The New Jeep
“So what do you boys want to do up here?” We’ve spent the afternoon driving around the small village of Tsengel and Tulegin seems to be out of ideas for what to do with us. We’ve hired him for four days and it’s obviously his first rodeo when it comes to driving tourists solo. He’s showed us his house, we’ve met his family, and now what? He’s staring at us intently.
Bavo, my Belgian travel compadre and I are content to go on a couple hikes, see some snowy mountains, and perhaps a lake. Oh and Bavo is obsessed with the legendary Kazakh eagle hunters, so we’ll have to stop and see them also.
We settle on going to Two Lakes, a region high in the mountains near the Chinese border. We’ll leave the next morning with Nara, a girl of half Mongolian and half Tava minority decent who speaks a little English and wants to visit the area where her family used to spend summers.
The whole region is a maze of valleys and crumbling old peaks, some of the world’s oldest I would wager by their location in the heart of the continent. The array of colors here play tricks on your eyes. Different shades of brown contrast the budding spring grasses making rustier soils appear dark purple and the sulfuric areas a dull green. The Khovd river is flowing full, winding through the landscape from Olgii to Tsengel before slicing the steep valley which leads us up to the lakes. We are going against the current and come to the fork where the Khovd is born of the Kotant River to the east and Jolant (snake) River to the west. The Jolant takes us to the magnificent valley where Khurgan Nuur and Khoton Nuur(lake) lie half frozen under the snowy Altai peaks that straddle the Chinese border.
We also discover that all the beer is for no normal visit celebration, but is to christen his new jeep. Just last week he drove to Ulaan Baatar to buy it and we’ve become the lucky first customers. Soon everyone is trying out the jeep, a 2003 Russian UAZ, the standard brand in Mongolia. We ride horses, talk, enjoy the beautiful sunset, and drink…a lot…at altitude. The mood couldn’t be better and soon we are all “dostar” (good friends).
Next, Tulegin has to put in some face time with his in-laws and when we arrive at their house mom is throwing candy on the jeep and us, as is the custom. The party has just begun. We hop around from house to house drinking more, eating big platefuls of mutton and beef, and when our cameras come out everyone wants a picture and a mega-photoshoot ensues.
Tags: Eurasia: Marco Polo-in' it, Mongolia
Administrator
Just about these beer schooners,
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looks like very dangerous!!