Day 192: Visiting a Nomadic Family — Riding in Sidecars — Hiking to See Petroglyphs — Epic Rainbow
It was a relaxing start to a memorable day.
I worked out up at the “Sunset Spot” on the top of the little hill behind the lodge.
We had a 9am breakfast and 10:30am departure to visit a local family. Their ger was only about a 5 minute drive away from the lodge.
As we were getting in the truck we noticed a saddled horse trotting by itself with no rider. Ganzo agreed it was a strange sight.
On the way we passed a bunch of sheep and goats being herded by a teenage boy on foot. He flagged down our car and told us he had been ditched by his horse and we should tell his dad. He’s part of the family we are visiting.
We were welcomed by a barking Mongol Shepard dog and three young kids spilling out of their ger.
We visited for about 2 hours, spending time with the mom, her 7 year old girl, a 2 year old boy and a 8 year old cousin living with the family for the summer.
We were served milk tea and offered a bowl of milk curd and fried bread snacks called boortsog. Everyone tried the milk tea and James mowed a bunch of boortsog.
We then watched the mom make a soup of tea, boiled milk, dried beef, salt and rice. It was actually pretty good. Willa had her own bowl.
The kids were adorable — especially the 2 year old boy with a man-bun. He hasn’t had his hair cutting ceremony yet. That happens at 2 or 3 years old and all of his hair will be shaved off during a party with friends and relatives. (Apparently the clock start on this age when the baby is a fetus — not when they are born.)
We asked questions of the mom and kids with Ganzo translating:
Are the kids in school? The teenager is (who got lost his horse) — they move closer to town during the school year which is Sept – June.
What jobs do the kids have in the house? The girl takes care of the baby. The boy and girl help with watering and milking the herd.
When do the kids start learning to ride horses? 4 years old.
How many goats and sheep do you have? 1000 (!! … Ganzo said later, half joking, that this family is rich: each goat or sheep is worth about $30 USD).
The mom asked some back to us:
Are the kids in school?
How long have we been traveling?
(Joking) Do you want to trade James for her little boy? She thought he was cute.
Some things are the same in nearly every home on the planet. They had a TV that was on the whole time playing Mongolian cartoons. Our kids stared at it nearly the whole time.
We couldn’t take our eyes off the little two year old boy. He was so cute and curious. He didn’t whine or cry. He stared at us, played with the dog through the lattice, drank milk and played with a soft little ball that I brought. You can tell the mom and sister adore him.
We ended up leaving the ball with the family along with a bunch of stuff we bought in UB: oranges, apples, chocolate chip cookies and some other sweets.
One curious thing we observed: The 2 year old boy wasn’t wearing pants for most of the time we were there. The little girl and the cousin would regularly touch and fondle his genitals. It was like it was just something that felt different, soft and comforting to them. Obviously this was kind of shocking / disturbing to see at first. But then we realized — and confirmed after talking to Ganzo later in the day — that Mongolians just don’t see 2 year olds as a sexual being at all so it would be like rubbing his head or fondling his ear.
We drove back to the lodge and the kids flew kites with Ganzo and then we took a ride in the side cars of dirt bikes driven by the staff from the lodge. It was super fun — definitely a highlight of the trip for the kids.
We then walked over to visit the greenhouse where Ganzo caught a little hedgehog. We then walked over to visit the adopted camel that lives at the lodge.
After lunch we insisted that Ganzo take some time to relax. Our goal was to have the kids play or draw on their own but that didn’t work. Margaret kindly did drawing and chess with the kids.
I sat on a couch, listening to an audio book (Range by David Epstein) and promptly fell asleep.
We left at 4pm for the 30 minute drive north to hike to the Petroglyphs. The hike was short but very steep. James walked the first 20 yards, then refused to continue, and then was eventually convinced to join us. He was proud that he did.
At the top of this little hill / mountain were 3 or 4 rocks with drawings dating back 6,000 – 12,000 years!! It’s really hard to even wrap your head around that amount of time.
On the way back to the lodge we pulled over to watch this beautiful group of horses. It was one stallion with about 12 mares and 3 or 4 colts. Such a gorgeous sight.
The stallion kept his eye on us the whole time, being particularly protective of the colts. He also happened to have a massive erection at the time — maybe that was his way of saying: “Ok people this is my haram so unless you can compete with this just get in your cars and drive away.”
Sorry for all the dick talk in today’s post.
Anyway, it was a fun outing
But the highlight of the day might have been right before dinner. We were finishing getting dressed after our showers when we heard Ganzo outside the ger telling us to come check out the rainbow.
We walked out and saw maybe the most impressive rainbow we’ve ever seen. There were actually two for a few minutes. We got a bunch of pics — this is one of those moments we absolutely will never forget.
After dinner we grabbed a whiskey and all walked up to the “sunset spot” on the hill behind the lodge.
We were joined by a really nice family of 5 from Pasadena. They have two girls out of college (Tulane and NYU), both living in Brooklyn. The son is still at Tulane. The mom is originally from McLean, VA and lived in NYC for 10 years before moving west.
We had a fun chat about travel. They’ve done a ton of it which was so awesome to see. The oldest child actually works for a subscription travel agency service in NYC.
On my way back down the hill I saw a snake — my first sighting of the whole year. It was a little black and yellow guy. I didn’t mention to the kids because, even though they have become pretty brave with respect to bugs and animals, I didn’t want to risk having them freak out about going to sleep in the ger or walking back up the hill tomorrow.
James was still a little antsy at bedtime. It was warm in the gers. We moved our one fan into their room and Margaret took her kindle into his bed until he zonked.
Margaret then joined me for the last 20 min of Queer Eye before we both went to sleep.
