spain: montserrat

the next day i woke up and decided to go for another day trip...i made sure i was up early enough to walk to the train station and catch the earliest train to montserrat...it's a popular enough place to visit for tourists that the ticket machines offer a special combined (train and cable car) ticket...very convenient, yay!!
the train took me to a stop called montserrat, then i crossed the tracks and got in the queue for the cable car...the cable car took everyone halfway up the mountain...from there you can hop on a funicular to go higher up, or you can hike higher up without taking the funicular...

people go to montserrat because it's a beautiful location, and because it offers two things: culture and nature...montserrat is a monastery halfway up a mountrain...the outside of each building is rather bland, but the insides are very nice looking...the basilica is beautiful, and big...on the back wall, a little over halfway up the wall is a display case showing the black virgin...
there is a separate queue to go up close to the black virgin, i joined the line...when i jumped in, it was 'only' a 45 minute line, walking through several chapels along the way...

the guidebook says the queue is more than 2 hrs long later in the day...wow! there is someone standing close to the black virgin who keeps the line moving, you only get a few second by yourself in front of the black virgin...
by the time i got out of that line, the basilica was closed until 1200 for a worship service...to fill time, i started walking...i ended up going all the way up to where the funicular takes people...i had great views the whole time, looking out over the area...awesome...i was hot, and hoping the heat rash and heat exhaustion from the day before didn't get worse...two russian guys also hiking took off their shirts when they got hot...

as i returned to the basilica, i arrived not too long before another service started, this one open to visitors...the priest started by welcoming everyone in spanish, english, french, italian, and german...the first prayer was the Lord's Prayer, i loved hearing it spoken in all the languages of the visitors...
to get back to barcelona i did everything in reverse...cable car down the mountain, train back to the city...
if i had the chance, i'd go back to montserrat for more hiking!

ukraine: ternopil, kremenets, pochayiv

camille enjoyed traveling to lviv enough that she was willing to travel with me again over a holiday weekend the next month...we had a three day weekend, and stupidly decided to wait until the last minute to buy train tickets...note to self, this is not a good idea, as there are few tickets left for any destination...i ended up picking some random city listed in the guidebook just because we wanted to go somewhere, and not be stuck in kyiv for a long, holiday weekend...
our night train took us to ternopil...as soon as we exited the train station in the morning, we took a taxi to the bus station...maybe we could've walked, but we had no map, and it was just barely daylight, and much colder than we'd expected...

we got to the bus station, and the ladies selling tickets were telling everyone they couldn't sell any tickets for the time being, as no buses were going anywhere due to the bad weather...since we didn't understand the reason, all we knew was that we were at a bus station in a small town, unable to go anywhere, which just annoyed us...
when we did figure out it was because of bad weather both of us wondered about that...this is ukraine, which gets more than its fair share of cold, crappy winter weather...eventually the storm hit us, and we understood...bits of hail, sleet, and general yuckiness...

eventually buses did start to leave, and we were able to get seats to a town called kremenets...its a small town in western ukraine...according to lonely planet, this town was never captured by the mongols when they came through this area in 1240-1241...
there is a fortress on top of a hill just outside town, and my original goal was for camille and i to hike up to the fortress...there isn't much left to the fortress, it's more a few ruins, a ring of walls, and a gate tower...howeva, as we got off the bus, we realized the hike was not going to happen...the wind was blowing, the snow was falling, and neither one of us was mentally prepared to deal with the messy weather while hiking...plus, we didn't know where to find the trail head...

at that point, our goal changed to finding food...we had been on the train all night, then on a bus, so we were hungry...we walked through more than half of kremenets before finding a place for food...it's a small town, there are not a lot of restaurants...my guess is that they don't get a lot of tourists, especially not foreigners...the place we ate was a bar of sorts...
we took a look at the jesuit collegium, which was built by the poles when they took control of kremenets (1731-1743)...we didn't go inside, but the outside of the buildings are pretty...plus they are slightly up a hill, so we could see over the town a bit...not stunning, but definitely nice...what breaks up the aesthetic beauty of the collegium is the war monument in front, built by the soviets to memorialize their triumph in WWII...the memorial looks decent, but couldn't they have put it in a different place?

