Travel to Karakorum

Many of my next few days would involve long travel times across this vast landscape. This was not only due to the distances we would cover but also due to the "road" conditions. Today, we were heading to Karakorum. Along the way we made a pit stop and I found this sign in the bathroom detailing proper urinal etiquette.

We passed a few other roadside malls as we continued our journey. They were pretty much just a series of restaurants that all offered the same kind of dumplings.

I then had my first sighting of a two hump camel or the Bactrian camel.



We finally arrived at Munkh Tenger Ger Camp. This camp was actually pretty nice. I had turned off the GPS on my cameras to save battery as I was never really sure of when I would be able to charge them again. Now I'm kind of wishing I left them on so I could find these locations on Google Earth.

My Ger which was leading slightly towards the left. I was pretty sure I would be able to realign this using my head.

I kind of had running water, well, kind of....

I kind of had a bed, well, kind of....

I was just checking to make sure my heater was properly vented when my driver came running.

He wanted to show me how they were preparing dinner. I have to say it was one of the more disturbing things I have seen. While I did video the whole thing I'll spare you the same disturbing experience and just show you a few screen grabs from it. I can only hope they offer a salad option tonight.

They first cut off the hoof so that they can get the rest of the skin or hide off in a single piece.

Thinking I was about to become fully vegan I went to check out the rest of the camp. Pretty nice views and great weather.

And much nicer bathroom facilities with both hot water and toilets that flushed.



We had sometime before dinner so we went to check out the Kultegin Monument. I'm not a huge fan of museums. To me a museum is nothing more then the internet with a very limited search engine. As Chinggis Khaan expanded his empire he had to push the Turks out of town, basically all the way to what is now called Turkey. This monument outlined Kul-Tegin's life, a ruler of one of the Turk's nomad empires. They also found his older brother's monument as well, it pretty much looks the same as this one.

We headed back for dinner and I tried another one of their local beers, Legend.

Well, I tried two of the local beers, Legend and whatever this one is called.

I then choked down my leather friend who was breathing only hours earlier. Too bad he was boiled instead of served medium with a nice red wine reduction sauce with mushrooms. I headed back to my Ger for some rest as tomorrow would be another long travel day, doing my best to realign the door to my Ger.