together again!!

Mom and hana arrived early the morning after I came back to Korea…I spent my day at Lindsey’s flat, killing time before going back to the airport to spend the night…mom and hana’s flight was scheduled to arrive at 0500, public transport doesn’t run that early…both flights to Korea on which I’ve arrived have come in early, so I knew there was a good chance that would happen again…and it did…their flight landed 50 minutes early, so they were completely through customs and immigration just before 0500…which meant we got to sit down on the benches and wait for the trains to start running…

Hana brought me presents!! A set of stationery cards, and a box of thin mints…I could talk for days about the awesomeness of girl scout cookies, particularly thin mints and samoas…yum…even so, I didn’t open them up straightaway, I didn’t want to waste that awesomeness by eating them when I wasn’t hungry or craving the cookiesJ

After asking the an information desk to call our hotel to get directions, we hopped on the train…too bad it was overcast and foggy, mom and hana weren’t able to see much…not that Korea is stunning, but it would’ve been nice for them to see a bit more at that point…they’d flown into Korea in the dark…what seemed like ages later we got to the particular subway station, found a taxi, and gave him the little sheet of paper given to us by the information lady…he put the hotel into his GPS and away we drove…it seemed to me that we were going in a giant circle, and later I was proved right…nor surprisingly, mom and hana had no idea…lol…our hotel wouldn’t let us check in until 1400, but they did let us leave our bags for the day…so after figuring out a basic plan of attack, we started walking…why does it always seem that I walk in the wrong direction from what I want? I wanted a coffee shop, and it took us foreva to find one…as we learned later that evening, if I’d walked in the other direction, we would’ve found one almost straightaway…argh…anywho…

After lingering over coffee, the weather was still not great, so I decided to have them come with me to yongsan electronics mart…I needed to get a new camera, and wanted to do it as fast as possible…I knew what I wanted, and I had an idea of how much I should be paying for it…which made the whole process fairly easy…the first guy I talked to kept trying to up sell me, so I told him I’d keep looking…which I did by going to the guy across the aisle…he was way cheaper, and not so pushy…even though I was thinking about getting more than just a camera, (I would love a bigger tripod, that’s also light) I stuck to just the camera…I’m still thinking about that tripod…hmmm…hana and mom just watched while I went through the whole process…

By that point, everyone was hungry for real food…hana’s tummy wasn’t feeling so great, she wanted something bland…mom just wanted Korean food…so we walked until I saw a small, typical little Korean restaurant…no English to be seen…I’ve never had to pick out food for other people before, it’s not fun…at least, not for me…other people like it…all three of us were okay with our meals…from there, we went into the I’mall at yongsan station…lots of western stuff, but still entertaining for the ladies of the family…I don’t remember how long we spent in there, but I do remember all of a sudden feeling tired, and not wanting to be on my feet anymore…

Back to the hotel…the 20 minute walk from the subway station to the hotel wasn’t fun…a very early night for all of us…hana and I slept well, for at least 10 hours…lack of sleep and jet lag will do that to you

The next morning we got going later than I thought, but since everyone was still a bit tired, that wasn’t so much a bad thing…mom had shown me a list of things she thought she’d like to see in Seoul, so I picked a couple, and we started from there…she wanted to do the city bus tour, which started near one of the palaces…I suggested we see the palace, then hop on the tour…so we took the subway to one of the stations near that palace…the station is called gwanghwamun, which is the name of the giant plaza area in front of the palace…there are statues of admiral yi sun shin, (I’ve mentioned him in earlier posts…to sum it up, according to Korean history he pretty much singlehandedly turned back the Japanese in a number of battles in the 1590s when the Japanese were invading) and king sejong (he and his advisors invented the Korean alphabet used today, among other things…he’s considered to be one of the greatest Korean kings)…on one side of the plaza is the American embassy, which has to be one of the ugliest buildings I’ve ever seen…it doesn’t blend in at all…

It turns out that under the statue of king sejong, there is a basement area you can enter, and learn about him and some of his accomplishments…I wanted to get to the palace, mom and hana overruled me…so down we went…it ended up being fun…we had fun playing with the digital interpretive stuff…taking photos of ourselves, and putting hats on…mom even took a photo of hana bowing to me…which is the way life should beJ

From there we went to the palace…gyeongbukgung…I’ve written about this palace before…it was built as the main palace of the joseon dynasty…it was destroyed in 1592, by the Japanese, but later rebuilt…now it’s probably the busiest of the palaces in seoul…when I first came back to korea a year ago, they were rebuilding the front gate, so it was covered…that has since been finished, hana and mom got to see the new gate…(which I didn’t point out to them, so I doubt they noticed)…we wandered all over the palace…there are a lot of areas to explore, we didn’t spend too much time in the busier areas…at least, we tried not to…there were several school groups around, I have a feeling that happens every day…we found the area where you can put on old school traditional clothes…I chose the clothes of a commander, hana’s costume of choice was of someone below me…again, as it should beJ…it was fun, and something I hadn’t done in a loooong time…

