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