Back in English Speaking Countries

I've been back for just about a week now.

I spent a couple of days roaming Ulaanbataar with Heather. We had some great Indian food, saw Transformers (in a HUGE, empty theater with subtitles), went to the giant state department store, and visited the Black market. It's not the underground secret illegal-goods market. It's just called the Black Market (Though I'm sure if you looked hard enough you could find pretty much anything you want).

After getting a bunch of nice cashmere at low-low-low prices and browsing the $2 pirated DVDs and decent meals at low prices, I was ready to get out of UB.

My flight left at 6.45 am on the 23rd of August. So my driver arrived at 5am at the airport to take me out. Checked in, boarded at 6.15, and then around 7am we were told the flight was delayed due to high winds and we de-boarded. The announcements were few and far between, and about 2/3 of the time they forgot to do the english version. Luckily I understand enough Mongolian by now to understand our flight was delayed to 9, then 10 and then finally at about 10.30 we were able to board. I somehow ended up in a middle seat, with at least 2 babies in close proximity.

Thankfully I had originally had an eight-hour layover in Seoul, South Korea, which was now a 2.5 hour layover in Seoul, so I guess that's something to be happy about.

I left Seoul around 7pm on the 23rd of August, and arrived back in Vancouver, BC at noon on August 23rd. So Einstein was wrong, and time travel IS possible. At least with time zone changes.

Got downtown on 3 hours of sleep in a 36 hour day, met with my stock broker, popped into the Entree Gold office, and then finally got to drive home, where I promptly slept until noon on the 24th.

The morning of the 25th saw me on to yet another plane, this one to Denver, Colorado to see my friend Allyson. After a thoroughly depressing night at the bar at which none of the people I previously knew in Colorado showed up, we drove out to California on Monday morning. Hot, sunny, driving through the desert, kind of like being back in Mongolia.

Taking it pretty easy (this IS my vacation after all), and then straight back to school when I get into BC on the 3rd of September. I honestly cannot wait for classes to start, and the couple of concerts that are occuring in my first week back. (Wolf Parade is playing on the 6th at Sugar in Victoria, and Spoon is playing on the 7th at the Commodore in Vancouver, and on the 8th at Sugar in Victoria, woo!)

I'll try and keep this interesting through the school year, so check back every now and then

Great Disco, band ending, and prefab camps

The long awaited follow up to the last post.

The last few days/weeks have been extremely busy. Finishing up maps and such before leaving camp, and then trying to get home without going completely insane.

So we had a Disco a couple of weeks ago on a Friday night. We bought a few flats of beer, about 3 per person is what is was supposed to work out to.

Gana was in charge of music, Joel, Steve and I were basically bartenders, and all in all it was a good night.

Mongolian Disco's are basically like highschool dances. a few traditional waltzes and slow songs mixed in with 5 year old techno and dance music where everyone forms a circle and just rocks out. Fun stuff.

A solid Mongolian dance circe.

Heather and Gana Dancing

From left, top to bottom: Manlai, Haatan-bataar, Me, Bahrna, Orgrill, Bataar, B. Erka, Deshdeva

At the end of the disco, after all the expatriates went to sleep (save Joel The Cook and I), there was apparently a late-night scuffle. No doubt due to the combination of young Mongolians, women, and beer. One of my workers got a solid punch to the face and got his nose broken, proceeded to the bathroom, and the next thing we know Joel and I are heading over to the bathroom after the sound of a crash. He'd hit the mirror or some such, and broken it, and managed to cut himself on the arm fairly deep. Joel and I, being the only two awake (and I with the only keys to the first aide cabinet), brought him over to the office, cleaned him up and put on some bandages. The first thing we did was get gloves on, as he really was a bleeder. Guess I can't wear that shirt anymore.

We got him cleaned up and stopped him bleeding, and jumped into his father's van to drive out to Oyu Tolgoi (about 30 minutes away by dirt track).

That's more or less how I ended up covered in blood and going to the hopital. He got sent home for a few weeks, and then I think he starts up school soon. C'est La vie.

