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…

ger to ger #1, family #3

gramps rode horses with me to the third family...it was over an hour, around two hours i think...with the typical speed switches that gramps seems to like so much...fortunately, the horses weren't crashing into each other this time, so i was okay with it...mostly...
when i first walked into the ger, the first face i saw was that of another foreigner...another white person...definitely not a face i expected to see...dr bob...a retired general surgeon who now lives in florida...
the new family greeted me the same way each of the previous families had, with milk tea and biscuits...while gramps was chatting with my new hostess, i chatted with dr bob...he was on day six of his tour, while i was on day 4...meaning he was heading back to UB in a few hours, while i'd be staying with this family for a couple nights...dr bob and i had all sorts of stuff to talk about, we compared our experiences with this ger to ger tour...after returning to UB, he was planning to start making his way to tibet...i'm jealous, i haven't been there...yet...after a little while, our hostess made lunch...noodle shells with meat, potatoes and carrots...good...if you haven't figured it out already, mongolian food isn't known for it's variety, or flavour...nearly every meal is made with the same ingredients, in various forms...i am perfectly okay with eating bland food, but believe me, mongolia takes it to a new level...
just before dr bob left, i got to start a camel ride!!! a two humped camel!! (a bactrian camel)...the ride was only 45 minutes or so, but i was still thrilled...I GOT TO RIDE A CAMEL!! YAHOO!! that was definitely a check off the bucket list...i still need to ride a one hump camel of course:)
for the first time, at this ger i got to see a snuffbox...they're used in a traditional greeting, people smell each other's snuffbox...hmmm, that didn't come out right...i don't really understand it, but oh well, i got to see a snuffbox, which i'd only heard about previously...
this ger was different in that it had an "entrance hall"...so i had to go through two doors to get into the ger...i realized that made the ger really cosy, and pretty warm...especially with the sun coming through the ceiling quite strongly at that point...to let in the cooling air from outside, both doors had to be propped open...
after returning from the camel ride, my hostess showed me photos of her family...she has a big family, she's one of 8 children!! she has 3 sisters and 4 brothers...the pictures were nifty...especially the one with her father and all the kids...just like the other families, most of the family members were in fancy traditional dress...in some ways, it's too bad that the US doesn't have a traditional dress...
i don't remember what we had for dinner that night...probably something i'd had previously during this tour...there was more flavour in the cooking of this ger, she'd also obviously cooked for more than a few foreigners doing ger to ger tours...
the stove had been going all day, the ger was a bit more sheltered because of where it was situated, (the hills were to the south, so the wind didn't really go by the door, as in previous gers) and the extra door added heat...what i'm trying to say is that i was almost too hot to go to sleep that night!! once i did get to sleep, i slept like a rock...sharing the ger with us that night were two new baby goats (yes, i know we call them kids in english) and two new baby sheep (yes, i know we call them lambs in english)...so there was a lot of bleeting for a while...it was both really cute, and really heartbreaking...the little animals are soooo cute...i heard a few sneezes as well...SO CUTE!! i guess i never thought about animals sneezing:)
because the ger was a bit more protected by the hills, it also meant direct sunlight didn't hit the ger quite as early in the morning...there was still plenty of light, still just as early, but it didnt warm up aaaas quickly...
after breakfast, the first chore of the morning was to match the babies with their moms...the babies in the ger, along with all the other babies...springtime is baby time, there is a LOT of bleeting every morning and night when the moms and babies are calling to each other...it's surprisingly loud! i still haven't figured out how the people know which baby belongs to which mom...it's not as if there are only a few to remember...with several hundred goats and sheep, that takes a lot of memory! the babies and moms don't always recognize each other, sometimes people have to help out a little...after making sure the babies got plenty of milk from their mothers, they were separated again, the babies stay by the ger all day, and the moms and dads go out and graze all day...

