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Hotel: Steppe Nomads Camp (Mongolia)
Our new guide greeted us this morning. His name was Baggy and would be our guide for the next few days, it would just be my wife and I so we ended up with a private tour! We would be going out to one of the tourist ger camps for a few days to get the feel of traditional Mongolian life. On the way out of town we stopped at Gandan Monastery, one of the few to remain open during the communist era. This is still a functioning monastery with yellow and red-robed monks chanting prayers. The camp was a few hours drive east of the capital. The roads were in excellent condition (newly paved by the Japanese), and once we left town the barren landscape of treeless grassy hills continued to the horizon. We soon turned offroad to the camp, and ended up getting lost several times as the plain was crisscrossed with tracks, none of them were labeled. It was our guide's first time out to this camp, so he wasn't familiar with the route. We finally found the right route after asking some locals, the setting of the camp was absolutely amazing right next to the Kherlen river surrounded by tall hills. A herd of horses was drinking down by the river. There were a half dozen gers setup with a permanent cabin which held the restaurant and bathrooms. No electricity, no cell phone signal, heaven. The Steppe Nomads camp is setup within a wildlife reserve, run by local families. The camp had an expedition to search for the Argali (bighorn) sheep that afternoon, I set out with some other tourists in 4x4s across the plain and up the mountain. We caught a glimpse of some of the sheep as we arrived, but they soon disappeared into the rocks. We clambered up the peak and managed to spot a few more. It was getting dark by this point as we headed down the hill and back to camp. We slept in the ger that night, inside was a simple arrangement of two beds and a wood burning stove. The ger had a center post with 81 spokes radiating outward to meet up with the lattice walls. The entire frame was then covered with heavy felt and a canvas covering. The front door (which always faces south) was painted bright orange with designs.

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