famous violinist isaac stern was born in kremenets in 1920...there were jewish communities here for centuries, until the nazis massacred 15000 people they'd hearded into a ghetto in 1942...(these communities, like so many others around ukraine, have essentially disappeared now)...
after walking through a park, looking in a couple churches, and eating, we walked back to the bus "station" (and by station i mean parking lot) and boarded a marshrutka bound for pochayiv...
pochayiv is another small town, mentioned in the guidebook for only just one reason...pochayiv monastery is "a beacon of ukrainian orthodoxy - moscow patriarchate - on the edge of a largely ukrainian catholic region" according to lonely planet...you can see the monastery as soon as you get off the bus...

the monastery is the second largest orthodox complex in the country, after the lavra in kyiv, and was founded by monks fleeing the mongols in 1240...as it is so big, there are a lot of visitors, but they are almost all pilgrims, not tourists...somehow, you can sense the difference in atmosphere from what i've felt in kyiv...
to get into the monastery complex, visitors (women) who aren't already wearing a skirt and headscarf must go in a small room and borrow (with a deposit) these articles of clothing...at first we didn't know the money was just a deposit, we thought it was a rental fee, and were disappointed by the price...

wandering around the monastery was awesome...except for when an old lady in one of the churches started yelling at us, and we weren't able to figure out why...at first we thought she was indicating something about us not being allowed to take photos, except that we werent taking photos!! (there were very clear signs upon church entry that said no photos)...then she started pulling at our pants, maybe she was saying we shouldn't be wearing those? except that we had on the borrowed skirts over our pants, and we certainly weren't the only people with this particular fashion statement...maybe she was just crazy? camille and i never did figure this out...

after exploring the monastery and wandering the town (the town walk took about 10 minutes) we found a place to catch a bus back to ternopil...this ride was a true adventure on roads not in particularly good shape...winter weather in ukraine must make it VERY DIFFICULT for road engineers to keep anything in good shape...lots of potholes and bumps...
we got to the hotel easily enough in ternopil, they had our reservation...one of the reasons i'd chosen this hotel was their listing of having a sauna...it turned out to be part of a complex called aqua world...or something along those lines...after me arguing a bit, we were able to pay for just the turkish hamam (we weren't going to spend any time in the pool, and had no desire to pay for that)...an hour of steam room time alternating with dips in the cold pool and the dry sauna, and we both felt amazing...i'd go back to ternopil just to go to that sauna:)
our hotel had room service, we both ordered pizzas for dinner...nothing outstanding, but we didn't care...

the next morning we had breakfast in our room, packed up and checked out...we didn't have much of a map, so wandering around was a challenge...we found a big street market that covered both sides of a road...normal stuff available: fruits and veggies, tires, mops, bread, etc...
we found a park along a river, that was lovely and peaceful...there was snow on the ground, and it wasn't completely dry so we had to watch where we went...
in town i was taking a picture of a statue with flowers laid at the bottom when a congregation came to the statue and sang hymns...i was not able to figure out what was happening...but when i thought about it, it was a holiday weekend, so that probably meant something...
we found a park along a lake...there was an island in the middle of the lake, with a very picturesque bridge leading to an area looking out to the island...the lake was frozen at the time, which made everything that much more picturesque...awesome...i was not very patient in waiting for people to get out of my photos...(usually i can wait for a long time, but i was very impatient that day)
the train station ended up being quite close, we timed our arrival so we didn't have to wait long for our train...the train ride back to kyiv was nice, mostly during daylight:)

portugal: leiria, batalha, alcobaca, tomar

from peniche i took another early morning bus to the city of leiria...(i've never quite figured out the correct pronunciation of the name..where is the accent supposed to be?)...i wasn't able to check into my hotel, but i was able to leave my bags while i went out for the day...
i had decided ahead of time to use the town as a base to see three UNESCO sights in the area...my first stop was a town called batalha...as lonely planet puts it, there is only one thing to see in this town, an OLD monastery...you can see it from where the bus drops you off, which is basically a streetside bus stop...