after the animals were sent out to graze, my hostess took me on another camel ride...yay!! we went up the hills, to some rocks on top of one of the tallest hills...along the way we passed a camel shaped rock, much to my amusement...when we got to the top, i climbed up the rocks...it felt like i was on top of the world...it was amazing...i had an awesome view in any direction...sooo nice...the dogs had followed us the entire way, they climbed up the rocks too...the way back down on the camel wasn't nearly as comfortable...it's not so fun when i camel goes faster than a walk...and a camel usually goes faster than a walk when it's a steep-ish way down...anywho...
after lunch there was no activity in particular for me, so i walked back up the hills, and sat for a while...there wasn't too much wind, and it was soooo peaceful...at one point, the wind did pick up, i realized i could hear the phone conversation my hostess was having about 500m away...the acoustics in mongolia are amazing, the space is so empty...
before dinner, we matched up the animals again...cute, as always...a few more babies had been born that day...two of them were taken inside the ger almost immediately, they were so small and needed to be warmed up...sooo cute, and so small...one was so weak he didn't have the strength to lift up his head to move around...my hostess put him under the stove for a little while...after dinner, we tried to help him stand up...again, it was heartbreaking and cute...because he couldn't stand up on his own...we'd lift him onto all four legs, and his legs would slide out from under him over and over...after a while all the birth gunk had dried, but it was still there...that night, there were six animals in the ger with us...there were "conversations" going on the entire night:)

the next morning one of the babies still couldn't stand up very well, but he was a lot better...the night inside the ger was really good for him...the few times when he did manage to stay standing, you could almost see him thinking: "now what?"...awwww
after breakfast i went on a motorcycle ride with my host...he took me to a place of worship, somewhere sort of nearby...when we arrived, there was a family there, following the rituals...the area was great...all sorts of blue, everywhere...i ended up taking photos with the two daughters, they were friendly, and eager to talk...some of the objects left for worship were surprising to me...horse skulls, empty liquor bottles, crutches, car parts, etc...
a few hours after lunch, a jeep picked me up and took me back to the bus stop in the village where i first got off the bus...a 3 hour ride back to UB, sometimes going really slow...there was a movie showing on the tv screen, a mongolian movie...reeeeeaaaally bad acting, but funny even so...i could follow the storyline, even though i don't speak the language...
when i got back to the guesthouse, the first thing i did was to hand over my laundry...i felt bad, the clothes were dirty!!

