Recap:

Unforgettable time.  A land frozen in time. (As long as one doesn’t notice the modern day conveniences of cell phones, TVs, DVDs, solar panels, and 12 volt car batteries hiding under the pelts.)

Go.  

Thursday, 28 July.  Rut covered path to the airport in darkness.  Trust in the driver and fear not!

Arrived without incident.  Made a last stop at the department store.  My sister and I walked back to the hotel and discovered the the steps of the federal building is a VERY popular place for wedding photos.  Mongolians really know how to dress up, the men more so than women, if possible.  We spent quite a while there.

For our last evening we attended a display of Traditional Mongolian entertainment, capped off with a captivating concert by their orchestra, which used only native horsehead fiddles.  They didn’t just play Mongolian music.  Their selections were international and magnificent.

Wednesday, 27 July.  Arrived at the camel breeder’s ger.  First time on a camel.  Nothing estraordinary, though hanging on while the camel stands is weird.  Each camel was individually led by the father and his children and children’s friend.  Our young ladies were deemed skilled enough to steer without escorts.  We circled several dunes, lined up for a camera shoot, then encountered a faux wolf, causing every camel to come to a sudden halt.  The “wolf” was our camera-bound companion who declined a ride in favor of crawling upon the dunes and scaring our camels.

We did the camel ride in two sets, so I volunteer to lead a camel.  No tourist had ever asked to do this before.  Aren’t I the adventurous one?  My only fear was that the camel would spit on me.  The guide said it would stay with me for days.  Ugh.  But I had fun getting a closeup view of the massive camel head.  How the neck holds it up is beyond me.

We had lunch at yet another ger camp and then visited the Flaming Cliffs of the Gobi, where dinosaur eggs were first discovered.  I can only assume that the “Flaming” part is obvious at sundown.  Again, the Grand Canyon it’s not.  But the lack of any posted safety concerns was noteworthy.  It was a hot day, so the purchase of a $2 can of warm coke at the parking lot was welcome.  Any thirsty American would have paid $5.

Back at our camp we opened up our two liter bottle of beer, some foul smelling but sweet tasting vodka liquor and munched cookies as horses passed in front.  During dinner the staff donned beautiful costumes and danced for us.  Magical times in the Gobi!

Tuesday, 26 July. Walked down a small canyon to a small waterfall.  Very popular destination for natives on vacation.  Nothing to write home about if you’ve been to the Grand Canyon.  I walked down, hiked back, rented a horse, rode down, rode back, and actually beat almost everyone else.  (We had as slow group.)  The horse ride was very uncomfortable, owing to a bad saddle and unhappy horse.  My escort (twelve years-old?) led my horse down, but let me ride back unaided.  I paid $20, which I think was $12 more than they asked.

We had lunch at another ger camp.  Stopped at a small museum comprised mostly of stuff animals.

The drive to and from the canyon was long and bumpy.  At one point we crossed a beautiful newly paved roadway, complete with lines and signs(!).  I’ve no idea what it connected, but Mongolia needs many more of them.

My escort was the boy in the middle, NOT the girl on the left!

Monday, 25 July.  Yet another very early flight to the Gobi.  (Note: “Gobi” means desert.  Gobi Desert is hence a redundancy.)  The airport was again very small.  Oddest of all was that the road to the airport was unpaved.  We first entered the small town, which seemed deserted.  There was a large (empty) plaza with a fountain and an imposing sculpture in the center.

The drive to our lodging defies description.  A 100KM field with various ruts.  Each driver of three vans choose their preferred track and headed west.  There were one or two defiles that required some maneuvering down and up, but mostly the path was just a monstrous field.  Towards the end of the trip we happened upon a flock of camels.  There was also one very dead camel which was mostly an upright hollow shell.  Interesting, but disgusting.

The gers were nearly in the middle of nowhere.  The center large ger for meals etc., was raised with a surrounding balcony.  A wonderful viewing area.  The ger doors were a little lower than our past quarters, which caused me to leave a little skin behind in the Gobi.

