Touring and Playing in the Countryside

Right after school ended, I joined a bus tour of the countryside with foreign staff from my school. Eva (my Hong Kong Chinese colleague) and I were the only two who didn't speak Korean, so we stuck together during the week.

Our bus soon left the road for smoother travel in dirt tracks out across the steppes, and I discovered that several hours of bumping along in a vehicle has the same effects on your body as a long workout.

The first evening, we arrived in Khakorim, the old Mongolian capital. The only remains are a small walled compound, in the center of which are the paving stones showing the circumference of Genghis Khan's original ger; the same place he used to conference with his leaders. After Ghengis, the walls and a monastery were built, and the area continued to serve as a meeting place for the nomadic Mongolians and occasional foreign explorer.

It was really a vacation for us all; our meals were provided by the ger camps we stayed in each night, and in the mornings, we had plenty of time to relax and do devotions. Then we would pack our bags, eat lunch and arrange ourselves back in the bus for another afternoon of driving. Although the driving was often uncomfortable, it gave us an intimate view of the Mongolian landscape. Although I've been here six months, I've seen very little outside the city! I realized how big Mongolia is, and how different life outside the city is.

I saw my first yaks our second day; we drove over a small mountain range covered in wildflowers, down past a lake and several settlements, and into a ger camp next to a hot springs. The water smelled sulphuric, but it was blissfully relaxing. The next morning a few of us went on a gentle horse ride up into the hills surrounding our camp. A we rode, we watched a large flock of sheeps "baaaa-ing" obove us on our right, and on our left, a herdsman was breaking young horses.
The next night we spent next to a large lake. The landscape had changed. It was dry and dusty without much green life anywhere, so we felt a bit like we were at a sandy beach on the ocean. The last night we stayed next to some real sand dunes. We spent an hour or so after we'd arrived running up and rolling down them. Later in the evening, I went on a much more exciting horse ride- this time at a gallop- across the plain. On our way back we passed some homesteads with horses and camels tied to poles outside.

Although we were tired and dirty, we had dinner at a nice Korean restaurant the evening we arrived home. I'm glad I enjoy Kimchi, the fermented Korean cabbage, because I think it was served at every meal during the week!