Day 145 586 days to go. Distance: today 32km total 8205 km. Its 4.45pm Monday 23/4/2012 Ulaanbaatar. Hi there fine fine folk. I’ve got 15min before my skype date with my partner so thought I’d make a start on the post to have something to attach the photos to later. It’s been a really successful day for logistics, managing the weather, gear shopping and I heard from the bike shop folk here in UB. They have asked I pop in today so I’m going to try find the shop after our date as it’s open until 9pm awesome!!! I woke this morning to it snowing and lots of it. Rube and I rugged up and headed out to Immigration. It was a chilly ride but beautiful in the countryside all covered in snow and showing off it’s wildness. They registered and extended my visa all in the one visit which was fabulous and relatively hassle free yay. My hands were a bit chill bill (understatement) and I was contemplating how to manage this better when I passed an outdoor shop on the way back into town. They had some great gear and good prices. So after lots of scheming and playing with options I came away with merino base layer gloves and hyde mittens with removable wool lining. I also bought a fitted balaclava which is wonderful. The woman in the shop enjoyed playing with options with me and it was fun to bounce off ideas even though she couldn’t speak English. The universal language of women shopping 🙂 I wore the gear on to ride back into town and it worked a treat and made a huge difference so I’m all happiness with what Ive got for $ spent. I checked emails when I got back and there was a very excited email from the fella at the bike shop. He leaves for China tomorrow and asked if I could come today so he could meet me. How cool’s that. I asked the guesthouse folk where to find the shop and have a basic idea so that’s me this evening. Time for my date. Talk soon x
It’s 10.50pm and Im propped up in bed to update the post. The students are on the floor playing cards very cute. They wouldn’t be any more than 16 y/o and haven’t asked me any more English help. Maybe my tips were a bit dodge 🙂 More cool stuff happened this arv so thought I’d add some more to the post. I ended up grabbing a decent map of UB and went to the travel agency where the UB guesthouse man told be to go. They were really helpful and showed me where the bike shop was and the Kazakh embassy for tomorrow. I then headed out to the shop and had no probs finding it yay. The Mongolian fella in the shop was the only one in but called the owner who had emailed me. ‘He’ ended up being a ‘she,’ Khaliun pronounced with a silent K. She had already left for Beijing but we had a goof chat on the phone and have tee’d up a dinner date for Saturday. I’m so excited to meet her and her husband who’s from Belgium. She’s back in a few days time and really keen to catch up which is awesome. The shop called The Cycling World’ is really impressive stocking brands like Giant and Trek and lots of accessories for the intrepid Mt Biker. I had read that UB had no decent bike gear outlets but clearly this was out of date. They have a kick arse set up good as anywhere I’ve seen and offer sales, servicing. rentals and tours. Check them out on http://www.mongoliaprocycling.com The potential for Mt Biking in Mongolia is unlimited and unparalleled. Khaliun and crew see this potential and are taking Mongolian cycling to new Mt bike heights 🙂 The lad at the shop couldnt speak much English but we got talking anyway. His name is Nyam Purev which translates in English to Sunday Tuesday. He seemed like a good fellow and I would have liked to have spoken more with him. We did our best and I got a photo on the way out. I told him I’ll be back Wednesday to have a look around the shop and pick up a few things like tubes etc. So todays’s been a good day all round. When I uploaded the photos I saw first hand the extreme in weather over the last three days and it looks great on the blog. 21st was beautifully blue, 22nd dusty brown and today snow white 🙂 Sending all my love and cuddles to the family in Ingham. Talk soon x
shecyclesolo 