Early Morning Hike

When I woke up this morning at 8am David said how he'd been up for hours already, and how he'd hiked up the mountain. I seriously thought he was joking but as you can see he has pictures to prove it! He went at 4 something before the sun was up- so pretty up there. Really like Tuva isn't it- just greener.
We have bad news though...the button that takes the picture on our camera fell off so we can't take pictures... The camera is still under warranty at home so they'll be able to fix it there- I'm suprised nothing has broken before as it gets a lot of use:) David went today to the Sony Store here but they don't do repairs etc. so we are really hoping to find somewhere to fix it- We don't want to be in China for our first time without a camera!!!! I guess they don't have disposable digital cameras yet do they?

Mongolian Parade

When we were downtown today applying for our Chinese visas we stumbled upon a parade. It was great to see all the traditional clothing and yurts set up. So similar to Tuva... just so much more of everything.

We hear funny things about the Tuvans here- they call them the "Wild Mountain Mongolians" etc. People ask us if we are scared to be in Tuva. We feel very safe in Tuva though- much more so than here but that is probably just because this is such a big city and with the different language that it makes us more nervous. Pickpocketing is common here so we are always looking behind us etc. They are used to tourists here which is good and bad. Tuvans don't know what to do with tourists yet:) It is a fun city to explore though- so many restaurants and shops. We can get around fine- with the younger Mongolians we use English and with the older ones we use Russian. I'm finding it very hard not to speak in Russian when it comes to words like "thankyou" and "yes" and "no". Even when we are talking to foreigners I keep saying "Spaciba" etc. I'm sure I'll be doing that in Canada for awhile. You'll have to remind us to speak in English:)

It's Togi and Dolgarmaa!

Do you remember our friends Togi and Dogo (Dolgarmaa) from Tuva? Well, they live here in their real house during the summer months. Their grandpa is the guy who runs the Mongolian Consulate in Kyzyl so they go live there during the school year for a change of pace. The kids really love these two girls (Togi is on the far left and Dogo is on the far right) and have missed them so much so it was very very cool to get to come visit them here in Ulaanbaatar.
They have the nicest house (actually the only house) we've ever been to in Russia/Mongolia. Everyone we know lives in apartments so we were so suprised to see a 3 story home (4 counting the finished basement) with a yard even! They seem rich but when you figure out all the families that live in it they aren't really. We think there are at least 3 families that live there together. Dolgarmaa and Togi grew up together- that is probably why they told us they were sisters even though they have different moms and dads. We don't actually quite understand how they all fit together but thats ok. Somehow they are related:) Dolgarmaa's parents are both doctors and Togi's dad is a doctor too. They all speak russian very well and the guy at the back (Dogo's dad) speaks great English too so we could talk and talk. I took the picture at the end of the night, there were a few more people there earlier.
We had such a great time with them. Dogo's dad made us what we would call Mongolian Grill but they say is Korean:) Tons of super good spicy tender meat which you dip in different sweet and spicy sauces and then wrap in lettuce. very very good. We've never really had meat that we've liked in Tuva so we really appreciated this meal.We'll get to see them back in Tuva when we return in January.

Train Pictures

Mongolian hill covered with goats.
Our view as we went to sleep on the train in Mongolia.
Huddy loves the train. The others like it but he loves it!

Outside the restauran(t) car. If you read this word in Russian it sounds exactly like our word Restaurant but it just doesn't have the t on the end. P is an R, C is an S, and H is an N. You can read russian!
Somewhere in Siberia:)
friendly little cows...
Emma didn't want to kiss him.

Our New Friend

When we were still at the Kyzyl airport, Josiah came running back to us saying "Daddy- there's your friend!" This man (an anthropologist who now lives in Kyzyl) had said "Hello" and "What is your name?" to Josiah and Josiah of course figures that everyone that speaks English is our friend. Soon we will have a lot of friends:) We really enjoyed meeting Brian and spending time with him. Emma asked me to ask him to sit with her on the airplane and he was happy to. She got to learn a bit about Anthropology and we chatted about the reindeer herders and turkic languages, the railroad that will be built in Tuva and all sorts of things.

Later when we got on the train we met a huge group of travellers from France, and then a Danish group and even some British and Australian travellers. We had to translate for the train conductor from Russian to French. Didn't work out too good but at least we could say some things:) Thankfully one of them could speak English fairly well. We also would translate from Russian to English for all the others. The conductor said how glad she was to have us on board:)

Last time we were on the train in these parts it was winter so there were only Russians doing the trip but this is a good time to see Russia/ Mongolia so there are lots of other foreigners.

Some pictures from Ulan-Ude to Mongolia

We're in Mongolia!!!!

