Sunday, July 20 - Finally Home!

The adventures continued today, but we were able to get a Frontier Airlines flight home, leaving at 11 a.m.

We spent the three hour-wait in the airport organizing some of the photos from the vacation, then boarded the flight for home.

Things were really looking up! The flight was uneventful, and we went to reclaim our luggage before picking up the car and heading for home. We grabbed our first three bags, then waited and waited, and--you guessed it! Our last, and largest, piece of luggage didn't come home from LA with us.

After nearly an hour and half of getting all of that straightened out, Frontier promised to send us our luggage--if they could find it somewhere.

We headed for home, finally arriving in Akron at about 6:30 p.m. A couple of hours later we got a phone call telling us our luggage had taken a later flight, and would be shipped via FedEx on Monday.

It was good to sleep in our own beds after the last couple of days. This was an amazing trip, and it was too bad that the trip home ended up being so difficult.

We hope our readers have enjoyed hearing about our adventures in Mongolia. It was the trip of a lifetime for us.

Saturday, July 19 - Who knew airline travel could be so fun!

This has been another day to remember! The day was 39 hours long, and the last few of those hours were not very fun.

Erdene arrived at the hotel early this morning! He had never been on time throughout the entire trip, but we expected and accepted that. He had promised us last night he wouldn’t be late, because he knew getting to the airport on time was very important. He didn’t disappoint!
We got to the airport at about 9:30 a.m., after doing a little bit of wandering so Daryl could get some final pictures of the city.

A billboard, in both alphabets, advertising Valley irrigation

We said a very sad goodbye. I was surprised at how close to the surface the tears were, but I didn’t let them fall. This family has been our constant companion for the past two weeks, and we could not have asked for more gracious, wonderful hosts. We had made some very good friends, and we don’t know when we’ll see them again. We offered an invitation to come and see us, and we will show them Colorado like they shared Mongolia with us.

Erdene, holding Khuslee, Annette, Bolor, and Daryl at the airport

We got checked into our flight (all the bags were the right weight this time!), and headed to the gate for a short wait before our flight to Beijing, which left at 11:25 a.m.

This was a short flight, just two hours, and I had a very pleasant visit with the gentleman next to me for much of the flight. He was from New Zealand, and had been in Mongolia since May setting up a tour company. I found it reassuring that he hadn’t picked up any of the language, either, and he had spent two full months there!

We had to go through immigration and security in Beijing, but our checked luggage had been sent all the way through to Los Angeles from UlaanBaator, so we didn’t have to worry about that. This airport is very nice, with everything built new in preparation for next month’s Olympics. We didn’t have any trouble finding things to do to fill our eight-hour wait.

We ate lunch at a very nice little café, and we were able to get wireless internet there, so went back for a couple of hours after some wandering and exploration.

We got on our flight at 8:30 p.m., and we were glad to see we didn’t have a seatmate so we could spread out a little for the long night ahead.

The flight to Los Angeles was 12 hours long and was pretty uneventful. We were offered a choice of Chinese or Western breakfast a couple of hours before landing. We wondered why Air China thought a pea omelet and a hot dog were a typical Western breakfast!

When we got to LA, we knew we had a very short window to get our bags, go through immigration, get through security, and catch our next flight. After booking this trip, Delta moved the return flight up 45 minutes, and that may not be enough time.

Things started out poorly. Our plane sat on the ramp, within view of a gate, for over 30 minutes before finally being allowed to disembark. We’d lost 30 minutes of our 1:45. We got through immigration with a little glitch, although it didn’t affect our schedule. They didn’t show that Daryl had left Beijing on this flight! Our official had a sense of humor about all of this, and got us through without any hassle, and it hadn’t cost us any time because bags were still not coming off the carousel. Ours did come fairly quickly, but another 20 minutes had passed. We went through our final immigration checkpoint, and a very helpful young man from TSA explained a shortcut across the airport to the Delta terminal, which was clear across the airport in a different terminal.

