Out of the Gobi and In the Saddle

7/5

Today we made it past vertical striations of grass, sand, mountains and sky to the Kongol Sand Dune, an absolutely giant mountain range of sand dunes.  It was strange because it just went up so suddenly.  There were a few small sand dunes around it, but much smaller, and then there was just this massive line- exactly like a single range of swaying mountains.  It was definitely the most desert-y looking part of the Gobi, and truly impressive.  I've seen lots (LOTS) of sand dunes, but I've never seen anything else quite like this. 

After settling in at our ger camp, each of us mounted a two-humped camel.  The health of the humps is a good indicator of their overall general health and how well fed/ hydrated they are.  As you might expect, the camels were terribly smelly.  Mine may have been the worst as it seemed to have a bad case of gas, though this worked out for me as it meant I didn't have to smell it as long as we kept walking.  We rode up to the base of the dune and then started the exhausting hike up.  Think of how hard it is to walk in sand, now imagine trying to walk up a very steep mountain made up of it.  It was extremely difficult, and the guide, who clambered up without ever losing his breath, had to grab our hands and help us up a few times.  I was embarrassed at how out of shape I've become- just a couple months ago I was the one practically sprinting up the temples at Angkor Wat.  I'm sure it's because I've gained a bit of weight and haven't been running lately.  I've got to start again ASAP.

As difficult as it was, it was kind of fun too and it felt like a huge achievement when we got to the top.  Standing on the apex, the crests of the range looked like ribbons twisted and gently fallen on a tailors floor.

7/6

Left the Gobi, through a whimsical path carved between small mountains of pinkish rocks.  On top of one of these small mountains in the middle of nowhere was a statue of a mountain goat, complete with huge, backwards curving horns and periwinkle blue ribbons tied on it.  For lunch, we stopped in an actual town with structures.  We believe it was a commune set up while Mongolia was part of the U.S.S.R.  The buildings are plain and somehow depressing, in the way that prisons are, no matter what color they're painted.  Though a bit more developed, it reminds me of nothing else as much as the Japanese internment (work) camps in California, leftover reminders of something we'd rather forget. 

The first lunch offered to us was hu shu, a fried pastry filled with meat and onions.  It was okay, but most of us chose to order the vegetables with meat and rice instead.  When it came out, it was so salty that it was inedible (though still not as bad as the meal on the train) so we got more of the hu shu instead.

We continued driving when Igor pulled over for a random stop near a herd of goats and a three gers.  Erka and Selonga got out and started talking to the family who'd chosen that spot for the season.  They came back and asked us if we wanted to watch them milk the goats and we all said sure and got out.

Have I mentioned yet, how long it took us to get out of the van every damn time?  It was like being in a car with my mother and four of her clones.  I'd be ready to hop out and everyone else would just be fussing around, putting stuff in their bags or taking it out or stretching or stopping for a drink from the arduous process of moving three freaking feet to get out of the van and more importantly, out of my freaking way.  It was ridiculous.  Every single time.  I couldn't understand why they couldn't learn to use their time more efficiently by preparing while we were still driving, and not wasting my time.  Okay, end rant.

In Mongolia, and maybe in most places- I can't say for sure since I haven't milked that many goats, they prepare the goats for milking by tying all of their heads together in a line on both sides of a horizontal wooden pole.  Their horns butt each other and heads are pushed at extraordinarily awkward-looking angles on either side and if you crouch, you see nothing but goat butts.

To milk them then, you just squat and waddle along the line, pulling at the udders with both hands like some odd sort of squirting video game.  I wasn't very good (apparently, I pull at the wrong point and angle) but it was fun to try and just very funny overall.  It was a happy experience, watching the family do it properly, and then having them watch and laugh at and with us as we tried.  It was just fun, and it was nice to do it in such a natural way- it wasn't on a tourist farm or anything like that, nor did our Erka or Selonga know them or pay them- it was just a real family being wonderfully hospitable.  Just a really good time.

That night, we stayed in a city, __________, and stopped by the city bathhouse to have wonderful, fairly long, hot showers.  Vicky, Jenny and I helped Selonga make dinner- dumpling soup, which was delicious, and went to bed in our ger.

7/7

Again, during our drive today, Erka pulled over randomly and we all got out to hang out with some more nomads.  They had baby goats that were only three days old and were just adorable.  They were so cute and happy and so much fun to play with.  Is there really anything cuter in the entire world than baby animals?  I think not, so I had that baby-animal goofy grin on my face nearly all day long. 