the outside is stunning, and totally worth the trip...the inside is rather boring, nothing i haven't seen in any of the gbillions of churches i've seen over the years...(do i sound really jaded?)...there is a small tomb of the unknown inside the church, which is guarded...i got to see the changing of the guards, which was nifty...it isn't a huge ceremony, but it was nice to see...
i tested lonely planet's assertion that there was nothing else to see in town by wandering around a bit...the book was right, there really wasn't anything else to see...

i had salad for lunch, yippee!! i realize this isn't something that needs to go in a blog, but i've already realized that there aren't a lot of vegetable options in portugal...there are vegetables, but not so much for budget travelers, if that makes any sense...
i took another bus to alcobaca, another town with a UNESCO monastery...the bus station isn't in sight distance of the monastery, i had to guess a couple times as to where i should walk...eventually, i found where i should go...(it helped that i had seen a couple postcards with pictures of the monastery, so at least i knew what i was looking for)...the best part of this monastery wasn't the outside, nor the inside, but rather being able to climb stairs in a few areas, which gave me different views of the inside and outside...i love stairs...(yes, i know that sounds wierd)...

i loved the refectory (where everyone ate) because of all the arches in the ceiling...this church was far plainer than batalha...i'm not sure how the UNESCO designation came, i suppose i could read the website to see where the value of this monastery comes from...it's not ugly, i just didn't think it was totally awesome...the monastery in alcobaca was far larger than the one in batalha...i don't know how many monks/nuns/whoeva lived in either during their heydays...nor do i know when those heydays were...(yes, i know i should look it up, i'm sure the two of you that are reading this really want to know)

the bus back to leiria was easy, just time consuming...
the next morning i wandered around leiria a bit while waiting to catch another bus...(portugal is a small country, bus rides aren't that long, though they don't always depart regularly)...to get to tomar, i had to take a bus to batalha, then connect to somewhere else, then catch one last bus...yes, i was confused...this last bus dropped me off in a different place from where i expected, thank goodness for maps:)...
the outside of this monastery is full of gardens, which are beautiful, and looked as though they were productive in addition to being beautiful...

i walked uphill to the monastery in tomar, which sits at the top of the hill overlooking the town...after the two monasteries i'd seen the previous day, i didn't have high hopes...but this monastery was awesome...i ended up wandering for hours...it's huge, even though it doesn't appear that way...every time i thought i'd seen everything, i found a new hallway, or walked around a new corner to see something new...WOW...at least four different cloisters, each very different...
tomar didn't have many places to buy postcards, it wasn't easy to find them...
there is a small platz in the middle of town, i loved it...fun to watch locals hang out...there are gardens near the monastery, i wandered through those while waiting for my bus to depart...the gardens are situated in such a way that they were cold...sitting in a little valley of sorts, so the cold sinks and stays there...i got too cold to hang out for long, so i found a bakery in which to warm up and kill more time...somehow or another i ended up talking to a woman from arizona who owns a house in town...how cool is that?

thankfully, the bus back to leiria was simple, and i only needed one bus...

kyiv: vydubytsky monastary

 despite teaching a full schedule, i was lucky enough to have two afternoons a week where i finished teaching at 1230...when bo was in town, we took advantage of those afternoons to get out and see some of the town...

our first sight was yet another religious place (there are a lot of them in kyiv)...vidubytsky monastery...to get to the monastery, we first took the subway, then walked...the guidebook makes it sound as if it's quite difficult to get to the monastery by walking, but i thought we figured it out pretty easily...cross a couple streets, take one turn, then walk a bit...ta da!! this was another time when it was super handy to be able to read street signs, as they were nearly all in ukrainian...

the monastery is at the bottom of a hill, the rest of the hill is the botanical garden...after paying the entrance fee to the gardens, we found a map and figured out how to get to the monastery...only one wrong turn!! despite being mid may, there weren't many flowers blooming in the gardens...i don't know when the flowers all bloom...

as we started descending the hill we caught glimpses of the domes of the monastery, it seems to peek out at you without fully revealing itself to you until you're almost at the gates...bo and i couldn't stop taking photos...i love love loved the blue onion dome with gold stars...