We hurried through with our cart piled high with bags, but got there five minutes too late. The flight had closed, and we couldn’t check in. That began a long saga of trying to get on any other flight on Saturday night, but every airline’s last flight was at 8:30, and that didn’t leave us much time again. A young lady from Delta explained our best bet was Frontier, but of course Frontier was in a different terminal building. We rushed over there, bags piled as high as a small Volkswagen, only to find that the Frontier staff had already left for the day, 45 minutes before their last flight was leaving!

We trudged back across the airport to Delta, and another very helpful lady there did a bunch of checking for us, and finally found a flight with two seats left that was leaving at 10:40 the next morning. The catch was, we needed to go to Frontier first for authorization (very long story!!) and then come back to Delta to check in. Boy, do we know LAX by now.

She guided us to a bank of lodging phones downstairs, and we began the process of trying to find a room for the night. We struck out our first three calls, but the young man at the third hotel gave me a number to the Radisson LAX, which he thought still had rooms. They did! We paid a fortune, but at this point didn’t care. We went out to catch the shuttle, but of course forgot which of the four hotels we had talked to actually gave us a room. We caught the wrong shuttle. That was fixed quickly, after a quick phone call and the offer of a nice tip. This shuttle driver dropped us off at someone else’s hotel, and we at least knew what the next few hours would hold.

We checked in, went up to the top floor restaurant for a very nice dinner, and then came back to the room. A call to Expedia, who we had used to book this flight, got things straightened out for us. If we had just called Expedia immediately when we reached the closed Delta flight, we might have been able to catch that Frontier flight Saturday night and get home on time. Oh well. We’ll get home late Sunday afternoon, and be able to laugh about all this later.

Friday, July 18 - Visiting Erdene and Bolor's Home

During the night, I heard it begin to sprinkle outside, and knew that the roof opening to our ger was partially open. I worried about things getting wet, but almost immediately heard the camp staff pulling the cover over the top of our ger. What service!

We slept in this morning, not waking until almost 8:30. The ger is so cozy, and is so effective at keeping out the light, that we just slept much later than we realized.

When we got up, there had been some excitement in the camp. Last night we had seen someone from the camp staff leading a large black pit bull around, and had commented to Erdene and Bolor how disliked those dogs are in the U.S. We told them they are frequently bred as fighters, and they can be very dangerous dogs.



They learned what we meant this morning. The pit bull attacked a stray dog that wandered into camp, and as they do, would not let go. Spraying the dog with water finally convinced it to let go, and the other dog limped away.



We went up to the restaurant for breakfast, and were in for another surprise. The breakfast menu only contained four items, which we knew. Two were sandwiches, one was sausage and eggs with bread, and the other was a kind of egg roll with sausage. They didn’t have bread and they didn’t have sausage, so they couldn’t make anything on the breakfast menu! We decided it was probably time to move on.



We packed up our things and a young man from the camp staff carried our bags down to the car for us. We headed down the road to find breakfast at another camp. We found a very nice place to eat, but they weren’t ready to serve at that time (10:00 a.m.) because they were cleaning. They invited us to wait outside for a short time, and they would serve us breakfast.
We found a shady spot in the shadow of a statue, and after about half an hour they called us into a very large, very beautiful dining ger. Our breakfast was already prepared and waiting for us on the table.

This is the camp where we ate breakfast.

After breakfast, we headed back into UlaanBaator, and asked Erdene to stop at a cemetery we had seen earlier. It is always interesting to us to see how burial customs vary in different places, and this was an interesting stop.

The people are buried differently here, depending on what tribe they come from. Ethnic Mongolians are buried underground like we were, but one of the tribe buries only above ground. Families provide all the care for the cemetery, and parts of this one were in terrible shape--graves caved in and monuments fallen down.

The cemetery where we visited. These are some of the raised graves we saw.

We then went back to the hotel. We spent some time in the hotel and Daryl did some shopping at the Sky Store, then Erdene picked us up for dinner at their apartment at about 5:30.


We had never been to their apartment before, but we knew from our conversations that most residents of the city live in apartments, and that despite being only about 20 years old, their building was in poor repair. I think we were still a little surprised at how rundown the outside of the building was. Erdene and Bolor had created a nice home inside, though, and we enjoyed a delicious home-cooked meal. We visited and shared pictures from the vacation before Erdene’s brother, his wife, and little daughter brought us back to the hotel.


