Thursday, May 15, 2014
After crossing the border we found the local supermarket and stocked up on a few supplies like cheese (still of the plastic variety), salami and bread. Also managed to find some Mars bars. Lunch consisted of cheese and salami sandwiches which were amazing. After lunch we found a shop selling SIM cards and got hooked-up for the low low price of USD$2.50. We said goodbye to our travel companions through China. Although we suspect we will see each other all again in a few days in Ulaanbaatar, so it is not a real goodbye.
It was fast approaching 2pm and we still had to drive 200kms to Sainshand so we got into Sterlin and headed North. The road out of town was interesting and not entirely a road. We bumped along the sandy track in search of tarmac, which we found after about 5kms. Maybe we got lost, or more likely, maybe the highway just stops short of the town. Once we found the road, it was beautiful and brand spanking new. In fact they are still working on bits here and there. We were able to cruise at 80kph with ease.
The scenery was desolate but beautiful at the same time. Wide open grassy plains with small rolling hills. We could see for miles in every direction. We saw numerous camels which was quite exciting. We also saw herds of horses, cows, sheep and goats. Clearly people are working this land, although it was hard to spot the herdsmen.
We had great plans to visit a monastery and stay the night at a ger. But both were about 20kms off the sealed road and there were no obvious tracks to follow. So instead we continued onto Sainshand and the Dornogobi Hotel. Once we checked in we found out that the town does not get power until after 8pm. Not sure why, but not much we could do about this. It also explains why everything was dark in the supermarkets in the border town. For dinner we had cheese and salami sandwiches and a bottle of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.
