long bus ride...commence!

In general, living so close to the third city in Mongolia has made me spoiled. I can buy [expensive] peanut butter, a variety of cheeses, and there are paved roads. Not from Erdenet to my soum, granted, but from Erdenet to UB it's 6 hours of paved goodness. Which is why I'm a bit anxious about my upcoming trip (tomorrow!) to the Westernmost aimag of Bayan-Olgii to see my friend Caitlin and to help with her sports camp. I may still be in the boot from my sprained ankle, but I'm prepared to rock this camp. I honestly have no idea how long I'll be sitting on this bus, I'm guessing around 3 days. My iPod won't last that long and I can't read in moving vehicles, but at least the scenery is supposed to be beautiful.

To give you all a sense of what I'm going to be going through (days on a bus on unpaved roads), there's a video you should watch. Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman made a TV documentary about riding around the world from London to New York going east. For a couple episodes, they were in Mongolia and I thought it was a pretty good depiction of the things we go through when we travel here. Minus the motorcycle problems; PCVs are forbidden to ride on them. Not that I mind. This starts off in Russia, but they get to Mongolia quickly and are in the West where I'm headed. No roads, pitiful roads, Mongolians that stop by just to say hey. So while you're watching this before you head off somewhere via a nice paved road with decently regulated traffic laws, think of me bumping along in a bus on my way to Olgii. Yanaa

Catch y'all when I'm back in the land of Internets.