Changing Directions

6/16

I was sitting in the front Cafe at my hostel, screwing around online when Terry, an English guy I'd met in Shanghai, came by- he was staying at a hostel right around the corner.  It was just about dinnertime so I asked if he'd already eaten, he said no and we headed out.  And immediately stopped.

Me: So, do you know anywhere good to eat around here?
Him: Ummm, not really.
Me: Well, I know of a couple of places, but I haven't had anything really extraordinary so far.
Him: We could always eat at my hostel, they have Chinese food and Western food.
Me: Hmm, I don't know.

After much more hemming and hawing, we did go to his hostel and it was actually, surprisingly good.  Not great or particularly intersting so I won't tell you about it here, but a decent "chicken cubes with peanuts" meal.  Their draft beer was 10 yuan (about $1.50 USD) for a very large glass so I had one, though I was planning on going to another Ladies Night with free drinks from 8-12 so I didn't want to have too much.  Terry, who I roped into going to a Ladies Night in Shanghai that was quite expensive, was understandably unexcited by this plan and delayed me by suggesting another pint. 

Eva, a Dutch girl who had been on the same Great Wall tour Terry had taken that day, came in and joined us and I managed to convince her to go with me to Vic's Ladies Night.  We decided to go after a game of chess.  I played Terry and lost quite pathetically (it's probably been at least five years since I last played, to be fair) and then Eva played him and lost, so I didn't feel as bad. 

Alex, a German-Russian guy who'd also gone on the tour with them, came in and we all got another beer and started to play Kings.  Eva was amazing at Never Have I Ever, which impressed me greatly.  We all got another beer.  I was very happy to be around people who truly appreciated the game.  Since we were all drinking beer, we hadn't had a center cup and had substituted something else for the King card but they inisted we use something, and long island iced teas were "only" 50 kwai.  We called a bartender over but she didn't know how to make one, even though it was on the menu.  I volunteered to help and since I couldn't remember exactly, precisely how to make a LIIT, I just took a pint glass, threw in a lot of vodka, rum, gin?, cointreau and Coke and called it one.  It wasn't god-awful but it wasn't a LIIT and it wasn't very good, but it was insanely strong and dangerous.  We finished (abandoned?) the game and Terry and I split the odd concoction.  I think that was what got me drunk and finished me.  We went outside so Alex and Eva could smoke and I acted like a loud idiot. 

Alex and Eva convinced me to go to Mongolia.  Eva told me that it was her favorite place she'd ever been (and she'd traveled quite a lot, especially considering that she was only 21,) and Alex told me he was going there next.

There are other factors, including a girl I know (not a friend exactly, but a friendly acquaintance who I'd like to see again) who lives there and is Mongolian.  The fact that Americans don't need a visa (for once- and maybe only once- it'll work to my advantage) while everyone else does.  Eva also told me that she thought it would become very touristy in a few years and I had to go now.  And that when I was doing minor research for this trip, I'd looked up Mongolia with the hopes of convincing myself to skip it since it is quite out of the way, but had just been more entranced.  And it sounds cool, and I'm afraid that if I don't go now, I never will, and there's a Mongolian girl in my room, Dirn?, who's quite nice. 

She told me a bit about Genghis Khan and how many people live in yurts (circular, tent-y houses) and always sleep with their head towards the alter inside each one (because to sleep with your feet towards it would show anger against Buddha) and their food (LOTS of meat, apparently) and their holidays.  They have Womans Day (instead of Mothers Day, which I thought was pretty awesome in of itself) on March 8th, which is a public holiday, with everything closing and everyone getting the day off work, and Mans Day on March 18th, which is not a public holiday.  I told her that I thought this was really smart because that way if the men didn't do a good enough job for Womans Day, they wouldn't get much for Mans Day, which made her laugh.

Rather sadly, she told me also that there is a huge wealth divide in Mongolia and people are either very poor or very rich with few in the middle class.  She said that the people were discouraged with their country and that there were many single mothers whose husbands had left them to go off for work but drank all their money away.  But, she also said that Mongolians were very hospitable and that it was a beautiful country.  All three million Mongolians are supposed to be descended from Genghis Khan and his family (presumably because the population was so relatively small at the time) and thus have the heart and cleverness of his wife and mother, which were apparently great.  So, if she were feeling bad about herself, for example, her mother might remind her of that, which I thought was really nice. 

One of the last things she told me was that Mongolians (and she thought this was due to their historical interactions) have a fear of the Chinese people and think they're cruel, but that after being in Beijing (she's here to get a Canadian visa as there are no Canadian embassies in Mongolia!), she thought they had very good hearts.  I thought this was particularly interesting given the Chinese girl's stereotype of the Japanese and because she told me most of this on the day I'd been to the Great Wall of China.

Lastly, regarding Mongolia planning, I'd already booked my ticket for Xi'an (where the terracotta warriors are) for Monday, and most trains to Ulaanbator leave from Beijing, so I'm planning on getting a train to Hohhot, then joining up with the Trans-Mongolian from there.