Dark Thoughts

Well it's my last full day in Mongolia today. I've had a great time here. All of the people I've talked to speak enough english to communicate with via a combination of charades, fractured words and pictures. All of those childhood games like pictionary have paid off big time. I really like the people of Mongolia. Very helpful and trusting. It's like a big family kind of, though in a different way to the way that they are in China.

I had a meeting with my main contact here in Mongolia, and it went well. We covered a lot of things, and I think that my trip here was perfectly timed. There is just enough work for them left to do to keep them busy in the intervening period between this visit and the next. We also managed to get them pointed in the right direction with a few minor issues, such that they will be ready to go when we arrive here next month.

I got an email from my beloved Jodie this morning, which was really good. She seems to be really busy in Derby at the moment. She caught up with her younger brother earlier this week which she seemed really happy about. She's got sooooo much to do before the big move to Perth. I wish I could be there to help her out, but somehow I think that her fiercely independent spirit would not have any of it. It would be interesting to see if her independent spirit is stronger than my persistent one. I'm not sure if I'd like to test it though. I think we'd be like a couple of the people from the Monty Python world champion staring competition doing completely pointless things just coz we're both stubborn.

I'm really missing not being able to talk to her. I've been in mobile phone isolation from her for nearly a week now which is the longest we've gone with out hearing each other's voices since we first spoke to each other way back in April. These last 6 months have just flown by. It seems like only yesterday when I was so tentively sending emails to her. Picking my words with care so as to not seem desperate, but at the same time wanting to express how I felt about her. Dating and meeting people is like walking a tightrope. There are more wrong places to step than right places :)...

Anyway that tightrope is one that I actually managed to navigate with Jodie, and I'm very glad for it. Hopefully it will be the last time, but only time will tell I guess. I've got my fingers crossed though.

Well I've got an hour to kill now, waiting for the Erdernet guys to have their strategic meeting. They'll take me out to lunch and then I'll head back to Ulan Bataan. I've got my bags pretty much packed, except for my towel which is currently drying on the window sill. Most of it dried OK, except for where a bit was folded over. I'm pretty stunned by just how dry it is here in Mongolia. It's cold (probably 8-10C) at the moment, but things dry so quickly.

The hotel rooms seem stiflingly hot if you don't open the windows, so here I am sitting, in a T-Shirt, with the window open to the Mongolian weather. It's wierd. The sun is hot when the windows are closed, and the rooms heat up so quickly, with only the air being cold. I'm not sure why it's so dry here though. Perhaps it's the altitude that lowers the boiling point of the water, or perhaps it's the coldness reducing the dew point of the air such that it is very dry, though where all the water goes is a mystery. Up into the air and blown all over the country side probably.

The air is thin up here as well. We are 1500m above sea level so climbing a few flights of stairs leaves me a little short of breath. I wonder how people used to this air feel when they are down at sea level. Probably full of energy and very fit.

Mongolian meals are a little different to what we are used to in Australia. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day, with 2 hours being devoted to it by workers. In Australia, the evening meal is definately the dominant meal, but not here. It's probably healthier, the way that they do it here. The food here is generally pretty good. A bit of variety, but mainly chicken and lamb. They use a lot of salt in their cooking which leaves all of the meats tasting somewhat similar, and I can understand why experienced Mongolian travellers advised me to bring a variety of sauces. I think that it's probably significantly better than it once was here, as the Russian influence is being slowly diluted by the Mongolian's own self identity and influences from other cultures.

I could quite comfortably live here if I knew a bit of the language.

I've just realized that I have to charge my iPod for the 4 hour trip back to Ulan Bataan, because I've used up quite a bit of the battery by using it as a HDD on my computer. The iPod's don't last too long when used in that mode, without external power. Perhaps the HDD spins quicker when attached to a computer or something, because I can easily get 7 or 8 hours out of them with music on Aeroplanes. It's one of those great mysteries of life...

I defragmented my HDD on my computer last night. It worked quite well, with only 4 files remaining framented. One of them is a pretty big file though, and still has 4000 fragments spread over the drive. I've certainly noticed a considerable boost to speed this morning. Applications start so much quicker, and there is heaps less HDD activity in general. This poor little Dell has probably been screaming out for a defrag for months now.

It's also my Dad's birthday today (and my cousin's too), so Happy Birthday to you both. I'm not able to call my father due to no mobile signal, no english instructions on the hotel phone, and no payphones in sight. I probably won't be able to get an email off to him either until tomorrow. I'm sure he'll understand, but this entry is proof that I was indeed thinking of him on this day, his 59th birthday.

Well my towel is dry and my cases are packed. Just got to put the iPod and Laptop back into their respective bags, and I'm out of here. Oh... once my contacts arrive, that is. I've got to check out as well, which is cool, but I'm not looking forward to lugging my two cases down all of those stairs. I've just put the kettle on for a cup of tea, which will be nice.

