Zaya Guest House Ulan Bator

... Beloved, Happiness and Blessed I cannot resist and end up buying something. We land up at a herder family Ger around lunch-time. Mrs. Herder makes us tea, Mongolian style: water, tea leaves, hot milk and salt, served with home-made bread and slices of curd. All much nicer than it sounds. We drink our tea and discuss the horse-riding. I had been told that there is a great tradition of hospitality amongst the nomadic people and they will welcome any ...

... of the capital (not even the country’s second city a normal road going to it!) so most of the time we were offroad on some ridiculously bumpy dirt tracks. We hadnt been driving long when we spotted seven or eight MASSIVE vultures by the side of the orad feasting on a sheep carcus. I’d never realised the were that big, I reckon they could have picked up Sarah if they’d wanted. Our first proper stop was at one of the national parks where the wild ...

... might add, though again, if first impressions made any impressions on me, I would hate the place, and be disgruntled with its inhabitants, buddhism and police. But they do not. And I am not. Why don't I start at the beginning. We have arrived in Mongolia, early, after a good nights sleep. We stood at the Russian-Mongolian border for around 4 hours. We were allowed off the train, which was nice, though there was nothing to see, but the big old Russian style yellow ...

... back from Gobi. <br><br>· There are no set work hours for an employee and there is no suck thing as overtime. An employee will work for as long as their employer tells them they have to, no suck thing as an 8-hour workday. <br><br>· Mongolian's do not do what we in the states would call "grind". In fact they barely dance at all together. Everyone just stands in their area and dances by themselves, even in clubs. So it is pretty boring to go out ...

... never guranteed a hot or even warm shower, and I don't shower everyday. At breakfast the leaders were saying happy birthday and that day happened to be Mini Olympics day. So all the kids broke off and did there sports, but the exciting part was during the opening ceremony the camp has giant blow up outfits of the Beijing Olympic mascots, and they let me be the panda. So I got to put on this plastic suit that inflated like a balloon then go down and do funny ...

... saw loads of wildlife along the way including marmots (a large rodent that looks a bit like a beaver), hare&#8217;s, rabbits and sqirrels. We stopped at a small stream to wait for the horses to come to drink, it was excellent just us with no other tourists in sight. In total we saw three herds, pretty close up, beautiful.<br><br>The next day we headed back to UB, I was just beginning to think that I could happily live in Mongolia when we hit the ...

... vodka shot, and asked about our lives as we asked about theirs. The unfortunate "incident" really is not reflective of the Mongolian people, but rather of humanity and its failings as a whole. Stuff like that could happen anywhere, and it's just sad that out of such a tiny population in such a large space, we happened to meet a crazy one.Even the group he was with showed concern for our driver the next day at the police station, and I like to ...

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... lecture series about the difference in psychology between Americans and Mongolians, that appearantly begins pre-natally. So we were screwed from the get-go. Over the duration of our stay in her hostels, little passive-agressive signs began to pop up around the hostel. Reminders for us to turn off the lights when no one is in a room, to wash the dishes you use, to not waste food, to take off your shoes, etc. etc.... These helpful ...

... though seeing something besides camp and the airport. I am curious about what the city center will be like. Then the next time I will have off will be the beginning of July for the Nadaam festival, Mongolia's largest festival. <br> I will try to keep this up as often as I can, feel free to email me to get on my ass about updating it and sending me current events from the US cause I have no idea what is going on in the world outside of camp.<br><br>Best Wishes,<br>Laura<br>