Ger living, day 2

How did the day go by?  Awfully relaxing, with a little bit of latent anxiety in the background, given the remoteness.

Turned out Badzar was quite the chess player, so we played a few rounds.  He beat me and got bored.  So he rounded up his brother and I and my Dutch companion went with his brother Sukh ("axe" - great names) on a camel ride to a local shrine. Sukh seemed pretty bored too, luckily for all of us, he had a smartphone and could play some beats while we rode out for well over an hour.  I guess the impulse to listen to pop music is pretty universal, whether you are commuting on the interstate or riding your camel in rural Mongolia.

Mongolia's defining characteristic?  Space.  Wherever you go, you can see to the horizon and usually there's not much between you and the edge of the world.  A recurring theme from all my pictures, and, well, most of my thoughts was how much damn space there was around me.

Is it a cool feeling?  Yeah, for a bit.  But honestly, being so absurdly alone is a new feeling for most people, and it can be a little unsettling.  Maybe that's why the Mongol's are so close - even with the whole world as their backyard, they spend most of their time almost on top of each other in their gers.  I certainly felt that impulse.  I could go anywhere I wanted, but most of the time I stuck to the people next to me and we moved in groups.  Do we humans have some impulse to huddle for protection?  It certainly felt that way out there.

Mongols practice a Tibetan version of Buddhism, part of a historical accident where they conquered Tibet and adopted the religion.  Here is the Dalai Lama - sadly, you'd never find these kids of shrines in the religion's heartland, Tibet.

It's a long walk, well, anywhere.  

Lots of parking.

Lazy camels... everyone is just hanging out and passing the time.

Cool shadows from the setting sun.

The long walk home... luckily we were just taking a walk around the religious landmark, which isn't much more than a pile of rocks with lots of blue prayer flags.

Sunset over the Mongolian Steppe.

Detail on the airag bowl... this one was handmade out of silver, with leather and wood finishes.  It might run you as much as $500 back in town.

A good way to pass the time.  They are going to love the iPad once it makes its way to Mongolia.

A bucket of milky moonshine and the communal chalice.

Here's the whole family, father, mother, three sons and a daughter.  One of the sons is a singer in town, the other is a teacher, the daughter is in university and the little guy is still hanging out on the ranch.

Kids everywhere are the same.

Ceremonial saddle.

Cheerful touch.

Looking rugged.

Getting ready to saddle up and take us on to our next stop.