Hello again, Ulan Bator!

After our tour of the Mongolian countryside, we had another 6 nights in Ulan Bator before we were scheduled to head to China.  We definitely had more time in the capital city than we needed, but the time went by quicker than we originally thought it would.  We started our days slow at Zaya Hostel (one of the very best hostels I have ever stayed at--so clean, comfortable, and friendly!), we went to a movie, we meandered through town, we found plenty of playgrounds, and we did research and legwork for our onward travels.  While we were ready to move on by the end, it was nice to know one city really well and have plenty of time to relax.

One of the things we really enjoyed after returning to UB was hanging out with some of the other members of our countryside tour.  Maria and Arthur left right after the tour ended, but Vipasha, Caroline, and Olivier stuck around for a few days.  We ate dinner together every night and did some sightseeing together.  We also checked out the Blue Sky Lounge, at the top of one of the tallest buildings in the capital.  We got there just before sunset and enjoyed the views, cocktails, and each other's company.

Emmett was really proud to order his first mocktail, declaring that he felt "really grown up".

We took a day trip to Terelj National Park with Caroline and Olivier one day, as well.  We walked through a Buddhist meditation center and enjoyed beautiful views of the area and the temple.

These are the prayer wheels that lined the walls outside the temple.

We stopped at Turtle Rock and hiked (sometimes rock climbed) into the turtle-shaped rock mound.

We also stopped at an enormous Genghis Khan statue.  This 40 meter (131 feet) tall monument to the most revered leader of Mongolia was built in 2008 and towers over the surrounding countryside.

We also really liked the smaller statues of soldiers nearby, all designed differently.

After saying goodbye to all our new tour friends, we were the last ones left in UB.  We spent our remaining days at a slow pace, visiting a few more sights and relaxing.  One afternoon we walked through the Winter Palace of the Bogd Khan complex.  The contrast between this historic set of buildings and the new construction of UB that surrounded it was striking.

On the walk there and back we passed this fun set of camel statues.

And we stopped at a local park so the boys could play for a while.  We're all happier when we find playgrounds along the way.

We also visited Naran Tuul (the "Black Market").  The English translation implies illegal activities, but it's actually just a massive market on the outskirts of UB.  We went to the top of a nearby building, from which you could see just a section of the tarps that cover the outside vendors.

Our favorite part was what we called "Ger Mart", where one could buy anything and everything to construct and outfit a ger.

These felt pieces are used to encircle the wooden structure.

We saw lots of vans that were crammed with people coming from and going to the market. It was hard to get a good shot, but this picture gives an example...some of them appeared to have around 15 people inside.

One of our most memorable experiences was eating at a North Korean restaurant, appropriately named Pyongyang.  I'm fascinated by North Korea but it's not on the itinerary this year, so eating in a North Korean restaurant is as good as it will get for now.  I tried a cold buckwheat noodle soup that was really good!

Even better than the food was the performance that the waitresses put on, complete with lots of flashing lights and multiple costume changes.

Here's a fantastic video clip that really highlights the full experience, including what Colin thought of the whole thing....

And with that, our time in Mongolia came to and end and it was time to move on.....to China!

Mongolia Tour, Part 3 (and the final one): Dinosaurs, Camels, and Pikas--Oh my!

We began Day 10 in the area surrounding the Flaming Cliffs.  We found some spots that could have been dinosaur fossils…I’m not a paleontologist, but these definitely look like some kind of bones.

Our driver then went to get a local guy who could show us a dinosaur fossil that was discovered recently.  The locals are quite protective of it, so we had to promise Boogie that we would not publish GPS coordinates or detailed location info for this photo.  Everyone’s goal is to keep it safe until paleontologists come back in the future.

Seeing this in the ground was one of the coolest moments of our trip.

Afterwards we stopped at a nearby ger camp to try archery.  Shooting the bow and arrow was harder than I thought.  Bob was the closest of all of us to hitting the target (a bunch of cans set up in a pyramid).

Colin’s favorite part was chasing after the arrows to return them for the next shooter.

We drove on and stopped in a small village to get some supplies.  We saw a lady selling horse meat from the trunk of her car.  We were all curious if we’d be having fresh horse for lunch, but fortunately for our Western stomachs our cook had not purchased meat there.

We stopped to see the community garden, where residents can rent a plot of land to grow assorted vegetables.  There were watermelons, cantaloupes, peppers, tomatoes, and other vegetables growing, which was pretty impressive given how arid the land is.

