I hope your animals are fattening up nicely - Mongolia 2011

12 days in Mongolia

Moon rise in the Gobi Desert

Horse back riding break on the steppe

Camel riding in the Gobi Desert

Ger roof repair at the Three Camel Lodge in the Gobi 

Future house for Richard Gere in an upcoming
movie about Buddism, Gobi desert

Mongolian super highway - pick a lane!

Russian vans in the Gobi Desert

Ulaanbaater - still very much an industrial city

Three Camels ger in the Gobi Desert

bike goat herder in the gobi desert

 modern sheep herders on the steppe

wild horses on the steppe

The beginning of September I set off for Mongolia, nothing too rugged, I was on a tour to see the best of the country.  The twelve days I spent touring around Mongolia barely scratched the surface, this is a country in transition.  In Ulaanbaatar, the capitol, there are building cranes everywhere one looks.  High end housing is displacing the traditional gers (mongolian for yurt) in the outlining hills.  Expensive stores like Louis Vuitton are opening up to cater to the wealthy mining executives and international bankers that are quickly moving in.  I got the impression that Mongolia was a much different place just two years ago and will be entirely different in two more years.


I had signed up for the REI multi sport tour that was actually lead by Nomadic Expeditions.  Our guides were excellent - funny, knowledgeable and very very proud of their country.  Our days were filled with activities ranging from 10 mile hikes, horse back riding and camel riding. The food was surprisingly good, given everything I had heard about it.  There was lots of high speed driving across open lands, the drivers would race each other while we bumped along inside trying to take photos of the beautiful landscape that was flying by.  I feel that I barely scratched the surface of Mongolia and am already planning my next adventure to western Mongolia.


"Perhaps my children will live in stone houses and walled towns - Not I"  Chinggis Khaan




http://www.nomadicexpeditions.com/
http://www.rei.com/adventures/trips/asia/mon.html


Foot note: "I hope your animals are fattening up nicely" is a popular phase to open conversations up with families in the country.