Toerke

I just got a glimpse of De Standaard newspaper, an article about Delvoyes Beijing exhibition. I think I’ll pop into the laser shop to have some tattoes removed before I set foot on Chinese ground. I wouldn’t like to meet the clubbing club. Cultural Police is what they are called, quite a contradictio in terminis [...]

The Gobi is quite unique. Some places are so desolate, out of this world. One wonders how man can survive here. Yet, mother Earth has provided all the necessities. There is for example the saxaul (Haloxylon ammodendron), a plant that tolerates saltwater and finds it underground, deep into the dusty desert. Its wood burns like [...]

On the road to Bayanzag. ‘Hey, look over there! A fox on the run’, and I point to a fast moving dot in the plain. What a mistake to make. Agi turns the wheel ferociously, leaves the gravel road and starts the chase. I’m thinking that maybe he wants to show us the fox up [...]

There are Russian jeeps and then there are Russian jeeps. This much I have learned. Agi’s tool of the trade is a 2002 model. No rattling seats, no benzine fumes, no backbreaking suspension. What a luxury! Agi is our driver on this Gobi trip. He is 27 and is from Ulaanbaatar. He drives for tour [...]

We are enjoying this beautiful nature, are breathing deep in this wideness. We have arranged the Mongolian visa extension upon arrival. The bonebreaking bumpy roads are soon forgotten. Bodies are soaped, clothes are washed. This will not come as a surprise… It is so beautiful here, that we are off again. Again with Tseren Tours, [...]

We are defrosted and ready for the new climate. On one of the hilltops of the Hustai National Park we get an amazing view of the – once again – wide open space. At dusk we drive the jeep into the park looking for what the Mongolians call the takhi, the Equus przewalkskii. Once almost [...]

It sounded like sand against the tent. Or a very hard and dusty wind. But when Kees leaves our little tent house, it cracks. And it cracks hard. It has snowed all night. The tents (before/after and the jeep are standing in a huge white field. The wind is icy and hurts my ears. Dressed [...]

There’s no end to it. One valley even bigger than the next. A mountain range that will not get nearer. Hills rolling eternally. This country is huge. Or rather, this tiny part of the country is huge. We were spoiled with asphalt roads until Erdenet. After that it’s smooth steppe roads, crusty earth roads, bonebreaking [...]

It starts with one. Then you see a few. After a while I am covered by a blanket of stars. It’s been a long time since I last saw so many stars together. It starts with one. I am handed a bowl. You dip the tip of your ring finger into the Wodka and sprinkle [...]

Ulaanbaatar’s main street is called Peace Avenue. Nowadays, this seems a surrealistic joke. There’s nothing peaceful about this asphalt jungle. In a symphony of car horns, through a cloud of brown smog, the pedestrian goes through hell on the zebra crossing on green (!). There’s the ocassional traffic policeman blowing his whistle only to raise [...]