8 Days & 7 Nights In Mongolia

I left for Mongolia on a Monday evening. I flew to Beijing first. I was planning on staying at a room in the Beijing airport b/c I had an 8 hour layover there. Well, long story short I couldn't stay in that room b/c I had to pick up my luggage and go through customs in Beijing. So...I tried to stay in a room by the hour in the terminal where I'd be checking in for the flight to Ulaanbataar. However, there was no room in the inn. So, I spent my layover on some chairs in the Beijing airport. I was glad that I had my suitcase so I could pull out a coat for a blanket and another coat to use for my pillow. I was cold! It's already cold in Northern China and Mongolia - especially since I'm used to the weather along the equator.
I met up with Jonna - my travel buddy - in the lounge on Tuesday morning. Mike is a solitaire member with Singapore Airlines so that makes me automatically a solitaire member. That helped Jonna and I along the trip when we had too heavy of baggage and when we needed a lounge on our layovers. It would've been nice to have access to the lounge on my 8 hour layover but then I may have been too pampered.

Here we are on arrival in Ulaanbataar at the Ghinggis Khan Int'l Airport.



Adorable Mongolian girl




Here's some photos from the Mercury market where my friend Jill shops.






Ghinggis Khan (pronounced Chinggis Han in Mongolia) is revered in Mongolia for his leadership. Here's some photos from a visit to his newly completed statue made of stainless steel. We actually walked up into the horse he's riding on.









There's even shopping in Mongolia! It's not Wal-Mart by far but there's local markets that are so colorful and interesting...we loved this one called the Zakh.







This market was enormous! Mongolians from the country dressed up in their traditional dress for their trip to town to stock up on their needs. You could find everything from hog heads to furniture for your Ger (Mongolian house).




Here's Jonna and me shopping for Cashmere and Wool items. These are the only clothes made in Mongolia for export. No surprise there!



Once you get outside of the city limits of Ulaanbatar there aren't many paved roads. We were lucky to have my friend Jill Andersen to drive us all over the rocky roads. Land Cruisers really are amazing cars. We drove through rivers, up and down mountains, etc. One day we missed our turn and were lost out on the Mongolian steppe for a couple of hours. Then we hit traffic back in town and got hit by another car. Jill assured us that this was just another typical day in Mongolia.

Here's the scene of the accident:



Here's the Landcruiser with a flat tire from off-roading:




We stayed for 2 nights at a Ger camp alongside the Tuul River. Here's a photo of the outside of our Ger:



Here's the inside of the Ger...3 beds and a stove in the middle to keep us warm.




We came prepared with supplies for s'mores...we had Russian chocolate, marshmallows and Nilla Wafers. They tasted so good we had them for breakfast! (We liked them much better than the mutton.)






We rode horses while at the Ger camp. Mongolian horses are on the small side. We ran them as much as we wanted...galloping a Mongolian horse at full speed on the Mongolian steppe is a memory I'll never forget!

This is one of our amazing horsemen:





We hiked up the mountains nearby:





You never know what you'll find once you get to the top of the mountain:



Here are many other unbelievable sights that we would see as we were out driving on the Mongolian steppe:

Interesting Animals:

Yaks!!!





Interesting People:






I like this shot of this lady fixing her Ger:



Terelj: This is me making my way across a rickety bridge to hike up to a Buddhist/Tibetan monastery. We said our prayers the Tibetan way by spinning each one of these in a clockwise direction...don't think I did it correctly b/c this is the day we got completely lost in the middle of Outer Mongolia and we got in the car accident!:)




This is me in Terelj in my stylin' new hat that Jonna knitted me for my b-day! Who would've ever thought that I'd spend my 38th b-day in Mongolia???


What an amazing, inspiring, informative, invigorating trip. I actually chose this trip to Mongolia over a trip to Rome with Mike if you can believe it? He's in Rome this week while the kids are out of school which was partly the reason I didn't go. Also, I figured I'd get back to Italy someday but what were the chances that I'd make it to Outer Mongolia again?

Now that I know what Mongolia is like I'd like to take the family there to stay in a Ger and experience a piece of that life. I'm really glad that I got to go while Jill was there and get a personal tour. That made it all the more special. The LDS church is doing really well in Mongolia. There are 9,000 members which is a lot considering there are only 3 million people in Mongolia. The members there are sweet and it was truly inspiring to experience their faithful spirits. They are all pioneers since the church has been there just 15 years.

Carson's First Swim Meet...Ever!

So...Carson is now officially a member of the Singapore Fighting Fish swim team!!! He "tried out" the first week of school and made it! He is so pumped. He loves the idea of beating anyone at any sport or any thing; really, so he was thrilled to swim in one race in his first meet ever. He swam the 25 meter freestyle and came in 2nd place - out of 3 kids.

I love these photos of Bailey helping him out at his first meet. She was totally teaching him the ropes. She is an expert since this is her 5th year on the swim team! She really has a beautiful breast stroke!

That Dance Thing (Sammy)

Sammy is doing something called "That Dance Thing" this year. It's basically Cotillion if you've ever heard of that. It's held at the American Club here once a month on a Friday or Saturday night. First there's a dinner with a manners lesson. The boys have to pull out the girl to their right's chair for them when they get up, they eat a fancy dinner and have to hold an hour's worth of table conversation.
Then the second hour is a ballroom dance lesson. The girls and boys have to dance with each other and the only acceptable answer when you are asked to dance is, "yes." (You have to sign something before the program begins that you agree to these terms. You can imagine what middle schoolers would act like when asked to dance if they didn't commit to these terms! Ooh! Cooties!)
Mike and I were chaperones for the first one this year. Here's a photo of Sammy and I all dressed up and ready to go!



Sammy was hilarious because when it was time to switch partners she would freeze up. She looked like a lost puppy. Sometimes the girls had to choose the partner and she was usually one of the last to pick one which meant she ended up with whoever was left without a partner. Since I was one of the moms helping my job was to help the boys and girls pair up quickly - to avoid embarassment. Well, since Sammy was one of the last ones a couple of times I was trying to find a partner for her. She told me right then and there, "mom, I don't need my mom out here to help me find a partner."
She also asked me at the end of the night, "Mom, are you going to chaperone every month?" When I replied, "no." She answered, "good!" Too funny.

First Day of School 2009

So...it's 5:00a.m. and I've been awake since 2:00a.m. when Carson came into my room to tell me that his feet hurt. Not sure why but I got him an ice pack and put it on his feet. So, now I've been up messing around on the computer (note the new look of my blog!) until I get tired again...

Here's some photos of the first days of school for the girls and Carson. Sammy is in 7th grade this year, Bailey in 4th grade, Carson in kindergarten and Jack is in Joy School at home with me two days per week...hooray!

This is what I came home to after my Cambodia trip...

My baby Jack-Jack was missing...MY baby with the longish blonde hair was gone and this imposter baby was in his place. Next time I leave the country I need to hide the hair-cutting kit from Mike.