Biking through Ulaanbaatar’s Ger Districts
Rather than riding south as usual, Hutch and I thought we’d head up through the Ger districts and up onto the hills overlooking the north of Ulaanbaatar.
This ride brought some sights I’d not yet seen in Mongolia including:
- A large white date marked on a hillside built out of either chalk or light stone. Thing was it was the correct date – presumably updated daily by the inmates of the prison in the valley below.
- Stunning panoramic views of Ulaanbaatar (see photos)
- Rubbish! Tons of it – on the hills just outside the Ger districts – sometimes we were riding over whole hillsides of broken glass and other rubbish. The hills just beyond that though – beautiful.
At one point we attracted the attention of a group of young boys who decided to ‘help’ me up a hill by holding onto my seat post and running alongside. Eventually I had to give up as I could barely manage the hill even without the unpredictable tugging on the bike in all directions. After exchanging lots of grins and waves I managed to break clear of them when the gradient eased. We ended the ride with a fast descent back through the Ger districts – great fun.
Mongolian Customs
Though far from comprehensive here are some of the Mongolian customs I’ve observed during my first four weeks here:
- Ovoos – these are a type of cairn made from stones or wood. Used for religious ceremonies and also to mark high points and landmarks, it is customary to walk around them 3 times and leave a small gift or even a stone. I’ve come across several of these whilst bike riding outside the city.
- No Bags on the floor – I was quite surprised when I was warned strongly against leaving my shopping bag on the floor (I’d attempted to place it under a chair as it seemed unsightly in a nice restaurant). It’s bad luck to put your bag on the floor apparently.
- When eating Khuushuur you should hold it by the finger tips… held this way the warmth from the food is good for the body.
- Every Tuesday is unlucky day! Narantuul market is closed and people avoid major purchases on Tuesdays.
- If you inadvertently touch the foot or knee of someone it is polite to immediately give a quick hand shake. You can imagine my surprise when someone ‘randomly’ tried to shake my hand at a party before I’d learned this.
- Shaghai is a series of games played with the ankle bones of sheep or goats. Traditionally, Mongolian’s collect a whole load of these and sometimes paint them. When thrown, the bones can land in 4 distinct orientations known as a horse, camel, sheep and goat (the horse being the best score). I’ve tried 3 of these games so far including using 4 bones as a form of dice as well as more skillfull games involving flicking them and throwing/catching them. And of course to be ‘lucky’ you should really only play with bones of animals you have eaten yourself.
All this luck/superstition is mildly amusing/fun for a while but I can imagine it could grow wearisome in the long run…
Narantuul – Ulaanbaatar’s black market
Narantuul is a huge market near the center of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Helpfully, similar items are grouped together – for instance a long row of jeans stalls, an area for shoes, an area for furniture and so on. In the couple of hours I’ve spent there so far I think I’ve seen only a fraction of it. However I did achieve my goal of purchasing a longer seat post for Hutch’s second bike that I’m borrowing – it came complete with saddle for the equivalent of £2.50. Yes – this place is super cheap!
I’d been warned of the dangers of Narantuul such as pick pockets and scam artists with highly honed techniques but had no problems – this time! An example is approaching a couple – one guy starts touching the female and when her partner raises his hands to intervene the other guy speedily unzips and empties his pockets. I hope to visit again – with nothing remotely valuable on me of course…
For now – in the pictures below, check out:
- the decent sized bike area
- unpainted wooden horse saddles
- weapons including muskets and swords
- traditional Mongolian furniture
- riding boots
- some delights of the underground meat section
Ulaanbaatar Mountain Biking
I’ve had my first taste of biking in Mongolia – Hutch and I took a ride out of Ulaanbaatar up to the hills that are still partly covered in snow. It’s just a 10 minute ride out of the city and what a contrast – in a few minutes you go from heavily congested roads, to open roads and then mountain trails.
Our ride took us up a valley, past lots of Gers (traditional and still much used Mongolian homes) and along some snow lined ridges and single track. I was struggling somewhat with a cold and with the altitude (Ulaanbaatar is at 1,350m and we rode up from there) but it was great to get out of the city – hoping to get more riding in soon.
Arrival in Ulaanbaatar
I’m in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia for the first of two 5 week stints here to work on a web project for an English language school.
Some notable differences to home so far:
- As I stepped out of the airport terminal I was greeted by 3 degrees and falling snow – so not quite the ‘summer jacket’ weather I’d been told to expect! (actually maybe that IS ‘summer jacket’ weather here)
- Power and Internet connections can be intermittent. We left at 4 yesterday because they had to turn off the power. Apparently in winter, operating classes by candle light is not uncommon.
- Bartering is normal. The office coffee supply, the office computers and even our graphic designer seem to have been acquired in exchange for lessons or other deals.
- Premium mobile numbers (e.g. starting 991), are much sought after with some paying thousands of dollars for a particular phone number. Apparently, some well to do types won’t even answer a call from numbers that aren’t one of these!
Here are some photos from my first couple of days here, including one of the school and lots of amusing literal translations on a chinese menu – delights such as “A fatty cow of article” and “The fragrant spring onion explodes the cow”!
Downs Link Ride
Just back from a 3 day bike trip focusing on riding the Downs Link – a route along a disused railway that connects the North Downs (Guildford) with the South Downs (Brighton). We made it a 3 day ride by adding in some of the Thames and Wey towpaths and some of the south coast cycle route.
Lets start with the trip video:
Groovy on Grails Timesheet Sample Application
In order to try out a complete Grails development/deployment process I’ve developed a simple Timesheet application.
Planning a weekend bike trip
A few people have emailed me asking for advice about planning a bike trip so here is a handy guide to get you started. These tips are aimed at someone organizing their first overnight bike trip with a few friends from picking a route through to types of accommodation, training and what to take… Read the rest of this entry »
Tachyon XC Micro – cycling with a helmet camera
For several months now I’ve been using a helmet camera to record first person video footage of all my cycling endeavors! After quite a bit of research I bought a Tachyon XC micro camera – having looked into rivals such as the Oregon Scientific models and the Go Pro. The main reasons I picked it over the competition were battery life, ability to take up to 32MB cards and (based on reviews) good value for money in terms of video and sound quality.
Winter Commute to Portsmouth
I’m currently commuting most days by bike to Portsmouth and I’ve even been keeping it up in the snow and sub zero conditions! Until today that is, when sadly I had to abort.. it was just too dangerous. I plan to sort myself out some ice tyres for my mountain bike as soon as I can find somewhere with them in stock and then nothing will be able to stop me!
The commute is 10 miles each way, which I reckon is the perfect distance – long enough to provide some proper training/enjoyment/satisfaction but short enough that it doesn’t take much longer than driving. (and when there is traffic – it can be quicker!)
I’ve found my regular gear is very comfortable – I’m warm within a few minutes of riding. The only issue I have is that (despite wearing ski gloves) the tips of my fingers get painfully cold for about a third of the ride – usually from about 10 minutes in and then they warm up towards the end.
Here’s a short video of me riding in a variety of wintry conditions throughout the last week – just to prove I’m hardcore:
And here’s the route on EveryTrail – showing a very useful little cycle lane round the top of an industrial estate that allows you to cut out all of busy Havant and it’s roundabouts and lights!
See larger version at EveryTrail
