Mongolia - In goat we trust

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Hi ladies and gentleman!! We are not dead, we just had such a great time, that we were actually too busy and lazy to write. So Mongolia in 27 days. Amazing country and difficult to desribe with words. We started with our Russian Minibus 4x4 (we called it Mr. Beans big brother) and Solomon our excellent driver to the south first. Gobi desert with sanddunes, canyons, gorges, colourful landscape with incredible shaped sandstone mountains on the way. In between driving through endless seeming landscape with no sound and a lot starfilled skies in the nights. Of course not to forget the friendly nomads on their horses and motorbikes with their basic living depending on camels,goat and sheep in that area. And they drink like hell, tons of pure wodka, cowmilk wodka (brrrrrrrrgh) and airag, fermented mares milk. That southern part took us about 7 days - and we started to rebell a little against eating sheep and goat all the time. After that we went north to Erdenet Zuu, a monastry well worth visiting. There we came close to the eagle, it was sitting on our arms - unforettable experience. Then our first really beautiful lake Tsagaan Nur next to a volcano that we climbed of course After that we went to Orchon valley, a beautiful river area with lush green meadows, a lot of horses, and also a nice waterfall. At that time we had minimum eaten 2 sheep together, drank gallons of sheep and goat milk, mixed with tea and salt. Our really fantastic driver and car brought us everywhere: over hills, through rivers and mud, sanddunes, all kind of "road", no problem. Please in mongolia a road is not a road, it's eight hours driving a day from bumpy to extrem. After that we went further center west to Uliastay, the hometown of our driver. That's why we had the let us say most intense time of the trip, meeting his friends, eating 4 to 5 times a day sheep, goat and sheep. Of course together with some little wodka........ We saw the special way of slaughtering an animal without loosing a drop of blood. After Ulistay it went on, in a small ger visiting his next friends we took part in the custom of cutting the girls hair at the age of three at the time of the horse. It was awsome being within all the real nomads dressed in their most colourful clothes, exchanging their special sniffing tobacco, drinking, eating a hole sheep and celebrating with some little wodka......of course. After 5 days in our drivers home area, we were looking forward to nature again, even it was an unforgetable time with his friends. Khar Nur brought us what we wanted. A tourquoise shining lake in the middle of the desert surounded by sanddunes and perfect weather might let us think we were in the carribean sea. (By the way the weather was absolutly perfect, only 3 days little rain and warm at day and also in the night - only in Khovsgol lake it was freezing cold in the night) We went on to the west along wonderful sanddunes and more lakes, one better than another. Then further west to see Ulgi the more muslimic part up north to Uuvs Nuur passing Uureg Nuur. Mongolia - really a dream for countryside fans. By the way we passed a lot of mountainpasses in the center and western areas. Our bus was just a tank. In the northern area it became again a little flater and quite windy in one night, a good test for our superb tent. Then we continued our way back passing sanddunes again, the arriving after some days in Khovsgol Nuur, a fantastic big shining blue lake in hillarious mountain area with a lot of forests. We filled up our energy relxing in a nice ger camp, met two really cool Scotish guys and also one funny nice men of Vietnam- his words are just the best "IN GOAT WE TRUST" that was the final agreement, especially after exchanging details of each othres trip. It was not only us having to get used to sheep and goat meet, it's everyone who travels there. After that we returned to Ulaan Bator passing another Volcano and another magnificient monastry.
After all some final words, it's impossible to write all the stories there are so many, Mongolia is a absolut friendly free and beautiful country, ideal for camping and seeing a lot of pray birds, especially eagles. Don't expect to see a lot of antelopes or even more special things - you need extreme luck for that - the country is huge and the landscape endless. But all the nomadic traditions, the gers the yaks, camels horses.... unforgetable - and also the food - we will never ever miss that time even we both were very happy ordering something in a restaurant afterwards.
Next stop Peking - Beijing - China we are coming!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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