by the time we walked down to the jeep my head was full of conflicting impressions and thoughts. the beautiful protected area...full of litter; the nod to tourists with the 'ger' hotel with glass windows; the keyholder of the rebuilt monastery with her tatty and expensive souvenirs; andrea who graduated from uni this summer and like many of her generation wants to go abroad for a few years to study/work and bring home some money (i hated telling her how much it might cost to study in the uk. she did ask but the amount must be astronomical to her); the other national parks that are filling up with tourist ger camps. the catch 22- tourism pays but tourism costs.
back at the jeep andrea said 'now we visit a nomadic family'. i wondered if this was a tourist set up. wrong!
beyond the small town (this tme we kept to the road) we pulled up on the road
near two gers away in the fields. the driver and andrea had a quick chat and then we pulled off the road and bumped over the grass. the driver went to ask the owner if it was ok. it was so out we got and were invited in. mongolian tradition dictates you invite strangers in if they ask! we were ushered to a bed come couch and asked to sit. large coffee bowls of milk were offered. we sipped (i prayed the immodium would resist). we grimaced. it was SO sour (but are you proud of us ferg?) fermented horse milk. we asked if it would be rude not to finish it. (andrea had pleaded she had taken medicine so couldn't drink!) :) fortunately no!
we chatted through andrea for a while and then asked if we could take photos. immediately the women went into the universal twitter about the place being tidy and their hair being straight. :)
we agreed we would try and get the photos printed today (we did) and send them via andrea. somewhat tricky as they move with the seasons. there were two couples and a tiny girl called nemma, a very serious little love with two enormous black bunches of hair. a real cabbage patch doll albiet a very grubby one! outside there were two tethered horses, a couple of dogs, some cattle grazing. the second man appeared as we were leaving wearing his pointed hat. i asked to take his photo and managed to get the ger chimney sticking out of the top of his hat. we all laughed as they viewed it and suddenly i wanted to cry. two such different worlds but sharing common reactions.
'those who travel far learn much' eh sian? and mostly about themselves!
5 comments:
just read all that in my lunch break at the office in horsham. still not jealous...
oh well, off to stoke in a couple of weeks which i'm sure is fairly comparible.
also got a weekend booked at the end of the month to go to munster in north west germany for the 10 yearly sculpture project. 40 works scattered around the city all specially commissioned for the event.
i see from other comments that pretty much everyone in the world bar jon and i know when your anniversary is. belated happy anniversary! i do actually know when it is but never remember until reminded :)
spoke to jon yesterday, he has managed to find this blog but he has to wait for jamie to pop round with his laptop and hope next doors wireless signal is strong enough to pick up. he says 'ello
gx
Hi guys, Andi here from California.... well your adventures make our upcoming roadtrip to New Mexico seem VERY tame! I can't hardly believe you were having all those glorious adventures yesterday, so far away on the globe, while at the same time I was stuck in front of my computer desperately trying to make my design deadlines! It's a strange world... your descriptions of what you have seen and done put so many amazing images in my head, but it will be fantastic when I get to finally see Lou's pictures. Keep on swashbuckling, you two - Andi xo
OOOOOOOH it sounds SOOOOOOO good where you are. Sorry Gav, I can't say I'n not jealous anymore - I've spent 6 hours standing in a hot smelly classroom (yes we have farters in the fifth year!!!) I really think you will come back changed after all these experiences- very zen and not at all stressed up like us. Glad you like the Gagnac news cos that's all there is here and it's very boring... The Marroufin's came round this this evening and the good news is that I am going to Brive with Mme on Monday to order the tiles. Whoopee!!! Still haven't seen Justin or Cherry so don't know how his job is going. You had a big parcel from 3 Suisses in the postbox on Wednesday so lucky I went and emptied it or I don't know how the postman would have fitted more mail. Everything in the house looks fine, the plants in the garden are OK too. Keep on trucking (or should that be jeeping)!
Love you loads - can't wait to see you both (and the photos)
Sian, Chris and Co xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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Sour horse milk??? You should have put dried skimmed milk on your shopping list, along with the cuppasoups! Then, you could have introduced a bit of globalisation to them. I only jest. Looking forward to the pix. xxx
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