We will be leaving the hotel at about 9 a.m. tomorrow morning for the last time. We begin the long journey home, and should arrive there very early Sunday morning.

Thurday, July 17- Visiting the Mountains

We got all our bags packed this morning and ready to check out of the hotel. We packed in such a way that all we need for the rest of the trip is one of our small bags. We jockeyed everything around to get the weight distributed right, then headed downstairs. Daryl went to get some supplies for lunch at the Sky Store while I finished some last minute things in the room.

Erdene was supposed to pick us up at 10:30, but it was a little after 11:30 when he finally showed up. We got into the car and headed out the same direction was had gone when we went to Choibalsan. We were headed to a National Park in the mountains just outside of the city. The trip only took about an hour.

As we entered the park, it reminded us very much of the Colorado foothills. We looked for place to have a picnic lunch, and found a table on the side of a hill. We hiked the short distance up there, and enjoyed a lunch of bologna sandwiches, chips, pickles, and olives.

There were many tourist camps along the road, and after driving nearly to the end of the road, we turned around to find a place to stay. The first couple of places didn’t work out, but the one we finally settled into was beautiful. It was nestled up against the mountains, pretty far off the beaten path. We each checked into a ger, and then went up to the restaurant and had a drink and enjoyed the beauty of the view.

After visiting for quite some time, we returned to the gers, and took naps. Daryl climbed to the top of the mountain behind the camp and took a lot of pictures, before returning to lay down. At 7 p.m., we went back to the restaurant and enjoyed dinner on the patio.

Khuslee had found a new little friend to play with, and the two boys played while the rest of us napped, and through part of dinner as well.

After dinner, we pulled some chairs out of the gers and sat around outside ours and visited and watched the moon come up over the mountains to the east.

Sunday, July 13 - Singing with a Member of Parliament

When Erdene arrived to pick us up this morning, he explained that we would wait until Monday to return to UlanBator, but we would leave very early and make the whole trip in one day. We stopped at the internet café, where all three of us checked our e-mail and caught up a little with things back at home.

We then drove over the apartment of Bolor’s sister, Actaa. Bolor introduced us again to Actaa, who we had seen on the roadside in UlanBator as we were leaving, and to her husband, Enkhbaatar and their 16-year-old son, Misheel. Actaa covered the living room table with food, a custom we had come to expect everywhere we went, and we enjoyed visiting with this family.

Actaa is a secondary school principal, and Enkhbaatar works for a project that is finding jobs for herders, as well as helping fund small businesses. He studied in Russia, and his degree is in Russian literature. Erdene explained that Actaa and Enkhbaatar were both his teachers when he was in secondary school.

Misheel is a student at a private school in UlanBator that emphasizes Japanese. He had earlier studied at a Turkish school. He was very quiet, but we learned that he loves American basketball, and was familiar with the Denver Nuggets players. Daryl promised to take him to a Nuggets came if he ever comes to Colorado.

Misheel, Enkhbaatar, Annette, Daryl, and Actaa

From there, we went to the flour company where we met up with Bolorchulun and his party and headed into the countryside again, this time east. All of our other ventures into the countryside had been to the west.

We traveled to a ger camp by the Kherlan River. When we got there, we were introduced to a member of the Mongolian Parliament representing Choibolson, the Minister of Culture, a woman famous across Mongolia for her dancing, and two musicians, one a nationally reknowned actor/singer, and the other a businessman named Baterdene who was maybe the most talented musician I have ever seen!

We walked across the camp to a ger on a raised platform. We entered, and everyone had a seat and the visiting, eating, and drinking began. This member of Parliament had served four years as governor of the aimag, Dornod, and then four years as Minister of Justice, before being elected to serve his first four-year term in Parliament. In the elections held right before we arrived, he was elected to a second four-year term. The Parliament member, Bolorchulun, Bolor, and Erdene

His English was pretty good, as he had visited the U.S. twice, once to Denver and once staying in Maryland when he visited Washington D.C.

