get into the monastery, I was shocked to see that it was already closed. I then just capture the view of the monastery from outside the gate. When I flew my quadcopter to get some aerial shots, I started to attract the locals. I was surrounded and local people were awed to see the flying machine in action. The good thing was, the guards who work in the monastery came out to see it too. I then asked them if I can get in the monastery…. and they let me in for free!
Actually tourists have to pay 10USD to get in with video camera… and it opens only until 6pm. But I was lucky I guess, to get in for free and able to film the place after 6pm during sunset, where the magic light usually appears. I kept flying my copter to get aerial shots but the wind was blowing too strong and it was so difficult for me to handle it… and it crashed twice at the temples. I hope Genghis Khan wont get angry at me on that :)
The wind coming from the west… is killing. The wind is strong here in Mongolia, because the steppe is too wide… stretching all the way to it’s neighbour, Kazakhstan. I’m fighting the wind everyday and riding towards the west seems not a really good idea. I was cycling at the speed of roughly 10km/hour on a flat land. Sometimes I turned back and tried to cycle east back towards Ulaanbaatar to see how easy it is. And I was flying! I wonder how the fearsome Golden Horde led by the mighty Genghis Khan rode all the way to Hungary to conquer all the land… while I was struggling even to conquer 70km in a day with the strong wind. I wish they had internet back then.. so maybe Genghis Khan would have his own wordpress blog and write it all down… so that I can read it and get some of his tips.
the Kazakh gang…
I rode through vast plains, village to village, ger to ger. The landscape is a mixture… something between the Siberian grassland and the Gobi desert. I was really in the middle… between the Gobi and the Siberian plateau.. roughly around 1900 meters of altitude. Sometimes its sand… sometimes its grass. I passed by another small village called Rashaat where I stayed a night under a roof by the help of a kind local police. There I met a group of men who faces are familiar. And they speak a language which is familiar to me… a mixture of Kazakh and Russian. Instead of saying Sainbainuu, I said Salam alaikum to them, and I heard all of them replied back Walaikum salam. We shook hand and became brothers. They then took turn and jumped on my bicycle to get their photos taken. They were curious and surrounded my bike. Asking me whether Im going to ride all the way to Astana in Kazakhstan. I told them I will skip Kazakhstan this time and ride down to Tajikistan instead. They told me not to go since there is a war there. Hehe… I think they were referring to the civil war that happened in the early 90s.
I then continued west until I found nice sand dunes not far from the road. I cycled around the area and was approached by a Mongolian man on a Chinese motorbike… asking me if I wanna stay in his ger with his family for a night for 8000 tughrik. The blue sky was gone… hiding under the thick clouds… not a good sign. I then agreed and seek shelter inside his ger. Took a good afternoon nap for an hour before went exploring the sand dunes. The wind was getting stronger and stronger… I even find it hard to breath sometimes. The sand was too soft… I climbed 3 steps and fell 2 steps… took me forever to reach the top of the dunes.
I didn’t see the sun anymore.. it was getting darker and the wind was blowing angrily. I then just stayed inside the ger with the family for the night. They served me some noodles with yak’s meat…. not as good as nasi lemak ayam rendang of course, but when I’m starving… I can eat a man. After a good sleep for the night… I woke up and went outside the ger… just to discover that the landscape of the steppe has turned white like a toothpaste. It was snowing lightly but the wind was really strong. It gonna be one hell of a day to fight the wind!
inside the ger. look at that pose. thats what happen when u watch too much korean drama
hehehe…
I then had a good breakfast, packed up and get back on the road. The road was covered with thin snow powder at first… no problem. Then at some point… it was icy. Now I miss my spike tyre that I used in the Arctic… where is it hah? I was like doing some ice skating stunts on a fully loaded bicycle. Except that there were no spectators… only cows and sheep were watching me struggling… probably they were laughing at me. The wind was blowing from my right at first, until I reached a junction where I should turn right to Karakorum, that’s when I had to fight the wind head on. I don’t feel good when I made that turning, I was deciding whether I should continue and wait another day until the wind stop blowing… because when theres storm, usually it takes a whole day… but I chose to continue… bad idea….
the brown blue Mongolian landscape turned white
the road to Karakorum. thats the shaman prayerflags on the left…
I kept cycling and fighting the wind… but the wind was getting stronger… and I was getting weaker and weaker. After 2 hours of fighting… I began to stop every few minutes… eating and drinking hot milk tea. For 2 hours of cycling, I covered only about 10km. I then got slower… and I was in the middle of nowhere. I still have another 50km to go. I couldn’t do anything. Almost impossible for me to pitch my tent… my tent will be blown away by this fierce force of nature. The wind blew stronger, my covered face was hit hard by sand and snow until I had problem breathing. I then just stopped cycling… stood still on my bicycle and just looked down trying to breath and nothing else. I was just concentrating only to breath. All I know was to keep alive… to keep breathing… I then began to seek help from no one but the Creator of All. Don’t know why… magic things happen. Maybe the Creator of the Universe heard my prayer… only after a few minutes I was struggling to breath… a truck passed by and stopped in front of me. They told me that they could send me to Karakorum since they were heading the same way. And it’s dangerous to cycle in this weather… so they got me and my bicycle on the truck… and in less than 2 hours, I reached Karakorum. I felt so thankful. Finally after so many days… I got the chance to take hot shower and sleep in a proper bed with a soft pillow… like a boss!!
leaving the storm in the mountain
approaching Karakorum. finally bluesky… but the wind still strong!
Diary Of A Traveller 