Mongolian Tour: Gobi and Sub-Gobi Desert PART 3

The red cliffs of Bayanzag and a sandstorm hits

Mongolia has been and is a paradise for both archaeologists and palaeontologists. We were almost blown off some startlingly red cliffs (Bayanzag) on a very windy day. Many dinosaur skeletons and eggs were found there but we just tried to stay upright and enjoy the view. 

Bayanzag

Bayanzag

Bayanzag

After returning to the van and continuing on our way, we encountered a lonely outpost in the middle of the desert. The "town hall" is used as a meeting place for locals and sometimes tour guides prepare meals here!

The "town hall" of the area

Not long after spotting the town hall we encountered a sand storm. We already knew Batar was an excellent driver by this point, but any lingering doubts would have been quelled when he got us through the storm in almost zero visibility. 

 THE SANDSTORM HITS

The sandstorm approaches

The sandstorm arrives

Navigating the sandstorm

"Roads" become rivers

When we arrived at our accommodation for the night we were keen to celebrate our survival, not to mention Tasha's birthday. 

Monastry ruins and runaway horses

In the middle Gobi we visited the Ongi monastery ruins. We were introduced to the area by a man whose brother was a lama at the monastery. He told us about how monks were either murdered or forced into labor. Seeing a place that has been devastated by a regime imposing itself on a culture, as it has here, is always heartbreaking. This would have been an even more majestic place in its prime. The scenery in the area was again lovely, the environment in Mongolia does have the tendency to turn you into a broken record in this respect.

View from the Ongi monastery 

Ruins of the Ongi monastery

Some of the most enjoyable lunches were prepared roadside by Bimba. This one occurring without even having to pull off the road!

Roadside lunch

A brief toilet break (Mongolian wild style – use your jacket if you need privacy) gave us the first impression of a change in climate. Horses abounded that day and soon we would reach the ancient capital of Karakorum.

Running horses

Horsies on the loose

Best clouds in the world

The ancient capital

The centre of the Mongolian empire for a long period, Karakorum was founded in 1220 in the Orkhon valley. This ancient city was busy point on the route of the Silk Road. For me, it really drove home the incredible power of the Mongolian empire. 

The Mongolian empire

We visited the first Buddhist monastery in Mongolia. There was an archaeology dig at the site and I had previously read that much of the ancient city was yet to be found underground. Pretty exciting!

Erdene Zuu: the first Buddhist monastery in Mongolia

Erdene Zuu

Turtle rock formerly at the entrance of the ancient town

River stop along the way

Bimba wants blonde hair!

After the bumpiest day on the road yet, we arrived at the beautiful White Lake where we would spend the next few days. 

Terkhiin Tsagaan (White Lake)

Rob enjoying the view at Terkhiin Tsagaan 

~ TO BE CONTINUED~

Kamikochi (Paradise)

Kamikochi
From Takayama we took a day trip Kamikochi to do some walks. 

Kamikochi is a valley within the Hida Mountains range in Nagano Prefecture and part of the Chubu Sangaku National Park. It is sometimes compared with Yosemite Valley, California. The mountains bordering Kamikochi reach 3,190 metres and include Mount Yake, an active volcano. Lake Taisho was formed by the Mount Yake eruption of 1915.

The stunning landscapes that greeted us were simply spectacular and not what I would necessarily have pictured to find in Japan. (Just from simply not knowing enough about Japan!) The Azusa river has beautiful clear, sparkly water and there are breathtaking views throughout the valley. Hopefully our photos capture even a tenth of its beauty.

The area was previously used for logging until the mid-19^th century. It is now heavily protected. Private vehicles have been restricted from entering the park and there is only modest development within it. (The public transport in is also on the pricey side.) These factors combine to make for some very peaceful walking. The facilities that are present are of a high quality and it is a nice atmosphere. It would be great to come back and do some mountain hiking and perhaps camp for a few nights. 

Tips for Kamikochi:

Website: www.kamikochi.org - really good English resources on how to get there

Opening season: Mid/late April to November 15

Climbing peaks: mid June and mid September

Getting there: 4900JPY return bus from Takayama (transferring at Hirayuno-Mori), takes about 1h45m.

Walking around

There is a park visitor centre with maps to purchase and information. Simple map below.

Recommend including Taisho Pond in your walk (either getting off the bus there early or walking there). The last bus left from Kamikochi bus terminal at 17.00 when we were there and went past Taisho Pond approximately 17:10. 

Suggestion to go to Hirayuno-Mori Hot Springs (we didn't but looked great)
Open 10am-9pm 500JPY bathing fee

General map of the park

A coffee and coconut on the Mekong

Relaxing boat ride and we got hats!