By that point, it was past lunch time, and we were hungry…so we went to kimbap cheonguk…which translates to kimbap heaven…I picked four “flavours” and the three of us shared…I don’t think hana and mom were really all that keen about kimbap…dunkin donuts was across the street, so that was dessert…

Back on the subway, we went to coex…mom had expressed an interestest in seeing the largest underground mall in asia…it’s a mall…some useful stores, some not so much…hana and I got some jelly bellys, which I hadn’t had in ages…but mostly, we sat and watched people…it was the first chance mom and hana got to see “Korean fashion”…snarky comments ensued…

Back to the hotel, plans made for the next day, daily journal written, and sleep…

The next day we started with a visit to a coffee shop of a chain I hadn’t yet tried…(I never did get around to trying all the different chains I saw in seoul)…and from there we went to the starting point of the city bus tour…I think we just barely missed a bus, but the weather was nice, so it wasn’t much of an issue to wait for the next bus…they come every 30 minutes or so…the original plan was to ride the entire route (which is supposed to take a couple hours) to see how everything fits together, then pick a place to get off the bus and explore…after going for a little while, we decided it would be better to get off when we got to a place we wanted to see…the first place we chose was a traditional village…unfortunately, hana’s tummy didn’t want to wait that long…she got crazy motion sick, so we had to get off the bus earlier than planned…when Koreans learn to drive it seems to me that someone tells them that the break or accelerator should be depressed at all times…which means there is a lot of start and stop motion…I’m a bit used to it, but I still get sick from time to time (and I avoid taxis In korea wheneva possible) but hana isn’t…we stayed on the bus as long as possible, then we just had to get off…the tour lady didn’t seem to understand what was wrong, she asked if we would be continuing our tour later…she didn’t seem to get that we really needed to get off the bus RIGHT NOW…

Fortunately, we got off the bus near itaewon…as far as unplanned places to be, it’s not horrible…the bus recordings say it’s a must visit area for shopping, but it really isn’t…the economy of itaewon is very dependent on the US military base right next door…if yongsan wasn’t there, this area of seoul wouldn’t be anything exciting…there is shopping, but it’s far from the best place in town to shop…there are lots of international food options, but there isn’t a lot of korea in this part of the city…hana needed “comfort food” so we ended up at mcdonalds…it’s a place I try to avoid as much as possible, but her tummy needed it…after that I wanted to go to tartine, which is a Canadian pie place a bit down the road…

Eventually we got back on the bus and made it to the traditional village…namsangol…it wasn’t originally a traditional village…the city took five traditional houses from various parts of the city and moved them all to this location…if I remember correctly, most of the houses are of the upper class…or the way the upper class used to build their houses..in other words, servants quarters and the like…there are “actors” sitting in a few places, I guess they are supposed to be showing certain activities…but when you see them texting on their phones, or see a plastic bag in the area, the feeling isn’t quite so authentic…after we walked in the entry gate, I realized why the place seemed so familiar…my school this past year had come here for a field trip…the school didn’t explore the village, we only went to a performance in the theatre…so it was nice to see what else happens in the area…

This day was 29 april…another big event was to take place that night…(that night Korean time anywho)…after the village we took the subways back to our hotel, picking up dinner along the way…then the three of us watched the royal wedding (prince William to kate middleton)…let me say I’m glad I’ve never married (and never will marry) a prince…planning that wedding must’ve been super chaotic, and super stressful…I can’t imagine planning a wedding (or being in one, for that matter) when you know people around the world will be watching…like many others, I thought pippa stole the show…

shit happens and other incidentals...

when you've traveled in random countries, it's inevitable that you'll end up with a shit story...i already had one from thailand, and now i've got one from mongolia...i don't intend to tell the thai story, sorry to dash your dreams...it was plenty embarassing with just me...
anywho, the day started for me in the middle of the night when i woke up and had to go to the bathroom...not so much fun knowing that the outhouse wasn't exactly close to the ger, and that there was no moon to help light my way...i ended up walking what i thought was 100m in a straight line, and squatted...the first ger i tried was locked, which meant it wasn't our ger...whoops...the second was our ger, and i managed to knock into several things making my way back to my bed...hee hee...while i was outside, the weather was crap...sleet, and a whole lot of wind...when we'd gone to bed it was incredibly windy, and therefore very dusty...sometime after dark (we all went to bed just after 2100) the rainclouds rolled in, yuck...peeing in the dark, in the sleet and wind...ugh...
the next morning when we opened the ger door the whole area we could see was covered in snow...not a lot of snow, but it was totally white...and still snowing! i was both thrilled and a bit worried...i think everyone else felt the same...we didn't know what the roads would be like, and our guide had already been talking about the traffic jams of UB...
after breakfast, i needed to use the loo again...how annoying...this time i could see, so i walked over to the loo...and after doing my business, as i started to stand up, i heard a small thud...i looked down to see koen and kim's camera, falling into the hole...NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! you know that feeling when you can see things happening in slow motion but you can't stop anything? that's exactly how i felt...i would've been upset if it had been my camera, but i was even more upset that it wasn't my camera...that someone had trusted me with something of theirs, and i'd dropped it down the shitter...NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! so i ran back to the ger, burst in and told them "your camera is currently in a very smelly place"...i had tears running down my cheeks, i was so mad at myself...it was a horrible feeling...fortunately, they were much more calm than i was...(they told me later that both of them started thinking "hey, we can get a new camera")...kim went to find khorelee (sp?) and explain what happened...she told our driver, who came to help me...if i had been able to reach my hand down the hole far enough to grab the camera, i would've...but i do not have go go gadget arms...definitely not...instead, lauge (sp?) found some barbed wire, and unrolled enough of it so that it would reach the shit...he put on dishwashing/cleaning gloves, and managed to hook it on the safety thingy on the side of the camera, bringing it up carefully...my relief at this point was huge...i was still totally embarassed that i'd done anything in the first place...fortunately, the camera was still in it's case, so it was fine...(much to the disappointment of kim and koen who realized they wouldn't be getting a new camera after all)...the case wasn't that dirty, but it was still decided that they would toss the case, and get a new one in UB...