He and Bolorchulun had grown up as neighbors, as had one of the musicians, Baterdene. He had wanted to meet with the Americans, and thanked us several times for the friendship with Bolorchulun and for visiting the eastern part of Mongolia, which very few foreigners, except aid workers, do. He explained that although Bolorchulun is not a politician, he is very respected and powerful and his support helps politicians gain power in Choibolson. Daryl was presented with an autographed watch as a thank you gift. Everyone laughed and said that if we had trouble at the border, we could just show the watch!

We were entertained throughout the afternoon by the musicians and dancer, as well as most everyone else in the ger. Bolorchulun explained that he had originally taught Baterdene how to play, but that he had surpassed the teacher many years ago. This man was amazing! He could play anything, and played and sang extremely well. The best part, though, was that it was so obvious that he so thoroughly enjoyed what he did.

The Minister of Culture takes his turn on the guitar - playing "Wipe Out!"

Bolorchulun shows us his skills as a musician

The actor/singer and Parliament member perform together

The dancer performs for us. She had wanted to change into costume, but no facilities existed for her to do that.

The member of Parliament, the Minister of Culture, Bolorchulun, the dancer, and even Erdene picked up the guitar at one time or another and played. Music is such an important thing to Mongolians, and this was a very entertaining afternoon. Bolorchulun told the group that I also love to sing, and invited me to sing, which I did. After singing "God Bless American, Baterdene asked what he could play that I could sing. He knew everything, and I told them I never could have imagined sitting in a ger in rural Mongolia singing Stevie Wonder to a member of Parliament! We all got a good laugh out of that.

Some of Bolorchulun’s friends were outside preparing a Mongolian barbecue, and it smelled delicious. It didn’t disappoint, and we ate an absolutely delicious meal of barbecue lamb. Shortly thereafter, the dignitaries left, and the rest of us moved outside to the barbecue area and enjoyed some more visiting and singing. The cook, Enkhbayer, was also a boyhood friend of Bolorchulun’s, and an officer in the Border Patrol. He was assisted by a man we had spent much of our time with, Erdenelkham, who also was a boyhood friend, and a staff member of the flour company.

Baterdene enjoying "Stumbling In" at the barbecue

Enkhbayer, Bolorchulun and Baterdene enjoy some more music

It was a beautiful evening, standing right by the river, enjoying good company and good food. Eventually, though we had to leave, and we took some pictures before once again saying goodbye. We are leaving very early tomorrow morning, so we will not see most of these men again.

Baterdene, Bolorchulun, Enkhbayer (the cook), Daryl, Annette Erdenelkham, Enkhbayer (the engineer), and Erdene

We started back into Choibolson, but stopped by a settlement just outside the city to visit Bolor’s parents. As we pulled into their home, a group of boys was playing basketball. Misheel was in this group, and Bolor introduced us to three more of her nephews, all 15 and 16 years old. Her sister came out to meet us, and we entered the house to meet her parents. They are living for the summer in the home of her brother, because they are retired and love to garden.

This family lives in a house, the first people we had met who do. They had a very large garden in the backyard, as well as some fruit trees. As usual, the minute we sat down food and drink began to appear. They were very friendly, and we enjoyed a short visit before we had to leave.

Bolor stands behind her parents and in the middle of four of her nephews. Her sister holds the little girl, and Erdene is at the right.

We returned to the hotel, and prepared to leave eastern Mongolia the next morning. We are going to tour the area where the irrigation systems are before traveling hard the rest of the day.

Monday, July 14 - A Day on the Road

We rose early this morning and packed for the trip back to UlanBator. We left the hotel at about 7 a.m., gassed up the car and went to pick up Bolor and Khuslee at Actaa’s apartment. With that done, we headed west, where we would meet Bolochulun at the wheat farm. This was about 70 kilometers from Choibolson.

When we got to the farm, Daryl, Erdene, Bolorchulun, Enkhbayar, Baterdene, and the farm manager toured the various fields where the irrigation systems were that Daryl had sold. He answered some questions about the systems, and then we were back on the road. We had spent 2 and a half hours at the farm, and Daryl was very glad we had made that stop.

Bolorchulun with Daryl at the farm
Looking over potato field

As we reached the main road, Bolorchulun’s car pulled over and we pulled over behind it. They pulled out a new bottle of vodka, and toasts were exchanged in friendship and to say goodbye.

