Mongolia - Page 2

Mongolia & Beijing Snaps - Page 1 - Page 2 - Page 3




	We started work the following morning at the Erdene-zuu Tibetian Monastary, a bright sunny but cold (- 32) day. It seemed so much warmer inside the unheated temple rooms with snow leaking in around the windows and doorways. We got interupted after lunch with an invite to the Museum Director's son's gert (tent), out on the steppes, for the final 'mares milk' and branding of the season. After driving over grassy hills and dales we came across several gerts and a corral. Sheep and cows grazed upon the hillsides and most of the horses were teathered for branding.




		It was a marvelous experience of timlessness. Life and the weather is very harsh out there. The children seemed tough, with the youngest, at 2, looking like a herdsman. As darkness and the cold set in we moved inside for some local food. The mares milk was fresh, from the mares of course, but there was also a soft and delicous curd cheese also. Besides the usual Vodak we also had fermented mares milk called 'erik'. We also had Mongolian salad - coldslaw, noodle soup and the ever present mutton supplimented with horse meat and treats of white fat.