this monastery was established between 1070 and 1077, by vsevolod, who was the son of yaroslav the wise; it was originally a family church...according to wikipedia, the monastery and the surrounding neighborhood were named after an old slavic legend of the pagan god perun, and grand prince vladimir the great of kyiv...it's part of the ukrainian orthodox church, in the kyiv patriarchate, though it did spend some time as part of the greek catholic church (1596-1635)

the monastery is small, we only walked into two buildings...one had beautiful frescoes over all the ceilings and walls...i kept bumping into the walls since i was wandering around looking straight up...as we were in this building, we were the only two visitors...it was soooo quiet...

the other building we entered was a tiny church...due to renovations we weren't able to go very far in, but even if we had, it wasn't large...

we saw several graves/memorials as well on the property...

tour #3 part 1

I signed up for my second ger to ger tour knowing that I’d have time for one more tour after returning…since ger to ger only had those two options, I knew I’d have to find something else for my last few days in Mongolia...my guesthouse seemed to be pretty good about getting travelers together who had the same interests in touring…they had a big map in their office, and you could leave a note saying where you wanted to go, when, and for how long, and other people could join up that way…of course, the guesthouse also had all sorts of tours available, and you could book any of them, starting on any day…I met a dutch couple at the guesthouse who were in Mongolia waiting for their Russian visas to come through so they could continue on the trans Siberian railway…while talking to them we figured out that we were interested in the same touring ideas, which was great…I told them to pick a tour, and that I’d pay as soon as I got back from the ger to ger, and we could leave the next day…it worked out wonderfully…I returned from the ger to ger, found the couple (and their adorable – most of the time – 19 month old son) and found out what was to be my next adventure…a Frenchmen had decided to join the group as well, which was great because it brought down the price of the tour for everyone…most tours in Mongolia (excepting ger to ger) are based on the number of people in the group, so the more people there are, the less it costs everyone each day…of course, there is a limit to how many people you want to travel with…anywho…

The next morning we all paid around 0900, and were driving out of the city by 0930…we stopped to get close to an ovoo, and could see horse races going on in the distance…maybe people were practicing for the summer nadaam? Its crazy how you see ovoos just about anywhere and everywhere…kinda like irish castles…you see one, and can’t help but wonder how someone decided to build it just there…what made that particular spot so good for a big pile of stones? A little while later we stopped for lunch at a random roadside hotel/restaurant…given that the restaurant was in the middle of nowhere, I don’t know how many people would spend the night there but who cares? The food was decent…(as I’ve mentioned before, you don’t go to Mongolia for their fabulous cuisine)…taro had a few bites, then cried, then had a few bites, then cried, etc…he’s young enough that you don’t always know why he’s being fussy…oh well…

A few hours later we got to kharakhorum…(when pronouncing the name, don’t say either of the Ks…they’re silent…so I don’t know why they’re in the word…and the H is pretty hard)…it was, for 40 years, the capital of the great Mongolian empire…and now there is nothing left of the former city…it was mostly destroyed at some point, and then when the monastery was built, they used the ruins of the city to do so…we arrived too late to go to the monastery, so after checking into our guestger, we piled back into the minivan to check out the other sights of the town…

The first was a big penis…a rock…the original is smaller, and was first put up a while ago…a rock in the shape of a penis, it was balanced on another rock, and pointed toward a nearby valley that is could be imagined to be in the shape of a woman’s hoo-ha…legend says that the rock was put up to deal with the horniness of the monks, and to keep them from having impure thoughts, and to protect the women of the town…who knows exactly…a couple years ago, the powers that be in the town decided they needed a newer, and bigger penis…so they paid the equivalent of 2 million euro to have another one carved, it’s set higher up on the hill…and it’s big…legend said that women who wanted children could come sit on the penis, but that definitely won’t be happening with the new rock…hmmm…from there we drove (straight across the land, we weren’t on a road almost as soon as we left the guestger) to the king’s monument…it’s basically a huge monument honouring the former Mongolian empire…there are three mosaic pictures, depicting the empire at various points…when the huns were in charge, when the turks were in charge, and when the Mongols took charge…it was the biggest when chinggis khan, a mongol, was in charge…HUGE…the biggest empire the world has ever known…most of china, Russia, india, and parts of eastern Europe…go figure, the Mongols were better at increasing the size of the empire than they were at keeping a functioning government alive and well…the view from the monument all around was fantastic…a valley with a river running through it on one side, the city on the other, and we could see the monastery in the distance…

