No excursions planned for Thursday. We made use of the excellent bike paths around Dalanzadgad and went for a nice run. We worked on some upcoming lodging and walked to Dudu Pizza for another one of their excellent pizzas. This time, the girl working the counter spoke English and was very welcoming to us. It helped that they weren’t trying to close like the first time we went. Back at the hotel, Sandy had a great chat catching up with our friend Sara, from Orlando.
Friday was our last excursion out into the Gobi and on this day, we got to spend it with Shinekhuu’s mom and dad. They were our drivers and guides today and we had a blast riding around the off-road trails in the desert. Because they have gotten so much rain the desert was filled with gorgeous flowers. We stopped multiple times to ask different herders for directions as we made our way west.
We found our first stop, which was the mini sand dunes. Further west in the Gobi, one can find huge sand dunes like what we saw in the Sahara, but we didn’t want to take the extra day to head that far west. We didn’t know we would see these, so they were a nice bonus.
Later in the afternoon, we arrived at our main destination – Bayanzag. This is more familiarly known as Flaming Cliffs. It is where the first dinosaur egg and many other dinosaur bones have been found. Roy Chapman Andrews from Wisconsin was the first to find the dinosaur egg back in the 1920s. We didn’t find any dinosaur bones but the area is stunning.
While at the cliffs we had tsuivan for lunch and peach iced tea and after the visit, it was back to the hotel in Dalanzadgad in about two hours including a gas stop. We walked over to MM Lounge to have a couple of beers and enjoy the jazz music on their YouTube video and celebrate a great week and meeting new friends in the Gobi.
There were no buses scheduled for Saturday but we wanted to get back to Ulaanbaatar on Saturday, so we opted for the once-a-day flight. The one-hour flight certainly beat the 10- or 11-hour bus ride. We could have also gone by van, which would have been seven or eight hours. We had plenty of time in the morning, so we went for a four mile walk/run on the bike trails and then got packed. Shinekhuu took us to the airport at 1:22pm (that was our agreed-upon time) and the plane took off right on time at 2:35pm. It’s one of the smallest airports we have ever flown from, which made it very efficient.
It was an easy flight up to Ulaanbaatar, landing at 3:30pm. We stopped by the ticket counter to buy a ticket for another flight we need in September and then caught a taxi to our favorite apartment in Ulaanbaatar – yes, we got back to the apartment we’ve stayed in for more than 40 nights. I had seen a YouTube video this week about the best burger in Mongolia and we knew we had to try it. We went to Fromagerie MACU and definitely enjoyed the cheeseburger. A lot of care is taken regarding the ingredients – especially the cheese, the beef, and the bread. A new thing for us is that quite a few burger places give you disposable gloves with which to eat your burger. Really not a bad idea (especially with this burger as it was messy).
We had the chance to speak with Mike, the owner for a few minutes about his journey – very interesting man. He’s from America, but has spent the vast majority of his life in Asia, coming here as a journalist during the Vietnam War. We hope to meet him again before we leave Mongolia. After dinner, we picked up some groceries and then headed to the apartment to watch some of the Olympics we have recorded.
We’ve now had the last three days (Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday) here in Ulaanbaatar before we head to our last part of the country we want to see before leaving Mongolia. It’s been pretty low-key. Catching up on some of the TV we’ve wanted to watch, Sandy bought some new running shoes, getting another workout in at the gym, going for a run on the excellent trail by the river, and getting laundry done. We enjoyed a dinner at Mexikhan, which is a Mexican restaurant we wanted to try our very first night in Mongolia but it was closed – glad we got to it because it was very good. Many places in UB make their margheritas differently than we’re used to in the states. We asked them to leave out the red wine and the Cointreau in the margheritas we ordered so they tasted similar to what we enjoy at home. We also had dinner at Alfie, which is a spot Sandy had seen several weeks ago and again, glad we finally made it there. We both had pasta that we liked a lot and a seafood chowder.
Tomorrow, we head to the western part of the country hoping to see some high mountain scenery.