We passed through the countryside once more, traveling with more purpose then we had on the trip here. We stopped for lunch at a roadside table next to the Kherlen River, the only such stop we had seen in any of our travels. Erdene boiled some water over the portable stove, and we ate bowls of noodles there by the river.

We were very entertained by Khuslee several times, when Erdene would put a cassette tape in the player and he would sing along quite enthusiastically with the songs he liked. He would seem nearly asleep, then would suddenly jump to life!

After 14 and a half hours of travel, we were back in Ulan Bator and the Chinngis Khaan Hotel. We said our goodbyes, and agreed to spend the next day just relaxing before getting back together for dinner.

Saturday, July 12 - A day with the herders and a fantastic feast

We woke up to a beautiful morning. Everything was fresh from the rains. Daryl had gotten pretty wet the evening before, and the clothing we had hung up to dry was as wet as when he took it off. He had to put wet jeans back on, but they would dry as the day went on.
Bataa, Davaa, and another herder were herding the horses near our ger when we went outside.

Our bathroom - the toilet and sink!

They were singling out specific horses, and Daryl went out closer and actually helped a little. When he came back, he commented that he thought they might be sorting out horses for us to ride later. Everyone knows how much I love to ride horses, so this could be an interesting development! Delgermaa, Nergui and Nandintsetseg brought breakfast to us, consisting of hot water for coffee, bread and jam, cheese slices and some fried breads. Bataa came in and joined us for a little bit towards the end of our meal. It was all very good.

Puba and his father, Bataa, join us for breakfast

We had just finished breakfast when Bataa indicated that he wanted Daryl to ride a horse. He helped him on, and then led him for a pretty lengthy ride up the mountain. Davaa, Nandintseteg , Delgermaa, Puba and I followed them on foot.

Bataa leading Daryl for his ride up the mountainside.

The grass was very tall and still wet, and walking was a little difficult for me at times, but it didn’t slow the other three down at all! Davaa hung back with me, and we enjoyed a very companionable walk. When I tried to climb up the mountain, my slick sandals made it very difficult. They were so wet my feet kept slipping all over, so I took them off and tried to climb barefooted. There were enough rocks that this didn’t go so well either, so I finally gave up about halfway up. We turned around, and I indicated to Davaa that he didn’t have to stay with me, but could join the others. He just gave me a big grin and shook his head no, pointing back down.

Top Picture - Dawaa and Puba on our walk

Bottom Picture - Dawaa and Nandintsetseg on our hike up the mountain

We took our time walking back to the camp area, and I took him to our ger to show him the pictures on our laptap. He was very delighted at all the pictures, especially the ones that showed him in the race from the days before. When the others joined us, we all crowded around and watched the pictures again. This scene would be repeated many times throughout the day, as others joined our party and wanted to see the pictures.

Daryl and Bataa returned from their ride, and Bataa helped me get up on the horse. Poor horse and poor Bataa! This old lady didn’t handle that very gracefully, and we all had a great laugh when I got off. Before I dismounted, Puba crawled up behind me, and that three year old boy was clearly much better at all of this then I was.

Bataa holds the horse for Annette and Puba

After that, Daryl and I went for a walk across the countryside. This is such a beautiful land, reminding us a lot of the sandhills of Nebraska. Everything is so green, and the rolling hills are mesmerizing. As we returned to the camp area, they were signaling us that lunch was ready.
We went to Bataa and Nergui’s ger and went inside for lunch. The ribs we were served were very fatty, but Daryl enjoyed those and I ate mostly bread and jam.

We went back to our ger for a nap, but not long after we heard vehicles approaching. Erdene’s brother Bolorchulun along with many people from the Dornod Guril flour company, probably 10 or 12 people in all, were arriving. Bolorchulun had brought a freshly slaughtered sheep in the back of his Land Cruiser, which they unloaded and began the process of butchering.

The butchering process is shown in the pictures below.

It was pretty amazing to watch how all of these women who hold professional positions in the flour company just dug in and cleaned out stomach contents, intestines, and separated out and prepared every part of that sheep. There was nothing wasted, and it was quite a process to observe. The only thing that Daryl and I found disturbing was the number of flies that covered everything!