Because i was asked about what the camp was like, I decided to put together a little tour.
I mentioned somewhere that our camp was generally just gers and pre-fabricated buildings. Our kitchen, bathroom, and cut shack are all built out of connected cargo containers converted to rooms/buildings. Living arrangements are all of the traditional Mongolian herder hut (Ger, or Yurt).

The Cut Shack, 2 connected Containers.

Inside the Cut Shack

From Left: Ottsi, Bahrna, Khumbold; Cutting through the core for samples

Entree Core Yard. It's no 7,000km Ivanhoe OT core yard, but it's pretty big

The Gers. That's mine in the middle (18)

Inside the Big Ger. Usually just the Mongolians used the pool and ping pong tables. There was also a TV hooked up to satellite (Mongolian) on the left.

The Bathrooms, 2 containers lengthwise, one along the ends.

The office (right) and Core Shack (left). Two larger-sized weather havens in the middle of camp.

Inside the Office, mine is the desk next to the Fridge

Office, other angle. My desk is just to the right.

Otna in the Core shack

The Kitchen. Two containers with a space in between serve as storage (and cold storage). The space between them is walled in and roofed for our eating area. The cooking area is 4 containers, 2x2 lengthwise. I think there is one more attached to the back for plumbing as well. We use propane stoves and electric ovens.

HaatanBataar in the gers

Some camels and horses to finish it off. This was out in the area I spent my last couple weeks mapping and such.

Saaghan sarkhain Nadaaj Bain?

Yes, I did have a good Nadaam Festival, thank you.

On August 1st, Heather, Andy and myself attended Bayan-ovoo's nadaam festival. It's a 2 or 3 day celebration where there is lots of drinking, and various games or events. Archery, wrestling, and most importantly, horse racing.

We attended as 'guests of honour' representing our company, which is a large monetary sponsor of this community (lots of our exploration property belongs to them. We sat at the head table with the governer, and lots of (I'm assuming) important elders. We drank lots of airag, fermented mare's milk, as it was constantly handed to us.

Airag. It's...interesting. I wouldn't recommend it for a night of heavy drinking. Or if you value your internal systems behaving normally. Pretty potent (tasting, boozey) stuff to say the least.

Opening Ceremony

After the opening ceremony, we watched a bit of wrestling (and drank more airag)

Two matches are always on at once, keeps it exciting.

After a little while we loaded into the car and drove 30km out to where the horse race was supposed to start from. Our car (Andy, Heather, myself, Oyuna and our driver Ackhol) all chose a horse, and placed 5000 Tugrik on it. Whoever's came in ahead of the rest would win the pot. I came in a close second. It was a pretty crazy race. 30km, full sprint, back to the town

At the Finish Line

Oyuna and her winning horse.

All the racers are children..not really sure why.

Anyways, after the horse racing we all went to the elementary school for a late lunch. Entree sponsors the school, and helped them buy a herd of goats etc. etc. It started out just fine, then the vodka shots started coming. Then the principal asked us for more money. Buuut as none of us were decision makers with that kind of power, we had to try and get out of htere without committing to anything.

It was a long hot drive back mostly drunk, at 5pm. It was an early night for everyone.

Tomorrow: The Disco in camp, and the events leading up to being covered in someone else's blood and at the 'hospital' at 3am. Fun!

Left, Right, Up, Down, A, A, B, B

Life was so simple on the NES. D-pad + 2 buttons did everything you needed.

Anyways....I've been back from Thailand for 11 days now, so I guess it's time to throw an update out there.

I arrived in UB on the first day of my break with pretty bad food poisoning. That was Fun, I spent all day in my hotel room, I left long enough to get more water, and then right back into bed. We apparently got some bad meat, as everyone else was also really, really sick. Fun times.

A portrait of sorts on the hillside, probably Chinggis (Genghis) Kahn

I didn't do much sight seeing. I woke up around 9am the next day feeling much better, but extremely hungry. My driver picked me up and we headed off to the Black market. Now, this isn't the secret underground market where you buy illegal goods, there is actually a market, full of random stuff from clothes to shampoo to camel hair rope, called the Black Market.

