Mongolian Adventures

I was waiting to write this until I had some pictures to put up, but my camera is being stupid.

It was two weeks ago when I finally had my vacation and decided to head up to Mongolia. It has been a few years since I have been back and was missing the place. Before I left I called my old school director and asked him for a ride. The thing is when I called him we had some communication issues to begin with. Here is my recollection of the first part of the conversation.
Hello?
Hello?, Altanhoyig?
Yes it is, who is this?
It's Tim
I know, but who is this?
It's Tim,
Who?
Tim,
Who?
My name is Tim.
Yes, yes, who is this?
It's Tim, Tim teacher.
............Tim teacher!!!!!!!
The thing is my name is the same as yes and thus it is hard to figure out who is calling. It is a pain in the ass, but a little patience usually wins out and they figure out it is me.
I get to the airport on Friday before my flight. I check in and they say my flight might be delayed to Mongolia due to weather. Ok, it's Mongolia. They do this often. Not the best airport and not the best weather. It's often windy there. I'm waiting in the lounge when I get a text message and I ask someone what it means. My flight has been canceled. AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A short while later a man comes down and finds me walking around. He gives me a new ticket for the next day and asks me if I am going to stay in Jeju for the night or head up to Seoul. As I didn't have a place to stay in Jeju, I decided to go to Seoul.

The Friday I left, I had to be out of my apartment. Someone new was moving into it and I was getting a new apartment that is twice the size and closer to work. The thing is someone was still living there and would not be out of it until that Sunday. Everything I owned was packed into my car or on my back.

So I call up my friend Beney, who lives by the airport there and ask if I can crash. Of course it was ok. She was meeting up with some other people from training, and thus I went out to dinner and drinks with several people I didn't know or remember, and a couple that I did. We went to this dive bar in Incheon. I don't remember it's name, but it had a militaryesk theme to it. It had a bike on the roof, a wall made out of empty ammo crates, and a wall made out of TVs. Not a bad place, though it's smelled like wet basement.

So the next day I get on my flight to Ulaanbaatar. I arrive around 10 at night and wait for my bag and wait for my bag and wait for my bag. It was the last one off of the plane. I hate that. But get out and am met by John Hannibal. It was the only time I saw him, he was there to meet someone else and then I see Chris, Darren and Khaliunaa. I am fed a beer at the airport and then drive into town, to Chris's place. We are Chris's just long enough to drop off my bags and off to a bar we went. We stayed out drinking for a while and then headed back to his place and had a little after bar party.

The next day I woke up and went to a little sandwich shop that I used to like. I went in and they remembered me and I saw their son. Damn he got a lot bigger. But that will happen. It has been over 2 years since I have been back. I then called my director and he said there was a car leaving and to wait for a phone call. I get the call and am told to meet them at the usual place at 6. I go there and am looking for the car and I see one of my old friends. He tells me that we are going to his family's place for a little while, while they pick up people and repack the jeep. So that lead to drinking and eating.

We finally get on the road about 9 at night and start the long drive down to Sukhbaatar. Around 1:30 in the morning we pull over, the bearings on the trailer broke. It happens. It happens a lot. The cars usually have a spare. This one didn't. We are in the middle of nowhere and the driver and his friend head off to the nearest town to pick up a spare. So sleeping in the jeep. Not the easiest thing to do. I didn't get much sleep the night before and this night, I am not going to get much. 10 in the morning rolls around and still no driver. We decide to unhook the trailer and go and look for them. We start down the road and see him coming. Turn around fix the trailer and head off again. Finally around 11:30 at night we roll into Uulbayan. It is good to be back. It looks the same but different. They are building new buildings and there are street lights. Well a couple of them anyway. Big change. There were no lights when I was there.

I walk into my director's house and am meet by him in his underwear. He gets up and gives me a big hug and kisses my cheeks. He is unbelievably happy to see me. They all have cell phones now and he precedes to call up a bunch of people and we have a little party. Well a big party. 5 in the morning rolls around and everyone is tired and decide to crash.

