Lincoln Peterson

It was over a month ago, but I want to finish the second part of my Mongolia blog.

I’ve been so busy since I applied for the JLPT N1. I want to study for a few hours every day, just to make sure I pass in December and don’t waste my money. I have a good feeling, but you never know.

And, I am getting my job applications ready for next year when I go back to Japan, and training for my cross-country bike trip… I think I don’t have much time these days.

And to top it all off, my just-out-of-warranty Macbook’s motherboard decided to explode when I used a power delivery USB hub, so I am out of a way to write at home even if I wanted to. ㅠㅠ

Lake Khuvsgul is a fairly popular tourist destination in Mongolia. It’s the lake in the top right above “Hatgal.”

We took a night bus from Ulaanbaatar to Khuvsgul. According to navigation, it would take 40 minutes to drive, so we wanted to leave 2 hours early because the traffic is so bad.

And it ended up being really close. It would have been faster to walk. We were considering getting out of the taxi and running towards the end. There is something wrong with a city if it takes 1 hour to drive 10 km.

We are going to Murun. It’s a good thing I learned some Cyrillic when I was here, or we couldn’t read the sign.

I have taken a few night buses in my life. In Korea and Japan there are some unspoken rules about behavior on the night bus. You don’t talk or play music. You don’t put your seat back if someone else is behind you.

Both of these rules are readily ignored here. The person in front of me put his seat so far back it was basically on top of me and I couldn’t move, and got some pain. And the kids in front are watching YouTube without headphones…

And there are random people crowding around the exit to the bus to harass people for a taxi, so it’s difficult to get off. I don’t find it an endearing way to behave, especially considering they will scam you if you are a tourist.

Anyways, finally arrived at Mulun, so we take our accommodation’s taxi to the lake. It takes a little over an hour to get to our accommodation.

After everything that’s happened, we are moved by the quality of the accommodation. The owner is incredible and a very hard worker, and will organize tours and activities for you. When you’re finished, just pay everything to the owner. It’s so easy.

There’s no food in the area, so we go to a coffee shop ..!

And play Jenga. I realized whoever invented this game is a genius. It’s such a fun game.

And then go ride in a boat and hang out in the lake.

There is a group of Chinese people that came with us, and I thought they were so funny.

Not because they were nice, but they were totally self-absorbed the entire time (not just on the boat). They just would not stop taking pictures for the whole hour. It’s not an exaggeration.

If you keep taking pictures of the same thing, does it really have any meaning?

And I played Baduk. But I’m so bad at the game, I can never win.

The next day we decided to go on a horse ride. It was a lot longer than I thought, and the stirrups weren’t adjusted correctly, so I was in pain.

And it’s Hyeonjeong’s first time riding on a horse, so the horse doesn’t respect her and just goes running around eating grass. The horseman had to attach her horse to his.

We go very, very far, but it starts raining partway through, so our driver took us to some random person’s Ger.

And there was a young child who was absolutely insane, screaming and playing. It looked like all of his toys were beyond broken, but he was playing with them anyways.

Through the woods and up the mountain, to a really beautiful view.

Then, our last day in Khuvsgul before we return to the city and go home.

We ride a canoe, and wanted to take some engagement pictures. But we are always terrified of losing the ring.

So for our final activity, we went ziplining across the lake!

Finally, we take our taxi and ride the night bus back. The taxi driver could speak some English, Korean, Japanese, and Mongolian! He seemed to really like the American music.

There’s nothing really of note after we got back to the city. I had some mediocre pizza and met some old ladies from Chicago. They had an incredibly strong Chicago accent.

Time to go home! I enjoyed the trip, but I don’t think I would go again ^^

I thought Mongolia was a pretty developed country, and in the city it seemed like at least on the higher end of developing countries (like India I guess?)

But the countryside is very undeveloped, and I wasn’t prepared for the ways in which it would affect me, such as access to clean water…

However, people can live like this because they have a very strong foundation of trust and rely on each other. That is something I felt very endearing about Mongolia despite its flaws.

Thanks for reading.