Western Mongolia: Do you hear an echo...echo...echo...

(Here is Clayt conducting one of the many interviews where we went to a Ger, only to find out the man of the house was out herding, so we went out in search of him, and somehow found him! You can just see clayt near the back of the jeep, sitting and conducting research. You can click on photos for a larger view.)

So, I am writing this blog post from the aimag center of Bayan-Olgi, a town called Olgii. Its pretty interesting here. The roads are paved (well the 4 roads they have, that is) and most of the population is Khazakh, or some mix of Khazakh/Mongolian. Its strange to us to walk around and see very few Ger homes and nobody wearing Dells. It makes communicating a little tough, as you aren't sure if you should try to speak Mongolian, English, Russian or Khazakh.

While we travelled around Khovd to different Soums (towns) we
stayed in all kinds of places. Our very first night we stayed in a small sleepy town (they were all small sleepy towns of varying size) where there was no hotel or even a Ger for us to sleep in. So, we spent the night in the Hospital bui
lding, which was under construction repairs. There were no beds, so we slept on the floor on some kind of bed pad things. I wasn't too pleased as I don't care for Mongolian hospitals in the first place... But it was fine. Clayton got sick from drinking Airag at a herder's home and I needed to get some water for him. We went to 3 different shops and not one had bottled water of any kind. Can you imagine a whole town that doesn't have drinkable water? They use the river of course, but I'm not sure if that would have hurt or helped his stomach more.

The next night we stayed in a big concrete Ger - me, clayt, the translator, our aimag guide and the driver - no privacy. Also, the ger top was completely open, and as we were close to the river, the whole place swarmed with mosquitos. We were told to make sure we wore bug spray to bed and stayed covered. In the very nice and very very warm sleeping bags we got from the marings a few chirstmases ago, it made for a sweaty and smelly night. Oh and the driver and guide? They had the worlds loudest and most confounding snore-fest that night - Clayt and I can only describe it as a mix between the sound of power tools and dying opera singers. :)

Then we got the treat of staying in a "hotel" that only had electricity controlled by a generator, so you had no control over when the lights were on or off. No indoor plumbing. They also had a disco bar downstairs that blared unnecessarily loud music until the wee hours on a Monday night.

The following night our accomodations were the town Kindergarten building, I think in a room that was used for "nap time." It had recently been painted, so in case we had trouble sleeping with the dogs barking outside, at least we could pass out from paint fumes... :)

The best place we stayed at was in the aimag center. They took us to a hotel which wanted to charge us $40 a night (which for here, is a ridiculous rip-off) for a room with 2 small twin beds, and no hot water. We said no way. So, our aimag guide found us a girl who had an apartment between renters and we stayed there for $10 a night. It was pretty sweet to have our own little place - no hot water, but we had a hot-pot/tea kettle thing and we made our own hot water. We had a little electric cooler in there too to keep our beers cold. Not bad!

Despite the various confusions, frustrations and dicomforts, there was so much that made it worthwhile. The people were so friendly, and of course the surroundings often left us speechless. The food is never that great, but on the upside we have both slimmed down a little. No complaints there!


Here is one of the pretty views from where Clayton was conducting an interview. It was fun to play photographer while he did his work.


This is the wife and sons of a family that have the best vegetable garden in all of Khovd Aimag - they are award winners! Their garden was full of delicious vegetables and pretty flowers.


2 kids that worked up the nerve to say hello to us early in the morning in a town in the southern part of Khovd. We took their picture, which they thought was really funny, and maybe a little embarassing. Everywhere we go, the little ones love to say Hello, and then either laugh or run away.


This photo Clayton took because its a hard thing to describe without a photo. This man sat across from us in a Russian van we had to take back to the aimag center after our jeep broke down - its transmission broke. Click on the photo to see more closely, but he is wearing very pinkinsh-red lipstick. This is the second time we have seen this, and it confounds us. Our translator theorized that it may be a chapstick substitute, since they don't have any chapstick out in these parts. Still, its a little unnerving when you look over and this guy is staring at you with his bright pink lips all aglow.

More fun details to come, from the comfort of our home in UB a few days from now (that is, if we survive flying out of here from an airport without a paved runway...!) :)