Our drive continued on through a mountain pass, where we got out to look for ibex (and, not coincidentally, because one of the vans was overheating).  Emmett was the first to spot 2 ibexes up on the rocky hills.

We passed yet another isolated oboo, where plenty of money had been left as offerings.  Throughout our tour, we were so impressed by the fact that piles of cash just sit on rocks out in the countryside and stay untouched.  It's hard to imagine something similar existing in the US or Europe and the money being there for very long.

We arrived at our first family ger stay in the Gobi later that afternoon.  These were some of the family’s camels!

It was really beautiful to see both sand dunes and camels from our camp.  However, it was extremely windy and so we were not able to do some of the planned activities that evening.  We were able to enjoy the views for a while, though.

After we'd all had enough of the unrelenting wind, we hunkered down in our gers.  It felt like we were riding out a hurricane in a mobile home, and the night became more uncomfortable when Colin got sick and threw up.  Definitely not the most relaxing night in the Gobi.

Fortunately, when we immerged from our ger on Day 11, Colin was feeling better and the wind had subsided a bit…..at least to the point that we weren’t concerned our ger was going to fly off into the Gobi with us in it.

We drove a short distance to Khongor sand dunes.  The highest one in this area is 120 meters/394 feet tall.  The sand moves around quite a bit and when it does it makes noise, so these dunes are also called the "singing dunes".

The flowers and vegetation in the desert were very colorful.

We climbed to the top of a dune, where the wind was blowing quite hard. 

You can see more of the sand dune (and hear how loud the wind was) in this video.

After climbing back down, the boys and Boogie took some silly photos together.  She was a great tour guide and was really good with the boys, always engaging and including them in everything we did.

Then we stopped at the river that runs through this area.  At that time it was quite low, but you could see how high the water might get.

We also stopped in at another family's ger to try camel milk airag (the fermented milk none of us were too fond of).  It was better than the mare's fermented milk...but only slightly.  The husband also offered us all snuff (which was rude to refuse)....this is me pretending to sniff it.

We headed back to our camp, where we took our long-awaited rides on camels!

The boys were particularly excited to ride “two humpers”. 

This video shows how open the area was.  It's a little shaky because I was filming it with one hand (so I could hold on with the other)!

Our second night at this camp was much calmer…..the wind quieted down almost entirely and no one got sick, so we were much more comfortable.  No worries about gers collapsing or children being ill, only the sounds of camels...

On Day 12 we left the family’s camp and headed on to Dungenee Canyon.   We ate lunch there and hiked a little bit. 

The vans just fit through!

From there, we went on to Yoliin Canyon for a hike to the Ice Gorge.  The walls of the canyon are so steep that the water bottom only melts in August.  The rest of the year there's ice everywhere.

Along the way, we saw a lot of pikas (a small mammal related to the rabbit) scurrying back and forth to collect vegetation.

We made a quick stop into a branch of the local museum, where they had more dinosaur fossils on display, including dinosaur eggs.

Our day ended at our fourth (and final) family ger camp.  We played soccer and had our final Mongolian Happy Hour of the tour before completing our culinary exploration of Mongolia by eating camel meat for dinner.

The next day, Day 13, we all got up early to start the trek back to Ulan Bator.  The rest of the group flew back, but we booked our spots on the tour so late that the plane was already full.  So that meant we drove back with the staff instead.  The drive passed pretty quickly since the road back to Ulan Bator was paved the entire way.  The tour advisor had mentioned we’d really appreciate this fact after so many days on bumpy, dirt roads, and he was correct.

We arrived back in UB about dinner time, and after checking in at our hotel we happily showered and met our group for delicious Indian food.  After almost 2 weeks of Mongolian dishes, we were happy for some variety and different flavors.

Our tour in the Mongolian countryside was a really memorable experience.  We saw gorgeous scenery in a part of the world that had previously only existed to us in books (and in name only at the occasional Mongolian BBQ restaurant).  We were amazed by the strength of Mongolian nomadic people, who live in harsh conditions and work very hard with little to rely on but themselves.  We were humbled by their generosity and indomitable spirits.  We made new friends within the tour group and pushed ourselves in new ways (i.e., greatly reduced personal hygiene).  We realized how easy it is to take the creature comforts and conveniences of Western life for granted.  I'm not sure if we'll ever make it back to Mongolia, but the memories from our tour will last a lifetime.

Want to read more about our tour of the Mongolian countryside?  Check out Part 1 and Part 2.