China post #13 - Elstei Ger Camp

Arriving at Elstei ger camp (a gurrr is the traditional mongolian dwelling, does white, round tent things with a stove inside; quite cosy and roomy, but jaysus they could make the door a tad higher) to discover that Jorge, Luis and the english couples are also there - great, party in our ger that night.

Despite being in the fifth arse (as the spanish say) it all amenities like the bar and restaurant, showers and loadsa horses.

Next day was off for our scheduled stay with a mongolian nomad family. We could see there ger, but they were a few km away, so we mounted up! My first mongolian horse experience and very embarassing as I lasted about 30 seconds before the guide roped my horse as we were heading in the opposite direction (his idea). Stubborn feckers mongolians horses, but we found out later that they have nastier attributes ....

The nomads were salt of the earth types, as you would expect, with an 8 month toddler bumming about who could nearly walk already. Not a word of english, but we had Kho with us she spent the day teaching us to play a game with sheep's ankle bones ... I kid you not. A bit embarassing our stay in a way, as the family had 2 gers - one for cooking and the other for sleeping - the latter they evacuated for our convenience and all squashed in to the former.

We were supposed to help the family with their daily chores, but since this involved being on horseback I wasn't much help to the man of the house, but we did do a bit of cow milking and gathered some dried up cow shite to burn in the stove.

Back to Elstei camp the next day for a quiet night then on to UB to catch our flight north .....