Vodka Actual, Do You Copy?.

Dear Readers, welcome back to the Yellow River Chronicles and the final part of our cryptic series on Mongolia.  As you know, we live the James Bond lifestyle here at the YRC.  Martinis, exotic locales, expensive tailored clothing, and of course, the sheer adventure of Life on the Other Side of the World.

It can lead to some serious adrenaline addiction, let us tell you.  Sometimes, when life gets a little predictable and domestic here in the Mighty 'Hai, we will do something INSANE to get that rush of adventure.  We may cross the street after only looking twice, or stop for a tasty snack of street food, or indulge in the infallible adventure here in the 'Hai, hold a door open for someone.

So, really, the YRC is a chronicle of what is called "adventure travel".  This, from a YRC solid resource, Wikipedia:

The YRC Staff kayaking in the Sea of Cortez

Adventure travel is a type of tourism, involving exploration or travel to remote, exotic and possibly hostile areas. Adventure tourism is rapidly growing in popularity, as tourists seek different kinds of vacations. According to the U.S. based Adventure Travel Trade Association, adventure travel may be any tourist activity, including two of the following three components: a physical activity, a cultural exchange or interaction and engagement with nature.
Adventure tourism gains much of its excitement by allowing its participants to step outside of their comfort zone. This may be from experiencing culture shock or through the performance of acts, that require significant effort and involve some degree of risk (real or perceived) and/or physical danger (See extreme sports). This may include activities such as mountaineering,trekking, bungee jumping, mountain biking, rafting, zip-lining, paragliding, and rock climbing. Some obscure forms of adventure travel include disaster and ghetto tourism.^[1] Other rising forms of adventure travel include social and jungle tourism.

The Rascal of the Stars heads for the grocery store

COMFORT ZONE, people.  That is what we are talking about.  And in Mongolia, we had a chance to go SO far from our comfort zone, that we felt we were on a journey with the Rascal of the Stars, "Curiousity", looking back at our comfort zone on earth.

To digress further, we are going to provide a photo, sent from Curiosity on Mars and then we will provide a photo taken by the YRC staff in the Gobi as a way to begin our discussion of, let us be frank here, adventure travel gone...slightly wrong.

Going for It in the Gobi:  Adventure Travel on the Edge

This is a photo from Mars, people, courtesy of Curiosity

Alpha One and Bravo Three compare compass coordinates in the Gobi

Our trip included, along with some excellent camel and horse trekking, the chance to do some hiking in the steppes and in the Gobi desert.   And hike we did.

To keep the story short and to the point (not a YRC strong suit by the way) we shall simply chronologue our first experience with RIDM (more later).  

Our fellow travelers included two extremely fit and motivated hikers, Alpha One and Two. Next were the reasonable and middle path hikers who we will call Bravo Three and Four (a YRC staff member).  Finally, there was the solo YRC staff member who will will call Roadkill Five.  

We shall designate our trip leader and his driver Vodka One and Two, and their elite Russian SUV Vodka Actual.

For a number of reasons, Alpha One and Two decided to introduce our elite Team to some Rage Induced Death Marching (RIDM) on the day of our 12-hour Gobi hike.  They thought it appropriate to lead our somewhat hung over Trip Leader (loonnnnng story....go with it, please) on an extended chase across the vast wasteland that is the Gobi desert.  Our group had no radio contract, but if we had, it would have gone like this:

Roadkill Five:   Bravo Three and Four, do you copy? <crackle>

B3&B4:  Affirmative, Roadkill Five, we have you four by four.

Roadkill Five:   Bravo Three and Four, I have you on visual approximately two to three miles to my west.  Do you have visual contact with Alpha One and Two?

B3&B4:   Affirmative, Roadkill Five, they are another two or three miles to the west of us.  They are working their way along the ridge.

Roadkill Five:   <crackle>.  The ridge?  WTF??  Do you have a visual on Vodka Actual?

B3&B4:   Negative, Roadkill Five.

Roadkill Five:   Bravo Three and Four, we are in the center of a vast barren alluvial plain that terminates in deep desert sand about 12 miles south from here.  The current temperature is around 102 degrees Fahrenheit.  Do you have any idea why Alpha One and Two are mountain goating about four miles off course to the west of here?  We should be heading south.

B3&B4:   Affirmative, Roadkill Five.  They seem to think it is funny.

Roadkill Five:  <crackle>  I've got my binocs out and now have a visual on Vodka Actual.  They seem to be attempting to assault the ridge to corral Alpha One and Two.