Having been cooped up in the minivan all day, the Frenchman, renaud, asked if it was far back to the guestger…our guide told us it was only 3 or 4 kilometers, which seemed like a nice walk…so I walked home with renaud and koen…(the dutch guy)…it was a great walk…kim went back in the minivan with their son, taro…we arrived at just the right time, our guide brought in our dinner fairly quickly…overcooked spaghetti…hee hee…I like my noodles more smushy than al dente, but believe me, she’d let the noodles cook too long…oh well…

After dinner, we went into another ger, where a Mongolian man, dressed in traditional clothing, gave a mini concert playing traditional Mongolian instruments…one was a horse head cello…the other I can’t exactly describe, so I won’t try…figure out what you can in the photo…he also did some of the traditional throat singing…apparently there are four different ways of making the sounds, but I could only distinguish two different sounds…still, it was a nifty concert, we were all glad we got to see it…renaud figured out that one of the other members of the audience was someone he knew from uni, so they talked for a while after the concert was over…almost all travelers have a small world story to tell…

The next morning when taro woke up at 0600, it was cold in the ger…kim and koen figured it was probably partly the cold that woke him up, though apparently he wakes up every morning around that time…I heard him wake up a bit, but I didn’t hear koen take him out and go for a two hour walk while we continued sleeping…they came back around 0800, knowing that breakfast was to be served at 0830, and that we’d all be awake by that point…fortunately, someone had started a fire in the stove, so the ger was warm again by that point…the stoves keep the gers warm, but when they go out, it gets really chilly…

After breakfast I went with our guide, kim and renaud to the nearby monastery…koen and taro stayed back, so taro could take a nap…he’d been up for four hours already…as I mentioned earlier, it was built with the ruins of the former capital city…erdene zuu khiid was once one of the most important monastaries in the entire country…unfortunately, most of it was destroyed during the Stalinist purges, just like so many other monastaries/places of worship around the country…there were three temples that had been left alone, so they were great to see…I’d try to recount what was in each one, and what each figure represented, but it wouldn’t be that interesting unless you’re really into Mongolian/religious history…we spent a couple hours wandering around the former monastery, as well as the current monastery that is also on the grounds…we got to hear monks calling each other to the “service” using horns…very cool…and we got to hear them all chanting together inside…even though I don’t understand what is going on, there is something amazing about hearing their voices all together…we sat for a while, just absorbing everything around us…

Lunch was served back at the guestger…after lunch we got back in the minivan, and started driving again…we weren’t on a road for very long this time…we followed tracks and trails, and it didn’t take me long to start wondering how the driver knew where he was going…our path twisted all over, and never went straight…sometimes we weren’t following anything at all, at least, not that I could see…and yet I could tell he knew exactly where he was…all of a sudden, we pulled up to four gers that seemed to appear out of nowhere…a family ger, and their extras, which were used for groups like us…

After having our milk tea and bortzog, we went for a walk…our guide led us to a beautiful waterfall…she said it was less than 500m from the ger, but we couldn’t see or hear the waterfall until we were almost walking into it…the gorge just opened up like a big hole, and it would’ve been really easy to walk right over the edge…it really was that hidden until you were right there…our guide showed us how to hike down into the gorge…kim had taro strapped to her back, I have no idea how she got down…that descent had me twisting all sorts of ways, but she didn’t really have that option…I followed the river as far as I could, the scenery was amazing…and after climbing back out, I was tempted to keep following the gorge and see how far I could go…instead, I just walked up from the waterfall a little ways, sat down, and enjoyed the scenery, and quiet…Mongolia has this way of being incredibly quiet…quieter than anything I’ve ever experienced previously…amazing…

The stars that night were incredible…sooooo many stars…

the arrival and first day...