I was awoken at 9 in the morning to people walking over me and I decided to get up. Another night with little sleep. I walk over to the school and see that it is finished. The school wasn't finished after the Russians left. They didn't have the money to finish it. They now have a gym and a lunchroom and a few more class rooms. I walk around and see all of the old teachers and students. Most of my old students have since left and gone to Baruun-Urt to finish up their high school and some have entered Uni.

My director wanted to know what I wanted to eat and I told him Horhug, goat that has been cooked with hot rocks. He said it might be a bit difficult as there hasn't been much rain in Sukhbaatar and most of the animals are far away. He ended up getting on and the teachers through a little party that night to celebrate my coming down. I wish I could have made it for a weekend because this was the second night in a row that the teachers were up late. They cooked me all the food that I have been missing and we ate, drank and danced the night away. Things turned a little strange during the party with teachers pulling up other teachers' shirts for me to take pictures of. It was pretty funny and we all had a laugh about it. Ah the vodka.

In the middle of the party, my director stopped the party to give me some gifts. They gave me a silver bowl, a gift basket of vodka, aruul and tea, and 300 dollars in cash. It was a bit much, but I was thankful for it. When I got back to the city, I used the money to buy myself a nice cashmere blanket. Something I would never have done without the free money. Oh and the blanket is fantastic!!!

The following morning, I was off again to the city. First we stopped by Baruun-Urt so I could pick up a ride and develop all the pictures I took. I figured they gave me all this money I could at least give them some pictures. We stopped by the museum there, which I never went to see and still didn't get to see because it was closed for repairs. Bummer. We also climbed to a new statue on a hill overlooking the city. Not a bad view. More construction going on. There is a theater there now. Place is getting bigger. My ride finally left around 6 that evening. Another night with little sleep. They gave me the front seat, but I had a child in my lap that was dead weight and was either moving or sleeping and falling off of me. We arrived in the morning and I dropped my stuff of at Chris's and went shopping and called up Meg and hung out with her for a little while. That night I went out with Chris and Adrian and then decided to crash at Meg's for the night. The next day I was off to the airport to catch my flight. But I fucked up.......My flight was not for another day!!!! So I was able to see all the things that I didn't get a chance to do.
I went to Sukhbaatar Square and checked out the government center. It was fantastic. They did a better job than I would have imagined they would have. It is stupendous. I also checked out the site of the riots and the MAXN building that was burned. I tried to get closer, but they wouldn't let me. Following all of that, it was time to go back to Jeju. It was a short night flight and thus I could not sleep for very long.

So when I finally arrived home in Jeju at 8 am I was in great need of some sleep. I went to my car and looked for my keys. My co-worker got my new apt. keys for me and said she put them in my glove box. They were not there. I called my co-worked and let the phone ring for a while, before she picked up. She had them. She is now my neighbor and she and Doug, unloaded a bunch of my stuff and put it in my apt. for me. So I got into my apt. and slept the remainder of the day asleep. Getting up only for a short time to get some grub, and watch a movie and then back asleep. A very good trip. I miss Mongolia already. Going there felt like home. It was good to be back.

Fire

It's 5 o'clock in the morning, and I am awake. It's not by choice. I was getting the best sleep I have had in a while, to be awoken by a loud screeching sound. The fire alarm was going off. I got up and look in the hall, some of my neighbors are headed down stairs so I do the same. Going down 13 flights of stairs. To get outside to find out there was no fire. What a pain in the ass. If you are going to wake me up at this time in the morning, at least have a fire.

Oh and I found out I get to move. I have to move the same day I am leaving for Mongolia. There is one slight problem with it though. The apartment that I am moving to is occupied. It will be occupied for 3 days after I move in. EPIK fucked up with the housing. So I am going to store most of my stuff at work or in my co-workers apartment. But on the plus side, when I get back, I will have an apartment that is twice the size of the one I have now.

Well I am off to try to get back to sleep.