However, at 9am on a Saturday it wasn't open yet...not really. You could go in, but only about 1/4 of the stalls were set up, so i said Fuckit and we went to the Entree Office. That weekend was a small business fair of sorts at a place called Sukhbataar Square. Entree Gold is a 'proud sponsor of the Ger Initiative', so there was a booth and some banners I helped to put up, and then wandered through the different business displays. It was basically a small market. Oh, there was also a fashion show. You just can't go wrong with Mongolian women at a fashion show. Beautiful. The only word for it. I ended up going out to do some shopping and such, and then back to the hotel for the night for more intense sleeping action.

The Entree Gold UB Team! (sorta)

The monument to Chinggis Kahn at Sukhbataar Square

Sunday was Canada Day! July 1st! And I have to admit, it was probably the best Canada Day i've had in a couple years.

The driver picked me up at 8.30 and we drove out to the countryside West of Ulaan Bataar. To a small military camp. There was a literal armory from which you could select the fire arms you wish to try out, for a price.

WWII - cold war era Russian fire arms, yet they still work

I selected the traditional AK-47, the firearm of Russia and terrorists everywhere, to start with. I've kind of always wanted to fire one. I can now understand why it's a favourite. It's lightweight, and it barely kicks. Not especially accurate though, not this one at least.

I'm not exactly scary am I?

Oooooo, bang bang. Got something like 15 out of 30 hits on the targets with the first clip, second one i just held the trigger down to see what would happen. It was pretty spectacular.

Next up was the Dragonov sniper rifle. It's essentially an AK-47 with a longer barrel and a slightly larger calibre. Kicks a bit more as well, but the sight was leveled and tuned to the range. Apparently the officer that day thinks i should have been a sniper. Out of a 10 round magazine I hit 9 of the man-size targets, and 6 out of 10 of the vodka bottles with the second clip.

Start Running

Not sure on the make/model of the last gun I fired that day, but it was a russian model belt-fed machine gun. It was loud, it was fast, and it was not very accurate at all.

It was, however, pretty bad ass.
I also like that the guy feeding the belt in is wearing a hat Hunter S. Thompson would have been pretty happy with.

I got back to the Bayangol Hotel around 2pm, and it was time to start setting up for the big party. Apparently they've been doing this for the last three years, throwing a huge bash and buying a fairly ridiculous amount of large chinese fireworks. This year, however, was a bit different. A bunch of different companies offered sponsorship, and Kelly (Mongolia office manager for Entree Gold) hired on a professional fireworks company this year, because he wanted to watch them, rather than letting em off.

The Sponsors (Notice most of them are mining and drilling companies...and then..Cuervo!)


Our Bartenders, The Cuervo and Heineken girls.

It was a little strange celebrating Canada Day with Dutch beer, Mexican tequila, and Australian meat...but we made do. Tragically Hip, Sam Roberts, Stompin' Tom, and (ugh) Nickelback were roaring our of the sound system all afternoon and into the night.

General Manager of the Bayangol, A geo from Blue Rock Ltd, and Kelly cookin' it up at the grill
(names are a little hazy at this point..the margaritas were delicious)

And a fireworks display off the top of one of the hotel's towers really set the night off. A couple of the fireworks had to be let off from the construction sight nearby, as they would have punched a hole through the roof of the hotel, or shattered windows. Fun stuff.

Bright and early (and hungover) the next morning I got on the plane to Beijing. The flight was decent, but spending the next 11 hours in the Beijing airport was a bit of a pain in the ass. If you ever transit through, look for the transit passenger line to the left of normal immigration. it will save you at least 20 minutes. Also, never go to the check in area (through the first customs check) until about 2 hours before your flight. No bathrooms, no food, no shops. (luckily if you ask nicely they'll let you out). I spent the day hanging around with a very friendly young Mongolian woman (who does not like the Chinese very much, not at all). We ended up finding an internet cafe that was a flat rate for unlimited usage, and just kicked it in there.

