Ode to Roads

The roads here are almost indescribable, but I will try.

On the best day, when I am not stressed, it is almost comic to drive here. It is like a 3-D fully hydraulic video game. Some of the surfaces that the cars traverse here should not even be labeled “road” because there is some pavement but mostly just holes. If you have a choice to drive on a holey paved road or a dirt road, choose dirt. Dirt roads at least change uniformly. They are bumpy, but they are also gradual bumps. On a bad paved road it is like driving over boulders because the holes in the asphalt are sharp and hard and very jarring.

I am the designated driver in UB. Not because my poor hubby has been drinking, but because he HATES driving in this wretched traffic with a complete lack of order and disregard for human life. Throw in the road conditions there and this is a recipe for my dear hubby to LOSE it. Not only does he hate to drive there, I HATE watching him drive there. He looks like panic may kill him at any second; and then my stress level goes up upup..Anyway, needless to say, I do the driving in UB. This is a big surprise to our foreign friends because some of those women don’t even have their driver’s license!! Shocking to me because driving has always been, you guessed it, an escape for me! J

Last week in UB we stayed at a guest house outside the city. The guest house road is the worst road I’ve ever seen in the country. Those of you that have been here, know that is a shocking statement! I had to drive it the first time at night. It was not a fun, video game experience. I was stressed too . We were driving a 1998 Toyota Prius that we borrowed from our friends. Driving a borrowed car is much more nerve wracking than driving and possibly destroying my own car. Some of the holes in this road could have swallowed the car. Some of the holes were as deep as the wheel well and so dodging them is essential and takes skill.

This dodge-pot-hole game has a strategy. You must monitor the car ahead. You must watch it to see how hard it bumps and decide if you should take the same line over the bump or if you should madly swerve. You mustn’t follow too close because you must study the road beneath the car to see the car swallowing holes emerging from under their car. You mustn’t follow with too large a space between or else the driver behind you will begin to honk and try to pass you.

What is handy about the lawlessness of the roads, is that if there is a better path on the other side of the road, you can drive on the wrong side of the road and take advantage of that nicer path! Cars even drive on the sidewalk area and that is fine too.

Now that we are carless (yay!,) our Mongolian driving days are over. We have been traveling by public transport, both in taxis and small minivan/buses. Today we traveled to town with 18 of our closest Mongolian friends (ha ha) in a minivan. It cost .50 cents to get to town. It is nice to not have to worry about a car breaking down and just pay to ride. We arrived at the post office and called home today. I downloaded google chat and we called and had a nice talk, it was 650T (55cents) for the hour of internet time, we paid and left. Then we walked to the bank and exchanged our tugricks we received for the car for dollars. There was a good exchange rate today and so we got $50 more than we were expecting!

Then we walked to buy some groceries and have Peter’s pants tailored. He had 5 inches taken off the waist of three pairs of his slacks yesterday and had two holes repaired on some older pants and got them shortened all for $8. He got all new clothes in 2009 before we came back. He’s lost 5 inches off his waist since then, but all the pants were brand new. We decided having his pants altered here and carrying them home was a better option than buying all new clothes for his new job upon return to the USA. I had some shirts altered as well. I wish tailoring was affordable in the USA.

Then we visited our friend, gave her some groceries we got for her and took a taxi back home. We did all of this in the rain and I am thankfully tucked in my bed typing away drinking hot coffee. J