The Anglers Exploration Group heads to Mongolia!

publication date: Aug 29, 2007

Enter the Dragon

We are finally on our way. After months of planning, organization, phone calls and emails, letters and the occasional postcard, Brian, Chris and myself have now entered the country we have dreamed about, Mongolia. We entered our 36th hour of travel a few minutes ago and now we are sharing a train car speeding along the Mongolian countryside, we are almost there! I think we have packed too much, we were each alloted a nice bed for our train ride, but we had to give up two of our three to make room for all of our supplies. 11 bags were checked from Portland, 6 more carried on. They are holding 4 Watermaster rafts and supplies to match (pfd's, straps, pumps, etc.), 3 HD video cameras, 1 Bgan satellite unit, 1 satellite phone (thanks Russ!), a pile of expedition camping equipment, and enough fishing gear to open up a medium sized fly shop, and we even forgot a few things! So far things have gone off without a hitch, all of our bags made our plane, and we did fit everything into the little train car we are in right now.

Today we experienced one of the more intense baggage transfers we could ever imagine. You see, in Beijing, you don't just drive your van to the front of the train terminal, grab a cart and walk your bags to the check-in area. Oh no! In Beijing, you are dropped off on the side of a busy street and your interpreter jumps out with you, she flags down two of the elderly bike peddlers and proceedes to haggle for a fair price to bring our 11 very large and very over the weight limit bags to the front of the train station. This is where things began to get interesting. As we dodged people, vans, and the occasional road side eatery, another group gathered around us demanding that they take our bags into the station, because the bikes wouldn't do the job. More haggling ensued and we had another deal, the guys with the roller dollies took our bags from the bikers, it was like a relay race, except with thousands of other racers and awkward bags for batons. With our team of highly trained professionals, we breezed through the station and quickly made it to the waiting area.

Now none of us have spent very much time on trains, but we though, no problem, we will just check our bags like a plane, and see them when we get to UB. Not in Beijing. When the doors finally opened, we raced down another long corridor, across a bridge, down a flight a of stairs and then nearly to the end of the recently arrived train, our crew was still with us. More haggling. We watched them enter the train with our boats, bags and miscellaneous items two or three at a time, we were the last to reach our cabin. The train from Beijing to UB doesn't check your bags we found out. You can imagine what the small room looked like, it was a mess, and there was a lot of yelling by everyone trying to get past us in the tiny isle, so tonight we take shifts sleeping on our single open bed. The Mongolian gal we are sharing our room with, as you might imagine, isn't impressed.

Justin Crump - AEG

Listen to their first podcast and see how Chris almost gets himself into a fight in Ulan Bator!

(Let us know what you think about the AEG's adventures and the Trout Bum Diaries in the comments section below. We are looking to offer the DVD's for sale very shortly in the UK so please email us at info@fishandfly.com if you would be interested in receiving details once they are available. There will soon be a full review and trailer up on the website so keep checking back! - Ed)