| Glad to have escaped immigration, we arrived in Western Mongolia to discover that the dominate culture here is Kazakh and probably what Kazakhstan used to be like before it became rich and modern on gas money. It is a shame that their traditional culture was scrubbed from everyday life because it is really amazing to think that Bayan-Ölgii is one of the last places on Earth where you can hold a Golden Eagle or help a nomadic family move but mostly we just did a lot of driving these first couple of days here. |
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This was our first view of Ölgii Town as we flew in by plane from Kazakhstan. At first, we thought it was a village, not the provincial capital. |
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This is one of the main streets. Cows are a serious traffic problem here but they are also great garbage disposal units. |
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This is the road out of town with a sign showing the route distances. It was a nice effort but as soon as we were over the hill, there was no road to follow and hence no way of knowing if we were going the right way. |
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We were lost and met a river that could not be crossed. All those great road signs in town did not do us much good out in the countryside. |
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Go that way! But we just came from that way and did not see a single road where we could cross the river. |
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This is the way to travel here. We have seen many camels in the Middle East but these two humped beauties were a first. |
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We were just happy our Russian Jeep was working and not broken down in the middle of nowhere like this poor guy. |
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| Gob smacked with the sheer desolation of the area (and the freezing cold) we just tried to keep clean without the use of hot water (baby wipes turned out to be an indispensible travel item in Mongolia). We could not wait to get into the Altai Tavan Bogd National Park to see the same landscapes but with lots more trees, water, snow and sheep! |