Wow, I just loaded up this picture faster than I typed in the title. Crazy. I didn't realize how slow our connection was in Tuva.... I'll enjoy this while we are here! Now I can catch up on all your blogs etc.
We've had a great journey this far. We are now settled here in Ulaanbaatar. We will be here about a week and a half- plenty of time to get our Chinese visas and enjoy our time here. We already miss our friends and our home in Tuva. But we can't wait to see all of you and tell you all about it!

Our last few pictures from Tuva! We are going to miss it so bad....

Last Post from Tuva

Well, even though we don't leave till tomorrow morning this will be my last time online as we have to go pay for the internet and we don't want to have any unpaid internet when we leave... We should be able to get online in Mongolia. We know we have internet in our room in Vancouver but I'm sure we'll be on before that:)
Emma and I just went for a walk this morning to our favorite spots downtown. So here are a few pictures... nevermind. I can't get them to upload. You'll have to wait:)
Thanks for thinking about us as we travel!!!

Salt Lakes in Tuva

No, it's not snow:)
Aidash floating the day away.
The salty foam and the little red worms that are everywhere in the saltwater.... they are kinda gross if you ask me but they say they are good for you, they bite you and drink your bad blood. You don't feel it though.

Today, Era and Aidash took us on a drive to the salt lakes in Tuva. One of the lakes is said to have just as many minerals/healing properties as the Dead Sea. It was incredibly salty... When you come out from the water you turn white and have salt deposits all over you, your hair turns into one big dried out mass, and your skin crackles up. You completely float with no effort at all. Many people travel here to get rejuvenated by the water and slather the clay all over them to tighten and firm. Once the clay dries you pop in the water and do it again and again. I did enjoy it- my skin is much softer than usual. and saltier:) We saw lots of elderly ladies going in to help with their ailments.

One of the salt lakes has basically dried up (it is called the dead lake) and all that is left is the salt but there are still 5? more. We went to the saltiest one first and then went to a different one to eat lunch and rinse off in less potent waters:)

It has been way too long since we have spent time with Era, Aidash and Aidiir. They are such a fun family to be with- soon they will be having a new baby, sad that we won't be here when the baby is due to arrive:( They always have something interesting to show us about Tuvan Culture- remember when we butchered a sheep in their apartment?!?! We had our last English Class today. Tomorrow we will meet with Aldunai and Edik for the last time and then we are out of here Saturday morning:( We are really going to miss these people...

Josiah pushing mommy around.
This is what they do there.
David trying it out.
Still floating- I could have fallen asleep laying there...

Era keeping cool. It's a hot place here for pregnant ladies...
Aidiir sunbathing.
Aidash making shashlik or make up your own caption.
Aidiir and Hudson heading out for a swim.

Our Route Home

We finally figured out how our trip should go:) It was very very tricky to figure out the trains... finally we have decided the best way for us to get to Beijing (or Peking as they call it here). Here is our schedule:

Saturday morning, July 12th- fly to Irkutsk from Kyzyl

Saturday evening- take the train down to Mongolia.(35 hours)

Monday, July 14th- Arrive in Ulaanbaatar-spend 1/2 weeks there to make sure we have enough time to get the Chinese visas. We will also be able to spend time with our friends Dolgarmaa and Togi as they are home in Mongolia for the summer.

July 25th- take the slow train to China

July 26th-30th- Wander around Beijing and the Great Wall etc..

July 31st- Fly to Vancouver at 4:20pm

July 31st- Arrive in Vancouver at 12:20pm (how did we do that so fast!!!!!)

August 1st- fly to Calgary- then after a few days rest we will drive to Thunder Bay and spend the remainder of August there.

Sept 2nd?- start living in Three Hills- we are hoping at least Emma can go to school for the semester that we are home. David has a job lined up too.

We are busy packing up, putting away though we've had a house full of girls most of the day. We baked cookies again with them this morning. Tomorrow we are having lunch with Era and Aidash and then we have our last English for Journalists class. Friday we will meet with Aldunai and Edik and then we will do our final packing. I can't imagine not being here next week....

Tuvan Mountaineers

Yesterday, David got to meet the whole team of Tuvan Alpinists who are going to climb the 7 peaks of the world. (David met with the one guy next to him a while back as they had wanted him to do a climb with them). Soon they are heading to Africa to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro and then they will climb Mt. Elbrus (the highest peak in Europe). They really wanted David to come see the felt climbing boots that they invented. They are pretty cool- they say they work better than the $400-2000? mountaineering boots that you'd normally buy to climb a mountain... David got his booked signed by the author (standing next to him). Maybe next year when we come back they will all go and climb something around here.