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!