Nearby was a watering well shed and troth.  Each day horses, cows, and sheep meandered to the water.  Only the sheep had handlers, exclusively made up of children.  Our guide said that during summer vacation the parents tasked the children to do the shepherding.  It was amazing that animals came from separate directions on a seemingly set schedule.  Only the sheep needed to be shoved away.  The other animals simply drank there fill, then moved off.

Sunsets were incredible.  On the whole it was peaceful and interesting day in the middle of nowhere.

Sunday, 24 July.  Another very early morning flight, made more tiring by us being several hours from the airport.  Nice sunrise though.  Once in Ulaanbaatar we visited a manufacturer of horsehead fiddles, the Mongolian equivalent of guitars.  We were surprised at the variety of fiddles made.  Small factory, but very interesting.  They really gave us a lot of time in their shop.

The afternoon was used to visit the local department store.  The souvenir floor was popular.  Lots of cold weather clothing.  There was a large assortment of outdoor recreational equipment.  Tourists were a wide mix of Europeans.  I noticed no other Americans.

A Russian monument celebrating those who fought against Germany.

Sunday, 23 July.  Visited a Yak farm.  Milked a yak badly.  Lots of hair.  I was more aggressive than others with the yaks, which I think the locals appreciated.  After others tried the milking bit (with more success than I), we proceeded to don gloves and pick up cow pies, which the locals use was fuel in the winter.  One of us decided that photographing the action was more important than participating; we quietly disagreed.  During the Q&A I asked if any farms were handled be a single person, vice a couple.  Our guide said, yes, but only by a man.  I asked him to confirm this with the family and the wife rapidly disagreed.  Single farms are almost always run by a woman.  Ha ha.

We then visited the local town with a hospital that looked unsafe in structure and cleanliness, so I stayed outside.  Finally we paid a visit to the town’s entrepreneur. He produced small ice cream cones which were wrapped in plastic and delivered to local stores.  We were assigned a certain number of cones and tasked to deliver them.  It was fun, but weird.  Our thirty cones cost about $2.  Total.  The economies of scale.  The man also made bread using an early-age (manually pushed) assembly line to bake.  His house was marvelous, with a host of plaques and medals documenting a past full of civil service.  He was perhaps the only person we met who had a concept of national politics.

Saturday, 22 July

Took a long boat ride across the lake to visit a reindeer encampment, which exists solely as a tourist stop.  The major herd is back in the wilderness.  Our group pretty much bought out the family’s collection of souvenirs.  The reindeer were both beautiful and peaceful.  Had some reindeer milk.  Not the best milk I’ve had.

We stopped at a significant promontory on the way back.  It’s a key destination for natives, having some kind of significant importance.  I took the opportunity to go wading.  Cold.

In the afternoon we went horseback riding.  The climb onto and off of the saddle for several geriatrics was more difficult than I’d imagined.  Nice ride in the woods.  Saddle was not comfortable.

Friday, 21 July.  Flew in the very early morning to northwest Mongolia, close to the Russian border.  Very small airport.  We loaded into three very sturdy vans, each with a foreboding snorkel exhaust, meant to be used when traversing deep water.  Turns out we never needed them.

A long drive began with a very nice, very new road.  But we soon went off onto a rutted side road which was the type of travel we experienced for much of our remaining stay.  Drove around a beautiful salt lake to a very ancient cemetery.  We visited perhaps the cleanest outhouse in Mongolia in a totally barren landscape.

After passing through a very small town we bounced and bumped for several miles over (through?) monster ruts to our lakeside ger camp.  Breathtaking blues.  Cattle and horses lazily strolling along the lake.  Made a short climb to a beautiful lookout spot.

Thursday, 20 July. Visited a modern monastery.  Office-like.  The head monk’s office was large, with cushioned benches along opposing walls.  His desk was adorned with various office items.  It all felt very normal.  After a question/answer session, he asked us to practice meditation for five minutes.  Seemed rather silly.

Lunch back in UlaanBaatar was at a restaurant in a local amusement park.  Afterwards we walked through the city’s main bazaar, called a Black Market.  Just your typical market with lots of stalls.  With only one guide to lead the way I was concerned with losing people, so I volunteered myself to trail the herd.  It was an entertaining afternoon.

Skipped dinner.  No pictures.