Explore UB, Drive to Ger Camp - 7/24 & 25

Tuesday, we visited a history museum and an art museum.  I think my favorite parts were seeing the arc of Chinggis (Genghis ) Khaan' s life and his sons after reading a couple novels about his early days along with the petroglyphs and the applique art. We also visited a large square dedicated to Sukhbaatar, the hero of the independence from Russia and China in 1921. Unfortunately for the Mongolians, the Russians had other ideas and they became a satellite state until 1990.

Jim in front of Parliament, with statues of Genghis Khan and two lieutenants.

We were dropped off at a large state department store (our primary toiletries went missing in a room mixup with the hotel-- just try to find a good spf 15+ moisturizer when everything is printed in Cyrillic and Chinese and no one speaks reasonable English and we are at the 'thank you' level of Mongolian!). We found critical things, then wandered. They had good prices on some cashmere and leather, but sizes ran small. They also had a large souvenir shop but nothing we wanted for sure.

The view from Zaisan Hill -- high rent condos mix with low rent gers.

Wednesday, we hopped on the bus to visit Zaisan hill, a war memorial with a great view, then set off due west for our first camp. The road started pretty smooth and four lanes because it was the way to a  big national festival we had just missed. After the festival turn-off, it dropped to 2 lanes and lots of ruts, so we swerved a bit to dodge the big ones.

Our first ger experience

Along the way, we got out to stretch our legs at a river where hundreds of horses were roaming. Later, we had a pit stop where there were 5-6 foot high dirt berms on each side of the road...ladies utilized one side, boys the other. I wasn't desperate enough to try.
At the camp, we were assigned a ger in the front row (=good view--- selected because of the number of trips we have made with this company  ). We no sooner got in and got our bags than it started to rain. Lightly at first, but pretty quickly it got serious. Most of the gers turned out to leak, and ours was no exception. Our guide stopped by as it started to let up to see if we were ok and the mop brigade followed along. Luckily, the beds were against the walls, which were the driest spots. It stopped in time for dinner, so we stayed pretty dry.