india part 3

after jaisalmer was the town of bikaner...we ended up getting off the train at the wrong station w/out realizing it, but that was a blessing in disguise...as usual, someone approached us quickly about a place to stay, and also handed us a schedule...(we went to bikaner because we had heard about a camel festival and wanted to check it out)...the price sounded good enough, it was family run, and we always knew we could go somewhere else if we hated it...staying in that guesthouse turned out to be a great decision...the father was super friendly, as were the wife and kids...three kids...one of the girls spoke pretty good english, and could read and write as well...the wife cooked great food, and the portions were HUGE...the father was fantastic about helping us with directions, and suggesting things to do...
the first full day there we went to the fort in the morning...it's totally different from the fort in jaisalmer...this fort was originally the residence of the local maharajah, and most of the original decorations and furnishings are still in the fort...the entrance fee includes a required guide, and for once, we were happy that we had the guide...w/out him, we wouldn't have found all the little hallways and palaces, etc...the interior decoration is pretty fancy, and it was neat to go up on the roof...in several rooms there are old pictures on the wall, from maharajah parades and such...
that afternoon, we took a bus out to the camel festival...AWESOME!!!!! it was in the village of ladera, not too far from bikaner...we got to see decorated camels, and of course took lots of pictures...we saw a dune race, which wasn't all that exciting...at one point, layna joined in a long jump contest, running and jumping down a dune...(a photographer took her picture, and it ended up in the paper the next day:)...we watched camel races, during which not all the jockeys could control their camels...they didn't always go in a straight line, and they weren't always able to stay on the camels...funny...we got to watch the women play musical chairs...it sounds tame, but some of them really wanted to win...each woman seemed to have a cheering section, and when some of them were out, those cheering sections were NOT happy...at one point we were told we should get out of the crowd, as it was getting rowdy, and we were told the police might have to use force...we got to watch a cultural show, which had exhibitions of traditional song, dance, music and costumes...they had announcements in punjabi and english, so we always knew what was coming up next...though the english announcements were, how can i put this, very flowery and slow...after the cultural show the last event of the evening was a fire dance...only men in a certain caste of a certain faith could participate in the dance...first a bonfire was burned down to nothing but red hot embers, then the men danced through and around the embers...very cool...at the end, they used their feet to spread out the embers, so they were no longer a danger...after it was over, we saw one old man pick up embers twice and put them in his mouth...they said that true believers would not feel the pain of the fire...either way, it was pretty impressive...we took the same bus back to bikaner, and it was a bit more of an adventure...not too long after we left, the guy taking money got into some sort of argument with some of the passengers...lots of yelling back and forth, layna and i sitting there clueless...it got so bad that the bus driver pulled over and stopped the bus, waiting until it was all sorted out...when it was sorted out, many of the passengers cheered, i still wish i knew what it was all about!!!
the next day was more fun...we went out to the karni mata temple, also known as the rat temple...i'm not sure of the story, but the end result is that rats are allowed to run freely all over this temple...they're supposed to be the incarnation of something, or someone...we were told there are 30,000 rats living there...who knows what the actual number is, but it's a lot...there are large bowls of milk set out in several places, it's both creepy and fascinating to watch all the rats perched on the edges, leaning down and drinking...it's said that it's good luck if the rats run across your feet (did i forget to mention that you take off your shoes before going into the temple?)...they did run across our feet...there is one white rat (albino) and it's also said to be good luck if you see him...and we did...so i guess we're double lucky:) ...seeing and being around all those rats was definitely not in my comfort zone, that's for sure!! in the afternoon we went to a camel farm...officially called the national camel research centre, or something like that...it's either the only one in india, or the only one in asia (depends on who you ask, or what you read)...we learned a lot about camels (i won't bore you with the facts unless you ask)...we got to see camels milked, see camel products (made from camel bone, camel hair, etc) and more...while standing next to one corral, several camels came over to investigate us...several kisses and attempted bites later, we had some new friends:) ...we also tried camel milk ice cream...YUM!!!
after bikaner we went to jaipur, the capital of the state of rajasthan, because we had heard about a kite festival...jaipur is just as bad as delhi in terms of touts and the aggressiveness of the city...after finding a guesthouse, we were told by several different people that it's impossible to walk around and see the sights of the city...i guess layna and i are different than most, because we don't consider 5K very long to walk to get to something...not at all...anywho, we did walk...during the day, layna ended up talking to a guy on the street trying to sell us traditional rajasthani puppets...the conversation resulted in an invitation for both of us to come spend the day with his family for the kite festival the next day...SO MUCH FUN!!! we got to his neighborhood, and spent the majority of the day on the roof...we learned how to cut kites (the idea being that you use your kite string - while flying of course - to cut the string of someone else's kite) and were served the best chapati we've had...we met the entire family, and all the cousins/friends/neighbors who were close...all the roofs in this neighborhood were made of sheets of corrogated tin held in place by rocks...and most of the roofs were very close to each other, so we didn't have to go down to the ground to move around...we got a LOT of attention from all the kids (particularly guys) in the area...i was proposed to twice, but since both were just teenagers, i decided to wait on matrimony...hee hee...seeing all the people on the roofs, flying kites was awesome...mostly kids, but some adults as well...in reading the newspaper the next day, it seemed everyone had been in on the fun...politicians and other big wigs even took a few hours out of their work days to fly kites!!! jaipur is known as the pink city because the old city is painted entirely pink...it was originally done to welcome the prince of wales (who later became king charles something or another) and the tradition has remained...it's also a great place to shop, if you have the desire...shoes, fabrics, electronics, bikes, toys, food, etc...it's all there...
our last evening in jaipur we decided to go to a bollywood movie...it was our first, and we had been told about a great theater by a couple different locals...the theater was indeed fancy...the story was that the person who had designed it had suffered some sort of mutilation afterward so he couldn't design anything that great again...i don't know that i trust that story...anywho, watching a bollywood movie was definitely an experience...at the first flash of the stars on the screen the crowd cheered...they cheered, clapped and generally got involved with the plot of the movie as it was playing...it definitely wasn't quiet...i can't remember how many times mobile phones started ringing, and people answered them!!! the movie followed the same storyline that seems to be common...people fall in love, there are difficulties, and by the end of the movie, everything is hunky dory...they even hug at the end!!