I left Hustai quite late, around 10.30 in the morning since I got lazy when the sun was still low at the horizon. I cycled on sand for the first 13km to get back to the junction of the main road. Once I was at the mainroad, the road is paved again. I then cruised another 45km to Lun, a small village. It’s a very small village, probably only between 1000-3000 population. A local police greeted me once I reached the village. He then showed me a small hotel, the only hotel in the village. I then decided to stay overnight there since it was still too cold to camp and I didn’t take along my winter gear the one that I used in the Arctic.

the hotel that I stayed

Small village of Lun under the light of the dusk

Mongolian style carpark

Everyone I met… they will ask me about the missing plane (MH370) once they knew that Im from Malaysia. Seems that the Mongolians are well informed about the international news. And when I had my dinner, I saw familiar faces… Malaysians… on the TV. It was actually the news, and it was about Malaysia, about the missing plane. And the hotel owner was saying something about it to me but I couldn’t understand her and also the news. I knew that the hotel owner wanted to ask me so many things about it, but we don’t speak each other’s language. She kept speaking Mongolian to me but all I heard was a language that sounds almost like a mixture between Japanese and Korean.

The next day, I woke up early in the morning and it was really cold. Only when the earth was warmed a bit I started to get on my bicycle and continued west. The wind… as usual… blowing against me coming from the west… forcing me to slow down by a lot. It’s a hard work to fight with the wind. Sometimes, I feel that its easier to climb a mountain rather than to fight the headwind on the steppe. Both requires hardwork.. but at least when you climb and you stop a while… you can breath peacefully… but fighting the headwind on the steppe, its hardwork even to take a deep breath.. and always have to guard the eyes from the flying dusts.

Mongolian men on a Chinese motorbike

But one magic about crossing the steppe here in Mongolia… I got to taste the wonderful Mongolian hospitality and friendliness. Even after overdosed with the Mongolian vodka, they’re still nice! They’re nomads by blood, for many generations… they know well what does a traveler needs while crossing their land. Whenever I see horses or sheep… I know well in the next few minutes.. I will see a horseman… followed by a lonely ger (Mongolian tent). They usually invite me to their ger for a milk tea… followed by some food… with very interesting conversation… the only conversation which mix 2 languages… Mongolian and Malay. Firstly, I will ask if any of them speaks English… when theres no reply, I will feel home.. speaking Malay to them and they will simply reply in Mongolian.. but we kept talking for hours :)

not long after I took this pic… I saw a horseman coming towards me

the boy really like my bike

I guess I rode for more than a hundred kilometers where I saw nothing… except for some gers. I then stayed overnight in one ger closed to the road, where the lonely old lady invited me to stay overnight in her ger and she cooked nice dinner for me. She doesn’t say anything about paying but I gave her 10000 tughrik (roughly 20 ringgit our money)before I left for her kindness towards the hungry traveler. I’m not sure what Genghis Khan would think if he’s still alive today and look inside the modern 21^st century Mongolian ger. Its fully furnished, with satellite TV, solar panel, radio and some even with a blueray player.

the ger that I stayed for the night

inside the ger

the kind old lady that hosted me for the night

It took me an hour to get out of the busy city of Ulaanbaatar. Racing against the buses on the side lane was tricky. They drove the bus as in theyre riding a horse. It got quite dangerous most of the time. I found myself racing against the same bus since it was a bit faster than me but had to stop every few hundred meters to drop and pickup passengers.

A Korean instant noodle for lunch

After about an hour riding through the city, I saw less cars. No more traffic lights, no more shoulders and zebra crossings. Only one straight lonely road heading west towards the sunset. I felt much safer. No more honking and stress. I was finally out of Ulaanbaatar, the capital and biggest city of Mongolia.

I kept riding, taking a deep breath to smell the countryside of Mongolia and my eyes wide open… eager to see and explore the real Mongolia. It is still quite cold for middle of March, somewhere around 5c at daytime but my body is warmed due to cycling, which makes it very pleasant. I saw mostly lorries and trucks passed by me. I really feel like Im back riding in Northwest China especially in the Gansu Province.

I rode roughly around 80km on my first day, putting me somewhere in the steppe, in the middle of nowhere. I felt so tired since it was my first day of long distance cycling after nearly a year where I rode from Steinkjer to Trondheim in Norway. I then pitched my tent where I see horses, hoping that the horses will come near me and become my friends… but they went away. Im a lousy traveler, when I was about to pitch my tent, I realized that I have lost the tent pegs. So I had to use my scissors and knives as a replacement. Luckily my tent is a freestanding one. Would be a disaster if I brought my Swedish tent instead.

The night was cold, the temperature dropped around -12c at night and I was shivering since I took my lousy 0c sleeping bag with me. I thought carrying my badass -30c Mammut sleeping bag that I used in the Arctic was a bad idea since its heavy and bulky, but now I missed it. I slept under million of stars that night but it didn’t last long. I felt too cold and woke up as early as 4am… shivering. I couldn’t sleep since then, the sleeping bag is too thin. I really carried a wrong gear!

give me the power!! baby…

I only went out from my tent when the sunlight was out… warming the earth. The temperature rised steadily every minutes and it was finally pleasant. I celebrated it with a good breakfast. I took my time, charging all my electronic equipments with my Goalzero solar panel since the sun was shining proudly and did some video editing from inside my tent. After a while, I then packed all my stuffs and rode another 35km to Hustai. At one point, I was really struggling, the paved road ended and I had to pushed my fully loaded bike crossing the sand dunes… the last 13km to get myself to Hustai. Only at the hard packed earth I could cycle, but when the sand is soft and going uphill, it was like crossing into hell.

