Visitors and Shameless Plugs

There is nothing better than having visitors. This goes double when you live in a foreign country. Back in January, Sean and Erin - whom you should recognize from my Siamese Adventure blog (shameless plug #1) went on a journey that would take them through Ulaanbaatar. While their adventures deserve a good read - and you can find link on my Siamese Adventure blog (shameless plug #2), they didn't quite seem prepared for Ulaanbaatar. Since I can't provide nearly as good of an account of our time together here as Mr. Sean Mullin can you should read about it on their blog - the link to which can be found on my Siamese Adventure blog (shameless plug #3). What I am willing to say is that having visitors have a great way of getting you to go see those thing you just haven't checked out yet. So, at their prompting, we toured the Winter Palace - which is only a 30 min walk from my place. A small note - there is no heating in this landmark, I had only been back in Mongolia for a week after 35 degrees in Cambodia and Thailand for the previous 3 weeks - which you can read about on my Siamese Adventure blog (shameless plug #4) and the temperatures in Mongolia were a balmy -45. What I'm getting at here is that more of you should come and visit me here to encourage me to keep going out to see the sights. There. Now it's your fault if I don't do it.

The Absurdity of Mongolia Returns

Last night, Naomi and I grabbed bite to eat after doing some grocery shopping. Through the window of the restaurant we witnessed a man, whom we assume to have been drunk, getting pummeled by a woman. At first it seemed to be a simple assault, but upon further watching we noticed a few things that were odd about the picture.

1. No one seemed to care.

2. The woman removed the man's coat and sweater, leaving only his t-shirt.

3. We first thought she was trying to take his money from his pockets, but it turns out she was actually taking his pants.

4. She started to walk away with his clothes.

5. Only at this point did the man put up any opposition by running after the woman.

Somehow this just seems so... normal now.

Mongolian Eagle Festival

Okay... so I lost my memory cards for a while, and I finally found one (I promise more updates when I find the other one). A few weeks ago, Maureen, Naomi and I headed out to Terelj to witness the Mongolian Eagle Festival. The festival was being held near UB for the first time, as it is a Western Mongolian tradition. Obviously, we seized the opportunity to spend $30 and spend the day watching people drag fox pelts behind a horse, having their eagles catch them, and then a few bouts of goat wrestling - the goats don't do the wrestling, two men, riding horseback, play a kind of tug-of-war with a goat. All of the competitions are designed to show how good of a hunter the man is, using his eagle.

Okay, so the picture doesn't show what's going on so well. Check out the video

Eagle festival competitor. Not sure how you win this, but I know how you lose. One eagle just kind of flew away and landed on the mountain... guess it's not such a good hunter.

Big Mongolian men, wearing traditional Mongolian dels, with giant eagles. They seemed to like carring them upside down for some reason.

Still Alive, I Promise

Sorry it's been so long since there has been any update on my end. Unfortunately, report cards, parent-teacher conferences and weeks of illness take their toll, and have a way of maing one not want to do anything. On that note, I promise to start having updates appear in the next couple weeks covering my 2 month blog absence.