Huh ...

Logistics are often an interesting proposal in Mongolia. Yesterday was technically a logistical nightmare - but i will try to put a positive spin on it and say - it was challenging. In order to catch our 625pm flight to Choibalsan, we left the hotel in UB at 3pm. After 1 hour of driving, we were a 10 minute walk from the hotel ... We eventually made it to the warehouse, grabbed our medical supplies, and headed off. On arriving at the airport we met our translators - check that - our translator. There is "some other guy" with us who is not going to translate and who really couldn't tell me why he was with us at all ... Keep note - we have one translator for our trip to the Mongolian countryside - and my Mongolian is "rusty" (read: non-existent). After haggling with the airlines over our overweight bags - full of medical supplies and food - one of the team members plunked down a private credit card to pay the fees and we were issued boarding passes, indicating we were in the clear ...


Held in the holding area, held after security, put on a bus, taken off a bus, put back on a bus, bussed out to the plane, put on the plane (as they are inflating the tire on the landing gear), taxied to the runway, given the security spiel, sat on the runway with propellers running, and some more of that, and some more, watched a gorgeous sunset from one of those tiny plane windows, and some more sitting, taxied back to the airport, returned to bus, put on shuttle back to the city (sans overweight luggage), left to wait on the street corner for a ride back to the hotel and there, i got to heckle for a rooms for the boys before i crashed with Alli and JQ ... after eating cup o' noodles with my fingers, we pushed beds together and i slept in scrubs on the crack.


So now it is today, and we will try again ... wish us luck!!