the place that I stayed in Hustai

I stayed a day in Hustai, looking forward to see some Takhi (Mongolian wild horses). But didn’t spot any. The area is too vast… all I saw was normal Mongolian horses, cows and sheep. The locals said that I came at the wrong time, I should be here during summer… like any other tourists. All I can do is smile back. I don’t consider myself as a tourist, Im a nomad, and Im just passing through this land, just like all of us passing through this life.

nope… no Takhi here…

only normal Mongolian horses

…and some delicious dinner mmm…

Mongolian horsemen!

sexy mamacota…

Today marked the 6th day I stayed in Ulaanbaatar. Had to settle a few things, like visa extension, necessary camping equipments and getting the Mongolian Tughrik. It was quite difficult for me to get used to the weather here now, don’t know why. Coming from the hot 34c temperature in Kuala Lumpur all the way to the subzero temperature in Ulaanbaatar in less than 24 hours is a bit too much for me. And since I got here 6 days ago, I can pronounce only about 10 Mongolian words. I wanted to say that the language is difficult, but then again, I still remember how I was struggling learning Mandarin when I was in China, I was complaining about the 4 tones… and complaining about how difficult to pronounce Russian words when I was in the Stans countries. So I guess its just me, I’m just bad in learning languages… or too lazy perhaps?… since I hate repeating.

now thats the mighty Genghis Khan!

I now have a Mongolian brother and sister, Chimedee and her brother Tug, who were kind enough to let me to sleep inside their ger near the city. Now I’m tasting the hospitality of the Genghis Khan’s descendent. They’re very nice to me, giving me a shelter while Im here in Ulaanbaatar, letting me to taste their traditional food and scaring me off from cycling through the Gobi Desert. Well, most people that I met, I could see their faces changed when I told them that I plan to cross the Gobi Desert on my bicycle to get to Erenhot. And all of them told me that it is impossible. Imkinda used to it already, I still remember a Swedish from the south were telling me that only a stupid guy will cycle in the Arctic Tundra in the middle of winter…. and I did it anyway.

near the main square of the city

Ulaanbaatar is a lot like Bishkek, the environment, the colours, the people. And the smell is more like Xinjiang of China. But I can feel that the energy is so positive here. People here smile a lot! And they’re so friendly! And the police are really polite. I was expecting the police here to be as bad as those in the Stans countries, where most of them get infection from 2 things, uniform and vodka. But over here, things are totally different. I was lost a few nights ago, couldn’t remember how to get back home, and a police walked with me until I found my way home. And most people here don’t speak English, whenever I asked a question in English, they will reply in Mongolian… so I replied back in Malay :) But of course, the best solution is the sign language, works everywhere.

Ulaanbaatar city can be seen behind those trees

And after spending so many days in the dusty Ulaanbaatar, I finally got the chance to hike to a nearby hill with my host Chimedee. She usually hikes to a nearby hill with her friends every weekend. From there I made 2 more friends from Europe, a Spanish and a British who were in the same group. Both of them are teaching in a university here in Ulaanbaatar. Also there were another at least 15 other Mongolians in the group. We started early in the morning with a pretty nice weather, but when we stopped for lunch, the weather changed from spring into deep winter in just a few minutes. But it was a good experience for me to prepare myself with the so called spring season in Mongolia, where there can be all 4 season in a day.

Shaman’s prayerflags

Mongolian landscape

a Mongolian dog… badass!

maybe the dad is a lion…

The 10th of March, 2014 was a big day for me. That was the day I left home, knowing that I will be embarking the longest journey I have ever done. I flew to Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, coming all the way from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and had a 6 hours of transit in Incheon Airport near Seoul, South Korea. I was nervous… mixed with excited feelings. I was feeling so nervous, maybe because I was too busy with some other things and had no time to do any sort of planning. I had no idea what to do once I reach Ulaanbaatar, where to go… what to do… This is my third journey and I should feel calm but somehow… I guess the other reason was because I knew that this is going to be the longest journey among all… and surely much more challenging compared to the last two.

The look of the Gobi Desert from the plane window

The last hour of the flight, I became totally speechless once I realised I was flying over the vast Gobi Desert. I was totally amazed once I saw the desert from above, excited because I finally see it with my own two eyes… all these while I was only watching it from TV and also the internet. At the same time, my heart was beating fast, it looks so wild and desolated, must be really hell to cross this huge desert on a bicycle unsupported. I then studied the desert closely from the plane window… looking for any source of water… rivers, lakes, or perhaps some small nomadic settlements… anything. But I found nothing… The good thing is, its still winter here in this part of the world. It is still very cold, and the desert is covered with thin ice. So at least I still won’t be running out of water if worst case happen.

just arrived. Ready to unpack everything!

Once I finished assemble my bike and put all my stuff on the bike, it was already dark and very cold. I was too tired, since I couldn’t really sleep during the flight, so I canceled my plan to cycle to Ulaanbaatar. The locals been telling me theres a hotel nearby, only a kilometre away from the airport. So i decided to just go and stay overnight at the hotel, since I was too tired.

all good!!

ready to rock

The next morning I took my time, repacking all my stuffs inside my bag, making sure the weight is balance both sides. I then started cycling at around 10ish to Ulaanbaatar, which is only some 15km away. Cycling inside a city is always hell… and I never like it. So many cars and I had to stop twice asking for direction to get to the centre of the city, since Im navigating without any GPS or whatsoever. Once I reached the centre of Ulaanbaatar, I became the centre of attraction. I was surrounded by kids and old people, trying to communicate with me but too bad I don’t speak a word of Mongol. And it was there I met my first Mongolian friend, Chimedee who live in a ger (Mongolian tent) not so far from the city.

Overlooking the Ulaanbaatar city centre from the ger

Hello Mongolia…

Statue of Sukhbaatar, mistook it with Genghis Khan hehe