The men doing the butchering were also professionals from the company, and they clearly knew exactly what to do with that sheep, as well. This is a country that expects everyone to know how to survive its remoteness and to use its resources.

While the butchering was going on, Bolorchulun indicated he wanted to visit our ger. Just the three of us went there, and his lack of English and our lack of Mongolian made visiting very difficult. We shared a glass of vodka, and then we pulled out the computer again and looked at pictures. You don’t need words to look at pictures, and he seemed to especially enjoy ones of the horse racing.

Shortly thereafter Erdene arrived with his mother, and Bolorchulun’s three children. Erdene’s wife Bolor, and their son Khuslee had stayed in Choibolson to visit her family. The festive atmosphere of the afternoon was wonderful, and people passed in and out of both gers visiting, eating, and enjoying the beautiful afternoon.

The men were preparing a traditional Mongolian barbecue with the sheep. The meat was placed in a large milk can, along with vegetables, water and seasoning. Hot stones were then added, and the can was placed over a fire and occasionally pulled off and rolled around on the ground.

The organ meats had been prepared separately, and were offered as an appetizer several hours before dinner. Daryl enjoyed the heart, but not the other treats offered. I played chicken, and wandered away to watch Puba and Tushig play on Bataa's motorcycle.

Tushig, who always knows what to do with a set of keys, would turn the motorcycle to on (it didn’t start), and he would lean forward over the bike making motor sounds and playing with the throttle. Puba, meanwhile, was on the back behind him with his crop beating the motorcycle to make it run faster. Those little boys played together all day, and had a wonderful time doing all the things little boys do. They were so fun to watch!

Finally the barbecue was ready, and the table and carpets were moved outside our ger for the feast. Everyone gathered around, 20 in all, and we began the meal of lamb, potatoes, carrots, pickled mushrooms, pickles, and bread. Toasts were offered by both Bolorchulun and Daryl.

Bolorchulun offering a toast
Erdene, Annette, Daryl, Bolorchulun, and Erdene and Bolorchulun's mother

Some workers from the flour company who were there were also very accomplished musicians, and they changed into traditional Mongolian costume to entertain us with instrumental and vocal music. I sang “God Bless America” and the national anthem, with Kherlen explaining the meaning of these two songs. She had told me earlier that the national anthem was her favorite thing when she was in America, so it was why I chose to sing that.

Several of the numbers that were played were known by everyone, and they all joined in and sang.

The clouds were moving in again, and everyone joked about Daryl, “the rainmaker,” being so good for their pastures. It had rained every night since he’d been here!

A picture of some of our friends at the picnic
Sisters Khaliun and Kherlen
A worker from the wheat farm, Erdenelkham, and Bataa enjoy one of Daryl's cigars.
Tushig and Puba continue to play through the picnic
Khaliun and Davaa were among many who took the chance to ride horses during the picnic

Throughout the feast, I noticed that we had our pictures taken probably hundreds of times. Everyone had out cameras and cell phones, and we were the object of much attention.
As I mention cell phones, I should say that we all laughed throughout the day about the phone booth. In order to get cell phone service, you had to ride a horse or motorcycle to the top of the mountain to get reception. Many people did this, and we joked quite a bit about someone using the phone booth.

Erdene returning from the phone booth.

As the evening drew to a close, we regretfully said goodbye to everyone. We knew this might be the last time we ever saw many of these people, and they had treated us so warmly that we felt like we were leaving friends.

We traveled back into Choibolson with Erdene and his mother. Daryl drove most of the way this time. The trip was much shorter than the trip out, since Erdene now knew where he was going! We laughed most of the trip, with the language barrier with Erdene’s mother having no impact on our ability to enjoy each other’s company. As they dropped us off at the hotel, I exchanged kisses and hugs with her, and again said a sad goodbye.

Erdene and his mother

We returned to our hotel room, and Daryl enjoyed hot water again, taking a shower before bedtime. Plans for tomorrow are uncertain. We were originally scheduled to start the trip back to UlanBator tomorrow, but that may change. We’ll see what happens tomorrow.