Joan
 Ubide
 Photography
 &
 a
 few
 sounds

I am starting to lose count of the days, trains and borders I have crossed, but I think I’ll never forget when I crossed the border between Russia and Mongolia…

We arrived by train at the Russian border, and there we had to wait for 7 hours aboard the train to get out of the country. We had been warned about it, and it appears even in travel guides, so you have to take it very easy… It’s in those moments when I remember with a smile how stressed I used to get everyday when I drove to my office in Barcelona. Being stuck in traffic for 30 minutes used to drive me nuts, and now I’m going to be stuck for 7 hours…

After having our bags and passports checked, the train sets off, and from there I can see beautiful landscapes that tell me I’m entering a new world: Mongolia, one of the more desired stages of the trip.

When we got to the Mongolian border, we had a little mishap. When the border agents were about to check my passport, I looked at it and saw, stunned, that the entry date the travel agency had put on my visa was wrong. According to it, I could only enter the country 4 days later… What I fool I was not to check my visa… I looked at my friend Gadea and told him: “We’re fucked, mate…” The lady in uniform took my passport and I was praying for her not to notice, but, suddenly, she stared at my visa, looked me in the eye (I was acting dumb) and in Mongolian told me something like “What are you doing here, you silly thing?” She left and returned with a very unfriendly looking guy, and told us: “Get your luggage. In 5 hours there’s a train back to Russia.” Whew… I was seeing myself going back to Russia and, once there, back to Mongolia because we had no visa, and bouncing for 4 days from border to border.

So we took our bags. The people we met at the train were looking at us with sorrow through the windows while making support gestures. We were kept waiting for 3 hours, without knowing what they would do with us. Suddenly, our friend Cristian spoke to a Dutchwoman who seemingly worked at the consulate and she was our mediator. Luckily we paid 20 Euro per head and got aboard the train. The sad faces of our friends became all laughter and welcome greetings, so we finally managed to get to our destination.

Honestly, I think they only wanted to frighten us, because they simply changed the date in pencil and let us go… However, I don’t think the money went to public funds… Anyway, million thanks to the person who helped us. If you read this, I’m sorry but I lost your e-mail. If you ever visit my country, don’t hesitate to contact me, it will be your home.

We arrived at the capital city of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar. Road traffic is total chaos there, and it’s also a highly polluted city, so we quickly left for the great valleys and wild grasslands.

There are several well-known routes in the country. The most popular is the southern route, where you can visit the Gobi desert. We decided to take the western route. It takes 8 days to make this route, you rent an all-terrain vehicle with a driver, and you’re ready to enjoy the country.

There are several agencies which offer these tours. The most popular and with best infrastructures is Nomads, located at Peace Av. You can also find Golden Gobi, which includes a guide who speaks English and cooks for you. We decided to make the tour with UB Guest House. I strongly recommend this option if you want to live the real thing and be a nomad for a few days.

In this route you visit Kharkhorum, the great valleys, the Great White Lake and several nomad settlements.

Our driver, Beijing, a 37-year-old father-of-three, was quite a character. He spoke no English at all but we understood each other by gestures. The most common gesture was the one for eating, and also the one for “Beijing, when will we get there?” He always said: “In two hours”, while laughing his socks off. Two hours later, you asked him again and he gestured “One hour and a half!”, and started laughing again…

If you are going to Mongolia, forget about roads, there aren’t any. It’s all wild grasslands where you bounce up and down the all-terrain vehicle for hours. We drove along never-ending roads for 5 to 8 hours. It was always the same: we went up to a large grassland and, from there, you could see an endless valley with another mountain at the end. Then you would go up that mountain, and again another endless valley… You’re surrounded by breathtaking landscapes and all kinds of livestock at every moment. From time to time you see a man riding on a horse and, if you’re lucky, another car.

You sleep, live and eat with nomads, wonderful people, and here’s where you see we consumerist westerns are crazy. These people live happily in their gers (tents) where obviously there is no running water or electricity and, of course, no TV with ads to make you buy as much as possible… The center of their lives is the fire in the ger, which keeps the house warm and is also the kitchen. I don’t even want to think what their lives are like in the cold season, with temperatures under minus 40 degrees Celsius.

Food is very basic. We spent eight days on soup, which tasted strongly of livestock, and on a milk tea. I didn’t like it, but it was all I had. I know here I won’t find the “tapas” they serve at the restaurant Genil in Vilanova, my home town… The most similar thing to a restaurant I could find was a house where there was a girl with a piece of meat on the table, surrounded by flies; you can see the picture in the album to have an idea.

When you have to go to the toilet… well, you just have to act like the livestock, and do it “al fresco”. They have small wooden cottages with a hole in the ground for those embarrassed about squatting in the open air… I personally prefer acting like the livestock.

And when it comes to showers, it’s pretty easy, they just don’t have them. You’re lucky if you have a mirror and a washbasin, so there was only one option: a visit to the chilly river. You could also find “modern” places where they had a water barrel on the ceiling with a log fire. That was a 5 star luxury: hot water!

During those days I caught a sort of flu or a virus. I think I got it from Beijing, he was always coughing, so I ended up like a Mongolian, coughing and so on…

We visited Mongolia with Cristian (the guy from Milan) and Eric (the German guy who had his wallet stolen in Russia); a few days later Jason came along with two Catalans, Albert and Miquel, two great people who are traveling around the world with an open plane ticket. We had a great time with them in our ger during several full moon nights next to the fire.

During these months (it’s nearly 3 months we’re on the road, already) I’ve met amazing people, which is without a doubt one of the best experiences of this trip. One of the most interesting people I’ve met is Cristian, the Italian from Milan.

Cristian, photography lover, travels with his old Nikon F from the 80s, a camera he bought at a second-hand market. He’s an admirable person, he’s 25 years old and recently got his degree in Biomechanical Engineering. Now he’s traveling alone for a month and a half. Then he will go back to Milan to work in a book shop for 3 or 4 weeks, and then will start looking for a job. I think that in less than one year, Cristian will send us an e-mail telling he’s coming back with us…

Ah! While we were at the hostel in Ulaanbaatar, I overheard a couple speaking English with a Catalan accent, so I greeted them with an “adéu” (”bye” in Catalan). They stared at me and asked where I was from, so I answered… from Vilanova! They looked astonished and said: “We’re also from Vilanova!” It’s a small world we live in… Best regards to them, we’ll have breakfast together in the sunny Plaça de la Vila when I get back home.

And that’s all for Mongolia. Again another train, I think we have traveled more than 15.000 km. Now we’re going to China, where I want to stay about two months, so it will take a little while until I write my next article. It’s time to have a rest.

Visit the album

See you soon.