Hard passage... Mongolia, 5th of august 2005Here is the picture: 2100 kilometers in the desert and the mountains across Mongolia, in extremely harsh conditions. We were dead tired, drained out. Our visa was expiring soon, and we needed to cross this border, which we heard, would take us to a more lenient land, where water and food were more abundant.  But despite the information we had obtained, despite the long discussions we mimed and elaborated with our little dictionary, the Chinese border was closed to us. Only Chinese and Mongols could cross it. No westerners with unofficial status (as an example, a mine prospector would have an non-official status) had crossed it before.  In the end, the Mongols accepted to let us go, but the Chinese were formal: NO. We would have to go back to Oulaan Baatar, our starting point, and then fly to China or India. Our journey was split into two. For three days, we tried desperately to contact the Embassy, but never reached them, phones being not efficient in this part of the country. Only twice we reached the ambassy, but we got the answering machine. How can we describe this bitter feeling, this disappointment? How could we go back on our steps after all these efforts? On the road, we met other travelers from Europe who heard about an opening of the border. They had already made arrangements with a Chinese businessman for visas, paying $660 US each without negotiating! Welcome to corruption land!!! Never we wanted to be part of this kind of business or to have planned it. But in our situation, what else could we do? We were already illegal in Mongolia, since our visa had expired, even if we had changed the 0 for an 8 on our paper (20 of july becoming 28th of july...)! We decided to call this man, and we negotiated for a price: $400 US each (the price was still less than going back to the starting point and take a flight to China!). We then had to wait for ten days, in stressful conditions. When we saw it finally, we could not believe it: this red stamp on our passports! On the morning of the 24th, we biked to go back to the border, going through a variety of emotions and paper controls! Then we slowly made our way to the Chinese flag. One of the border officers, who first denied us the access to his country, came to shake hands with Mel to wish her happy birthday in a broken English! From this moment, we knew everything was fine. This businessman was waiting for us, and helped us going rapidly from one stand to another. This is what money can do… Nevertheless, there were not only hardships in the last few weeks…  There were these ten days in a Mongol family, ten days to live the nomad life, to milk goats and to build up a yurt, to shear sheep and to cook meals. Ten days in which, rapidly, we bonded, ten days that we will remember for the rest of our lives...  Then China…. The myth turned out to be true. China has everything an emerging nation can offer us: smiles and horns, watermelons and fruit juice, spicy meals and sesame breads…  We crossed a vast desert in a record time, on a freshly paved road, to finally arrive in Urumqui, capital of Xingjian, a self-governed province of China. Here, the Asian culture mixes with the eastern Chinese culture; there is an oriental ambiance in this city that offers us all of its beauty, its culture, and its charisma. We were happy in the immensity of Mongolia, but how good it is to feel life and the atmosphere in this part of the world, where celebration music mixes with exotic smells!!!
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