after renaud returned from his walk, we loaded everything in the van, and got started on the way back to UB...the "roads" weren't as bad as i had secretly feared, and lauge was just as good a driver as he'd been previously in the tour...he had the van under perfect control...the traffic in UB wasn't that bad, at least it didn't seem that way to me...we stopped at a fast food (mongolian fast food of course) place for lunch, which was pretty good...i had rice, and meat inside an omelette...taro wasn't pleased with his meal, and let the whole restaurant know...he definitely makes his opinions known!
after lunch, we tried to go see gandhan khiid...(the monastary/temple i saw my first full day in UB) but as we started to go in the temple, a guy came and said we had to pay an entrance fee...i'm all for paying such things, but not so much when they're only geared toward foreigners...and the camera fee is DEFINITELY only aimed at foreigners...i know the other people i'd seen in there previously hadn't paid any camera fee...we decided against the fee, and got back in the van after watching taro run through the pigeons a few times...so cute:)
returning to the guesthouse was kinda nice...since i'd spent a few nights there over this trip, it practically feels like home...i got another single room, this one in a different building...not really a different building, but i had to enter through a different door, and i didn't have access to the communal room except by going outside...not that it mattered...i went to the post office, bought a frog for my sister, met kim and koen in the grocery store in the state department store, where i bought a bag of chocolates i shouldn't have bought...oops...back to the hostel where i took a shower, it felt fabulous...soooo clean!!
as a group, we'd decided to go out to dinner after we had all cleaned up...since kim and koen are vegetarians, the obvious option was a vegetarian option...they'd been in several in the days they spent in UB, so we decided on their favourite, a place called luna blanca...we invited khorelee and lauge, they said yes...i'm not sure whether they really wanted to go, but they did come along...lauge definitely likes meat, so he probably wasn't all that keen, but anywho...i loved my meal, and if i'd been in UB longer, i definitely would've gone back...oh well...king taro ate quite a bit, though not of his own meal...he drank a bunch of each of his parents' smoothies, and some of their meals as well...at one point, we figured it was time to go home and put taro to bed...
after prince taro went to sleep, the rest of us met in the communal room to swap photos...we loaded each of our photos on a computer, then everyone had a jump drive with which to copy the photos...given my crap camera situation i was thrilled to get copies of renaud's and the dutch photos...not long after that, i was ready to go to bed...especially since i had to get up so early...i hate really really really early mornings like that...

not surprisingly, the taxi wasn't there when i wanted it to be...i had arranged it the night before, but of course it wasn't there when i arranged it...0430 is a time when people aren't usually awake...fortunately, it doesn't take long to get to the airport, so i had a bit of time to play with...i did get to the airport, and checked in quickly...i flew out of gate 1, which made me wonder if they ever have a gate 2? it was still snowing a bit when the plane took off!! for goodness sake, it's nearly the end of april!!!

tour #3 part 2

After breakfast the next morning, I walked again to the waterfall…the sun was on the other side this time, so I was able to get photos with the blue sky in the background, which hadn’t been possible the day before…plus, it was nice to get out and walk…

We drove back to kharakhorum for lunch…after lunch we went to the local market to get dinner food…I went in the market as well, just to see what was there…not surprisingly, I found lollies, and proceeded to buy some…and apples too, so I wasn’t  completely awful…lol…after trying the lollies I was disappointed I hadn’t bought more…yummy!

