A day with the nomads

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Today is home-coming for Nyaama and son, Muno, and this has become one of our tour itinerary. Muno told us he used to spend his school vacation in Zavkhan. His grandfather and some relatives still live nomadic lifestyle in Zavkhan.

Well, locating the family gers is not an easy affair, for they shift from place to place, without a fixed address. We need the Mongolian GPS ("Gers Positioning System") to help us. Nyaama and Muno asked around a few ger owners before we finally arrived at the family's ger.

Visiting a nomadic family is an interesting affair. The nomads usually live in clusters of a few gers. As it is summer, there are many children around, and lots of goats too. We wonder around the gers, mingle with the children, take photos, and so on. The children are fascinated with the kites we brought along and the boys fight for the kites.

We had dinner (our own spaghetti) cooked at the ger. After dinner, we left the ger and went looking for a camping ground.

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Photos

Drying Mogolian food in the sun
The white one is called Aruul (dried curds) usually made from cattle, yaks, or camel milk. The brown stuff is Eezgii (dried mass of cheese). They are served as snacks.

Logs
Zavkhan has plenty of wood, as seen from the stack of logs beside a cabin. Unlike Gobi, we saw many wooden houses in Zavkhan.

Waiting for meals to be served
It took quite a while for the food to be prepared and served. So most of the eating houses we went have a bed for hungry travellers to take a nap.

Preparing Khailmag
Khailmag is made from Urum ("White butter" made from milk of yaks).