The Journey Begins

This picture is not taken at the beginning of our travel, but it captures us standing close to the town square in Ulaanbaatar on Sunday the 24th of February 2008 with a temperature of about -10 degrees Celcius: the beginning of our adventure into a field assignment in Mongolia.

You will notice that there is very little evidence of snow in the street: it is a dry place though, of course, it does snow from time to time. There are traces of snow and many plates of ice on the ground along pathways and on the edges of the roadways.

We had an interesting time trying to find clothing to wear in such a climate. Thankfully there are folk in Manila who have experienced this cold and helped either in loan or purchase enough layers of appropriate density to cover our blood-thinned bodies.

We noted before coming that there are only three months of the year with an avergae temerature above zero; we were also told that people were glad that winter was behind them and that spring was in the air; these things are still sinking in to our tropically conditioned bodies and lives.

The view from WIND FM shows the combination of Ger and house in the district beyond the cenrally heated part of town. Part way up a hill, the view shows some pollution on a clear (albiet -8 degree) day as we look towards surrounding hills: all bare and brown with little evidence of vegetation.