I
In 2006 I took the decission to change my life. I wanted to do something more.
I went to Mongolia where I joined a summer camp for orphaned children. I arrived there one week before the start of the camp, this allow me to know the city and the people there.
The flight I took was Valencia-Madrid, Madrid-Moscow, Moscow-Ulaan Baatar.
A lot of hours on the airplane. And also a lot of time in Moscow waiting for the next flight.
At the Moscow airport the workers are weird, if you ask them smileing they react with anger, but if you looks angry they smile to you... I experienced this a lot of times because the scale was 13 hours. There I met some Spanish guys who was going to ride their bicicles from Ulaan Baatar to Beijin. I was astonished with them. A real team of adventurers just in front of me!. Great!. We spend almost all the time together, and it was very nice.
Once in Mongolia I met them several times before they leave the city, but a couple of days later I met them again because one of the team member had an accident. I visited him several days and cured his injuries. Their objective was in danger, but they decide to folllow the plan with some changes. Instead to do all the trip only with bicicles, they rent a van for the injured memeber and also to act as support. After their second departure I didn't got news from them until I receive a mail with a photo of them in Tiannamen Square with their bicicles and much more dirty on their bodies than I could remember.
Going back to the trip, I selected Aeroflot because it was convenient for me about time and price, but when I get inside the plane from Moscow to Ulaan Baatar I started to be worry.
I like planes since I can remember, and I always feel more safe in an airplane than in a building, but this time it was different. The plane was a Tupolev, old, very old, and it takes several minutes to start the engines. The heater was just beside me and I spend a lot of hours with my legs burning and my arms frozen.
The landing was terrible: a big impact against the ground and a lot of pepple clapping their hands as signal of happynes to be alive (I guess). For me was very nice to see the airplane stop with no more incidents.
My friends, the adventurers also was a bit afraid. Hehe... very soon we start doing jokes about the pilot and his mother. (hehe)
"End of chapter one"
I'm sleepy...
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Roman
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II
The city of Ulaan Baatar.
It was raining when the plane land on the lonly Chinghis Khan Airport, and also was raining when I reach the city. A member of the local organization was waiting for me to drive me to the flat where I will spend some days. At the car I met my 2 first friends from Japan in this story, they are Aki and Moe. They was volunteers too, but at the farm. This day was their day off and really need a shower and some rest.
After we leave our luggage at the small and empty flat, no forniture but a tv and several futon for the volunteers, we deide to take a walk on UB (Ulaan Baatar from now).
I was tired because the flight, but I really wanted to see this city and its people.
It took very few time to start feeling really comfortable at UB. The people in Mongolia is quite interesting. They have traditions deeply rooted on the years, and hey are proud of it. Of course, Mongolia is a touristic destination, and many things has that "unreal" smell of "made in propose" for the tourists.
Is easy to find the real UB walking a bit.
For me, the most interesting is the people. How they dress, how they walk, how they talk, how they live... Is not enought to eat their food or ride a camel at the Gobi dessert. Is necessary to get into their lives to understand a culture. This was also one of my aims to go to Mongolia. It was amazong for me even before I been there.
I was the first of the volunteers on my team to arrive to UB, and like a light rain they drop themselves one by one in the next days. Lukas, from germany, become one of the most important person for me very quickly. Of course, much of the volunteers become special people to me. And we make a nice team.
We went shoping, dinning, walking, wandering on the city, having fun... It was nice time.
At the city I was impressed by the people. Their faces, their movements, their behavior.
We saw "street kids" who ask for money to the tourists. They are who live at the heater conection "rooms" underground during the winter (from October to May). UB has a central heating system based on steam which comes from several power plants at the surroundings of UB. This huge tubs need to be divided to distribute the heat, and the kids live there because is obviously warm. This is not a safe place anyway, and each year some kids die during the extremely hard winter. We saw traditional clothes, we didn't saw a single PET bottle in all the city. It is money, so there is people who pick them up and take some money for it.
Sleepy again...
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Roman
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