Then we drove to sand dunes…since Mongolia is mostly desert, there are sand dunes all over the country…the most famous dunes are in the gobi desert, in the south of the country,  but I was pretty happy seeing these dunes…we got to stay in the family ger, which was set away from the tourist ger camp…awesome! It turns out that ger camp was owned by several Koreans who came to check on it a couple times a year, but otherwise left the mongol family in charge…

After settling in, renaud and I went for a walk to the dunes, while kim, koen and taro rode camels…walking up the dunes wasn’t easy, but still fun…they’re beautiful…there were plants growing, I have no idea how…after a little while, we got on the camels too…while running down the sand dunes, my camera fell out of my pocket…fortunately, I noticed it almost immediately, so I was able to follow my footsteps back immediately and find the camera…unfortunately, sand had gotten into it, so I could tell straightaway that I needed to get a new camera as soon as I got back to korea…argh…but the photos were still fine, and that’s all that ever matters to me…the others in the group had cameras, so I knew I’d be okay…it was a tame ride, and not as much fun as I’d had during my ger to ger tours, but it was still fun to ride a camelJ…apparently taro liked it as well, after being somewhat freaked out by the way a camel stands up…

Our guide told us dinner would be at 2100…which would’ve been fine…howeva, we had no lights in the ger…there was no solar panel outside, and we couldn’t see any candles inside…so as the sunlight got dimmer and dimmer, we decided to watch a movie on renaud’s computer…(he travels with a small laptop, they’re easy and cheap)…we chose the Charlie chaplin movie “the gold rush”…it’s a silent movie, the words (when they’re written at all) came up on the screen…there is a soundtrack the whole way through…I haven’t watched one of those movies in a long time, but we all enjoyed it, and kept laughing…when our guide came in with our dinner at 2130, the four of us were sitting on one bed with the computer on the table in front of us watching the movie in the dark…what a picture we must’ve made…hee hee…dinner was vegetable dumplings…pretty tasty, considering…

The next morning we were all ready to go fairly early, but our driver slept in…we never did find out why…we figured he had been drinking, and was somewhat hungover, but our guide denied that when we asked her…

Our first sight of the day was a temple…it turned out to be the same temple gramps had shown me during my first ger to ger tour!! I didn’t get to see anything additional this time, but I was able to hear a lot more information, which was great…the temple was originally built by zanabazaar for his mentor, and was one of the most important temples in Mongolia…it was quite large as well, we could see the remains of the foundation of many buildings…since my camera wasn’t working at this point (even when it did work it made funny noises) kim and koen let me take photos with their camera…

Lunch was at another random hotel/restaurant on the road…

That night was supposed to be the last night of the tour…we stayed in the ger of a nomadic family…our guide tried to tell us it was done up nicely because it was mostly an extra ger used for groups like us, but we could see that it was the family ger…she and the guide slept on the floor in the other ger, which was actually the the extra ger…(it wasn’t nearly as nice)…

This family had goats, sheep and horses…when we arrived it was the middle of the afternoon, so not many animals were around…the family had a brand new baby cow (born just that morning) and a number of nearly new baby goats and sheep…taro toddled around in the pen, trying to get close enough to look but not touch the animals…he seemed to understand that grabbing the animals wasn’t the way to go…at one point kim and koen caught a lamb for him to pet, and he loved it…all the babies had been kept in a little blocked off portion of the bigger pen, and when we arrived, they’d been let out so we could see them…it was funny watching koen and renaud run around and try to get them back into the smaller pen…renaud and koen are both tall, while the baby animals are so low to the ground…I think I have a video somewhere…taro tried to help, in his own way but more than anything he kept getting in the way… lol…

Before dinner koen read, renaud walked in one direction (taro walked after him for quite a bit, until deciding he’d rather come back to his mom, kim) while kim, taro and I walked in another direction…it’s so easy to walk for an hour, look back and see where you started and feel as though you haven’t walked anywhere…

Dinner that night was what our guide called Mongolian barbeque…not like what we eat in the states…they heat up stones in the fire, while preparing the food…then the food is put into the pot, along with the hot stones, covered by a lid and put on top of the stove with the fire still going underneath it…about an hour later, everything is yummy…kim and koen had plenty to eat, even though they didn’t eat the meat…renaud ate a lot of the meat, he loved it…I ate a bit, but I focused mainly on the potatoes…it was a lot of food and we were all stuffed afterward…

One of the amazing moments of the day happened after nightfall…as we each stepped out to brush our teeth before going to bed, we saw all the goats and sheep owned by the family…RIGHT IN FRONT OF OUR GER!! Goats and sheep are a bit skittish, and will usually try to move away from anyone at all close…every time we opened the door to the ger they moved a little bit, that’s how close they were to the ger…earlier in the day koen, kim and renaud had asked me if we’d be able to hear the animals at night…I think they were more concerned that the animals would keep taro awake…I told them that the animals would be quite loud when they brought them home, but that during the night we’d know they were there but they wouldn’t be so loud…and I was right…it surprised everyone, including me, to see how close they were when we went to brush our teeth…amazing…I tried to take a picture, but there were clouds, and of course the animals weren’t nice enough to stay still…even with an extended open shutter, it was dark and somewhat blurry…lol…

The next morning was another lovely day…I really could get used to those kinds of days…for a while we watched as members of our host family gave vaccinations to the sheep in the herd…definitely an interesting process…

