August 01st, 2010

Dispatch from the road: Rally London-Mongolia, Part 10

Kazan-Ufa 550 kilometers
Written by Michele Shapiro

Sadly, at about 4:45 am Jen left us to head back to her life in the UK. I wake up and it’s a bit lonely without my female team mate. Guess I’m one of the boys now.

“Dude, they have cocoa puffs!” The boys eat their cereal contently but I decide to be a bit adventurous and try some of the local cuisine. I discover what looks like chocolate candy bars at the breakfast buffet.

“It’s cottage cheese covered in chocolate. Every Westerner I describe this to thinks it sounds disgusting but everyone who tries it loves it.” Mikhail informs me.

I bite in and the center is creamy and it has just a thin coating of chocolate covering it. Indeed, it is oddly good, but also very rich and one bite will do.

It’s one of those perfect days where the sun is shining high in the sky and the air blows cool as if from an outdoor air conditioner. In New York the streets would be packed with hipsters at outdoor cafes having brunch and drinking rose.

But today Parag and I are going to embark on a cultural tour and visit the town’s main mosque before leaving. Going to the mosque was the one thing Parag wanted to do on this visit so I agree to go with him.

We’re staying at Hotel Giuseppe and they make authentic pizza next door, so we dip in to place an order for the road. Parag manages to order and tell her we’ll be back to pick it up all by using sign language; it’s very impressive.

We enter through the enormous white limestone walls of the Kremlin. Peaking out over the top of a nearby building we spy the cobalt blue domes of the Kul Sharif Mosque. The sun is glistening off the domes and they look like giant cobalt jewels floating in the sky.

We enter the mosque and look around at the mammoth chandeliers dotting the ceiling.

“It’s simply majestic.” I say.

“That’s the perfect word for it.” We take a few seconds and each scan the room.

“So, should we go?” Parag asks.

I nod my head. This is what you call rally sightseeing.

It’s about 11:00 am and by rally standards this is a very late start. Mikhail and I are outside waiting for Parag to bring the car around and notice an old man not so subtly staring at us.

“Ciao, come stai,” he says.

“Ciao, tutto bene,” I say back, recalling my Italian from my college semester abroad in Florence.

Immediately we know who he is. We have just met Giuseppe, the owner of the hotel. He sees our vehicle and I’m not sure if he’s more impressed that we’re driving from London-Mongolia or that we’re taking one of his pizzas with us.

“Dude, this pizza is cold!” Mikhail complains.

“Oh don’t you worry comrade. I am so going to hook you up.”

Parag moves a blanket that had been covering the middle console that would heat up from the engine. He places the pizza box right on top.

“Hot pizza anyone? Coming up in 5 minutes!”

Our quick getaway out of town is interrupted by massive traffic.

Click Read More to find out about the team’s dining experience in Ufa…

“Oh, oh, someone give me a camera quick!” Mikhail screams excitedly. He hadn’t realized it at first because the city has changed so much but we were passing the house where he had grown up.

We make it Ufa and arrive at the hotel. Unfortunately, the quality of the hotels seems to be declining rapidly. We have one room which is split in two. The rooms are dingy and the air is stale but I keep the window closed as it leads to a balcony and I am concerned about security.

Mikhail runs off to find a notary due to a sudden work issue and Parag and I head to find food. We pass a McDonalds that has a long line filled with groups of friends and young couples waiting. Then we pass a Kentucky Fried Chicken with quite a few people in it. It’s about 10:00 pm at this point and we’re starving so we decide to eat at the next restaurant we find. The next restaurant is closed.

Finally we locate an open restaurant; it only has one other table occupied. It’s adorable and looks like a European wine cellar with a low arched brick ceiling and thick wooden tables and chairs. The music playing is love songs from the 80s. It’s on repeat so we hear Endless Love, Olivia Newton John and some song from Top Gun, none of them sung by the original artists, at least 3 times.

It’s been a long day and we’re exhausted so we head back to the hotel. I take all the blankets off the bed, a habit I repeat in most of the hotels, and sleep in the white sheet that looks fairly clean. There’s techno dance music pumping from outside and while the boys sleep through it I only get about a few hours of sleep.