Elsen Tasarhia

 A Mongolian Costco.

 A religious marker.

 The outside and inside of our ger.

A herd of horses having a drink.

 Locals putting up their ger (or yurt).

 Bactrian camels, mine was the evil smiling one.

 A family ger.

 Away we go.

 Gotta love the hairstyle.

 The dunes of the Little Gobi.

 The wind kicked up causing the jaunty angle of the hat.

Saturday, June 30^th.

We had breakfast at the hotel and loaded up the 4x4’s for our 8:30 departure. We have four vehicles, with four travellers per truck and a driver. Two have the steering wheel on the right side and the other two have it on the left side, which indicates that they import cars from countries that drive on the opposite side of the road than Mongolia, who drive on the right.

It took us a long time to clear the city limits as the traffic was chaotic and at intersections there were cars coming at us from all directions. I saw a motorcyclist who had a passenger pass by, come back without the passenger and then pass us again with a policeman on the back and when we finally got to the next intersection the policeman was standing in the middle of the road directing traffic.

We set off in sunshine, but it clouded over during the day. We stopped just outside the city at a Costco-like facility where we could buy drinks and snacks and anything else we needed. I bought toothpaste too. Then we continued on. I was sitting in a vehicle with three American women, Anne from Alabama and her travel companion Dale from Washington state, and Letitia from New York. Three passengers in the back, which means someone has to sit in the middle and because of the close quarters it kind of forces people to talk and it would be pretty rude to listen to the iPod instead, just saying. However, we had some good discussions because we are all travellers and a couple of us were teachers.

We stopped at a Buddhist marker on the side of the road where there was a circular pile of rocks and some of those prayer flags tied to the pole. The faithful walk around the structure three times and leave offerings. Lunch was at a roadside restaurant which was pretty modern and served a good buffet. And then we were off again.

The drive was through pretty desolate, treeless plains where we saw a few gers here and there and a lot of domestic animals, sheep, goats, horses and cows. There are 3 million people in the country and 66 million animals! The country side is quite attractive with its wide open spaces, small mountains and pastel colours, the polar opposite from the lush rainforest of Borneo.

We arrived at our campsite at Elsen Tasarhai, for the night about 3 pm. It was on a dirt road a few miles off the main paved road. It was a complex of about 20 circular white gers, a main eating area and a couple of buildings with modern, clean toilet and shower facilities. We had a little time to move into our ger and get settled.

At 5:15 we met up again for a camel ride. Although I have done a few of these before I decided to go, because these camels were of the two-hump variety and I had yet to ride one of them. A couple of the group opted out but 9 of us went. We were driven to the ger where the family had about 20 camels. We loaded up and went for a walk for about 25 minutes to the nearby sand dunes of the little Gobi Desert. It was quite comfortable sitting between the two humps of the camel, it was like a built-in saddle. We stopped about half way up a dune for a group photo op and then dismounted and climbed the rest of the dune for the view at the top. These were pretty big dunes, but it was a fairly small area. Then the wind picked up and sand was blowing everywhere. We got back on the camels and rode back down.

When we got back to the camp we went for dinner. It was again a buffet with good food. It rained a little bit during dinner. This is an interesting group and I talked to Frederic from Dallas. Then it was off to the tent for the night. The temperature is very pleasant and the smells from the countryside is wonderful. Unfortunately, it was cloudy, so we could not see the full moon or the stars, but I am sure we will in the next day or two.