Then we got to go horseback riding…we only went fast a few times, but that was okay…our host laughed everytime we went fast because of the way kim bounced up and down…hee hee…we rode to the top of a small hill, and were able to see for miles around…AMAZING…renaud asked our driver to take a photo of all of us, I need to get the file…koen had stayed behind with taro (who went down for his daily nap around that time) so when we returned, renaud went out riding with koen, while kim and I read and enjoyed the weather…

We left after lunch, and drove to hustai national park…its an important park in the country…this is the national park where wild horses were essentially saved from extinction…none had been seen in the wild for a number of years, so in 1992, a few from various zoos around the world were brought to the park, and bred…the babies were carefully monitored, and released into the park, where they were protected…ever since the herd has grown, and careful watch is kept over them…the program is considered a success…as we drove through the park taro proved to have pretty good eyes, he spotted the wild horses as well as some reindeer…we were lucky enough to see fighting between some of the males, I wish I had it on video…one horse kicked another in the head!...we also saw a few marmots, which look like fat squirrels…only they don’t live in trees, they live in burrows in the ground…

We had a very quick look around the “museum” and watched a 15 minute video about the park before moving into another family ger…as we arrived, the mom was still packing up what she’d need to spend the night in another ger!! This ger was one of many, it was a community…and much more permanent, despite being a ger…I could see an electric meter, so I guess they got utility bills every month!! There was a refridgerator too!! Koen ended up leaving his cheese in the fridge when we drove away the next morning…boo…

That night it was super windy, and therefore super dusty…we couldn’t see far, long before sundown…a lot of the dust ended up on our minivan, so someone wrote on the minivan “eat my dust”…it wasn’t me, I promise, though I found it just as funny as anyone else…

tour #3 part 1

I signed up for my second ger to ger tour knowing that I’d have time for one more tour after returning…since ger to ger only had those two options, I knew I’d have to find something else for my last few days in Mongolia...my guesthouse seemed to be pretty good about getting travelers together who had the same interests in touring…they had a big map in their office, and you could leave a note saying where you wanted to go, when, and for how long, and other people could join up that way…of course, the guesthouse also had all sorts of tours available, and you could book any of them, starting on any day…I met a dutch couple at the guesthouse who were in Mongolia waiting for their Russian visas to come through so they could continue on the trans Siberian railway…while talking to them we figured out that we were interested in the same touring ideas, which was great…I told them to pick a tour, and that I’d pay as soon as I got back from the ger to ger, and we could leave the next day…it worked out wonderfully…I returned from the ger to ger, found the couple (and their adorable – most of the time – 19 month old son) and found out what was to be my next adventure…a Frenchmen had decided to join the group as well, which was great because it brought down the price of the tour for everyone…most tours in Mongolia (excepting ger to ger) are based on the number of people in the group, so the more people there are, the less it costs everyone each day…of course, there is a limit to how many people you want to travel with…anywho…

The next morning we all paid around 0900, and were driving out of the city by 0930…we stopped to get close to an ovoo, and could see horse races going on in the distance…maybe people were practicing for the summer nadaam? Its crazy how you see ovoos just about anywhere and everywhere…kinda like irish castles…you see one, and can’t help but wonder how someone decided to build it just there…what made that particular spot so good for a big pile of stones? A little while later we stopped for lunch at a random roadside hotel/restaurant…given that the restaurant was in the middle of nowhere, I don’t know how many people would spend the night there but who cares? The food was decent…(as I’ve mentioned before, you don’t go to Mongolia for their fabulous cuisine)…taro had a few bites, then cried, then had a few bites, then cried, etc…he’s young enough that you don’t always know why he’s being fussy…oh well…

A few hours later we got to kharakhorum…(when pronouncing the name, don’t say either of the Ks…they’re silent…so I don’t know why they’re in the word…and the H is pretty hard)…it was, for 40 years, the capital of the great Mongolian empire…and now there is nothing left of the former city…it was mostly destroyed at some point, and then when the monastery was built, they used the ruins of the city to do so…we arrived too late to go to the monastery, so after checking into our guestger, we piled back into the minivan to check out the other sights of the town…

The first was a big penis…a rock…the original is smaller, and was first put up a while ago…a rock in the shape of a penis, it was balanced on another rock, and pointed toward a nearby valley that is could be imagined to be in the shape of a woman’s hoo-ha…legend says that the rock was put up to deal with the horniness of the monks, and to keep them from having impure thoughts, and to protect the women of the town…who knows exactly…a couple years ago, the powers that be in the town decided they needed a newer, and bigger penis…so they paid the equivalent of 2 million euro to have another one carved, it’s set higher up on the hill…and it’s big…legend said that women who wanted children could come sit on the penis, but that definitely won’t be happening with the new rock…hmmm…from there we drove (straight across the land, we weren’t on a road almost as soon as we left the guestger) to the king’s monument…it’s basically a huge monument honouring the former Mongolian empire…there are three mosaic pictures, depicting the empire at various points…when the huns were in charge, when the turks were in charge, and when the Mongols took charge…it was the biggest when chinggis khan, a mongol, was in charge…HUGE…the biggest empire the world has ever known…most of china, Russia, india, and parts of eastern Europe…go figure, the Mongols were better at increasing the size of the empire than they were at keeping a functioning government alive and well…the view from the monument all around was fantastic…a valley with a river running through it on one side, the city on the other, and we could see the monastery in the distance…

