Mongolia 5: The Gun-Galuut Nature Reserve to end my stay in Mongolia and a short description of my final two weeks in Tokyo

     My final day in the Gobi Desert was mostly spent driving to be near the airport.  Our only stop was at the Flaming Cliffs.  Within sight of the Cliffs, we stopped for a lunch at a camp.  There was a small gate between buildings to enter the Cliff grounds.  The guide took me inside to watch the history of how Americans took advantage of the newly free state of Mongolia in the 1920s, and effectively stole their dinosaur fossils.  This included the first ever discovery of dinosaur eggs.

This was a picture I had forgotten to include of the camp we stayed at near the dunes, from my prior blog entry.

    It was a short walk around the edges of the red sand colored Flaming Cliffs.  The views were interesting, large expanses of flat land.  

  We spent our final night at a camp and took an early morning flight back to Ulaanbaatar.  I had the rest of the day to relax.  The guide picked me up late the next morning, along with the driver that I recognized from my very first day in Mongolia.  He would be our driver for my final three days.  Our destination was the Gun-Galuut Nature Reserve.

  

  The reserve was about two hours from Ulaanbaatar.  We passed by the well known Chinggis Khaan Statue, which every single tour company included in tour itineraries.

  My guide was excited to expose me to his favorite Mongolian Band, the Hu.  He was proud that they had gathered some international recognition.  He showed me their most popular music video on his phone.  It was a strange mixture of Mongolian landscape, men on motorcycles, the very large group that the band consisted of, some throat singing, and a lot of repetition in lyrics.  During lunch at the camp, we heard the song again.

  As we entered the Reserve, we encountered a flock of what I believe to be the white naped crane.  After I dropped off my luggage at the camp, I went for a walk along the river.  I was in search of birds, but found mostly insects and horses.  There was one insect in particular that made a very loud clicking sound.  I think it was some form of flying grasshopper.

  A group of horses allowed me to sit near them.  They enjoyed rolling around in the dirt.  

    As I was returning to the camp, I bumped into the driver, who wore a hat with a net to ward off insects.  He had with him a bridge camera.  He was a birder.  As we reentered camp, he spotted some frogs.

  After dinner, we left for the nearby mountains in search of wildlife.

I have no idea what this cow had in its mouth.

  We parked the car near marshes  We saw some cranes and tried to follow them by hopping from dry patch to dry patch.  It was slow going and it became increasingly difficult to stay dry, so we turned back.   There were frogs back near our vehicle.

The flower was the subject, but upon review, I found that an insect was attached.

  We decided to wake up early the next morning and try again.  We left before sunrise for the mountains.  We walked up  into the mountains, saw some rams in the distance, but otherwise found nothing.  The highlight was found on the ride back, as we caught a single ram running and jumping.

  We ate breakfast and then I napped.  We reconvened at lunch time and my guide convinced me to go out and try to find marmots.  

  We parked the vehicle as we encountered marshland and went off on foot.  We saw horses and some cranes that kept away no matter how hard we tried to close the distance between us.

 Eventually my guide caught sight of a marmot, followed by a few more.  I got as as close to them as I could, before they permanently descended into the ground.

This insect landed on my guide's shirt.

  Closer to the camp, we got out again to walk toward three cranes.

  We took an early dinner and left towards the mountains again.  We parked the car and finished the walk up the nearby peak.

  The views on all sides were fantastic, and we saw some birds above.

  As it was the last night that I would be outdoors, I finally decided to try some astrophotography.  The moon was very full, and I didn't really know what I was doing.  These were the results.

  The final day had us drive back to the city.  As we were exiting the reserve, we saw two large groups of cranes, with more of the flying grasshoppers.  Since the cranes always flew away in the opposite direction, I had my guide take a long arc around the birds to approach from behind.  The idea was to encourage them to fly to me.  They flew toward him anyway.

  On the drive back, you were able to see how the open land met the beginnings of Ulaanbaatar.  I was asked what kind of restaurant I would like to go to for our final meal.  I chose Indian and it was spectacular.

My guide's beef bowl.

My dish.

  My flight was very early.  It was still dark out, and the driver was stopped twice along the road at breathalyzer checkpoints.

  Following Mongolia, I spent two weeks in Tokyo.  The idea was to stay in one hotel, recuperate, and relax.  I tried some Thai massage, however I found the physicality of it to be on the harsh side.  I stopped after my third massage.  I discovered a fantastic Indian restaurant nearby called Gurgaon.  I became fond of going to a late night gyoza establishment(well, ramen really, but their ramen wasn't great).  Lastly, I fell in love with a curry soup place just to the west of Tokyo Main Station called Konaya Marunouchi Oazo.  

  One day I walked to the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace.  The rest of my time was spent in my hotel, playing videogames and talking to people.  Some days I would eat breakfast at the restaurant attached to the hotel, and on others I would pick up coffee, yogurt, and snacks from the nearby seven eleven.  

  After passing a Zara's, near the end of my trip, I decided to do some google searching related to men's fashion in Japan.  I have always loved the classy, but comfort based look of Japan's clothing.  I picked out some of the styles I liked and did reverse searches of them.  I also googled lists of popular Japanese clothing stores.  I was already staying in the Ginza district, known for shopping,  I picked out a few shops to investigate.  They were all within a five minute walk from each other, about eight minutes away from where I was staying.

  What followed was a three day, two thousand dollar spending spree which completely revamped my entire wardrobe.  About twelve pairs of pants and twelve shirts, both long and short sleeved.  My favorite stores were Beams(In Ginza along with the Beams Mens store in Shibuya), Nano Universe, Zara, Gu, Uniqlo, and B:Ming Life(spinoff of Beams).  This final one brought me out east to the neighborhood of Toyosu.  

  I worked hard to fit the new clothes into my luggage.  Luckily, most of my packing for Mongolia were items such as biodegradable wet wipes, tissues, and snack bars, that depleted over time.  I threw out any excess and even left a few small items behind.  My suitcase weighed in at 22.9kg at the airport, just scraping by under the 23kg weight limit.