Mongolia 2016 continued

We drove to a gorge overlooking a bend in a river. Tsetseg and Bulgaa fixed Raman Noodles on the picnic table for our lunch.

We drove to Orkhon Waterfall.

Note the four gers off in the distance.

Orkhon Waterfall. It is over 50 feet high.

On to the next ger.

At our second ger. All the gers had wood-burning stoves for heat and for cooking. Sometimes there was a little coal, or some dried cow dung. At night we have to keep the fire burning in the stove.

Tsetseg fixed dinner in another ger. We had noodles, mutton, some vegetables, warm milk, and “cookies.”

Wednesday October 5.

We woke up to ½ inches of snow on the ground. It was cold. The first picture is just before sunrise.

The biggest challenge of the trip was the pit toilet, where you had to squat. Here is what we had at this ger, a hundred yards away from the ger.

We drove and drove, slower at first because of the snow. We stopped and took some pictures in trees at the foothills of the nearby mountains.

Then we drove some more. We saw a truck loaded with sheep wool in a small town.

At a town where we were scheduled for lunch, the restaurant was closed. While driving around to find another restaurant, the driver was stopped by the police for allegedly going the wrong way. He bribed the policeman to prevent getting a ticket. We understand that is common here. So we went to a ger where they were frying cookies.

Then we drove some more. Sometimes when the dirt road had too many ruts or was not passable, you just make a new road beside it. 

Several times we had to ford a stream. Fortunately the water was never more than a foot deep where we drove across.

Here is where we had dinner. The 4-year old boy took a liking to me, and enjoyed showing me his books.

Milk and cookies

Butter

Boiling the dumplings

We drove to sand dunes in a nearby desert. John climbed up and ran down. His left knee did ok. The sand was a cushion as he ran.

We went to a ger where we stayed for the night. Our third ger for sleeping.

At this ger there were herds of sheep and goats. The man of the house used a dirt bike to work the herds.

Thursday October 6.

The next morning we drove back to Ulaanbaatar. There were some snowflakes in the air. In that city, there are restrictions on driving in the central part of town during the week days. If your license plate number ends in 1 or 6, you can’t drive on Monday; if it ends in 2 or 7, you can’t drive on Tuesday; and so on. So we had to switch cars once we got to the outskirts because of the license plate on the jeep.

Back at Zaya Hostel. Here is the kitchen, and a picture of Anand, the co-owner, with us.

The next morning we flew back to Beijing, from Chinggus Khaan airport, which has a terminal with only four gates. In Beijing we joined the Grand Circle Travel group for three weeks in China.