Having been cooped up in the minivan all day, the Frenchman, renaud, asked if it was far back to the guestger…our guide told us it was only 3 or 4 kilometers, which seemed like a nice walk…so I walked home with renaud and koen…(the dutch guy)…it was a great walk…kim went back in the minivan with their son, taro…we arrived at just the right time, our guide brought in our dinner fairly quickly…overcooked spaghetti…hee hee…I like my noodles more smushy than al dente, but believe me, she’d let the noodles cook too long…oh well…

After dinner, we went into another ger, where a Mongolian man, dressed in traditional clothing, gave a mini concert playing traditional Mongolian instruments…one was a horse head cello…the other I can’t exactly describe, so I won’t try…figure out what you can in the photo…he also did some of the traditional throat singing…apparently there are four different ways of making the sounds, but I could only distinguish two different sounds…still, it was a nifty concert, we were all glad we got to see it…renaud figured out that one of the other members of the audience was someone he knew from uni, so they talked for a while after the concert was over…almost all travelers have a small world story to tell…

The next morning when taro woke up at 0600, it was cold in the ger…kim and koen figured it was probably partly the cold that woke him up, though apparently he wakes up every morning around that time…I heard him wake up a bit, but I didn’t hear koen take him out and go for a two hour walk while we continued sleeping…they came back around 0800, knowing that breakfast was to be served at 0830, and that we’d all be awake by that point…fortunately, someone had started a fire in the stove, so the ger was warm again by that point…the stoves keep the gers warm, but when they go out, it gets really chilly…

After breakfast I went with our guide, kim and renaud to the nearby monastery…koen and taro stayed back, so taro could take a nap…he’d been up for four hours already…as I mentioned earlier, it was built with the ruins of the former capital city…erdene zuu khiid was once one of the most important monastaries in the entire country…unfortunately, most of it was destroyed during the Stalinist purges, just like so many other monastaries/places of worship around the country…there were three temples that had been left alone, so they were great to see…I’d try to recount what was in each one, and what each figure represented, but it wouldn’t be that interesting unless you’re really into Mongolian/religious history…we spent a couple hours wandering around the former monastery, as well as the current monastery that is also on the grounds…we got to hear monks calling each other to the “service” using horns…very cool…and we got to hear them all chanting together inside…even though I don’t understand what is going on, there is something amazing about hearing their voices all together…we sat for a while, just absorbing everything around us…

Lunch was served back at the guestger…after lunch we got back in the minivan, and started driving again…we weren’t on a road for very long this time…we followed tracks and trails, and it didn’t take me long to start wondering how the driver knew where he was going…our path twisted all over, and never went straight…sometimes we weren’t following anything at all, at least, not that I could see…and yet I could tell he knew exactly where he was…all of a sudden, we pulled up to four gers that seemed to appear out of nowhere…a family ger, and their extras, which were used for groups like us…

After having our milk tea and bortzog, we went for a walk…our guide led us to a beautiful waterfall…she said it was less than 500m from the ger, but we couldn’t see or hear the waterfall until we were almost walking into it…the gorge just opened up like a big hole, and it would’ve been really easy to walk right over the edge…it really was that hidden until you were right there…our guide showed us how to hike down into the gorge…kim had taro strapped to her back, I have no idea how she got down…that descent had me twisting all sorts of ways, but she didn’t really have that option…I followed the river as far as I could, the scenery was amazing…and after climbing back out, I was tempted to keep following the gorge and see how far I could go…instead, I just walked up from the waterfall a little ways, sat down, and enjoyed the scenery, and quiet…Mongolia has this way of being incredibly quiet…quieter than anything I’ve ever experienced previously…amazing…

