Tuesday, July 8 - Starting the 400-mile trek and our first night in a ger

We left the hotel shortly after 11 a.m., and headed out of town. As we reached the edge of UlanBator, the houses and buildings began to look of poorer quality. We stopped at a small supermarket, and Daryl and I waited outside while Erdene and Bolor went in. When they came back, they had a box of beer, which we had to somehow manage to squeeze into the very crowded luggage compartment of the SUV.

As we got farther away from the city, the roads became rougher and rougher. We had to dodge huge potholes many times, and occasionally met a car that was completely on our side of the road. Gers became the most prevalent structures we were seeing. Livestock roamed freely on the unfenced grasslands, and consisted of cattle, sheep, goats and horses. A couple of times we also saw camels.

As early afternoon came, we stopped at several places that we thought might have food for sale, but we kept striking out. There are very few established settlements, and those that were there didn’t have much but gers (yurts). At one stop, we saw an enormous metal statue of Chinggis Khaan, but no food.

We finally found lunch at a town that was inhabited almost exclusively by employees of a large coal mine nearby. We had traditional Korean food there, and our table was covered with two pots of soup and about a dozen plates and bowls of various foods. Some of them we recognized, and some we didn’t, but we tried them all.


We eventually ran out of paved roads, and turned onto dirt roads for the remainder of the trip. These dirt roads were not like those at home, but were more like pasture trails. Sometimes it was hard to tell what road to take, but Erdene said you just follow the power poles to get where you’re going. No matter how bad the road got, Erdene never slowed down. We thought driving in the UlanBator traffic was bad, but this was an all new experience!




Eventually we reached the tourist ger camp where we had reservations for the night. Upon parking our car, a young lady in the traditional blue silk robe of welcome presented each of us with a bowl of milk to welcome us to the camp. We were taken to our gers, and then the young ladies from the camp delivered our luggage to our homes for the night.









We were told that this camp does not get foreign tourists, just Mongolians who come to take advantage of the lake nearby which is supposed to have a high mineral content that has healing benefits. We walked over to the lake, and then returned back to our gers for a short time before going to the dining ger for dinner. We were served a traditional Mongolian meal of beef cooked with vegetables. We were eating late, and were the only people in the ger, and the young man who served us was very attentive.




After dinner, we returned to our ger where Daryl and Erdene drank Mongolian vodka and discussed business. A short time later we were joined by Khuslee and Bolor for more visiting about the next day’s plans. There will be few settlements before we reach Choibolson tomorrow night, so planning for meals has to be done ahead of time.


Our ger had a single light bulb which provided adequate light, but restrooms were across the camp about 40 yards, so it was good to plan ahead for that, as well! We retired for the night, each in our own narrow bed, and planned for an early start the next morning. We have a lot of travel ahead of us tomorrow.