Rainy Friday Evening

Just about to head out on Friday evening but it just started chucking it down so a few more minutes at the desk…

Not really managed to get much dome with photos from the last trip yet, plugging through them slowly but shooting 10Mb raw files really slows things down – slowly I’m getting to know the batch file capabilities in Nikon Capture software but it’s a bit of a change from dealing with jpegs in Photoshop.

Tried to buy some laptop speakers today and had a typical UB shopping experience. First minor irritation was not having the price written anywhere near anything and then, maybe it’s being a foreigner or maybe it’s standard practice in computer shops here, being told a price in dollars.

Now don’t get me wrong. Even though I like the feel of a quality English tenner there is something specific about using greenbacks in developing countries that lets you know they are, well, still developing. Locals not having faith in their own currency is unfortunately a sure sign that something, somewhere is not right in the system.

Anyway, my standard practice (and the fact I don’t carry dollars on me) when told a price in dollars is to ask for one in tugrug. After a while the spotty youth behind the counter got on his phone and started tapping out a SMS to get the exchange rate. At least that’s what I though, after a few minutes I though maybe otherwise…

At this point the electric had gone off so the chance of anything happening was going down-hill fast. I left, not quite speechless but certainly speaker-less.

Rain has finished now. Time to go.

Cheers

T.

Back in UB... Confluence hunting game...

Been back in UB for the last few days busy at work and trying to find time to deal with 18Gb of raw files from photos taken on the last trip.

In the end I got around 3000 km of Mongolia heading to the far south and then cross-country (is there any other way in this place?) to Bayankhongor in the centre. After that a route was pushed through the Khangai Mountains which was the highlight for scenery but the lowlight when offered a snow leopard pelt by some herders who had recently killed one of these highly endangered animals. After a bit of a break down (half a day wait for a new suspension spring assembly and mechanics from UB) and a brief tourist stop at Mongola's old capital a return to UB was made on the 20th.

When the photos have been sorted they'll probably go up as a written dispatch and maybe a gallery on my main website - watch this space for more details.


Confluence hunting - a great game for those with time on their hands in a big open country...

Basically a confluence is an imaginary point on the earth's surface where a line of latitude and longitude cross. There's been an internet project for the last few years to visit all the confluences on the earth's surface and get a photographic record of what that place is like. You get there, take a photo of the site, photos north, south east and west, one of your GPS and add any others you want to.

On the road-trip I got my first confluence and two more. If you visit the confluence website soon they are the top 3 on the most recently visited list at http://www.confluence.org/index.php

Otherwise you can see them at:
http://www.confluence.org/confluence.php?visitid=10861
http://www.confluence.org/confluence.php?visitid=10860
and
http://www.confluence.org/confluence.php?visitid=10859

They'll give you a feel for what 3 random areas in southern and central Mongoia look like (empty is the main theme...).

T