i was rather unnerved when the taxi driver turned around and attempted to grab my bags so i wasn't easily able to get out of the taxi...
i'm obviously waaay ahead of myself...go backward about 36 hours...
i stayed my last two days in korea with my friend lindsey...one of those days, while she was at work, i took the subway into seoul and knocked a bunch of chores off my list...visiting the pension office, picking up something from my school, mailing a few postcards, etc...thank goodness for public transport...i got nearly everything finished, including setting up my pension so that i'll be paid just after i leave korea for good mid may...yahoo...pension is definitely one of the benefits of coming back to korea:)

i hopped back on the subway, and made my way out to meet up with lindsey, it worked out perfectly...we went to COEX, which i read somewhere is the largest underground mall in asia...who figured that out, i don't know...and why it matters, i don't know...after dinner, (there is a big food court there) we made our way to the gangnam area of town, one of the richest areas of seoul...it's an area in which to see and be seen...she wanted to go to a jimjilbang, and i was perfectly happy to do so...we went to the jimjilbang i used to go to when i lived in that area of town...i love the way i feel when i walk out of a jimjilbang...sooo cozy and nice...anywho...as lindsey and i were walking from the subway back to her flat, i stubbed my foot on a tree root...OUCH...i figured i jammed it, and limped along...when we got back to her flat i saw blood, which was a surprise...yuck...and of course knowing that there was blood made it hurt worse, if that makes any sense...i could feel it throbbing a little...i could feel my toe (the second toe of my left foot) all the way until i fell asleep that night...
the next morning i got up later than i wanted, and got out of the flat later than i wanted...there was one chore i hadn't done the day before, deposit money in my bank...so i did that...running later than i wanted to be...then, of course i still had to pack up my stuff, since i always procrastinate about such things...so what i've just taken foreva to say is that i was later getting out of the flat than i should've been, and it was all my fault...i got to the airport at 1122...my flight was at 1205, and while i knew i was pushing it, i thought i'd be okay...but i wasn't...as i got to the check in counter, it was empty...there was no one there...not a single person...note to self, check in for mongolian airways flights closes an hour before the flight...in other words, i missed my flight...fortunately, the ladies at information were nice enough to let me call the airline to figure out rescheduling...the lady i talked to wasn't as nice, but she did book me for the next day...the rebooking fee was only $25, which was nice...i feel like stateside airlines charge way more...but who knows...i had to transfer the money before she would do the rebooking, which meant i had to call her back, even though i told her i didn't have a mobile phone...luckily, the information ladies were okay with me making the second call...then, after the airline lady made the booking, she said i should call back to confirm...REALLY? didn't i just tell you i don't have a phone? instead of hanging out then hassling the ladies again, i decided to find the airline office in the airport...that guy was out to lunch (the office was only open 0900-1400, and he gets a lunch hour? i want that job!) but i waited...not only did he confirm the booking, he switched it to the same day, so i didn't have to wait another day...totally awesome guy:)...then i got to kill 6.5 hours...some reading, some writing, some people watching, etc...needless to say, i checked in early...3 hours early:)

