Deer Stones on the way to Lake Hovsgol

Today I would be flying to Moron in search of Donald Trump's birth certificate. I figure its either going to be here or Idiotville, Oregon (and yes, that is a real place). But first I checked out the view from my hotel room now that it was light.

On the mountain in the distance was a carving of what I believe was Genghis Khan. Although, my guide would later tell me that "Genghis"with a hard "G" was an incorrect translation from Persia and that the correct pronunciation was with the "Ch" sound and spelled as "Chinggis".

I waited in the lobby for my guide and checked out the menu. Until 1997 their second language was Russian, which explains the writing. In fact, they use the same 33 letter alphabet as Russia with 2 additional vowels. Lucky for me their second language is now English. When I first saw the city name Ulaanbaatar I thought "Wow, that's a lot of vowels". Turns out there is a pretty good reason for it. In English we have all these screwy rules like "I before E except after C" and "When two vowels go walking the first one does the talking" to name a few. Mongolian is much more logical. They really have only two rules. One, pronounce every letter, and two, pronounce every letter for the same amount of time. So the reason there are two "a"(s) together in Ulaanbaater is because you need to make the "a" sound twice as long as the other letters.

On the way to the airport I noticed that the car had the steering wheel on the left side. However, when I glanced at the car next to me it had the steering wheel on the right side. Turns out the left side would be correct, but Ulaanbaatar, like most big cities, has a huge traffic problem and thus a huge pollution problem. To try and combat the pollution problem they have been importing Prius(s) from Japan, and those cars have the steering wheel on the right side.

After fighting traffic we got to the airport and boarded Hunnu Air (remember to make the "n" sound twice as long as all other letters) to fly to Moron.

Looks like they got the seat doilies from the Kwik-E-Mart.

Once we got to Moron we ate lunch before heading out. If you are a vegetarian, you probably won't like Mongolian food. If you like the Mongolian Beef from PF Chang's, you probably won't like Mongolian food. My culinary experience in Mongolia would lead me to believe that like their language, their cuisine also only has two rules. One, don't eat any vegetables, and two, always boil whatever kind of meat is being served. This is because many Mongolians are nomads and they have to travel light, carrying only a pot or two. Many of the traditional meals are cooked in a single pot. Lunch would also be my first experience drinking milk tea. An unpasteurized warm oily thick texture that not only smells like liquefied cow skin but also kind of tastes like that as well.

So instead I tried a different kind of "tea". The glass had me wondering when do they know to use the "3" as a number verses when to use it as "Zed" the letter?

I headed to the bathroom after lunch and was disappointed to find this. But it gave me another reference for my English to Mongolian translation.

With the urinal out of service I headed to a stall to find an old friend, the squatter.

Once you get out of Ulaanbaatar they don't really have roads or any kind of street signs. Everyone just kind of drives in the general direction they want to go. So you really need an experienced driver to get around, especially at night.

I was in awe of how vast and open the landscape was. We saw a number of animal herds and I would learn that once you get outside of Ulaanbaatar no one owns the land. This allows the herders to go wherever they need for their heard to graze and survive without having to worry about being on someone else's property. If only the rest of the world could understand and share like this there would be no wars.

After a short drive we stopped to see some Deer Stones. These are ancient stelaes that are found scattered across Siberia and Mongolia. Most of the time they are just one or two together, however this site was unique in that it had a total of 14, including one with a human face not found anywhere else.







They are called Deer Stones because they appear to display a reindeer. However, to me it looks more like an insect of some kind. No one really knows the origin of these or their meaning. I think it could just as easily be a warning not to plant corps here due to locust, but I guess the archaeologists are pretty set on these depicting reindeer.



They have found burials at this site that would suggest they are from the early bronze age as bronze was found within the burial. However, the weathering on the stones may suggest a much earlier period. Meaning the people of the bronze age were lazy and figured someone already put up a headstone so might as well bury our loved ones here.

After some investigation and without finding any signs of aliens I got back in the Land Cruiser and we headed towards the Toilogt Ger Camp on Lake Hovsgol.

With Mongolia being a land locked country this lake is one of the few places the locals can play on the water. While the lake does have fish, Mongolians don't like to eat fish, so they mostly come here to swim and boat. The water is pretty clear and pretty cold. With the vast changes in climate and weather I packed most of my closet, including a swimsuit, but it would remain in my bag at this camp.





This would be my Ger for the next few nights. A Ger is the same as a Yurt with Ger being the Mongolian term and Yurt being the Russian term. My Ger was slightly leaning towards the left when I arrived and leading a lot towards the left when I left as I banged my head every time I went through that little door.

My bed, which was the only place to sit as it was not possible to stand up in here.

My view.

My heater and smoke machine. With the forest fires in Seattle I was looking forward to breathing some fresh air. I would have to wait a little longer or suffer in the cold.

Toilogt camp, while probably one of the nicer camps on the lake, was still very camp like. A community bathroom in much need of repair. If you were lucky you might find a shower that would give up some lukewarm water for a second or two. If you were lucky you might find a toilet that flushed. Which makes me think someone misspelled the name of the camp. It didn't really matter if they flushed or not as Mongolia was much like the Amazon in that you could not put anything but human waste in the toilet. So they had a trash bin for any paper products, which really did wonders for the general aroma of the bathroom. But this was all part of the experience, all part of the fun, all part of the story. At least they had running water, something that I would have to do without at other camps. And they kind of had electricity, but much in the same way they kind of had "warm" water.

For dinner we had some kind of boiled meat which I could not identify and covered it in pepper to get some flavor out of it. They did offer beer. However, I was a little confused as the price seemed to fluctuate over the next two days depending on who I bought it from. I think they were trying to build in their tips since the country frowns on such practice, but it didn't change the level of, or lack of, service.

After dinner I grabbed another beer and started my smoker, eh heater, before going to bed. I couldn't breath but at least I would be warm. I would soon learn that a second beer was a mistake as it was quite cold outside around 2am when I had to walk across the camp ground with my headlight to use a toilet that may or may not flush here at Toilogt Camp.