manic moments in mongolia

WE DID IT!!!!!

Research for Mongolian Bling has been completed!

well, kinda! but, yeah, nachos back, fi's back, and now i';m back! landed in melbourne monday - which wasnt as easy as it sounds!!

been a bit manic over the last weeks, so this'll be a bit of a cram of info. wrapping up the final two weeks in ulaanbaatar were great. interveiwed a dj, a breakdancing crew, an epic singer who sings songs that can go on for hours (although he was talking to us about 300 year old hip hop songs from shaman tribes in mongolia!) a foreigner working with the cristina noble childrens foundation who helps the street kids, street kids living underground, snep crew - another hip hop group, a political activist who asked me where my cameraman was and if it was a professional or holiday camera i was using!, two beatboxer who were mad!, a random 77 year old lady who stopped to talk to us in the street and turns out she'd been working as a radio presenter during and after communism, a doctor working for chistina noble childrens foundation who visits the street children weekly, head of the mongolian film and televison university, bb - our first female hip hop artist (it stands for bitches butcher!!! - she had hard lyrics and wants a hard name - which is even more interesting when she rocks up in an office suit and has to get changed into her hip hop get up in the state department store as her mom doesnt approve of hip hop and she has to hide it from her!!) anz - an amazing artist and graffiti artist, the much raved about, hard to find dain ba enkh (peace and war), the best chick (and possibly only other) chick in hip hop - gennie, and masta flow - some real smooth cats, and finally the leader of the third biggest politial party, oyun.

also, had a small segment about us on a local tv channel, organised a bunch of kids at one of the save the children schools to take photos for the project, did some great filming in the ger districts, and best of all, got dan and carl (massive thanks guys) to jump on board as photographers - the last few weeks we did a lot of photoshoots with people we were interviewing - mainly aritst and some graffers and djs' - and now have an awsome collection of photos to promote the doco. massive massive thanks carl and dan.

thursday before i left, i organised a bit of jam session with a bunch of the artists that i;d been working with and a load of mates. we ended up with about 4 mongolians playing morin khurs and singing humi (throat singing), a aussie chikc on a luscious cello, an american jumping between double bass, guitar, and a kazakh guitar, and throwing in humi, an aussie on a didge, two mongoilan beat boxers, a french guy on guitar and humi, and me and a mongolian chick rappign nonsense!! was a great hilarious mixture of cultures, instuments, and texhniques - and age!! from 17 to 50.
then friday i got my passport stolen. had just been picked up from the chinese embassy with a visa in it when viola!! it was gone. prayed that it'd turn up over the weekend (i hadnt been offering food to the earth post shaman treatment as i was meant to so maybe prayer went unheard......or were ignored) and got down to enjoying my last mongolian weekend.

had a great going away party at my place (highlights - vacuming for the first time - thats for you fiona - and dan's photo series - photos soon) which rocked on to round 6am when i woke up on the loungeroom floor to kick out the scottish banjo player and ukraine timeless drummer, and tuck carl in on the couch and andy on the spare bed. woke a few hours later and went out for brekkie, then some contraversial filming of break dancers in a few malls which involved going in, stealth fliming of very obvious breakdancing, dan being caught by security, and me being chased out and down the street! me and dan felt bad. breakdancers had utmost respect for us! then sunday arvo, i had invited everyone who had worked on the project down to a pub to say thanks and goodbye. wasnt sure what the norm was regarding inviting 70 odd people to a pub for a budget film going away, but at 10 past 6, when there were 15 people sitting around not really talking, with menus and with no drinks, i figured it was time to get a tab going! with around $300 behind the bar people sparked up and we drank on into the night!

woke up early monday wiht one hell of a mission. i had no passport, no chinese visa, no evidence of being in mongolia, wasnt packed, and a flight at 20:40 that night! luckily i had made contact with the oz embassy (in china - none in mongolia) and also the british embassy in ub so had the forms filled out. the day kinda went like this:

08:34 woke up hungover

09:00 race to the british embassy, call the oz embassy on the way and cancel my passport

09:14 get a passport photo taken and print scan of old passport and copy of birth certificate that laura had sent me

09:34 enter interview room at british embassy (the guy whose running the show was on my team at quiz night a few weeks prior)

09:36 get told that oz embassy in beijing hasnt sent anything thru to give him the ok to issue me one

09:37 plead with him about options. ask if i should call, but then get told off to intending to use mobile phone in embassy

09:44 ask him to check once more. he does, and there it is.

