... a young woman with two camels hauling water
gilded sign over temple entrance
... face of the ship of the desert
... decorated yurt pole
In June of 1982, I participated in a Smithsonian Associates sponsored trip across Eurasia. Our group of about 18 members flew in from various parts of the US and met in Paris, to embarked on the first segment of the train trip. From Paris, France we headed east, stopping over in Vienna, Austria and then in Budapest, Hungary. The latter stop on our itinerary was to acclimatize ourselves to the communist governments we would encounter in the next three countries on our route: the USSR, Mongolia, and the Peoples Republic of China.
This was my third trip to the Soviet Union and the first to Mongolia and the Peoples Republic of China. While I looked forward to the new regions of Siberia that the trip would cover, and to the 'Central Kingdom of the Han', my greatest interest was to view the vast steppes of Mongolia and the sands of the Gobi. I was not disappointed.
Starting from Moscow, the train rolled eastward for four days and nights on the Trans-Siberian Railway, across the short grass plains and forest hills of Russia. We arrived in Irkutzk, not far from Lake Baikal, on morning of the fifth day. After two days in the Irkutzk-Baikal area, we boarded another train that laboriously worked its way around the south shore of Lake Baikal toward Ulan-Ude and then headed south along the Selenga river into and across the hills toward Mongolia.
| 16 June 1982 0920: | on train S of Ulan Ude on way to USSR-Mongolian border. We cross over into Mongolia at Sukobaatar orson. | |
| 17 June 1982 0600: | on train, breakfast: bread, butter and jam, sour milk and two small sausages, and the obligatory hot Russian tea. | |
| 17 June 1982 0700: | train entered Ulan Baatar station and we checked into tho tourist hotel after a short bus ride. The baggage remained at the station for a while under the watchful eye of Dan Kaiser. |
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| 18 - 19 June 1982 | in Ulan Baatar, with bus trip to hill country between Nalayh and Bayan. | |
| 20 June 1982 1500: | flew to South Gobi ger camp, near Dalan Zadgad; than a long, hot, dusty trip in bus to
Chapman's dinosaur digs. Met three East Germans who tagged along on the bus trip; they are here to teach the Mongolians 'western' culinary skills for their expanding tourist trade. Bus driver stops in middle of road for about twenty minutes to chat with a motorcyclist we meet in the middle of nowhere. From horizon to horizon, there is no other traffic, no other dust plume. |
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two ger or yurts in the Gobi ... ... a young woman with two camels hauling water |
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gilded sign over temple entrance |
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... face of the ship of the desert ... decorated yurt pole |
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| 21 June 1982 1100: | return flight from South Gobi camp to Ulaan Baatar. | |
| 23 June 1982 1100: | exit from Mongolia | |
| 23 June 1982 2250: | arrived in Datong, P.R.C. Had ten minutes to get ourselves and all our bags off the train before the latter was underway again. We walked to our waiting bus through a crowd of staring men (looking at the foreign devils, no doubt). We're all tired but elated to be back on terra-firma after the long train ride. |
... still considerable work to be done here.