The father, of the household, not of the goats, was outside the three gers chopping wood into firewood, though where the wood came from, I can't imagine, since there were no trees anywhere nearby. Their three children were playing around with us and the goats, while the mother was mostly cooking inside while the grandfather watched idly, looking like a true ancient cowboy of the 19th century.

They invited us inside and had us taste their food fermented mare milk (horrible), Mongolian vodka (smelled rank, but didn't taste that bad, very potent), yak cheese (gross), dried goat curds (pretty bad) and  goat butter which was surprisingly delicious, though they wanted us to eat it on sugar cubes which was strange, but the butter itself was wonderful- creamy and light.

We said goodbye to the lovely family and drove on.  We stopped at this cliff where the Soviets killed thousands of monks by fire drill (line drill? when you shoot a bunch of people with machine guns in a line) in the 20s and 30s.

On the opposite side of the road was a huge hawk, which is a very special animal in Mongolian culture- something about boldness and strength, I think.

Arriving at our gers for the night, we waited ages as the cowboys tried to round up the semi-wild Mongolian horses (from which, I was told, all horses are descended) to take us down to the waterfall.  My horse was slow but didn't like to be the very last one in the group so as soon as the last one would start to overtake us, he'd suddenly wake up and start to gallop slightly.  It was fun.

The waterfall was very pretty, but the water was cold so I just stuck my toes in, though Jenny and Craig went swimming.

7/8

Driving today, the scenery looked distinctively more northern.  Grassy hills, dotted with wildflowers, forests of some relative of the pine tree family and a blue sky (of course) made me think of Austria and want to yodel, though, of course, I've never actually been to Austria, nor do I have the faintest idea of how to properly yodel.

I felt pretty depressed on the drive as yesterday was the anniversary of my father's death and the next day was my un-birthday.  An un-birthday is a half-birthday, which sounds stupid, but which we really did minorly celebrate in my family, so it's important to me.  Obviously the former event was unhappy, but due to several reasons I don't want to discuss, the latter event is now one I dislike as well and tends to make me sad.

On a quick side of the road bathroom break, we spotted this pretty flower, which I thought was quite distinctly different from any other I've ever seen, though I think it must be related to lilies, given the pollen stem thing inside.

We also passed a few funeral pyres.  The bodies are properly buried and the stones then stacked like a loose pyramid on top of the grave.

In the early afternoon, we arrived at the _________ Hot Springs.  It was definitely a tourist ger camp, but quite nice and the surrounding area was lovely.  After lunch I wandered around the complex a bit and stuck my toes in the hottest spring on site- 87* Celsius! 

I moved over to the lukewarm regular springs, which weren't as hot as I tend to think hot springs should be, and I hung out there for a while.  I read a bit, then after dinner, went back to the regular springs which had fresh, hot water pumped from the underground springs well into them so they were really burning, in a good way.  I talked to a few people, including one guy who was particularly memorable because he was an American Olympic Double Luger who'd been in the Vancouver 2010 Olympics but said he was retiring now.  He was interesting, but I was tired, so said goodnight to everyone, took a shower (two in three days!) and went to bed.

7/9

Today we visited Kharkahroum, an ancient temple complex that was previously part of the ancient capital.  It was interesting and since Selonga passed our group off onto another tour guide she knew who took us around, it was really informative.

I really enjoyed it anyway, though some might think it boring.  For some reason I still don't totally understand, we had to go pet a turtle statue for good luck since turtles are honored here for their steadfastness and wisdom (I guess the good luck was the reason, but it still seemed random).

Naadam had started that day in Kharkahroum so we watched the wrestlers and the ankle-bone contest (well, watched men huddle over a table), though we'd missed the horse racing.  It got a bit boring after a while though, especially since two of the four final wrestlers got caught in a virtually stagnant grasping hug-off for about twenty minutes.  Regardless, it was somewhat interesting to see this and be able to later compare it to the UB festival.

Since we were staying in a tourist ger camp that night (as opposed to the more regular, family owned gers we'd mostly stayed in) we were able to buy beer and had a great time playing music and drinking with the group of three people (a Kiwi couple and an older Japanese lady, all very nice) whose tour we'd crashed.  It was great fun, really joyous.

7/10

Today was a very long drive back to UB, where we left Igor, Selonga and Erka and thanked them for everything.  I met up with Steffi again and we went to dinner at a Czech place where I had delicious beef in sauce and Czech style dumplings, which are basically like slices of potato-bread.  We had a good heart to heart, wherein we decided I needed a boyfriend because I needed more happiness and love and stability in my life.  We also blamed our parents for various issues, and talked about movies and the concept of home.  It was really lovely and the kind of talk you rarely have while on the road.