ger to ger #1, family #2

one of the sons from the first family rode horses with me to the second family...i don't know how far it was, but the horses didn't go faster than a walk the entire way...it took over an hour...occasionally he would look over at me and ask if i was okay, which i was...i was simply stunned by the awesome scenery we were riding through...he gets to see that every day, i wonder if he feels the same way i did...probably not...he came into the second ger with me...
i was greeted the same way by the second family as i was by the first family...with a bowl of milk tea...it tasted the same, i guess the women put about the same amount of salt in the tea...then again, i don't know that i would ever notice a small change, my palate is only developed enough to notice big changes in taste...
as we got off the horses, i noticed that this ger had 3 solar panels...whoa!!
again, my stuff went over by the bed on the west side...inside the ger when i arrived were the wife, the woman i called granny (in my head of course) and gramps (again, only in my head)...women's names in mongolia seem to be so much more difficult for me to pronounce, the men's names always seem so easy...unfortunately, i'm not so good with remembering names at all, and since i never wrote these names down, you'll have to deal with my nicknames...
after serving me the milk tea, the mom started preparing lunch...it was essentially the same ingredients of anything i'd seen at the first ger, but she had carrots, and cabbage...i never saw anything like that at the first ger, so i was excited...she also added spaghetti noodles...not noodles she made herself, but real spaghetti noodles...clearly this woman had cooked for a few foreigners previously...anywho, the meal was beef (or was it another kind of meat? i'm really not good at figuring out meat) noodle soup...yum...not only did she have the extra ingrediants, but she also used more spices, which meant quite a bit of flavour in comparison to the meals i had eaten the day before...after lunch i took a nap...this seems to be the thing to do...not that i really slept, but it was nice to lay down and rest...
later in the afternoon, gramps indicated that i should go with him...so i did...we got onto horses, and he took me to a monastary...well, i'm not sure if it's a monastary or a temple...(again, the language barrier issue)...we rode up to a ger and a lady came out, she unlocked the temple/monastary for me...it was really really small, but i still liked it...she told me it had been built in 1994, and showed me the remains of the 17th century monastary nearby...i'm assuming the soviets destroyed it, because they seem to have destroyed just about everything else in the country...probably around 1937...while riding back to the ger we herded some of the sheep and goats...come to think of it, on the way to the monastary we did some herding as well...showing tourists around never gets in the way of what needs to be done every day...gramps likes to ride fast, which i like...what he also seems to like is switching speeds, regularly...we went from walk to something bouncy, to something faster and bouncy, to gallop, and back all within a 30 second stretch...over and over and over and over...i don't know if the horse decided to do this, or it was his decision and he cued the horse nonverbally...i like fast, and i can handle bouncy...but the constant switching speeds was rough on my knees...and my butt was only just beginning to understand BOUNCE BOUNCE BOUNCE...
before starting to prepare dinner, the host wife showed me pictures of the family...very very cool to see...various members, usually in their traditional clothing, in formal-ish photos...just like the first family, there were several poses in front of gandhan khiid, the big temple in UB...
dinner that night was the same as the night before...steamed mutton dumplings...this time there was a little more flavour, but not a whole lot...meat that has been boiled/steamed doesn't have much flavour left...of course, it probably didn't help that we didn't eat dinner until after 2130...by that point i was ready for sleep, and not hungry anymore...while we were eating, the tv was set to a channel showing a heavy metal band, with absolutely NO stage presence...it's hard to get into the music when the musicians are hardly moving...
that night i slept in the extra ger the family had...the other person in "my"ger was the sister of my hostess...again, i slept like a rock...there was no electricity in this ger, only a candle for light...the stove was well fed with dung as i fell asleep, i was very cozy...of course, when i woke up in the morning the stove wasn't going anymore, and it was chilly as...not very motivating to get out of bed...but i did, eventually:)
breakfast the next morning was something i totally didn't expect...an omelette! there was nothing in the omelette, it was just eggs, maybe a little flour? given that these families don't raise chickens, i knew the eggs had been bought specially, probably in the village where i got off the bus? i wasn't the only one having eggs that morning, but i was still pretty sure they were cooked because i was there...i didn't mind, but it didn't feel as authentic as previous meals had...