i arrived in ulan bataar at 2210 after a 3.5 hour flight...originally there was a lady with an infant seated next to me, but they moved her when the attendants figured out there were two seats free across the airplane...(am i really that awful?)...the airport in ulan bataar is small...only 6 immigration lines...3 for locals, 2 for visitors, and one for diplomats...and one of the visitor lines wasn't open...thank goodness the diplomat line was, and i was able to go through that line...there was only one baggage carousel...it didn't move quickly, but eventually my bag came out...that's always the most nervewracking part of flying for me...
then i had to find a taxi...i went with someone who looked official...not surprisingly, he didnt' really understand where i wanted to go...thankfully there was a phone number in the guidebook, the taxi driver called and got directions...though he still didn't really understand where to go exactly...when we (i spotted it before he did!) found the guesthouse, he told me i owed him $100...RIGHT...it's not that expensive in new york city, for a much longer ride, do you really think i'm paying that here? not so much...i politely said no...then he typed it into his phone, in case i had misunderstood...i hadn't, and i still wasn't about to pay $100...then he typed in $50...yeah, that didn't work either...on our way out of the airport i listened to what other taxi drivers were offering, so i had an idea of what i should pay...i handed him the equivalent of $20, and went to grab my bags and get out of the taxi...he wasn't thrilled with that, and tried to grab my bags...thankfully, i was stronger and at a better angle for pulling my bags out of the taxi...i got out, though totally unnerved...
after searching for a little bit, i found the entrance of the guesthouse...entrances in this city aren't always obvious...that probably makes no sense, and won't unless you visit here...thankfully, they had a room for me...(it was after 2300, i didn't have other options or ideas at that point)...my room had a tv, so i fell asleep watching bbc news...yay!!
the next day i slept late, it was good...after being REALLY slow getting out, i walked to other guesthouses and inquired whether they had beds that night...my place had told me they were full up, so i needed a new place to go...thankfully, i found a new place quickly...it was right next to a tour company i'd read about in the guidebook, called ger to ger...the premise is that they have specific routes set up for travelers to go on at any time...travelers get to stay in gers, get to know families, and participate in regular daily life activities of the nomads...nifty...i walked in, looked at what they had available, (it's still winter now, so i didn't have as many options) and chose one...depending on how it goes, i might sign up for another tour when i get back...after having that settled, i went to the state department store, as i'd been told there was an atm on the 5th floor...atms aren't as common here as in other asian countries...it was actually on the 4.5th floor, but that's beside the point...i always feel conspicuous withdrawing money...
i went back to pick up my stuff, and found out that the guesthouse had room for me after all...i switched rooms, and that was that...

in the afternoon, i went to visit the biggest temple/monastery complex in the city...according to the guidebook, nearly everything was destroyed by the soviets in 1937...when a US president came to visit in the 60s (i can't remember who) he asked to see a place of religious importance, not knowing that pretty much everything had been destroyed...the soviets had to scramble and make it look as though this place was still functioning...they did, and until communism collapsed in 1990, it became a tourist site...after that, it became a functioning monastery and temple again...inside the temple is a huge buddha...20m tall i think? something along those lines...there are prayer wheels along all four walls, sometimes two rows of wheels...it was awesome...in addition to the impressive buddha, there was a square out front where people were feeding pigeons...it was entertaining watching kids run through and make the pigeons fly...occasionally all the pigeons would lift off at the same time...that was nifty to see...i walked from there up a hill, because i could see gers a little ways off...ulan bataar is a (mostly) modern city, but the culture of the country is that of nomads...i find it amazing that even now, people live in what are portable digs...awesome...on the way to the hill, i could see an ovoo, mentioned as a place of honour in the guidebook...there are rocks typically piled in a triangle pile, with bits of blue and other colours stuck in...i walked up to the ovoo, and could even see a horse head on the pile..ewww...yuck...
from there i walked back to my room, as my hands were freezing, and so were my camera batteries...after relaxing a while, i walked to the nearby state department store, which is huge...5 floors, and definitely the biggest store in the city...i already mentioned this...there was a grocery store at the back of the first floor, and i explored...the place was BIG...i loved it!! i didn't buy much, only water and yogurt, but it was still fun to see what is available...mongolia doesn't really have agriculture (a bit, not much at all) so nearly everything is imported...i haven't seen that much stuff from germany in a looong time!!
i know that doesn't sound like much, but that was the end of my first day...i hung out in the common room at the guesthouse, listening to others talk...a couple girls are peace corps volunteers, which made eavesdropping interesting...i know it's awful to say, but in some ways all peace corps volunteers are the same...it's hard to explain, but if you know multiple pc volunteers, i think you'll understand...they're not all the same, but in some ways they are...pc volunteers definitely know the country in which they're living far better than other travelers, but sometimes this comes across as snootiness...

