Bayan Ooooooolgi...

Clayton and I should have T-shirts made. They would say, "We went to Bayan Olgi and all we got was a stomach virus." We arrived in Olgi on Saturday night. We decided to check out the town on Sunday, and then we would head out for some hiking and camping on Monday. On Sunday evening though, Clayton made the terrible mistake of taking the invitation of a group of little kids to play some basketball. Next thing you know we're inside their home drinking airag and eating homemade soup. Actually, all of it was really fun and interesting, except the Airag. Clayton had to take a time out on the way home to purge, and then couldn't stop for the next 4 hours and felt ill the whole next day. Unfortunately, that evening I got sick also and then we were in trouble. With both of us feeling not so up to speed, our plans of camping were close to impossible.

We decided to take just a day trip, so that our entire time there wasn't wasted. We knew we wouldn't get another chance to visit this place, and it had been one we had wanted to see since we came to Mongolia.

So in our short time in Olgi we saw a few interesting things. We visited 2 families that hunt with birds - eagle and falcon. We also got to check out some old turkik carved stones from the 6-10th centuries way out in the middle of nowhere. We did some sightseeing around town as well.


Out in these parts you're more likely to see hawks than pigeons. This is a gaggle of them we saw hanging around a garbage dumpster that apparently had something fresh in it.


Now I can say I've actually seen people riding things like this around. I think four out of 5 we saw had "facial flair" - crazy mustaches of some sort seem to be a prerequisite for driving this kind of automobile.


This is a view from a little island in the middle of the river just outside of town. We had to take off our shoes and walk through the FREEZING cold river to get here.


We went to the town market on the day it was closed. It was a labyrinth of metal and wood stalls boarded up, but down one aisle we saw some people sorting through their goods - lots and lots of bright yarn.


This is a man we met that is a traditional Khazakh hunter - they hunt for food with trained eagles. They take them from the nest when they are babies and begin training them when they are one year old.


This is my favorite photo from the trip, a close up of the man and the bird - both looking impressive!


Here is part of the group of kids that came out to see us as we looked at the bird. They stared a lot, smiled a little, and each one shook our hands!


Here's Clayt with one of the Turkik stones. We hired a driver who took us out to see this. Its amazing to see something so old and historic just out in the open with nothing around for miles. Actually, one little boy did ride by on his horse, but he only stuck around for a few minutes.


We stopped outside another family's home and people literally came running out to see us. They had 2 falcons, and everyone gathered around to watch us take photos of them. Its strange to feel like such a spectacle. We couldn't talk to them as we don't speak Khazakh, so all we could do is smile at them as they stared.


These two enjoyed our reaction as they perched the falcons on their bare hands, and even posed for a photo for us.


Seeing that we enjoyed his falcons, this guy went behind the wall and popped back up with a big eagle on his arm! I wonder if that made the falcons nervous...


And here is our last view of Bayan Olgi from the airplane - these snow capped mountains are some of the tallest mountains in Mongolia.

2 little random notes - It was interesting (more like a little scary) to take off from a dirt runway in a prop-jet airplane. It was also interesting (more like actually interesting) to hear the muslim call to prayers while we were in Olgi.