Actually that's something else that I've noticed over here. No milk. No-where. People don't use it in tea or coffee, it's always black. I had a tea substitute drink the other day (Called Tea-King I think) that was actually very tasty (and not like tea at all) which had a milk substitute in it. It's wierd because there are heaps of cows and goats around. I thought that milk would be a staple of this place. I know that they have fermented mares milk as a local alcoholic beverage, but not cow of goats milk. Wierd, wierd wierd.

Maybe the lack of fridges turned them off it in earlier days, or maybe it just brings back too many memories of that mares milk stuff, I'm not sure....

In one of my earlier blog entries I talked about the teas of different regions, and coffees. Well Mongolia, it's black Lipton's tea and Nescafe coffee. There doesn't seem to be a regional way to make tea, though they apparently do get chinese teas here as well. Sugar is available, but no milk, so white tea and coffee lovers, make sure you bring your own. Preferably those little Aeroplane containers of UHT milk.

Actually, just on those Aeroplane ones, have you ever noticed that you really need 2 of them to make a half decent white coffee/tea. And if you are a latte person, like me, then even that barely makes it a nice coffee. The coffee on Aeroplanes is seriously bitter. Business Class on Singapore lets you choose from three types of ground coffee, but even those are bitter. It's like they've been left cooking for just way too long, allowing the coffee to oxidize and form bitter tannins and acidic oxides. Fresh coffee is so good, but old coffee is so bad.

That's why you should keep your beans in the freezer as whole beens BTW. Less surface area, and lower temperature slows down the oxidation of the flavours in coffee. Decaf will last longer than it's caffeinated cousin because alot of the flavours and complex organics have been removed along with the caffeine in the extraction phase of the coffee processing. Not much longer, but a bit.

Tea is similar, but the flavours are bound more tightly, and in more complex organic molecules. That is why you should use boiling hot water on the tea bag, and let it soak for quite a while. Cooling of tea makes it bitter because some of the complex molecules are quite insoluble and will change in the tea as it is squeezed out due to the concentration gradient. Chemical changes of these molecules again causes bitterness as the tanins again oxidize. Make sure the cup is hot (a swish with boiling water immediately before refilling with boiling water and adding the teabag generally does the job). Adding milk reduces the bitterness, because milk is a natural weak base, that neutralizes some of the acids produced by oxidation, and it also provides a natural buffering effect that stops further oxidation.

Wierd the sort of stuff that you pick up doing a chemistry degree. If all this food stuff is of interest then I suggest that you have a read of a book called What Einstein Told His Cook by Robert Wolke. It's a fantastic read chock full of lots of interesting scientific facts about food. It challenges and actually tests and investigates alot of myths about food (such as not washing mushrooms because they absorb the water and go slimy). I know the answer to this, but if you want to also, then I challenge you to read this book. It's easy to read, and even has some cool recipes in it.

My cup of Liptons here is going down a treat, despite no milk and no sugar. I did a light brew in boiling water for about 30 seconds, and am sipping it while it's hot. Not too bitter, and quite warming.

Only 10 minutes to go. I guess I should pack up my stuff now, finish my tea, and wait for the guys to get here to take me to lunch.

Till next time....

Later that day...

Well, I'm back. I'm now back in Ulaanbaatar at the Peace Bridge Hotel. This one is officially 3 stars, though, so was the first hotel that I stayed in when I got to Mongolia, so I don't know what gives. This place is infinitely more stylish. It even has a mini-bar, though there's no snacks. Probably a good thing. I've just had dinner, which consisted of some Tomato Soup and a Beef Fillet Steak with Mushrooms. Pretty yummy, and at a price of about $6 US (including 2 cans of coke) who can complain?

This hotel gets a 4/5 from me, with a room rate of $90 US a night (for the semiluxe suite) including breakfast. The bath is enormous in this place. I think I might have to have a bit of a soak in a few minutes, after the long journey in the car. I bought a bottle of Mongolian Vodka for my colleague in Turkey who did a 2 year stint in Mongolia. I'm sure he'll appreciate it >:), though I'm sure I'm going to be on the receiving end of at least a few shots of this stuff. Glad I only bought the small bottle. The vodka was only $5500 Mongolian. I can't put the characters into the computer to express the currency properly and I struggle to pronounce it, but it works out to about $5 US. Not bad.

Stuff is soooooo cheap here in Mongolia. If you want a shopping adventure, and want to do some serious backpacking, then get your self an invite, and make your way over here.

Anyway, it's starting to get late, and I've still got to reorganize my bags for the trip tomorrow and be up early for breakfast and the trip to the airport.

Hopefully I'll be able to get all of this up on the web soon. I've only had very brief chances to get onto the web since I've been in Mongolia. A few emails here and there, and that is all.

Well, that's all for tonight.

Goodnight.