Out of UB, day 1

I got up early the next morning to catch the cab that would take me to the bus that would take me to the van driver who would take me to the nomad.  A long day.  Exciting to finally get out of the city though.

Ger to Ger had a plan for me... basically, the idea was to take a bus for 8 hours to a region "near" UB, spend 6 days there with four different families, and then take another 8 hour bus farther out, to the White Lake, roughly in the middle of central Mongolia.  After another 4 days there with a different family I would come back with a few days to spare, fingers crossed, before my flight out.  

If this all seems pretty hardcore, well, it was, and it did make me nervous.  I have to admit that somehow, for some reason, I was just absolutely fascinated by the whole nomad, Genghis Khan, living in the middle of enormous, wide open spaces shtick and wanted to get close to it - maybe even be part of it - even if it was only for a few days.  The rational part of my brain said it wasn't going to be that special, and that there was a fair amount of risk to trying to do it, but some other part kept thinking it was romantic and exciting, in this primeval kind of way.  

If nothing else, I needed to indulge this feeling before coming back home.  I think, secretly, I wanted to demystify it so I could do whatever I did after this trip in peace, knowing that I experienced what I had wanted to experience.

Ger to Ger had a plan for me - but how much did that plan really mean?  I'm not the most anal guy in the world, but this one took a big leap of faith.  Once I was out in the field, it was going to be just me and the locals.  Did they speak English?  How would they know who to take me to next?  What if they didn't know?  How was I going to find my bus to take me to the White Lake?  What if I got sick?  Ger to Ger basically told me to trust them - everything would be OK.  There might be other tourists at some of the families, but then again, there probably wouldn't.  

And then there are the everyday worries... like - what am I going to eat?  Where am I going to sleep?  And what is the bathroom situation like at the nomad camp?  More than anything else on my trip so far, this was going to test my comfort zone.  Traveling by motorbike around South America is adventurous, sure, but you're the one in control.  Now, not so much.

Mongolian buses, crowded, but comfortable.  And everyone is incredibly friendly!

Flashy seat covers.

Other tourists heading out of UB.

To be fair, this guy is Kazakh, but this is the fantasy that I was chasing.

Could I rough it and be part of that landscape?  That was the goal...