09:46 he tells me it will be ready wednesday sometime

09:46:16 i swear

09:47 i repeat pleading stressing that i have a flight that evening

09:52 despite other work having to be done, he agrees, and tells me it will be ready "in the afternoon"

10:04 come out of interview room to find out that yoda has called chinese embassy (opening hours mon, wed, fri - 09:30 - 12:00) to find out that i can only get a visa today if i get there before 12:00 - highly unlikey given e.t.a. of replacement passport

10:29 visit chinese embassy in person and tell my sorry tale - she tells me to come back at 16:00

10:43 visit border control to get evidence of when i arrived in the country. only yoda is allowed in so i sit in a chinese restaurant drinking apple juice

11:21 yoda comes out having to call back later and we head home

11:43 arrive home and start packing, throwing out, cleaning, etc.

15:02 british embassy calls to say that my passport is ready

15:04 jump a taxi to british embassy and gleefully collect my british temporary passport

15:40 catch up with a mate dave who is taking care of some final things for me

15:50 see carl and get quiza photographs

15:55 arrive at chinese embassy gates

16:00 irrate mongolian man starts banging on doors as its just gone 16:00 and the doors arent open

16:05 mongolian man (now even more irrate) picks up a small rock to increase volume of knocking

16:09 chinese embassy opens

16:12 she takes my visa and application

16:20 i pay for and pick up my chinese double entry visa

16:27 i leave $20 behind the bar for the guy in the british embassy who has got me a visa in 4 hours.

16:40 arrive at immigration and start explaining (yoda is back at border control) get the ok and pay at 4 different counters

17:05 pick up passport with exit visa

17:21 arrive home to finish packing.

18:43 leave home having paid landlord, and left the place looking schmicko!

19:00 arrive in the centre of town where we have to pick up the final miniDV tapes that are being transferred to dvd!

19:08 my great mongolian mates, soaza and ichko are in town to meat me and have a car to take me to the airport so i transfer everything into it

19:12 go to the bank cause i've run out of money!!!

19:15 leave ub for the airport

19:40 arrive at airport

19:47 say goodbye to guys

19:55 check in as notice that my flight is boarding. 33kg is somehow not questioned. lug on my 3 carryon bags and roll of posters

20:01 get around 115 miniDV tapes thru customs no worries

20:04 arrive at gate

20:15 call a bunch of people to say good buy and give the last of my credit to the girls on the gate.

20:22 sit down and sign. then laugh! i have made it and cant believe it!!

20:29 we start taxiing

20:40 we take off!!!

so basically, ub to beijing for one night in a hostel, then wiht only a shoulder bag (what a nice change that was!!) popped down to hong kong to please an investor, then back to beijing for a catch up with a bunch of mates, and sunday off to the airport where, somehow, all the gods came together and yours truly was flown first class back to the land of oz!! and i'm talking like electronic seats, and champage BEFORE take off, and sex with the hostess in the bathroom........oh, that last one may have been ralph. anyway, i'm obviously an obvious celebrity vying for a bit of privacy (why else would anyone grow a beard!!?!) and china air was smart enough to recognise that and seat me accordingly!

arrived on monday and had a gorgeous bbq iwht mates in a park and now in violet town for the week sorting shit out and getting ready to start working on story development. have run out of money, so plans to live by the beach for two months and edit whilst eating freshly caught oysters have changed to live in fitzroy and work full time to make some money and edit in all spare time to try and get the film together! have around 115 hours on tape so hoorah!! see you sometime next year!!

have no moblie so can be contacted on +61 3 9417 4345 as of monday. (+61 3 5798 1234 this week - its my parents number and will never change)

too long to thank anyone, so will save for next time.

any investors? get in touch - we have a wikid doco on our hands. hoping to produce a teaser within a month.

massive love, respect and thanks to everyone who has supported, helped, responded and just red these mails. its been an amazing experince and cant wait to show you something!!

will keep the updates coming during the next stage - computer at doctors so photos up next week

peace - benj