Sainshand, sand, sand, sand.

Lots of sand and corrugations and wondering if I am headed in the right direction or not. It is quite amazing that map companies are legally allowed to print a highway running from Choir to this city, Sainshand. The road is composed of a few weaving dirt tracks. Well... they are actually building a highway, called the Millennium Road (wasn't that in 2000? The artist formally known as Prince and champagne?) which I totally missed because, just like the rest of my life, I was riding on the wrong side of the train tracks. It is being built by a Chinese company, so I hear. - I think the Chinese have some interest in Mongolian culture, or people, or maybe they're all philanthropic hearththrobs investing money out of their good will (Mining Operations). -
It was quite fun riding here. Drank some Airag, watched a man play with his removable front tooth, got utterly confused on my whereabouts while taking a picture of a camel. Now I'm in town, thinking of a hot shower, and sleep. Maybe headed out to a monastery, Khamarin Khiid, 100 km out of the city for a few nights off the bike.

Details: Choir - Sainshand

Coming out of Choir the road is paved for 5 KM. Afterwards the road is a conflaguration (word?) of 4WD tracks criss-crossing eachother but generally headed in one direction, North-South. The railway is located on the west side of the main track. I traveled on the east side of a mine at KM 20 or so (from Choir), with the railway tracks on the west side of the mine. The main track then banked west and followed the rails for the next 50 KM or so until departing again at about 10 KM from a town called "Tsomog" on maps, but something else by the locals. Their was a store here selling food and water. The main track then follows the rails tightly for another ~ 50 KM until reaching a town Airag. You bypass another town along the way, Dalanjargalaan, which has shops and water and All That (not the television show for preteens of the 1990's). Airag has a cafe as well as essential amenities. Coming out of the village, I needed to cross to the west side of the train rails. From Choir to this point, the train has been on my west side. If I would give someone advice about this point in the ride, I would say, "You ride on the rail's west side for as short of a distance as possible before crossing back to the east side." I didn't do this, and ended up on a track a far distance from the rails (though I saw some nice camels), and had to make a sharp east turn to find the rails again, which made me lose about an hour of riding. After gaining the rails again, I followed closely on a loose, sandy, corrugated but well perceived track until KM 200 (from Choir). Here there is a railway "Hamlet", a bunch of housing units for workers, with an underpass. It was here where I found out I was living on the "Wrong Side of the Tracks." There was a paved road here, and looking to the North it spanned until the horizon. It is not complete, there are piles of dirt of 1 km on the thing in which you have to get off the road and then re-enter again, and it also doesn't lead directly to Sainshand. Anyways, I got off that, and road next to the rails (now on my west side) until arriving in Sainshand, a relatively large town.

That's it. Going to try to find a camel, and take a break, and debate whether I should hitch the last 200 clicks to the Chinese border just to say that I've hitch-hiked in Mongolia as well as rode my bike. I am sure my pride won't allow me to do it. Until Zaamyn - Uud (Chinese Border town).