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Jul. 19th, 2003 09:31 pmI am exhausted. I hiked for 13 hours today. We left at about 7, and just got back a while ago. It was exhilarating, beautiful and scenic, but my feet fucking hurt right now, and I'm scared that I will spend my last Sunday in Ulaan Baatar lying on my couch.
We drove to the world's oldest protected park and climbed up a mountain. The group included a young Scottish couple (Ian and Megan), a Finnish journalist (Irya), the VSO director (Allison), Allison's nanny Byamba, Allison's dog Atomic, Allison's daughter Shan, Ingrid and I.
Shan is 1 year and 4 months and was quite the trooper on the hike. She had to spend the entire 13 hours (minus breaks) in a baby backpack and she barely ever cried at all. She is the happiest baby I've ever seen in my life. Allison is teaching her English, German and Mongolian, so she will identify things in any of these 3 languages. She can't say any sentences, but her comprehension and vocabulary are great.
Allison and Byamba carried Shan a lot of the way, but Ian and Ingrid also took their turns. The hike was challenging enough without carrying a child; we were going over boulders and crossing logs, and doing a lot of climbing. To top it all off, Allison is four months pregnant.
It was a pretty amazing day, but we did have our mishaps. Megan walked on a bee hive and got stung by about 8 bees, which was pretty terrifying. We got somewhat lost in the woods, and got rained on. I realized that I should have packed a lot more food. I'm hypoglycemic and when I hike, I have to eat constantly. I ended up eating Ian's leftover cookies and peanuts. I'm still feeling light headed.
Actually, when we arrived at one peak, I felt really dizzy. Irya told me it was because of the magnetic fields and the force they were exerting on us.
On the way back, we got somewhat confused and ended up near "The Forbidden Valley." The Forbidden Valley is not its actual name; it's just the area where the president lives. If you hike into that valley, you run a high risk of being shot. We skirted this, and then realized we were actually in the vally by mistake! So we had to get out immediately and climb along a ridge until we got closer to the road. All in all, it was exhausting, but a fitting way to spend a last Saturday in Mongolia.
We drove to the world's oldest protected park and climbed up a mountain. The group included a young Scottish couple (Ian and Megan), a Finnish journalist (Irya), the VSO director (Allison), Allison's nanny Byamba, Allison's dog Atomic, Allison's daughter Shan, Ingrid and I.
Shan is 1 year and 4 months and was quite the trooper on the hike. She had to spend the entire 13 hours (minus breaks) in a baby backpack and she barely ever cried at all. She is the happiest baby I've ever seen in my life. Allison is teaching her English, German and Mongolian, so she will identify things in any of these 3 languages. She can't say any sentences, but her comprehension and vocabulary are great.
Allison and Byamba carried Shan a lot of the way, but Ian and Ingrid also took their turns. The hike was challenging enough without carrying a child; we were going over boulders and crossing logs, and doing a lot of climbing. To top it all off, Allison is four months pregnant.
It was a pretty amazing day, but we did have our mishaps. Megan walked on a bee hive and got stung by about 8 bees, which was pretty terrifying. We got somewhat lost in the woods, and got rained on. I realized that I should have packed a lot more food. I'm hypoglycemic and when I hike, I have to eat constantly. I ended up eating Ian's leftover cookies and peanuts. I'm still feeling light headed.
Actually, when we arrived at one peak, I felt really dizzy. Irya told me it was because of the magnetic fields and the force they were exerting on us.
On the way back, we got somewhat confused and ended up near "The Forbidden Valley." The Forbidden Valley is not its actual name; it's just the area where the president lives. If you hike into that valley, you run a high risk of being shot. We skirted this, and then realized we were actually in the vally by mistake! So we had to get out immediately and climb along a ridge until we got closer to the road. All in all, it was exhausting, but a fitting way to spend a last Saturday in Mongolia.