Feeding the hare

So I have had a house guest for the past week. A friend came down from the mainland and crashed at my apartment and I got to play tour guide. Yeah me. I'm not a good tour guide, so on my weekend off I just took to being the driver on their little adventures. It all started on Tuesday when I picked up Beney and her friend Karen from the airport and took them back to my place to drop off their stuff before heading out again. Yeah I am a fast mover. Need to get things done. Actually it was bowling night and I needed to get my frames in. Needed to get my aggression out by lobbing an 11 lb. ball down the lane. Bowling went pretty much the same way as it always does. Bowling followed by galbi (fried meat) and soju.

Wednesday I left them to go to work and they did their little tourist things, followed by dinner. I chose to nap instead of going out. Dinner followed up by drinks at La Vie. We didn't stay out that late, even though it was Beney's birthday. There was really no one out. Thursday was more of me working followed by dinner of black pig and a trip to Loveland. Yeah that is my third time there. They had a few different things there this time. Little scenes of people having sex. Pretty funny actually. Followed by a nice night in of sleep, ah that precious sleep.

I had Friday off. It was Constitution Day!! So this is when my tour guiding really came in. Or more of my knowing the roads of Jeju. We started off going to the Lava Tubes. The tubes are about a 13 km long tube of lava, or would it be magma since it is under ground. Hmmm, I think they need to rename it. Well anyway it is a tube where magma used to flow and there is a hollow tube that we walked down. We got out of the tubes just in time for it to be pissing down rain. It was coming down hard. We waited the heavy stuff out for a little while to hit a break in the clouds to run to the car. Start the drive out and BAM!!!! the rain starts again. I can't see shit. Too much rain. Wipers going at full blast and me driving like an old man trying to see. My windows are fogging up, as they do when it rains. So I am driving and wiping the fog off of the window as I am driving and we decided to head to the Haneyo (women divers) museum. It was actually pretty cool. We got to learn more about the women divers that make Jeju famous. Checked that out for a while and then headed off again.

The next stop was Illchibong (Sunrise Peak). Which is very close to my work and I see it every day, just haven't climbed up it. My adult teachers told me it takes about 15-20 minutes to climb up. It was all stairs. It was hot and I was walking dripping sweat. I left the girls behind as I needed to get my climb on. Actually I was just a little faster than them and wanted to see the top thinking I would rest then. The view from the top was nice. I got to see where I worked from up on high. Then the waiting started. I just ended up helping people take photos while I waited for Beney and Karen to summit. Which took another 15-20 min. The walk down we saw a hare, which apparently they saw on the way up. I took some orange peels and tried to get it to eat from my hand. It did. I rock, animals love me. Then I decided to make it do some tricks for it's food. Which was begging. It is the only trick that I think I could get it to do. After a while he just got lazy though and put his front paws on my leg and ate that way.

We followed that up by going out to a couple of the local watering holes. There wasn't a huge crowd out. Actually it was hard to find people, Korean or foreign. Most of the islanders were on vacation for the long weekend and this is then end of the summer season for most Koreans. So they were all gone for one last shebang before the new school year starts. We did end up at the blues bar and did some karaoke. I told them that I can not sing and they forced me up there anyways. Followed by shortly getting me off the stage. People were covering their ears and just didn't like my singing. Serves them right. They should have listened to me.

Saturday I dropped Karen off at the airport followed by a day at the beach. Nice weather for it. Not too hot and a little overcast. Less sunburn for me. We took it easy after that. We were supposed to go diving Sunday morning. But that didn't pan out as Beney was tired and I was short on funds so we went down and hit the beach and met up with some of my other friends who were visiting the island from the mainland. Ended up playing darts at a bar down there and catching up. Monday was more work for me with dinner with friends at the local Indian restaurant. That is my life up to day.

