On the Road! Today we’re off to our first homestay with a host family in a traditional ger. Weather couldn’t be better, mid-60’s, no rain. Eric and our driver, Tugsuu (pronounced, “took sue”) arrive right on time and we’re off. Eric tells us that the drive today will be about 200km on the paved road, and about 100km on the dirt road. Today will be an all-day road trip. We should arrive at our host ger around 4pm.

Not real sure what the difference is between the paved road and a dirt road because there are more potholes than road, beating the crap out of our Furgon Hunter, a Russian van, vintage 2015. Not that it matters, there’s a rattle everywhere and the interior is pretty spartan.

The ride

Collette and I find our spots behind a half-wall separating the driver’s compartment and the “cargo” area. There’s a bench seat, with seat belts, for us, bucket seats for Eric and Tugsuu. Very similar to 1963 Ford Econoline van, if you’ve ever had the pleasure of riding in one. (I owned one and made the move to California in it!) The engine is located inside the cab, no power steering, no power brakes, no power windows, and apparently no way to open the door from the inside. Sounds like a car I owned back in high school. Girls loved it.

Two hours later we’re out of the city. Traffic is a bit of an issue in UB, a city built for 350K and now has 1.7 M people. Amazing how this controlled chaos can create 5 lanes of traffic out of 3 and slim down to 2 lanes in only a block or two.

The first thing I see is a toll gate. No shit, a toll gate! Eric tells me that yes, it is a toll gate but it only costs something like .25USD. Interestingly enough we saw people dodging the gate by driving in the dirt around the toll scanners. Really? .25USD and they dodged the scanner???

Our first look at the Godi desert didn’t look that much like a desert. I was expecting sand dunes and nothing but desolation, instead, there was vegetation, a few homes (Gers), and livestock – mostly sheep, horses, and goats.

We drove for about 1hr on a road that had more potholes than asphalt. We saw two cars and a semi pulled over changing tires due to blow outs from hitting these massive potholes. Fortunately, Tugsuu is a pro driver, been at it for over 20 years and knows these roads like family.

Gobi Desert

Compliments of Curiosity

Wasn’t long until I was praying for asphalt again. The dirt roads here are really unimproved and most offer a number of trails to take. All have serious ruts, potholes, and drop-offs so knowing which one to take is a real science. Sure makes a 5-hour drive seem a lot longer! Time for a coffee break. Eric told me if I show my tourist card, I can get a discount at most stores.

The Gobi

First stop, our host family’s ger. Located pretty much in the middle of no-where, this husband and wife team, Unuruu and Sonio, raise goats and sheep for their livelihood. We entered the ger, as you must when in Mongolia, to the left and not stepping on the threshold. The right side is reserved for the family, left side for visitors, and stepping on the threshold is bad juju. Getting in is by the usual Mongolian hello, “Watch your head”.  Low clearance doorway, especially if you’re 6’2”. Their ger is amazingly spacious and comfortable with a single bed on one side, and a sofa bed on the other. There is a small wood stove in the middle that actually burns dung for heat. Haven’t seen a single tree since leaving Ulaanbaatar! There’s also an altar to Buddha and family pictures on the back wall. Everything is neatly placed on decorated wood boxes used for packing when the family moves their ger, which happens 4 times a year. They must relocate their camp to keep the livestock in an area with good grazing. Mongolians don’t feed their livestock unless it’s an emergency, they depend on natural grasses to feed them.

Ger sweet ger

Host ger inside

Inside our ger

Tough morning

As customary, once we enter the ger, we are offered milk tea, biscuits, and snuff. Yes, snuff. This is a very serious offering. The quality of the snuff container is a sign of wealth and status. One should take the snuff bottle with both hands, carefully rotate the spoon inside a few times, remove it and smell the snuff, take a hit if you like. We chose to just smell the snuff and pass the bottle back.

As good visitors, we brought gifts for the family. We gave them a box of Celestial Tea (made in Colorado), a shopping bag with the Colorado flag on it, meat seasoning, and a Colorado baseball cap. They were quite pleased, and surprised, I don’t think they expected two Americans to follow their tradition.

Time for us to do some exploring so we put our stuff in our ger, then made the 20-minute drive to Ikh Gazriin Chuluu, a rock outcropping some 20 km long with rocky peaks reaching 1706m. This is a sacred area for Mongolians that has special history.  Quickly, the “previous owners” (Ruskies) I mentioned earlier decide in 1939 to destroy all the temples and monasteries in Mongolia. In the process of removing their religion, they also removed their monks. Head monks were shot on sight; all the other monks were either shot or placed on trucks and sent to Siberia or Russia to work camps. None were ever seen again.

There were two monks who escaped this atrocity and hid in Ikh Gazriin Chuluu. They also brought with them the monastery’s religious artifacts and hid them in a cave. The cave today is a sacred site.  Not easy to get to, it is located on a very steep cliff face making the hike up, and down, a bit challenging. But we came all this way so had to see it. It’s a little underwhelming.

The Happy Couple

Back to our ger just in time to help turn out the newborn kids to their mothers. Most of these kids are less than a week old and man are they ready to eat! The moms are being herded back, and the babies are already starting to call to them. Sure sounds like they are saying “Mom” or “Ma”. As soon as the mom’s get here, we release the kids and the search is on. Not long for almost all of the kids to find their moms, only a couple needed help. Dinner is served.

Mom’s at the ready

Race is on!

We have a winner!!!

and we have a loser!!!

Kids are ready

The roundup

Sonio & kids

Speaking of dinner, now it’s our turn. Sonio has created a traditional dinner for us, dried beef with pasta, potatoes, and carrots. It was surprisingly tasty, which was a good thing because the left overs were made into a soup for the next day’s lunch.

looks like dinner

Done for today. The generosity of this family is unbelievable. Almost forgot the most important part. After dinner, Unuruu broke out the vodka. Tradition says he has to serve me first and I should take the drink with my right arm extended, and my left hand supporting my right elbow. Before drinking, I dip my right-hand ring finger into the vodka and flick it to the sky (for the gods). Then I dip my right-hand ring finger again and place the drop on my forehead, for me, then drink the shot. Now my turn to do the same for Unuruu. The other part is, you either do one shot or three shots, never two. Should have told me before I took that second shot, damn!

Now we’re really done for the night. Back on the road tomorrow and hopefully I won’t be so wordy in my summary.