A Scenic Tour of Khovd

Well, maybe not the prettiest picture to start a scenic tour with, but at least an interesting one. This is stacked dry fuel patties that families use for heating their stove and ger. They hand make it by taking waste coal (coal crumbs and ash) and mixing it with what our translator calls "fecals." The result is something that is less harmful that pure coal, cheaper, and burns odorlessly.


One family we visited had 2 cute baby goats that were running all over the place. During the interview, one even hopped inside the ger and started to eat the tablecloth covering a small table in the corner. This one we saw outside just before we left. It hopped onto the pile of linens seen in the picture and proceeded to produce "fecals" of his own.


Like all good summertime cookouts, there has to be at least 2 people manning the grill. In this case, our grill was a metal milk crate filled with sheep meat, carrots, potatoes, water, salt and very hot rocks. "Khorkhog" - our favorite mongolian food!


One of the before mentioned "Sleepy Towns."


Here I am along the main river right outside of the Aimag center where we had the khorkhog picnic.


This is Mr. Batsukh with Clayton. Mr. Batsukh was our guide throughout Khovd, and was a real people person. Even though we couldn't communicate very well, he seemed to like us and the feeling was mutual.


At least we can end this post with a nice view. In Khovd we saw small town after small town, and one beautiful landscape after another. - the places we saw and the people we met - it was a trip where we exercised a full range of emotions, to say the least.