We decided to visit Mekong Delta on our way from Ho Chi Minh to Phnom Penh. A short minibus to Vinh Long, a ferry and motorbike to our homestay left us with an afternoon to explore An Binh island. Explore is probably not quite the right word here as we were too hot to get very far. In actuality we took a short stroll to the waters edge, accidentally trespassed on to an angry man’s land, had a Vietnamese coffee at a tiny café and committed ourselves to our hammocks. Our friends at the island café were amused by us and took great pride in explaining how we were to drink our tea and coffee.(Reminding me a little bit of our "THIS is your breakfast" lad from Chitwan.)

Getting the ferry across to An Binh island from Vinh Long

Our homestay (Ngoc Phuong) was peaceful and had possibly the best internet of our trip so far. (Not bad for a silt island in the middle of nowhere.) The kids that lived at the homestay were fun. The little girl decided I looked good with a sieve on my head and that someone else’s glasses were hers to play with. This was after the four year old had run into my room with a giant pair of scissors and threatened to cut my headphone cord! 

Reading "Watership Down" together on hammocks

  

Homes built on silt buildup at the mouth of the Mekong

Dinner was both impressive and tasty…as long as we all sat in the right places. I have found in Vietnam that great pride is taken in how the table is set and everything must be 'just so'. Trying to help create space on a table is often fruitless as you will inevitably just move something to the incorrect spot!

Nothing wrong with taking pride in appearance

On our second day at An Binh we took a boat trip to a floating market. It was rather small and not super busy. Perhaps it was a quiet day of the week. We jumped aboard a fruit boat where the enthusiastic vendor proceeded to cut up every fruit in sight for us to try. She didn’t really have to try hard to sell us her goods. Rob left the boat sipping on a coffee, we each had a coconut to drink from and then eat. For later we had some mango and dragon fruit.

FBI Agent in the fruit boat

Petrol station on the Mekong

Exploring

It was incredible seeing how they transported masses of rice and other items on large boats. They didn’t seem to mind if they lost some along the way. All the boats have the same design on them. Apparently it is of dragon eyes and there to scare of sea monsters. We spent a long time on the boat which was so peaceful that I kept nodding off. Eventually we made it to a few other stops which I believe are routine on such Mekong tours: candy, popcorn and rice wine factory and honey bee farm. At the factory I found a coconut candy that I had tasted before and fell in love with once more. It is a dangerous addiction as they are sold in large packets and I cannot stop!

Transportation, hammocks and clothesline all in one

 

Dragon eyes

Making coconut candy

After some more relaxing at An Binh we again found ourselves on the ferry to Vinh Long. Here, two ladies got great pleasure at the size of my bag. Then I pointed at Rob’s and how they chuckled! Before we knew it the lady was pretending to be backpack and Rob had her up in the air!

Rob's new backpack!

A bumpy bus ride from Vin Long took us to Chau Dac, a town on the border of Vietnam and Cambodia. A walk along the river led us to spontaneously organise a late afternoon boat ride around the fishing villages of the area.  It was interesting to see how they kept the fish and prepared them for sale, though definitely coming toward the end of the day.

We visited a Cham village that largely consisted of people whose ancestors had immigrated from Malaysia/Borneo some 800 years ago.  They have maintained their culture and religion despite being spread across Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand making up the bulk of Islamic people in these areas.  There wasn’t really much to see on our visit except the refurbishment of the local mosque. The highlight was children playing but I suppose it often is!

High jumper highlight

From Chau Dac we took a speedboat to Phnom Penh to begin our adventures in Cambodia.

A FEW TIPS FOR A DIY MEKONG TRIP:
* Many people take packaged trips from Ho Chi Minh. Though this is convenient, we found it simple enough to organise ourselves. If you value the flexibility then we'd recommend it.

* Going from Ho Chi Minh to Phnom Penh via the Mekong was a great way to break up the travel. Mixing boats and buses also helped.

* To organise a homestay you will need to call places directly as they often do not have websites or use email. If you can, have a Vietnamese speaker to help make arrangements.


 

Kinabatangan River and Jungle Trip

The "jungle mafia" were everywhere but others characters were more elusive and sightings of them were perhaps more rewarding. Journeying along the Kinabatangan River, we thoroughly enjoyed spotting a range of wildlife. We were informed early that we would not be stopping the boat for the common maquaque monkeys (referred to as jungle mafia) or the Egret (white birds) that were interesting to watch but ever present.

"Jungle Mafia"

Gibbon's were not easy to capture on film

Our group was privileged to have had fleeting visits with gibbons, orang utans (especially Gary the first orang utan named by Kat), and even crocodiles. Our excellent guide Teo was very knowledgeable and managed to steer the boat to optimum position whilst providing information on scientific classifications, interesting facts and, at night, shedding some light on the situation while simultaneously looking up birds in his book.

