TravellingStrom

Mayan Prophecy Countdown

Today was the day for a ride, but not in town as that is yuck. I had been warned by many people about the crap driving habits and the crappier roads and from what I have seen, they were not wrong, it is bloody dangerous to ride here, and drive for that matter! But today, we were going for a ride to the east, there is a memorial out there about 60km away that is worth seeing, why come all this way and not see it 🙂 I bolted those parts of my bike back together that I felt needed to have bolts in them and as long as it was safe to ride, it was fine by me, I did not need the panniers today, just the water in my tank bag, and we were soon ready to roll.

The location is not a secret but it would not be sign posted and no directions were forthcoming, so with a few people having a workable GPS and a way point, it was time to follow them again 🙂 So we headed off as a smallish group of three bikes and David in his 4×4 just before midday. On the way we could see that the season was on the turn as a lot of trees were now seriously yellow, it was starting to get cold!

After a short while fighting the crazy traffic, we arrived at the massive silver statue of Chinggis Khaan, the greatest warrior ever who ruled the largest empire ever!

This statue was huge, if you were so inclined, you could even walk up inside and stand on the horses head, but I wasn’t, it was fine for me to get a few photos from down here thank you very much 🙂

So, that was fun, but now it was time for some more dangerous fun 🙂 On the way out here I had spotted some market type stalls on the side of the road and they had these captive birds which you can hang on to and get your photo taken, that looked like fun surely 🙂 So, after leaving the statue I happened to spot Iain who had been out here by himself and as he was heading in the same direction I followed him. He stopped at the same place as he was hungry, we had eaten an earlier lunch before we came out, but it was fortunate as he was available to take some pictures. I picked the meanest biggest vulture I have ever seen, this is some serious looking bird and he weighed a tonne, well not really, about 7kg in fact, but after a few minutes with my arm held as far from my face as possible, it sure felt like a tonne!!!

So, that was nice and I survived as well, always a bonus 🙂 I am sure they are kept well fed and have probably been doing that stunt since very young in life, if not from the egg, so I did not actually feel any danger, but I was mildly disturbed when it kept looking at me like I was lunch!!!

So, that was my tourism bit done for the day and I headed back and actually missed out on the rain, which is another indicator of the change in season.

I would need to make a decision soon as to my destination, and so that afternoon, after some emails to my sister and parents, I skyped my brother in law who lives and works in China and he said sure thing, come on down and visit he would pick me up from the airport 🙂 He lives in Shenzen right on the border to Hong Kong, so I would need to find out about plane tickets
to either China or Hong Kong. I only had a single entry visa to China, and Hong Kong I would not need a visa for, so I would see what was cheapest as far as fares are concerned tomorrow. I would also go and see the shipping agent, or phone him up, and see about a good time to crate the bike up. Neil was getting his done tomorrow, so by the time I needed mine done, they should have it down pat 🙂

Cheers from Ulan Batar
TravellingStrom