Ladies & Gents'
So the loop is looped and 10 days of bumps and humps has shaken the heads and so will try to put everything back in order.
First the people... well there was Richard[pianist from NY, USandA], Roy [ doing a world trip before changing career from Malaysia], Urna [english teacher in winter, tourist guide in summer from Mongolia] and Bayara [driver all year round since 7 years, and pretty good throat singer]. All jumbled up in a russian van where in case we forgot there was written tourist in nice letters on passenger door!!!:)
We took a pretty standard tour, but boy the standards were pretty amazing. On average 3 to 8 hours of donkey [mongolian card game] per day. The challenge to play on a rough road... We stopped at rock formations, cliffs [flaming and white stupa] that popped up in the middle of nowhere, a glacier and ice falls in vulture canyon,a 120 km strip of sand dunes stuck in between two mountain, valleys, midget forest,waterfall with or without water. The wind hardly ever at rest was kind of freezing...the sun warming you instantly when mister blow cessed. The peoples face are as marked as the landscape but their eyes are soft. and always laughin'.
So back to the wonders of mongolia - We saw a castle from 10th century, ovoos everywhere [shaman's pile of stone, silk hanging here and there with money and offerings], a hiding temple in some moutains where lama came during the stalin's purge of the 30's and Karkhorin the ancient capital with the rare remaining temples (3 out of 96 thanks Stalin again) and stupas.
We stayed in gers (nomads flat Teepee) feeding the fire with camel poo ( once u get used to the smell it does burn really well and you sure need some fire at night). The food was basic, pasta and potatoes with mutton in a soup or not. One night there was one two many Tourist Van so we got put with the family. We shared vodka with grandpa. one bowl going round and round. He'd lost his son a month before in a motorcycle accident. The sorrow was tangible and he came back in the middle of the night to keep the flame going on the altar (always on the north side of the ger). We were all spread out on the floor of his ger and he was the one whispering.
We passed a few villages and a couple of bigger town where the markets and shops are in ship containers and where the few cars and van wait to fill up (people and ready to burst canvas bags)and leave. We lined up in these bigger town at the bathhouse for the two showers we had. piece of advice: avoid sundays cause it's mongolians washing day and they spend ages in shower. Lucky we got Urna with us and skipped a fair bit the queu.
We chased horses, yak, sheeps, goats and camel. We went totally offroad racing after gazelles. We saw a bunch of carcasses and counted down the bottles of beers.
Now back in UB. checking the market tomorrow and maybe the circus.
Bayarta
