Mongolian road trip!

Mongolia: wild, free, rugged, unspoiled. I've fallen hopelessly in love. Here's the story of my Mongolian adventure: Entering Mongolia in the middle of the night from Beijing on the trans-Mongolian railway, the hallway of the train filled with a haze of dust, courtesy of the Gobi, the coldest desert in the world. Choo-choo! Trans-Mongolian railway After 30 hours, the locomotive journey wrapped up in the capital city of Ulan Bator. Population 1.2 million. The total population of outer Mongolia is 2.6 million. I was more interested in meeting the other half of the Mongolian residents who lived outside of Ulan Bator. The nomads. The enigmatic, horse-riding, ger-living country people.The mystery of their lifestyle allured me to explore  Mongolia, the most sparsely populated country in the world. I've just returned from a week long road trip through the steppes of Central  Mongolia. I'm still in awe over all that I've experienced. One thing is for sure,  Mongolia is one of my favorite countries. I'm ranking it as #2 right now. (India  still holds the #1 position) I absolutely love it here. The people, the landscape,  the culture, it's all so amazing. Here's a few random facts about Mongolia: ~The days of rule by Genghis Khan created a brutal past and gave it the   impressive title of the largest land empire in the world. ~Mongolians are predominantly Buddhist, giving the country a very Tibetan feel. ~Mongolia is made up of 95% ethnic Mongols. ~Almost all of the nomads I encountered spoke little to no English. But, if I acted  as a mime, I was easily understood. ~1/4 of the country lives on less than $1.25 a day. ~Ulan Bator is the coldest capital in the world. ~Mongolia was the world's fastest growing economy in 2011. ~ Ulan Bator is the most polluted city in the world. I stationed myself in UB (Ulan Bator). I was surprised by how contemporary  UB was. Modernly dressed Mongolian women ambled down the sidewalk in cute pea   coats, mini skirts, tights and high leather boots, alongside traditionally dressed  Mongolians with long robes and thick brightly colored cloth belts. I would soon  be entering a world that was anything but modern. In UB, I met Tim, from the Netherlands, and Johannes, from Germany. These  2 Europeans would be joining me on my cross-country road trip adventure across the untamed countryside of Mongolia. Tim was a quirky, quick-witted Dutch jock. Johannes was a deep thinking, religious, Physics-major German. They turned out to be a lot of fun. Goofy, yes. But fun. Johannes (left) Tim (right) Collectively, we decided to hire a driver and a Land Cruiser. Our Mongolian driver  was named Gambaht, a genuine middle-aged man who kept us laughing the entire trip with his sense of humor and limited English vocabulary. Gambaht Our Land Cruiser At our guesthouse, we huddled together with the owner of the tour company to  organize our custom-made trip. With his suggestions, we decided to explore  Central Mongolia. 7 days, 6 nights. Butterflies tickled my tummy as I thought  of the adventures we would experience! I was worse than a kid. I was even too excited to eat or sleep. Shhhh, don't tell  anyone :) The next morning, we departed for the countryside. The temperature outside  was a balmy 35 degrees. I was happy I had bought some winter wear while in  Vietnam. We packed the Jeep with cooking utensils, sleeping bags and a small  stove. We hit up a local supermarket before leaving the civilization of UB. At the grocery store, I noticed the fruit and vegetable section looking rather sickly. I  opted for dried fruits, bread, peanut butter, honey, cheese, nuts and beans. I was  relieved to discover that Johannes was also a vegetarian. Mongolia is NOT very  vegetarian friendly. The typical nomadic diet consists of mainly meat (yak, sheep,  goat, horse, cow), garnished with rice, potato, bread and pasta. Fruits and veggies are highly neglected due to their price and lack of availability. As you can imagine, the infrastructure in Mongolia is horrible. The roads just  outside of UB are paved but contain pot holes big enough to take a bath in.  Gambaht was constantly swerving to avoiding hitting these huge craters.  The roads only got worse the further we meandered away from UB. Eventually, the pavement ceased and all that remained were the dirt roads that had been  created by vehicles driving through the open land. Some days, we drove for 6 hours. We logged many kilometers of bone-rattling  jolting bumpiness. We held on for dear life as Gambaht negotiated the unruly  wilderness terrain. But I loved every minute of it! The views of the mountains  and unspoiled land were breath taking! Wild and free. After driving for only a couple of hours, we were engulfed by a snow storm.  Gambaht suddenly pulled over to the side of the road and turned off the Jeep.  He tried to restart it. The Jeep was kaput, he told us in his broken English.  We all laughed. We waited for an hour in the Jeep, surrounded by the harsh  winter environment, hearing the wind whip wildly outside. The weather can  change in the blink of an eye in Mongolia. After waiting for an hour, we laughed  about the situation and were finally rescued by another Jeep that aided us by  towing us to the next village. Here, we waited for a new Jeep, since ours was  "kaput". We ate lunch at the local diner. Traditionally dressed local Mongolians  tramped loudly across the wooden floors to their tables as they eyed us curiously.  Their faces were worn and wrinkly and their hands were stained with dirt. The  small children stared at our white skin relentlessly. I had to pinch myself, it  seemed like a dream, but I was REALLY in Mongolia! Holy cow! Stay tuned for the rest of my adventure!