Just when my work seemed to be going so well one of my projects has collapsed. On Monday we travelled by train for 8 hours, arrived in sainshand in the evening, checked into the hotel and celebrated my birthday with a meal and a bottle of vodka. On the Tuesday we visited Khamaryn Khiid monastery and in the evening met with the governor to discuss the project. This should have been a routine meeting, we had met in January, sent draft proposal, agreed cost share and received itinerary including 2 or 3 days looking at cross border tourism with China. So i was shocked when the governer said this was the first he had heard of the project, he was not prepared to fund it. Shocked I agreed to meet the governer again the next day. Phone call, copies of e mails confirmed that the aimag government had known of the project and agreed the scope, tho there were claims that certain e mails had not been received. The main reason seems to be the governer did not wish to work with our Mongolian consultant Gantemur, claiming Gana had a conflict of interest. The governer omitted to mention that apparently his wife has a tourism business working with chinese tourists. So I returned to UB 3 days early, my Chinese visa unused, disappointed and a bit wiser about realities of working here.
But I was pleased to have the chance to visit Khamarin Khiid again
But I was pleased to have the chance to visit Khamarin Khiid again
Dinosaur bones in Gobi