B3&B4:   Copy that Roadkill Five.  We wish Vodka Actual lots of luck with that.  We are consuming GORP and are Oscar Mike.  See you at the VodkaEvac site around sunset.  Stay hydrated!

So, you get the idea, well-hydrated YRC readers.  To wrap things up, everyone arrived safe and sound to our camp at the base of some spectacular sand dunes and a fine time was had by all.  And a fine time you shall have as the YRC heads to .....America! for next week's Yellow River Chronicles.  See you on down the trail, partners!

Sunset in the Gobi

Riding Like Genghis Khan with the Yellow River Chronicles

Horse trekking under the Big Blue

Greetings and a friendly tip of the ol' cowboy helmet from your pardners here at the Yellow River Chronicles.  You may remember that this is the second in the three-part series on Mongolia.  This week we are going to saddle up and take a look at the pros and cons, ins and outs and what have you of horse and camel trekking in the Big Empty.

Note:  The videos are large and will take some time to upload, particularly if you are you know where behind the you know what of China.

Mongolia is a large, unpaved country where many folks still move around by riding either a horse or camel.  Horses are used primarily in the steppes where there is enough water and grass to sustain them and camels are used in the vast Gobi desert area in southern Mongolia.

We will start off with horses on the steppe, first.  Here is the video to get you in the mood:

Mongolian ponies are small, tough, friendly and easy to talk to.  Sort of like....Italians.  After careful horse selection and a few pointers on how to steer, stop and go (say "chu") we were riding the Mongolian plains like one of the Khans own.  

The Mongols are some of the best horse people in the world and rather than burden us with too much information by sharing any of that knowledge, they opted to let us learn on our own.  Get on horse.  Ride! And learn on our own we did as we "chued" our way across the plains.

The assigned YRC horse was named "Pokey" by the YRC staff for his extremely leisurely style.  He was good natured and fun to hang around with.  But he was always the very last in the string of horse. We spent six hours riding across the steppe together and the YRC staff was able to get the sense of what it was like traveling in the days before roads, bus stations and chauffeured limousines.  The Poke was particularly good during the archery training*. We took short Mongol bows, a big quiver of arrows and spend part of the trip practicing galloping and shooting things with arrows.  It took some extra concentration to avoid taking each other out but luckily there were only flesh wounds*.  By the end of the trip, we were able to get a true Mongol experience when we attacked a van full of unsuspecting Korean tourists*.   "No prisoners!  NO prisoners"  we chortled to each other as we bore down on their startled tour group* and a great time was had by all, Mongol invasion style.  

Admittedly, the YRC staff walked more funny than usual for a day or two after the long ride but all things considered, nothing that a fistful of Motrin couldn't solve.

Next stop, we headed for the Gobi, the huge desert in the south of Mongolia.  There, for many reasons, the Bactrian camel is the preferred mode of transport. Camel trekking, unfortunately, did not offer the same opportunity to pillage.  One simply stands by camel, camel kneels, camel rises and there you are, eight or nine feet off the ground.  

Our host for the day and ace camel wrangler

Camel gait can best be described as.... elliptic.  Camels are known for their general  unpredictability, so a string approach is used.  I had the lead of the person in back of me while the person in front of me had my lead.  

YRC staff and trip member Shelley from Texas in the Gobi

We proceeded in a nearly direct line and there was quite a bit of excitement because we had even LESS training that the horse riding section of the trip.  Get on.  Hold line.  Hang on.   That was the long version of the camel riding training.  Here's another video to give you the camel trekking effect:

Because these treks attract adventuresome, interesting, sophisticated and educated sort of folks, most of the time staggering across the Gobi on the camel trek was spent in debate over which camel was expressing the most flatulence.  True, the Gobi is a harsh environment, so we were all wearing masks, but the camels released voluminous amounts of methane that would threaten to knock you off your camel if you didn't hang on.  Many claimed that "Clueless" was the worse, "Booger" was in the upper ranks but "Stinky", the camel of a unnamed YRC staff member, finally got the "Foulest" award.

We rode for three hours and stopped for a break.  At that point, after we dismounted, we all decided to burn our clothes and continue to explore the Gobi....on foot.

And explore we shall, in the next YRC Chronicles.  Tune in next week for our "Best of Mongolia" awards ceremony.  See you then!

*  This is a joke. Really. Hhhhhaaaaa hha haaaa. Conan, what is best in life?  Ahahahahahhaa.