Swimming with the fishes

Last weekend I completed my Scuba training. I am now a certified open water scuba diver. Which basically means I can buy and rent scuba gear and dive to 18 meters in depth. I was surprised on how enjoyable it is. The worst part of it is putting on that damn wet suit.
I had to complete 4 dives last weekend to become certified. They were more fun dives than class type dives the first two were to 12 meters. I saw some cool looking fish and coral. The colors were amazing. I would take pictures, but alas I don't have an underwater camera. So if anyone wants to buy me one, I'll take some pictures. We did some basic skills on the second dive, putting on the weight belt and scuba tank while in the water as well as flooding the mask and unflooding it. We did some compass orientation stuff. Though I think I would still get lost. I am hopeless when it comes to finding things.
It took me a little while to get down to depth, I was having trouble equalizing my ears. As you dive the air spaces in you ears gets smaller causing ear pain if you don't equalize. You can even blow your eardrums, though the pain gets to be a bit intense. But I finally got equalized and was enjoying my dive doing skills and checking out my surroundings. So cool. We get out of the water and Paul, my instructor tells me that I have a bloody nose. I farmer blow it and low and behold, blood, blood, bloody snot. Not runny bloody, but blood in my sinuses. It freaks me out a little bit. I've never had a bloody nose before. Well I have had the bloody booger from the random pick, but nothing like this. We wait an hour before the next dive. We have to let the nitrous levels in our blood die down, before we can dive again, then gear up and jump back in. Go through the dive and having problems equalizing again, but I make it to depth and go about the dive. Come up an bloody nose. Little freaked out, but think I just burst a blood vessel from trying to equalize. Went out for a bit after diving and still had a bloody nose every time I blew it. Sleep it off and figure I'll check on it the next day.
Sunday morning rolls around and I blow my nose and still bloody. So I tell my scuba instructor and the dive shop owner and they aren't concerned, so I am not concerned. It's all good.
The next two dives we did the next day on Sunday. I was a bit burned from the sun on Saturday, so the wet suit was particularly annoying to put on. These dives I got to go deeper, equalizing was still a problem, but I am getting used to it. The second dive went much much better and was able to equalize with minimal stopping. I was some bigger colourful fish and I even saw a lion fish. Really cool looking. Big floaty fins and all. The first dive we tried to do a free descent, but were unable to due to a hell of a current. It took us and pulled us quite a way. It took a lot of energy to swim back to the ropes and descent. The last dive to tide switched and I was able to do the descent with out any difficulties. It was good times and now I am certified!!!!

Chris's Visit Cont.

So Chris has left and I have my place to myself again. I liked having him here, but I need my own space and if you understood how small my apt is you would totally understand. My ger in the Mongolia countryside was bigger than the place that I have now. Though this place does have internet and running water.
So anyway Chris's last week was more of the same. We did some touristy stuff. We went to bowling on Tuesday. I bowled a 172. By far the best I have ever bowled. My second game wasn't so good. I think it was a 120. But enough to increase my average. Whoo hooo!! I wasn't feeling that great and took a night off of the usual post game drinking session. Wednesday was a pretty quiet night out, we went exploring and went to a local pub called La Vie. They had a blues jam session on and so we chatted with people there while eating dinner. I had to work early the next day so we left early.
Thursday was a bit more fun. After work I dragged Chris out of bed to try some horse. Most people who lived in Mongolia have eaten and enjoy eating horse. Chris isn't a fan of eating raw meat, but was willing to brave it. I think he enjoyed it. We went to a place by my house with a couple of my bowling friends. It was about half raw meat and half cooked. Quite tasty. It was much better than the first restaurant where I've eaten it on the island.
Following the horse, Chris,Paul, Jen and myself headed up to Loveland. None of them have been there before and so I thought it would be fun and a bit funny. Which it was. Lots of posing with statues and making asses of ourselves.
Friday and Saturday were about the same. Didn't do much. On Friday I ended up playing hooky from work and we went to Dreamland, which is supposed to be the Mongolian Circus here. There were horse acrobats and contortionists as well as plate spinners and a lot of mullets. There must be some world wide link with Circus folk and mullets. Everywhere there is a circus the mullet is not far behind. It was enjoyable, but alas no Mongols. Stupid tour books. They are always wrong.
Friday night and Saturday were the same, going out and meeting friends. Getting home in the wee hours of the morning and spending a bit too much money. Saturday was a bit more. Chris is a hot commodity here. Being a tourist with no real ties to the island make him prime picking for some of the local western girls. Such a commodity, that 2 drunk girls played paper rock scissors on who was going to take him home. The winner actually took him home and he stuck me with the bill at the bar. The bar that he had been buying drinks for others. Ahh the job of the wingman. My interactions for the night are private and will not be posted here. Lest someone on the island read this and I enter the rumor mill. Hate the rumor mill.

