This is the Gobi desert, its not all sand and as you can see, it’s even relatively green in parts. The important thing to note is that if you are in the Gobi, you’re a long, long way from anywhere. There is nothing in the way of your sight from horizon to horizon. Except perhaps for herds of camels, horses, flocks of sheep and tribes of goats.
You’d think that they were wild, but if you look carefully, some of them have tags or rope collars and with some of the groups, if you look really really carefully, you might see a nomad herding them on horseback to better pastures. Sometimes, they just seem to roam at will. The nomads live in ‘Gers’ which the Russians call Yurts.
This charming couple are locals to this area of the Gobi. They actually have two yurts; one that they cook and sleep in and another that functions like a living room. Powered by solar panels and a small wind turbine, it has satellite TV, a fridge/freezer, a playstation (for their kids, who weren’t at home at the time) and pretty much most of the comforts of home. The loo however, was a pile of breeze blocks some 150 metres downwind, which wouldn’t be much fun in winter….
I tried mare’s milk for the first time while I was there, imagine a sour, slightly fizzy cream and you’ll get the idea, but it wasn’t as bad as it sounds… After the milk, they gave me snuff, from an ornate gem stone bottle – which is apparently something that male children receive at their majority from their parents and it becomes as family heirloom. I can’t say that I cared for the snuff, it was like spices in talcum power, but they seemed to enjoy the sight of me sneezing my way through it. They also enjoyed the sight of my face when they gave me a large silver soup bowl (also an heirloom) full of vodka. I thought that it was to pass around the room, but no; that was for me. The next stage of the journey passed painlessly. Apparently.
This shows you a little of the vastness of the Gobi, but it reminded me a lot of the Australian outback in that there’s nothing there at first glance, but when you stop the car and look carefully, you see the animals, the birds of prey and in the case of Mongolia, the isolated Nomads Ger’s.
I stayed in the ‘socialist workers paradise’ of Tsog Tsetsii (Sog Set Si) while I was in the lower Gobi and it’s a small coal mining town. It had a very basic guesthouse which had brown water and cable internet that killed my work computer, but their food was good. By that stage of my trip, I had of course, given up asking what I was having. I was checking out the local hospital and seeing what kind of infrastructure there was in the area and the hospital had plasma and oxygen (my first two questions) but no x ray machine (my third). I did however notice that the hospital had a clap clinic, so clearly the mines have contributed something to the town!