The Gobi

I am off to the Gobi for 8 days. I promise I will actually do some blogging when I get back.

Photos

I think most of the people who read the blog are friends with me on Facebook, but for those who are not here is the link to my Mongolia photos.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2180171&id=1410779&l=2aca351795

Nadaam

I went to Nadaam, which is Mongolia's largest festival. The full name is эрийн гурван наадам, which translates to "The Three Games of Men." There is horse racing, archery and wrestling. I went to the opening ceremonies in UB and also to the horse racing out in the countryside. Watching the wrestling is very amusing, enormous men put on funny little outfits and hug each other for a while (this sentence would seriously offend any Mongolian man but it is really what it looks like). The horse racing was also fun to watch but the course is so long you can only see the end. Overall it was a good experience and I tried airag, which is fermented horse milk. Taste wise it ranks lower than blowtorched marmot. It is pretty foul.

4th of July in Mongolia

We went to the 4th of July BBQ hosted by the US embassy (although it felt more like it was hosted by the Church of Latter Day Saints, it was almost completely populated by Mormon missionaries). The BBQ was complete with Oscar Mayer hot dogs and two full roast pigs. The best part of the experience was making the Europeans participate in the egg and spoon race, the three-legged race and the potato sack race.