The stars that night were incredible…sooooo many stars…

ger to ger #2, family #4

as the ox cart pulled up to ger #4, i noticed a foreign couple standing in front of a ger (i could see four gers total) as well as a young kid...the kid turned out to be 3 years old, and i almost always saw her with a smile on her face...
i was directed to put my stuff in an extra ger...there were bags and such on one side, near one of the beds, so i ended up on the east side...(traditionally the woman's side of a ger)...even though it was the guest ger, there was a table set up to serve tea and anything else in the middle of the ger, juts as a family ger would be organized...my hostess poured me some milk tea, and offered bread, butter, and nutella..NUTELLA!!! i haven't had that since i can't remember when...i love it, but outside of europe it isn't cheap...i don't know if one of her previous guests left it for the family, or whether she buys it specifically for the guests...either way, a couple slices of bread, one with butter and one with nutella, and i was a happy camper...
after eating my snack, i wandered outside...the weather was fantastic, i didn't want to be inside...i met the couple i'd seen while arriving, they turned out to be canadian...well, in his defense, he is half american, half canadian...lol...they were doing a homestay program through ger to ger, this was their 2nd night of 6 total with this family...it was fun talking to them, hearing about their travels, and what they planned to do after their trip was finished...like quite a few others i met while in mongolia, they were killing time while waiting for their russian visas to come through...
after lunch i went for a walk...again, i had seen some frozen river areas, and i wanted to explore in general...i love sunny, warm-ish, weather...at one point i found a tree and laid down for about 20 minutes, just soaking in the sun and silence...my face got plenty of sun, not that i minded:)
after returning from my walk, i found the canadian couple in the ger, playing an ankle bone game with the daughter of my hostess...the hostess is a grandmother, the daughter is 23, and her daughter, 3...this particular ankle bone game features flicking the bones, and i wasn't very good...i can flick well enough with my first and second fingers, but i'm terrible with my thumb...the daughter won...this particular game can go on and on and on and on and on...after a little while i think all of us wanted the game to be over...
the canadian girl and i helped prepare food that night...i think she'd helped with the meal the night before as well...part of her homestay experience...the hostess made the main food, but she and i helped make bortzog, which i'm pretty sure i mentioned in an earlier post...when we were finished frying all of them we got to eat...sooooo good...they're good all the time, they're even better when they're still warm...
i can't remember for sure, but i think i went to sleep pretty quickly that night...the canucks didn't snore, which was nice...
breakfast the next morning was the same as my snack had been the day before...bread, butter, nutella, milk tea...even though we'd all overeaten the night before, we did the same at breakfast...i told the couple that not all nomadic families feed you like this...lol...
after breakfast the daughter showed us how to shoot a bow...it's one of the traditional weapons of the mongols, back in the days when they were taking over the world...those bows are strung really tight, with really thick string...a few times i was able to shoot properly, but it was hard, and my arm hurt afterward!! we didn't shoot for long, partly because the little granddaughter threw a temper tantrum at one point and sat down close to the target...we figured it wasn't a good idea to shoot at her...
the family told me we'd be leaving at 10, to go to the bus station where i'd started this ger to ger tour...we didn't leave until almost 11, after the family was all dressed up...all three of the ladies were wearing their nicer clothes; my hostess and her daughter were wearing makeup...we started moving on the oxcart, though we didn't get very far...the first part of a river we tried to cross was still partially frozen...so the ox went partway in, but the wheels of the cart got a bit stuck on the ice...the daughter got the ox to back up enough that we were on dry land again, then got off and walked back to the ger...she came back with one of the family guys, who was wearing waders...he walked into the water, and pulled the ox by a rope...needless to say, the ox wasn't happy, but he continued moving...once we were through that river, we were fine...the trip in total took two hours, we went by oxcart most of the way...the last kilometer or so we walked...
i don't know if we'd just missed a microbus or what, but we ended up waiting in the little store for almost an hour...after watching the little granddaughter have ice cream, i decided i wanted one as well...yum! finally, the microbus came, and i started my trip back to the big city...

ger to ger #2, family #3

the mom took me and yichmer on the oxcart to ger #3 of this tour...ger #3 turned out to be where the six folks i'd seen the day before were staying...it was fun to chat with them for a little while before they left...they all live in UB...it was very interesting to hear about their experiences of living in mongolia, especially winter...it gets down to -40°C (-40°F) during winter nights!! and warms up to -35°C during winter days...that's COLD...really really really COLD...you have to wear 5 or 6 layers, covering every bit of exposed skin...if skin is exposed in that kind of cold, it really hurts...people aren't motivated to go anywhere in winter, becuase it requires so many clothes, and can be pretty painful...plus, it gets dark early, so people just want to stay home...anywho, after these guys left to get back to the city, i had lunch...i don't have it written down what i ate, but it was probably something i'd already eaten...
that afternoon there was no activity in particular for me to do, so i went for a walk...while on the oxcart from ger to ger, we'd crossed a couple still frozen rivers...i was keen to go back and walk on those rivers again...there is something about ice that fascinates me...particularly when i'm still seeing it at the end of april!! if i had done this tour a month or so earlier, i would've been able to go ice bowling with this family...as it was, the ice covered parts of rivers, but not the entire streambed...so you'd see ice, then dry rocks...i had fun walking down/up the middle of the frozen areas, taking a few photos...laying down on the ice...the cows happened to be walking home around this time and they watched my every move...(which was a bit on the creepy side, but who am i to tell the cows to keep their eyes to themselves...not that they'd have understood anywho, since the probably only speak moo-golian:)

after returning from my walk i helped feed the cows...several of them were pregnant, and got extra special food...my hostess indicated that some of them were VERY pregnant, and might be giving birth that night...they were definitely fat! i never did find out how long the gestational period of a cow is, i suppose i could look it up...
that night i slept in the extra ger, though one of the family members was in there as well...this family seemed to live in both of the gers, they were in and out of both of them all day long...the first time i'd seen that...
my hostess was right, two of the cows did give birth that night...i'm a heavy sleeper, so i didn't know anything had happened until after breakfast the next morning when she took me out to see the new calfs...they were cute, but not nearly as cute as the kids i'd seen while staying with other families...new calfs try to walk for a little while, but seem to spend most of the first couple days of their new lives on the ground, with their legs curled up underneath them...not a whole lot of moving at all...anywho...
i got to feed a lamb that morning as well...according to my hostess, the mother sheep didn't have any milk, so they were feeding the lamb every morning and night...a plastic coke bottle, and a rubber nipple...that lamb was hungry!!
i tried to ride a horse to the next ger, but it was walking sooooo slowly...my host was on an oxcart with my stuff, he was going to drop me off, then go somewhere else...as it turned out, since i wasn't able to make the horse go fast enough, i ended up dismounting, then riding the oxcart the rest of the way...

