From Tibet to Mongolia

BWWAAAAHHHHH!!! Left Tibet!

So this is a little how our last day in Tibet went. We rolled out of bed, I was totally sad that it was our last day. We hung out at the restaurant (as usual)....waved to the cute cook, the cute dude who works reception, the cute maitre D'... and picked up some laundry and then Karma (the hotel owner) showed us his pad which is part of the hotel, it's pretty cool....and the renovations he's making to the bar.

Karma is awesome, he totally adopted us like his own kids, gave us free run of his hotel and free food, we were so pampered during our time there. He also evaluated all the crap we bought at the markets and told us if we'd gotten the real deal or not...which we almost never had. He also lectured us several times on being careful when we're in Mongolia and to be more skeptical and untrusting of strangers...which we are, except in Tibet where we were pretty carefree and loved everyone.

When it came time to leave, we both basically starting bawling...full on crying...I don't think I cried so hard even when I left Canada. The staff felt like family and Karma like a total father to us...it was like leaving home. I felt pretty ridiculous crying so hard because I was leaving behind a hotel and it's staff...but couldn't help it. Plus leaving Tibet was hard...I really loved it there. Am most definitely going back.

Interesting how I spent a year in Japan and didn't shed a tear when I left...but two weeks in Tibet and am bawling like a baby.

We would have probably bawled the whole cab ride, except the cabbie tried to pick up his friend and take him to the airport too, basically giving him a free ride on our money....as the Chinese try to do....which pissed us right off and we stopped sniffling to yell at the guy to get the hell out of our cab...and then of course took another 20 minutes to bitch about the nerve of the cabbie...then started sniffling again.

Take it from me, Tibet is the ONLY reason to bother getting a Chinese visa.

Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia on the other hand is a really ugly city. A lot of squat buildings and factories...absolutely no feel of local culture at all. EX: there are pizza joints everywhere. Our pickup at the airport never came...so that was a nice introduction to Mongolia for us. We decided to get the hell out of this shit city and into the desert for 10 days. We leave tomorrow for the Gobi and adventures with dunes, horses, camels and Mongolian nomadic tribes. Ten showerless, electricity-less days. I should smell real ripe.