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Blocked in China!

Posted on July 18th, 2010 in Asia,China by robjkentjr

Hello Everyone,

I have to write and tell you this. Currently, I am in China and have no access at all to any of my website social activities.

What does this mean? Well, so far I have discovered that Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, YouTube, and Plaxo are all blocked by China’s Great Firewall. On top of this, I cannot access any pages that say what exactly is blocked in China. But even worse, my website has been blocked by China!

I have no ftp access to upload photos so all of you are going to have to wait a month for the next blog post. Sorry.

Going for some duck!

Robert and Rasa

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A glimpse of nomadic life: The ger

Posted on July 4th, 2010 in Asia,Mongolia by robjkentjr

25 May 2010: Altai Tavan Bogd National Park, Mongolia (48.5583, 88.3998)
After the family left their winter camp, we drove ahead to where they would be setting up summer camp and waiting for them to arrive.  It actually took us longer to drive the 40 km (27 mi) there then it did for them to set up two gers but I think they were this quick because we were helping them.
It is always fun unpacking after a trip.  Here these nomads have to separate the possessions from three different families.
The first step in setting up a ger is to clean all the accumulated dust off the parts and then tie on your ceiling decorations.
After the ceiling decorations are in place, it is time to erect the wall and place your front door, which should always face towards the south.
After raising the center mount into place, each support rod needs to be inserted and tied off.  Rasa is a natural sailor when it comes to knots.
Once the supports are in place, it is time to put on the weatherproofing.  This is an under layer of plastic that keeps water out.
Then there is the insulation.  In this case, it is a blanket of wool felt that makes these homes so comfortable in the cold.
Here is the final product; a postcard perfect homestead.
After a hard day’s work, we all relaxed inside with some tea and biscuits.
These last two days were an amazing experience for us; so much so that we would love the opportunity to one day bring our back to spend the summer here with this family.  Excited to move on though, we had to leave early the next morning to reach the eagle-hunter before dark.

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