sometime after breakfast, gramps came into the ger after completing his morning chores...(which had to do with the animals)...he indicated to me that we were going for another ride...and so we did...i was slightly sore from the day before, but figured it couldn't be too bad...i got to see a brand new baby goat, one so new the mother hadn't had enough time to lick it clean, so i could see the birth junk still all over...we herded goats and sheep on our way up to the top of a hill where we dismounted at a monument...gramps doesn't speak much english, and i speak the same amount of mongolian, so he wasn't able to tell me what the monument was for, but i still loved being up there, looking all around...from there we rode over to some rocks on the top of another hill, gramps took photos of me...so i have proof that i rode a horse in mongolia! we dismounted again after crossing a little creek...this time the dismount was at the edge of sand dunes...gramps indicated to me that he was taking one of the horses and going over a little ways, but i was to stay put...i had no idea what he was doing, but i understood well enough not to wander too far...which wasn't a problem, as the area was beautiful, and i kept taking photo after photo...again, my camera just doesn't do justice to the amazing scenery...gramps reappeared with a herd of horses, i don't know where they'd been hanging out...i got back on the horse, and started the ride back...by this point, i was really feeling pain...majour saddle soreness...and i was beginning to feel it on my left leg where it got smushed in between the two horses...with dry skin, gramps' saddle rubbed, and it hurt...i found myself wishing for proper boots...or at least something that went over my lower legs...
we herded the horses back in the direction of the family gers...along the way we herded the sheep and goats again...i don't know how gramps decides where to push them to, and how often each day he moves the different groups of animals...at one point we found a couple sheep who had separated from the group, and we headed them back in the direction of the gers...by that point, i was knackered, and i could feel every muscle in my body...i kept looking at my watch, wondering how much longer until i could get off the horse...my mind was going back and forth between "this is awesome" and "get me off this horse"...finally, we were home...

lunch was homemade noodles with meat, cabbage and carrots...tasty:)...i love watching how the noodles are made...
thankfully for my body, there was no more horseriding that day...phew...after lunch, i went outside to find the ladies brushing the goats...they brush the goats to get the wool that makes soft cashmere sweaters...it's hard work...they handed me one of the brushes, and i got to find out just how hard it is...REALLY REALLY hard...plus, the goat isn't exactly enjoying the experience...during this brushing i realized that while i was really enjoying this ger to ger experience, this is definitely not a life i ever want for myself...i'd love to have the experience again, but i don't want to live it...i brushed for a little while, and it didn't take long for my arm to start burning...it's a workout! and i wasn't very good at it at it...i didn't get nearly as much wool off the goat as the ladies did...they were probably happy when i handed the brush back, i was probably wasting time when they're so much more efficient...
after a couple goats had been brushed, we had snack...sheep's head...yup, sheep's head...i was handed the tongue first, which i think is an honour of sorts...i didn't know what it was, but that wasn't hard to communicate...lol...i tried it, it's a food i don't need to eat again...the consistency is wierd...it wasn't on my bucket list, but now i can check it off anywho...the family figured out that i don't like fat at all, but i like meat, so after that they handed me various pieces of meat from around the head...tasty, once i got used to the idea that i was eating from a sheep's head!
dinner...spaghetti with meat and potato sauce...good stuff...not that i was very hungry, since we'd just been eating sheep's head...everyone went to bed early that night...laying down was difficult for me, as was sitting down, sitting up, standing up, etc...pretty much every movement reminded me of how much time i'd spent on a horse in the past few days...

the next morning, after breakfast, (more eggs) gramps rode with me to the next ger...a two hour ride, with the speed changes i'd come to know and not love...at least this time my leg wasn't getting squashed in between the two horses, gramps understood that hurt me quite a bit...