Stork-billed Kingfisher

Gary the Orang Utan

Oriental Pied Hornbill

Male proboscis monkeys prefer to hide 

As we set out on Uncle Tan's 3-day, 2-night itinerary, Kat was most excited about seeing the proboscis monkeys and Rob was keen to view an orang utan (outside the sanctuary). We were both surprised how much we enjoyed spotting a range of native birds. This was especially amazing during our pitch-black night trek through mangroves when we got up close with sleeping birds that didn't bat an eyelid. Rob also found a partridge everyone else had missed (no sign of a pear tree) over his head at one point.

One of our more drizzly boat outings 

One of the sleeping birds 

Rob's partridge

Proboscis Group & Teo

It took us a little while before we really introduced ourselves to our co-travellers and guides on the jungle tour.  We were a motley group of Swedes, Chinese, Germans, English, Americans, a Canadian, Danes, Australians and a Malaysian.  Broken into two groups (the Proboscis Monkeys and the Crocodiles) we also took on this arrangement for meal times (which was totally un-necessary, but seemed to just develop on its own).  In our group (Proboscis), we had Gloria, May, Goodwin (from Qingdao, China), Anna & Simon (from Sweden).  `

TEAM PROBOSCIS!

Our wonderful guide Teo

We were lucky enough to have Teo as our guide for each of the trips river cruises and jungle treks, while the Crocodile group had Dis (AKA “Jungle Dis-co”) .  He was incredibly knowledgeable and never seemed to display a boredom of describing the same animals and plants over and over again, or searching for them on the banks of the Kinabatangan.  He could spot a tiny kingfisher from 200m away and knew the tree that the dollarbirds loved to frequent. Nothing better describes his sincerity for the subject matter than this photo of him as he tells us about a dead cotton spider.

Although he has a serious face in every photo we have, he was a very jolly bloke, easy to laugh, quick to make a joke and entertained us each night with endless rounds of karaoke as he played along on the guitar.

Program Activities

Kat spotted a few frogs

During our stay in the jungle we took part in two night boat safari’s, two morning boat safari’s, and afternoon jungle trek and a night trek. Each one was rewarding in different ways. The first night boat trip was easily the most exhilarating. We discussed how neither of us would ever feel that good about directing a speed boat on a river through pitch-blackness with only the aid of a torch. Once we decided it was unlikely we would end up on the river bank on our next turn since Teo had probably done this a million times, we quite enjoyed the ride. The stillness and serentiy of the morning boat trip contrasted with the excitement of a jungle coming alive after dark on our night trek. Initially Kat did not enjoy the night trek due to the abundance of mosquitos and spiders however she was soon absorbed in spotting an array of frogs, insect and birds.

Red jungle millipede on mossy log

The Accommodation

For 2 nights we lived on mattresses under mosquito nets in huts built on mangroves.  It was a little muggy but not without some luxuries, such as electricity from 7-midnight (from a generator), sit down toilets and if you wanted, you could have enjoyed a cold bucket shower (although as the water was quite brown on account of coming from the Kinabatangan, we opted to wait for our return to Sandakan).  Items such as wet ones, deodorant, and anything with a fruit smell had to be stored in sealed plastic tubs to protect them from ransacking by rats or maquaques.  If you are a 5-star hotel gold member (and live by that), you might not enjoy this experience but we really loved it. 

We shared our hut with Gloria, May and Goodwin – who were lovely company.  Gloria’s English was very good (so good in fact that she could translate our complex Uno rules for May) and made up for my lack of anything but “xie-xie” and Kat’s primary school-level Mandarin, it was also a pleasant surprise to find that they also were staying at the same hostel on our return to Sandakan.  Gloria generously extended an invite to stay with her should we pass through Qingdao when we get to China. Anna and Simon did the same for Sweden.
 

As the website says "It is a Wildlife Camp you are visiting
 - NOT A RESORT & SPA"

Sunset on the Kinabatangan River

Highly Recommended

We really enjoyed the secluded location of Uncle Tan’s and would highly recommend it as probably the best thing we have done in Sabah. (Thanks to Scott and Bianca for recommending it to us!) Within our whole trip it was just us 15 visitors, the staff and the wildlife. Very occasionally we also saw people from the local village but no other tour groups.

A great place to visit in Sabah

Booking and Prices

Uncle Tan’s can be booked online (no deposit required) and all the necessary information is on their website. Payment is cash only (don’t be the people who need to take a special additional taxi ride back to Sandakan for more cash) and RM420 per person plus a RM10 conservation fee. It includes accommodation, all meals, tea/coffee and activities. The staff operate a co-op that sells water, soft drink and beer, sometimes chocolate, at reasonable prices. (We spent RM15.)