“Mendee, you’re Asian, why you’re eating like Western people?” I yelled at Mendee, my driver who kept eating bread in every meal including those typical Asian: instant noodles and rice. “You eat like Russian.” “Yes, it’s because of Russian influence,” Gambar, the guide, replied.
At first, I automatically assumed that Mongolia was more similar to China because they were both Asian countries and had years of assimilation. Their facial features are similar though Mongolians have more slanted eyes and rounder, puffier faces. They both use chop-stick. They eat instant noodle. They are both traditional and dictated by rules and traditional beliefs.
What happens if if one billion Chinese jump at the same time? You should ask what if one billion Chinese talk at the same time.
I don’t want to find out. Everyone talked in China. That wasn’t the end of it. More than chit chat, they produced noises.
I love big cities. I can’t imagine living in the countryside, waking up and falling asleep to the sounds of roosters and crickets. I love the sounds and the fast pace of big cities. But I seriously doubted it after coming to China and listening or being forced to listen to an entire population who couldn’t stop talking.
“Life is not about eat, sleep, pee-pee/poo-poo” was the favorite wisdom my uncle passed down to his two children to warn them from having their life governed by these three basic deeds.
It seems to me that I committed all three in the last three months. Each sin is guided by the nature of my traveling in each specific country.
— Update 7 Sep, 2016 —
Thanks a blog reader who informed us about the change of the visa process. As of the end of August 2016, the embassy is not giving visas to foreigners not residents in Mongolia. There is a lof of people with interrupted travel plans wandering about Ulaanbaatar. They even canceled visas of some Swiss women who had already been granted the visas but had been out on a tour and didn’t collect them in time. No nationalities are getting visas – we’ve talked to Americans, French, Swiss, Italian, Israeli, and we’re Dutch. Be aware of that before coming and don’t plan on getting your visa here for the next little while at least. No one is quite sure why they’ve changed. Apparently, it’s also affecting other regional offices (such as Korea, Vietnam, and Hong Kong) so get very recent information before making plans.
My name is Cindy, also rhymes with travel junkie. A friend said I was probably a gipsy in my previous life. One of my many secret missions in life is to convert you to run off every once in awhile.