ger to ger #2, family #2

to get to the start of my 2nd ger to ger tour i had to take two buses...normally you only have to take one, but for whateva reason, the drivers of that bus were on strike...i was told bus 17, and the name was written in cyrillic so i could ask the bus driver...i ended up getting on 20-17, which worked well enough...i was lucky in getting off that bus at the right stop...then i caught a minibus (a van) with 23 of my closest friends to terelj national park...
you'll notice that i don't have an entry for the first family i stayed with during this second ger to ger tour...that's because there is absolutely nothing to write about...i arrived, they fed me...an hour later, at 8pm they took me to their extra ger, and that was it for the night...the next morning i was served breakfast, and that was it until someone arrived around 11 to take me to the 2nd ger...that's not really worth an entry, is it?
the following morning, a guy showed up on a horse, and put me on another horse, we rode 15km or so to ger #2...it was another two hour ride, and we kept a pretty steady speed the whole way through...we were going faster than a walk, not quite a gallop, though we did get to a gallop a few times...i didn't bounce so much on this horse, so the ride was really nice...
the second family greeted me with milk tea and bortzog...bortzog are like donuts, sortof...bits of dough made with water and flour, then fried...not nearly as sweet as donuts, but pretty darn good anywho...it would be easy to keep eating bortzog all day long...they're usually in a bowl on the table, so it's a test of willpower not to keep eating...

this family consisted of a young mother, her husband and 3 year old son...it took me a long time to figure out that the kid was a he, as he had very long hair, and his mom had it tied back in a ponytail with a girly rubber band...when i saw pictures of his older sister (who is 7, and goes to school in UB) i could see a really strong resemblance between the siblings...it took the little boy (named yichmer) a little while to warm up to me, but we ended up playing together quite a bit...he and his mom have quite the collection of foreign currency...he and i played for a while, taking currency out of his piggy bank, then putting it back in...playing with kids never has to be complicated...
just before lunch, i watched her answer the phone...this particular family must've had issues with reception, as they were quite particular in phone calls...they had the phones hanging from the ceiling, and when they answered them, instead of holding the phone in their hands, they yelled into the phone where it was hanging...it may not have been yelling exactly, but it was very loud speaking...i don't know if the person on the other end of the call had to do the same thing...every phone call that happened while i was with this family was answered like this!

lunch was rice, meat, potatoes and carrots...good, simple, just like every other meal i've had...
during the afternoon the mom showed me the work she does on a regular basis: sewing traditional clothes...she even let me sew a little! (under careful supervision, of course:)...the fancy clothes are still worn all the time in mongolia, which is great to see...there are lots of seams in each garment...if i had been able to figure out a use for anything she made, i would've purchased something...
the rest of the afternoon was filled with playing with yichmer...he loves to climb, so the fences around the yard are a great playground for him...he also loves to be in photos...hee hee...while we were out, we saw a group of foreigners taking a walk...after chatting briefly, i found out they all live in UB...several are australians doing the australian version of peace corps, the other two are former peace corps volunteers...they were staying nearby...
i slept in the extra ger, which was very cosy with a fire going...
the next morning i felt as though i was having the most authentic breakfast of my stay in mongolia so far...we had leftovers from the night before, and warmed them up by pouring milk tea over the noodles...not too bad, i guess there is a use for mongolian milk tea:)...the family ger was pretty warm, yichmer didn't want to put on all his clothes, lol...
i got to help out with chores after breakfast...i got to milk a cow!!! i'm not very good at it, but if i had to do it regularly, i'd get a lot better...the family has 7 cows, and all of them have to be milked by hand...while milking the cow i kept thinking of my first milking experience, in new zealand in 2009...this time no cow attempted to shit on me...lol...(you had to be there)...
to get me from this ger to the next ger, the family had an ox cart...i was supposed to leave just before lunch, but it took a while for the husband to bring the ox back...whoops...while i was waiting we played traditional games with ankle bones...we tied both times, but i'm pretty sure she let that happen...also while waiting we had visitors...4 ladies and 3 very young kids...all three of the kids had bells on their shoes, which meant we heard it everytime they moved at all...one of the kids was very active, and hardly stood still during the entire visit...he also managed to get yogurt all over his face...hee hee...

and then, the husband came back with the ox...we took a family photo, though one of the horses did his best to get in the way of the camera...lol...