Out and back from the middle of nowhere....

Warning...lengthy post ahead....


Well, we just got back from taking a 1 1/2 hour flight to the middle of nowhere, and then driving 2 more hours farther out to from the middle of nowhere to who knows where? First we had a wakeup call here at 4 am (after a 2:30 am wakeup call the day before, yikes). We flew to the southern Gobi desert, and then took vans over dirt roads in the desert to a Ger camp even farther out. Ger's are the traditional nomadic home, it's a round structure with a small door and a roof. Apparently it takes about an hour to deassemble/assemble for travelling. Ours were a bit more permanent, and we even had a working bathroom, which surprised me! The camp was actually way nicer than I expected, even complete with a bar for thirsty traveller's (appropriately called the Thirsty Camel bar!). We rested for a bit, the van ride out there was very rough, dirt roads and ruts all over the place. The million dollar idea for Mongolia is to open a brake and shock repair shop out in the Gobi! I crashed for a 6:30 am wakeup the next day.

After breakfast, we had a presentation on the flaming cliffs where all the dinosaur fossils have been found. We actually had a professor of paleontology traveling on the trip from Ulan Bataar with us, so that is pretty neat. After lunch, we headed out in the crazy vans again, apparently we were lucky because our van had working A/C, others did not. These are definitely not the BMW's of the van world.....anyway, we went to a spot with sand dunes, some nomads came over and some of the group rode camel's (I did not, I wanted to climb the sand dune and those things smell!!!), some bought trinkets from the nomads. Then we went to the flaming cliff's, which really are awesome. Interestingly, there are no fences or anything, you can climb all over this amazing area of archealogic history. We saw where the guy in 1925 fell down a cliff and found the first dinosaur eggs. I even found a fossilized footprint! I showed it to the doctor, and she confirmed it, it's like 70 million years old, and it was just lying out there, no big deal. There weren't even any excavations going on, which blew me away! In the U.S. there would be fences all over and ongoing excavations at all times, but very different countries...

After this we went to a traditional Nomad family Ger and got to hear how they live. A very harsh lifestyle for them no doubt, there really is only grass out in the Gobi. I always feel weird doing these things though. The lady had 3 grandchildren with her, and wants them to go to the city and get educated, not be a nomad.

We got back just in time to catch the last 5 minutes of happy hour, so we all refreshed before dinner. After dinner, we went up on a little hill before sunset, and watched the sun set into clouds, no stars for us! Oh well, it was still beautiful out there if you like desert scenery.

The next day, another 7 am wakeup call (are you seeing a trend here??!!!), and we got in the vans and headed out to a national park. We had a bus today since one of the vans brakes' "weren't 100%". Awesome. The national park was cool, we actually hiked to a glacier in the Gobi desert! Sure enough, there it was, pretty amazing. Then 3 of us split off from the group (John, an engineer from Abq, and Evan, a 26-yr old who has already done 2 tours in Baghdad) and went and did our own hiking. We ended up going up a little valley, and had yaks (or at least what we think are yaks, they may have been a cross breed) come 20 ft from us!!! Everything was fine until they got that close and the Dad gave us a little warning grunt to get out of there, and we immediately complied. Then we got back to the buses and headed on back to the lodge, about 1 1/2 hours back, again over rough terrain, and the back seat of the bus came apart! Our transportation has been very poor this trip, and the drivers crazy, so our tour manager decided that before dinner drinks were on him, what a guy! There is a Chingis Khan vodka out here that is quite nice....I actually rented a bike when we got back to the Ger Camp for an hour, and I went straight out into a 35 mph wind...rode 45 minutes out, and took me 10 minutes to get back! Going out was very hard, but completely desolate, I truly was by myself out in the middle of nowhere, it was a very empowering feeling. Came back for drinks, dinner, and then a walk to sunset again. A good day! Followed by a 3:30 am wakeup call, an hour van ride back to the airport, then our flight was delayed 2 hours because of winds in Ulan baatar...awesome. But we made it back, I'm just pretty tired right now.

Quick Mongolia stats:2 million people in the whole country, 1 million live in the capital Ulan Baatar. There are 1.5 people/square km, and if you remove Ulaan Bataar from it, it's 1 person/square km, which is ridiculously unpopulated! They became Democratic in 1991 as they got away from Communism. Everyone in the country has a bank account, even nomads, because from the time they are born to being 18, the government gives them 3000 turgrug ($2.50) every month.

I can't get any photo's up right now but hopefully soon. Wait till you see the video of the van ride...this is definitely not a vacation, but "traveling", which means not a lot of rest and a lot of going and going. Mongolia is definitely not place for first time travelers, but is very awesome to see. We are back in Ulan Baatar for the Nadaam festival, which is their national sport festival, and I'm super excited for it! We are going to opening ceremonies tomorrow, and then we get to see archery, horse racing, wrestling, and whatever else the festival has to offer (possibly fermented mare's mile!). Tonight I'm splitting from the group to going wandering around the city with Evan, and then we are going with our local tour guide to a bar with a band playing. Mom is staying with the group and going to a Mongolian fashion show. And now, it's off to shower and nap for me!