September 24, 2014
Bulgan: Is this the way to Ulan Bator?
I was pleased when the last town in Mongolia, Bulgan, finally appeared ahead of me. What I wasn't so pleased about was the ten kilometres of sand that I had to cross to get to it. It was the most difficult section of 'road' yet and I had to push through much of it. Still, it made me realise that I was quite lucky with what I'd had. If all the off-road sections across the country had been as bad as that I never would have made it.
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Bulgan was a small but lively little town that summed up Mongolia quite well. I still wanted to use the Internet if I could before disappearing behind the Great Chinese Firewall for two months so when I found a nice-looking hotel I stopped and went inside. There was nobody on reception and I could hear the sound of workers drilling somewhere. The hotel may very well have been still under construction. I got my laptop out. There was no wifi signal anyway so I didn't wait around.
Some young boys were hanging about my bike and they were wonderful, laughing and smiling and saying "Hello? How are you? What is your name?" and giggling and slapping each other on the back. Well the adults were no use to me but I knew these kids would help so I asked them about Internet and they led me through the streets to a small brick building. I locked my bike up and went inside. There were lots of computers but all of them had a teenage boy playing video games on. I looked at the younger kids who shrugged. I looked at the older kids. One of them said "No Internet."
The younger kids were still smiling and led me across the town to another Internet cafe. This one was bigger and I looked inside to make sure there were free computers, which there were, before locking my bike. The woman who was working there stood and watched me do that and then once I'd got it good and locked up she said to me "No Internet today." So I didn't use the Internet in Bulgan.
My last memory of Bulgan was when a Land Rover type vehicle sped down the street at high speed, ignoring the risks to all of the children that were playing there. As it flew past me I caught sight of it's occupants - four men laughing and joking. They looked like they were off for a carefree joyride. I imagined there was probably a bottle of vodka being passed around. It was time for me to leave.
There were just 50 kilometres of paved road left to go to China. I stopped to eat some peanuts. Then I saw something that I'd been hoping desperately to see for the last few days without for one minute believing it possible. A loaded touring cyclist was riding towards me from the opposite direction. He pulled up alongside me and we greeted each other. I found it very difficult. For a moment I wanted to burst out crying. I had to explain myself, that this was the first time I'd spoken to anyone in three days since what had happened.
The cyclist was a Frenchman named Axel. I'd already heard about him from another cyclist that he rode with who I'd met in Bishkek, and Axel's route had been remarkably similar to mine. He'd started in France in the summer of 2013, gone around Scandanavia, Eastern Europe, Turkey, Iran, the Stans. We had actually been in Bishkek at the same time, but instead of racing across Siberia and Mongolia like me, Axel had taken a couple of months off in Bishkek and come directly across Kazakstan and China. I wish I'd done that. Axel wasn't one of those prepared cyclists. He didn't even have a map of Mongolia, never mind a GPS. "How were you going to navigate?" I asked him. "I was just going to ask people the way to Ulan Bator" he said.
So I gave Axel my map and told him all about the route I'd taken, explaining where he could get supplies and about the roads that weren't on the map and everything. It felt good to be able to help someone. It was getting late and we camped together that night. We didn't actually talk about the accident, and I think I scared Axel a bit because I was giving him such a negative impression of Mongolia, but I think it was good for me just to talk to someone.
Today's ride: 68 km (42 miles)
Total: 29,076 km (18,056 miles)
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