Post # 121 Ulaanbaatar

Day 152 579 days to go. Distance: today/yesterday 0km total 8267 km. Its 10.00pm Monday 30/4/2012 Ulaanbaatar. Yay we’re all good to go. Kangshinbai has the all clear from his girlfriend and has asked we leave Wednesday so 2 more sleeps yayayayayaya. I’m so excited. It is really special to be starting what has been a long time in the planning given the logistics needed to cycle Mongolia, Russia and the Stans. I must also add it’s been an axious time with a huge leap forward in wild adventure, challenge and a big chunk of unknown. It’s time and I feel as ready as I’m going to be. The anx has been so eased knowing I’ll be sharing the first days with Kangshinbai who has become a good friend and who has a head full of all good stuff for what’s down the road. It’s going to be my first real GPS experience. We have spent a good part of today entering in the coordinates and tomorrow practice hopping between waypoints. I have a few final things to do tomorrow like refueling and cleaning Rube. I also hope to be able to download the Lonely Planets for the next countries to Turkey using iCloud. It’ll be good if it works not to have to cary the weight of the books. Otherwise it’s all thumbs up and a nice feeling. Today I went back to the bike shop and my buddy there who gave me some Mongolian pronunciation lessons much to his amusement and my frustration. Poor bugga I think I spittled all over him trying to get the ‘hacking’ sounds out. The sounds are really difficult for my mouth to make much like Asians trying to sound our ‘th. ‘He exchanged a few tubes I had bought extra which was great. I have been trying to cull my gear and weight so also posted back home some clothes and a Mongolian postcard for Robbie C (x). This afternoon I went to the internet cafe and read up on the registration requirement for Russia. I also downloaded the photos from the last posts and checked out the lonely planet PDFs. This evening I took Kangshinbai out to dinner to say ‘thankyou’ much to his discomfort and my persistence. We went to another Korean restaurant and the food is truly fabulous. If you haven’t had Korean before treat yourself. I could just eat all the side dishes. The assortment of tastes are fun and fabulous. Last night was just nuts. The guesthouse folk had told me there was a party of folk arriving after 10pm. This ‘party’ ended up being about 14 drunken, singing, card playing, cheering men on some city jaunt to UB. OMG it was entertaining but nuts as they partied on until after 4am when I think I passed out. I woke at 6am and they were back into it or maybe they didn’t go to bed who knows. The room was full of cigarette butts and vodka bottles and food scraps and very eeeeeeeeek. I went back to sleep and woke after 9am to my folks calling me on Skype. Sorry darlings but at least you know the earplugs you gave me back in Hue work a treat. They weren’t near enough to muffle the raucous last night but. Every now and again a fella would come over and slap me a hello and a thumbs up. I’d smile and cheer back then put my head back under the doona. They were to leave today but are staying another night so Kangshinbai and I have moved into a double room to get some zzzz’s. It’s about 20000 each but worth it to have a good night sleep. So tomorrow’s my last day in UB and what seems like an eternity since I cycled into Beijing. It’ll be a month since then and I have a very healthy winter layer to fuel the next stint. As much as it keeps me warmer I’m looking forward to waving it goodbye and welcoming some decent activity again. We work better when we’re physically working hard for the money honey!! All that aside it’s one peddle and post at a time ending the day safe and sound with everything extra a bonus. Who knows what bonuses lay ahead hey? Are you ready to take the plunge? Yay!!! It’s very nice knowing you are there to share stage 2 in the adventure. Talk soon x