For those of you that don’t know, Ashlee’s father, Scott, decided to join us on our return flight to Mongolia so that he could get a taste of the Mongolian experience. I guess we talked it up quite nicely. I think that both of our mothers were a bit miffed with him – I think they thought that if he had not made these travel plans they could have convinced us to stay in California. Oh, moms. Anyways, Scott planned to be in-country for a little over 10 days, during which we made arrangements to take him to Hovsgol, which we heard is the prettiest province in all of Mongolia.
We flew Korean Air out of LAX with a relatively quick 2 hour lay-over in Seoul – on the way out our lay-over was 13 hours! Our travel to the airport (Edie had to wake up early to escort us) and our flight check-in went smoothly. At the check-in counter we bumped into an elderly Mongolian couple who seemed a bit lost. I remember being excited for Scott to hear them speak Mongolian – he didn’t seem to share the excitement as he pointed out that in less than 24 hours he would be in a country with 3 million Mongolians. Oh yeah. Anyways, bumping into this couple and a large group of Mongolia-bound American teenagers helped to really sink in the fact that we were returning to Mongolia. Before boarding the plane, Ashlee and I had our last official American meals: turkey sandwiches, which I couldn’t help smothering in ranch dressing and tapatio. Delicious.
The flight was OK. It was only 12 hours, there was a great selection of movies, and we brought plenty of snacks to supplement the in-flight meals. A nice lady was willing to switch her seat with Scott so we all got to sit together. Our one real complaint with the flight was that it got uncomfortably stuffy, especially during the last few hours. I’m not sure how much it bothered Scott, though, because for the majority of the flight he seemed to be in some sort of Jedi trance. I think he pretty much waved off every meal and beverage offer in favor of a power bar and he didn’t use the toilet once – which made me feel like an old man for making multiple trips. I guess his frequent business trips (including two 15-hour flights to Hong Kong in the last 6 months) has helped him find a way to deal with long plane rides.
Our lay-over in Seoul was quick and easy. Although our initial flight seemed to really rile up my stomach (maybe the seafood dish was a bad idea), I sucked it up and enjoyed my last Starbucks fix for a year. Goodbye, iced lattes! At the boarding gate for our flight to UB we ran into some PCV friends, a couple from Seattle, who were just returning from their own trip to Freedom Land. While waiting to board the plane we exchanged tales of gluttony – Mark and I both put on at least 10 pounds.
Our flight to UB was only 3 hours. We shared the plane with a large contingent of Korean volunteers who were all decked out in snazzy uniforms complete with neckerchiefs. Hmm, maybe I should talk to Peace Corps about developing similar uniforms…
Our plane touched down in UB at 10pm on Tuesday, June 29th. We quickly passed through immigration and retrieved our luggage. We were happy that everything seemed to make it, even the two huge duffel bags that we crammed with 70 pounds of American foodstuffs. Exiting the terminal we were greeted by our pre-arranged transportation to our hotel. We arranged to stay at the Puma-Imperial Hotel just off Sukhbaatar Square. We had one large room with three twin beds and an ensuite bathroom. Pretty exhausted, we all conked out watching a World Cup match between Japan and Uruguay (?) that was being broadcast in Russian. Welcome back to Mongolia!
PS – Scott snores.
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