Chris's visit

Chris, a friend from Mongolia, is down in Jeju for a couple of weeks for vacation. So far it has been one week and I thought I would give a short little write up. He came in on Monday and we basically just chilled and went to see a movie. Hancock is playing here and he wanted to see it. Tuesday is bowling night and thus I dragged Chris along to that. I stayed out a bit later than I wanted to. After bowling we went to GP bar and then to the Blues bar on the island. I drank more than I wanted to and ended up going home about 1:30. I felt like shit the next day but that is the price you pay. Chris stayed at the bar and ended up chatting with several of the other people. He rolled in about 7 in the morning. The next day was a write off as we were both feeling like crap. So off to another movie.
Thursday we went out again and drank some. I left around midnight this time and left Chris in the hands of strangers. Well other people. He rolled in around 7:30 in the morning, just in time to take my bed as I headed off to work.
Friday was a going out night. We started out at a local bar called La Vie. We were supposed to meet some friends for dinner, but we both overslept. Took a nap after work. After La Vie we headed into town and hit a couple of other bars. Got home about 4 in the morning. Chris was sort of angry with someone in the crowd so it was time to leave.
Saturday was an open mic night at Led Zeppelin. Before we went there we headed to the south side of the island to do some swimming. The weather was nice. Which was a bit surprising ads we were supposed to get a Typhoon rolling through. I guess it jumped up on the mainland and missed us. When we got to the beach they wouldn't let us swim. Koreans are bad swimmers, well most can't swim so they pulled everyone out of the water. The waves were a bit rough, but I have swam in rougher seas. So played some frisbee and tossed around the football before heading off to Led Zeppelin and met some of my friends and then decided to hop as it was busy and hot. Jumped across the street to GP bar and did some drinking there. We rolled on out of there and headed to another bar called Blue Agave. Some time during the wee hours of the morning Chris headed off home and I went to a Kareokee bar with a couple of friends. I ended getting home around 8 in the morning.
Sunday was a tame day with some moderate site seeing and the Jeju United soccer match. Jeju tied with a 0-0 score. We played really well and deserved the win. We just couldn't find the net.
Monday, Chris came to work with me and I gave him the quick tour and then finished up my work before leaving early. We went to Udo Island. And island just off the coast of where I work and rented some bikes and toured around for a bit. It was hot so we went to a white coral beach. Looked pretty but really dug into the ole feet. I swan around for a bit as the Chris and the Koreans stayed in waist deep water. From there we went back to my place and left for dinner of Pizza Hut and tried to catch the new Batman movie just to find out that it isn't playing here yet. Now that really sucked. Chilled at home for the rest of the night and watched a dvd. Tonight is going to be bowling again. Will write later.

Update

I haven 't written in a while so I thought i would give a little update. I have done two more days of diving. It was so much better than the first day. The first day the regulator was a bit tight. It felt like I was breathing out of a straw, which was causing more anxiety than was needed. But on the following dives, I had a different regulator that was easy to breath out of and made the experience much much more enjoyable. Now I am just waiting for my next two days of diving so I am certified. The next two will be much much more enjoyable. We will be doing deeper water dives. For the first couple we only went to about 4 meters. I did see a small sand shark, but not much else. These next dives will be up to 18 meters and we will be diving around coral. They won't happen until the first week of August. Paul, my instructor, has another class coming up this weekend and thus isn't able to take us out.

Other than that the weather has been fantastic. I have been spending my weekends at the beach swimming. Yesterday we went to a river and swam there. It was fresh water and the surroundings reminded me of Wisconsin. I did some snorkeling there as well as swimming.

Work is going good. I started a new semester of classes. My kids aren't as fun as the first group. I have some of the same students, but my fun class got taken over by the other teacher here. She interviewed my students this time and took them for her class. Kind of pissed me off. I liked those kids. It has been hot lately, so I go to the beach at lunch. It is close and I have an hour off. So why the hell not.