Eventually the time came to deal with ticketing and security. I must say, I can't wait until I can start flying business class on a regular basis. Thai Air has a very, very nice business class area, and service. I got to be up in the top nubbin part of a 747, up the stairs. And I knew it was going to be a good flight when I didn't have to choose between orange juice and champagne as soon as I sat down, I could have both!

Arrived in Bangkok fairly late, and just checked into the hotel next to the airport. It was a bit expensive but ridiculously nice. Crashed and woke up early for my flight to Koh Samui. Arrived in koh Samui, got a ticket for the ferry to Koh Phangan, got there, got a taxi boat to Haad Yuan, and walked straight up to Bamboo Huts.

This is a bungalow operation that I have been to before, for dinner before the full moon party several years ago. I said then that if I came back I would stay there, so I figured I would at least see if they had any bungalows with a view.

Sure enough, I didn't even need to look at the other option (50 baht cheaper), I took the first thing they showed me. It was right on what I like to refer to as 'the Pirate Walk' - the wooden walkway that leads from the beach across the boulders to where Bamboo Hut is.

The View out my doors (that hammock was awesome)

The Pirate Walk

I spent the first 4 or 5 days just laying in my hammock, with some time out on the beach in the mornings when it was sunny, laying around or swimming. The afternoons were typically a little rainy, with a couple of spectacular storms on a few days.

After I felt like I'd recharged my batteries I decided to maybe spend some more time in the restaurant/bar area and maybe meet some people. Worked out pretty well, and I feel like I meet some pretty good people. Scratch, Damian, Sharon, Eric, Mark, Yantie, Amy, Angel, Chris, Pau, etc etc etc. Definitely good people. It became a regular thing to find Damian and I up at the bar by 6pm each having a bottle of wine and shooting the shit, only to be joined by a whole bunch more people as the night wore on.

Thanks to Scratch, a londoner who now basically lives on Koh Phangan, I have a growing interest in the Mayan astrological calendar. It's more complicated and by far more interesting than the zodiac...

One of my last days there, I decided I needed to do something other than sit in my hammock reading through books (went through 5 in 12 days, most of the Dark Tower series, as well as Haunted, by Chuck Palanhuik). I woke up early one morning and went up for a breakfast of fresh fruit and a coffee shake. I had told several people the night before that I intended to hike to the top of the hill between Haad Yuan and Haad Rin. There is a path that goes between the two, and takes about 2 to 2.5 hours to complete one way. Nobody from the night before showed up before my departure time (twas a late night), but I had started talking with a nice Aussie from Melbourne, Yantie, who decided to come with me.

The hike was intense, and very mosquito plagued - despite the copious amount of bug dope we used. It wasn't too hot, but it was extremely humid once you got into the trees and away from the sea breeze. It took us close to 45 minutes to find our way to the top. There was supposedly a path which led to a lookout point, but it was not very well marked or traveled. We eventually found it, and came out to a spectacular viewpoint over Haad Yuan and Haad Thiaan. Unfortunately my camera chose this time to not work, turn on....So no pictures of the amazing view.

However I can show you where we hiked to from the beach.

Ok, look to the top right, and follow the hill to the left until you come to a big round boulder. We stood on top of that. It was Beautiful. Mind Blowing. Amazing.

I didn't party much..not until my last night on the island that is. The night before I was supposed to leave Koh Phangan for Samui, and my subsequent flight back to Bangkok, there was the weekly party at Guy's Bar, a short walk over the hill to the next beach to the north, Haad Thian. A group of us threw back some drinks at Bamboo Huts, and eventually wandered over to the crazy all night dance party.

It's been a long time since I've seen a Thai sunrise. But as I stood there on the beach with my feet in the water, it was the most beautiful thing I've seen in a long time.

I ended up staying up until my ferry left Haad Rin at 2pm. Said all my goodbyes, paid all my bills, and took off. Stayed an uneventful night in Koh Samui, and left early the next morning for Bangkok. After finding a hotel on Koh Sahn Road, eating, showering, it was time to hit the town. A guy I know there, Andrew, met me at my hotel, we had a drink, and then grabbed a cab out to Suhkumvit, a slightly more upscale tourist spot than koh sahn road. We ended up at the Nana Entertainment Plaza, which is really just a little square ringed by 3 stores of go go bars. It was a long, expensive (too many rounds....), and crazy night. The girls were a little disappointed when we didn't want to pay them any money to go back to their place, but I feel we were better off for it. Made it back to my hotel around 4am, just to wake up at 6 to head to the airport for my flight to Beijing.

