Back in the saddle (almost)

After a nice trip where I got to see Helsinki and Beijing I finally arrived in Ulaanbataar this afternoon. It’s good to be back but at the same time I feel a little heavyhearted. It’s the same feeling as in the armed service when we came back to the regiment after a weekend at home, knowing that there will be a long exercise in field. The hardest part is going back and to pack all the gear. As soon as it starts one will adapt and enjoy as best as possible. I’m looking forward to setting up camp and start up the fieldwork again. Though the thought of not showering in six months…Brrr…

Mongolia´s kindest man (or close to at least) Byamba picked me up at the airport and we drove off to investigate the market for japanese motorbikes in UB. This was quite a task last winter when we bought the Yamaha bike. It didn’t start too good, the Yamaha dealer has stopped selling bikes, he had one left – the same model as we bought last time. It’s a nice bike but we have had to take it to UB for maintenance twice in six months. Not the best when it takes two days to transport the bike. One way.

Even so, I tried the bike and it felt great to be back in the saddle. So to speak.

The only thing worth telling about the trip was that I past three Chinese SWAT police officers in Beijing airport. I am not sure what SWAT stands for but I guess it is “Special Weapon…something”. The Chinese SWAT officers were neither big nor armed, one of them was actually a tiny girl with big glasses. But to compensate for their size and lack of weapons – they had two K-9 dogs with them. Cocker Spaniels with scarfs around their necks with the text “Police dog”…

Either Someone has watched too many Hollywood movies and thinks SWAT sounds cool or Beijing airport is a very safe place. Don’t think Cocker Spaniels would do the trick in L.A.

Still I didn’t dare to giggle, could be that they have black belts in eight different martial arts disciplines each and would brake all my bones before I could say “Nice puppy”.

We will leave for field this weekend.