before going to bed that night i walked down the street to get one more photo...walking alone down a street after dark isn't something i do very often anymore, not since being mugged in kuala lumpur, on a lighted, majour street...anywho...when driving into the city with the taxi driver i saw that the chinggis statue and government building are lit up at night, so i wanted that photo...and i got it:)
sweet dreams:)

nepal 4

at the end of my last email, i think we were about to go for our third trek...we trekked the helambu area, which is pretty close to kathmandu...well, the start of the trek is close to kathmandu...this trek wasn't as high, or as long as our first, but it was still my favorite...there wasn't quite the variety of scenery, but it was still awesome...we saw soooooooo many farming terraces, each of which was farmed by hand...absolutely incredible...they went all the way up to about 2200m...each day was both physically and mentally challenging...rarely did this trek go flat...most of the time the ascents and descents were rather steep...this trek is less popular than other treks, we saw very few other trekkers during our time on the trails...it's also not marked like the other two treks we did...there were quite a few times we came to forks in the trail and had to decide where to go...most of the time both options looked equally good...several times during the 8 days we missed a turnoff and were lucky enough to run into a nice local person who sent us in the right direction...two of the days we spent 3/4 of our day without any clue as to where we were...it's a bit scary to walk through/over/around hills and valleys when you don't know where you are, and people can only communicate vague directions...
during one of my last days in kathmandu i went to the town of bhaktapur...waaaayyyy back when, during the days of the malla kings, the kathmandu valley was divided into three kingdoms...patan, (which i visited during our first few days in nepal,) kathmandu and bhaktapur...now they're all one giant area, but bhaktapur has held up the best in terms of what it used to be...there is almost no traffic in bhaktapur, it's much more pleasant to walk around than kathmandu...lots of temples, etc...two different guys decided they wanted to be my guide, w/out me asking for that service...one guy got the hint when i said i wanted to wander around on my own...the other guy, not so much...he kept telling me things, and showing me places in the town...i sat near one temple for over an hour and watched people, he even hung around for that!!! i knew he wanted money, and while he did take time out of his day for me, i knew he did it because he got to practice english, and was hoping for money from me...i didn't ask for it though...
another one of our last days in kathmandu we spent more than 5 hours total at the indian embassy...all waiting around, not doing anything...when they finally called our numbers, we were at the window for less than a couple minutes!!! getting a tourist visa to india involved going to the indian embassy a total of three different times...
we spent new years eve day in the village of lumbini...most of you have probably never heard of the place, unless you are buddhist...lumbini is where buddha was born...he was born as a prince...prince siddartha gautama, or something along those lines...just before he was born, someone prophesied to his father that he would be a great teacher or a great ruler...obviously, his father wanted him to be a great king, so he kept him in the palace, learning only the life of a ruler...i don't know why he left, but when he did, he saw the opposite side of life...the sick and the poor...eventually, in bodghaya, in india, under a tree, he found enlightenment...and thats how the "middle path" was born...anywho, in lumbini there is something now called the lumbini development zone...all the countries with strong buddhist histories were asked if they wanted to build a monastary there...nearly all of them did, even countries in which it is currently not a good thing to be a practicing buddhist...(like myanmar and china)...the monastaries in lumbini are big and ornate...another area to visit is the temple in which there is a rock that marks the exact spot where buddha was born...(how they know that for sure, i don't know...cause the rock was put there several hundred years later i think)...just outside this temple is a pool in which buddha's mom supposedly bathed before giving birth...again, how they would know that, i don't know...there are also remains of quite a few monastaries that were built and in use from the 3rd and 4th centuries BC to the 4th century AD...
the morning of new years day we got up early, and somehow managed to avoid all the cycle rickshaw drivers who wanted to take us to the border...they all said the bus wouldn't get us close, that we'd still have to walk 2km...the bus did get us close, we had to walk about 100m at most...we've learned not to trust distance measurements from anyone, as none of them are ever correct...(even signs during trekking shouldn't be trusted completely)...we officially left nepal, walked over the invisible line, then officially entered india...the immigration office in india was a completely open room...four men sat on one side of a table, drinking chai and reading newspapers...if someone hadn't pointed it out to us, we would have missed it completely...
after entering india, we got on a bus, and 30 hours later ended up in delhi...definitely a LONG bus ride, but not nearly as bad as either one of us expected...sure, we were stared at the whole time, but we're used to that...while talking to one guy who sat next to me for a while, i discovered that all of india's problems can be attributed to pakistan...he was also looking forward to obama becoming president:)
and so ends the saga of nepal...