Needless to say I didn't do much sightseeing in Beijing. The eternal haze, humidity and my exhaustion basically kept me in my hotel, sleeping and reading.

I made it back to UB, and flew out to camp the next afternoon (after a very nice massage), and I've been here ever since.

In my absence, Andrew (camp manager) built a swimming pool a week before I came back when it hit something around 40 degrees. We haven't used it since, as it's been relatively mild, and rainy recently. But I'm excited to see it in action if it heats back up.

Currently logging core, and occasionally heading over to Oyu Tolgoi to check on the joint venture core. The beer fridge is still always full, and the nights are still always pleasant.

-Until something interesting happens

giggity giggity gone

I'm taking off at 6am tomorrow morning (knock on wood) for UB.

Break starts, sleeping in, seeing some sights around the capital of Mongolia, maybe some other random adventures. Then it's off to Thailand with me.

It's going to be an e-free break, so no email, comptuers, nothin' until I'm in Bangkok on my way back to camp.

As I'm in the habit of posting pictures, This is the trench crew, two young Mongolian geotechs and our driver.

From left, Haatanbataar, me, Baterdene (Bat), and Bataar our driver



A camel spider, about 4-5 cm long..apparently has 10 legs...well, 8 legs and 2 uh..reaching arms? yea I dont know. Big fangs though.



And the elusive wild Mongolian Ass. They're actually very rare, and it's pretty special to see one. These three were roaming about out near the drill. Where camels, horses goats and sheep will let you come right up close, this things bolt if you get anywhere near 100m of them.

Phew

It's been incredibly busy for me the last couple of weeks. All the Geo's and the core tech guy are on break, leaving me with a lot of things to get done. Luckily I have two young Mongolians working with me now, so that takes a little of the workload off.

Between trench mapping and sampling, organizing a soil sample grid, doing the daily quick log and report for the drill, and overseeing our sample shipping I haven't had much time for an update.

I have my break in 5 days, Going to stay in UB over Canada Day, as there is a very large party that the large amount of expats put together. I'm also going to finally do the tourist thing, see some of the temples, museums, random sights of the city. Also going to try and go do something I will never be able to do anywhere else, and possibly not for very long (it's a surprise! in case it falls through). After UB I head down to Thailand for two weeks to chill on the beach, and maybe take a dive course (if I can find a cheapish one). So ready for it


Last week we went an hour west to a town called Baya-ovoo (pronounced Bayawaa), for a disco party. It was quite the experience. Started out with incredibly formal dancing (those Mongolians can sure cut a rug...to waltzes and polka) and switched over to a techno dance party around 10.30.

We also found our first snake in camp, just a little racer not too exciting. And also our first thunderstorm. I thought about the irony about something the boss, Jim, told me before we left Vancouver: "It's nothing like the arctic" and here I was wearing full rain gear in a rain soaked, flooded camp. We stay in during the rainstorms as the rivers and streams which criss cross the landscape, and seemingly every single road crosses at least one of, fill up extremely fast, as the ground does not too much water with no topsoil. The storms are also extremely electrical, and we saw some pretty spectacular lightning. It's not that great of an idea to throw on the cruiser vest filled with metal and take a hammer out to the field during those storms.





Last thing I'll talk about today, we had a little camp fire up on the hill next to this old half of a car. Roasted some marshmellows, drank some rum, enjoyed the sunset. It was sort of Heather's going away shindig, and it was a very nice evening. I have a few artistic photos of the car on the hill. We dont' really understand what it's for, as it is not always up there. Sometimes it moves. Sometimes it appears on different hills, and once right next to camp. We don't know who moves it, or why...just that it's not a stationary object. It does make for some pretty neat shots though.