GT1: Going to the Gobi

Today we left for the Desert Desert (since Gobi means desert...). We had arranged to be picked up in front of the Gandam Temple at 9:00, as the temple is right beside the guesthouse and 9:00 is a reasonable hour. So, at 9:00, our jeep arrived with our driver, Baatar Joe and our guide, Tseegi. Baatar Joe doesn't speak very much English, but proved to be very fun to have around nonetheless, and his knowledge of the terrain was very impressive. Tseegi is a 20 year old student who speaks Mongolian, Russian, English and Japanese (in order of proficiency). After introductions, we boarded the jeep and quickly went to the travel agency to pay the balance. Then we were off!

Our Russian jeep.

Once out of Ulan Bator, the roads become much less well.... road-like. They're more like trails, hence the need for our sturdy Russian Jeep. When lunch time came around, we stopped at some small sand dunes that had some horses grazing nearby. Before lunch, we explored the sand dunes and watched the horses. Very relaxing!

A village be passed by.


Some horses doing... erm... something?


Emily and Tseegi.


A bird (click on picture to enlarge).

Rhubarb!!!


The sand dunes and I.

The dunes and a nasty-looking sky.

Our lunch was very delectable. We had Kimbap, bread, sausage, many things to put on bread and vegetable to nibble on. This was followed by desert; a container filled with dried fruit and some candy. Yum!

After our dinner, we had some more time to explore. I came across a strange looking fenced-in area where they seemed to be doing experiments with... well.... pine trees!

Sign at the fenced-in area.


Baby pine tree?

Once lunch and exploration was finished, we headed to Kustai National Park, one of the last places that still houses wild ponies. I mean donkeys! Oh no! Horses....! Yea.... right.... (they looked more like donkeys to us, but don't say that to any Mongolian!!!)

Ironically, the only "wild horses" that we saw were in a fenced-in area for treatment!

After Khustai, we drove a few kilometers to setup camp. After setup, we went exploring once again while dinner was being prepared. We were rewarded by finding some semi-wild horses (most of the animals in Mongolia are semi-wild, since they are just left to roam in search of food).

The semi-wild horses and I.


The landscape.

During dinner, the park ranger came to our camp to tell us that we weren't suppose to be camping here. but it was alright anyway. We invited him to share our borsch, and he accepted. He even cleaned a sheep skull I found while roaming!

After supper, we decided to amuse ourselves with rocks. After some target-practice games, we built an impressive (if unstable) tower. I wonder if it's still standing?

Building....


...and done!

Graham, Emily, Tseegi and I concluded the night playing dice. And that's the end of day one of the Gobi Tour!