A Mongolian Bus Ride To Remember
I started my journey from Mongolia’s capital, Ulaanbaatar, the only real connection point for most of the country’s transport network — much like the center of a spider’s web. Except unlike a spider’s web, which is normally extraordinarily neat at its center point, the bus station there was anything but. It consisted not of a building with bus terminals, as most bus stations in the world, but as a series of parking lots, each one more chaotic than the last.
It was October and winter was just beginning to take hold. It had snowed two days previous. On the day I arrived, the once white snow was now covered in a layer of black coal dust and grime. Every breath I took seared the insides of my lungs with cold air and despite my thick, down jacket, I could not keep my own body heat from escaping into the chill of the outside air.
I had booked my ticket to Bayan-Ölgii, a town in the far westernmost part of the country, the day before and now…
Categories: The Expeditioner