Mongolia Chapter 7: This Entry NOT Appropriate for Vegetarians

I love this day of the trip. I love it passionately. When I think back on it, it's one of my favorite days of the entire trip. Everything went right. Everything. And there was so much newness. And so much sharing. And so much that was just good.

As we set off, I'm in surprisingly good spirits for somebody who had had a miserable night the night before. Mostly because we are leaving the awful, bug infested location, but also it's sunny and nice out and there is no rain in sight. So that's good. We set out on the horses, and they seem to be happy to be leaving the bugs behind as well. After some riding, we stop to visit with a local family. The point of visiting with this local family is to buy the sheep that we'll later be slaughtering for mutton for dinner (this serves as your warnin that that's coming up). But we also get to ask questions and see their ger, and there is, of course, ayrag and about a thousand other types of dairy. The family has these lovely, lovely children whom we all fall in love with (but especially Dava). The children sing for us and I almost melt in my seat. The ger we're in is super lovely, and there's also a grandmother there. She says that she's 87, but Nick told me that all women lie about their age (I'm 29! Version 5!). As we leave, we take a picture of the family that we'll later send back to them. And while we're not looking, the sheep is bought and then put in Mad Max's van to take to that night's campsite.





Family visits were one of my favorite parts of the trips. People were so hospitable. There was this ongoing joke that Aaron and Tina started, though, that may not be as funny when I write it as it was in real life. But you know, it's not like these families had some kind of warning that we were coming. They're nomadic, right? So what would happen is that Dava would scope out random gers as we saw them, and if it looked like a family was neat and tidy, we would stop and visit. And in this case buy some livestock. And we would drink their ayrag and eat their food and sit all over their furniture. And the joke was - Imagine that this were an American family, and all of a sudden a tour bus of nine foreigners shows up and invites themselves in to eat your food and drink your beer. And Dava never left a place without drinking four bowls of ayrag minimum, so then it's like one of your unexpected guests pretty much came in and went "Beer! Beer! Beer! Beer!" Yeah, imagine it!

Anyway, after our lovely family visit, we hop back on the horses. Because we ate so much dairy and spent so much time at the family, we decide to ride through lunch to make up some time. The afternoon ride is super nice. Along a dirt "road" and in between hills. And on top of hills where you were just constantly looking out at wild flowers. One of the Wranglers picks wild garlic for us. The horses seem happy. We are happy. We can't get over how amazingly beautiful things are. We stop for a nice little break where we take one of my favorite pictures of the trip. It's one of Pook's self portraits, but I'm sitting right behind him, and we just look very peaceful taking our break (though, fyi, there were flies all over us, too). After the break we ride for a little longer. But there's potential rain again, so we pick a campsite and stop.



In retrospect, I think that the fact that we stopped early was a blessing, because this campsite was fantastic. I was taking a nap during the wood gathering excursion, but apparently there was fantastic wood gathering going on. Also, to add to the injury list for the trip, Aaron goes to get some wood and steps on a branch that shoots up and cuts his face. Tina makes him wear a band aid over it for the rest of the trip, and I giggle every time I look at it. This was a funnier story if you were there to appreciate the way in which married couples sometimes interact with each other.

I wake up from my nap just in time for the sleep slaughtering. I really feel that this is perhaps better told with photos, but I warn you that you may not love the photos.

Here, the poor fellow is led from the van we transported him in to his eventual slaughter.



Here, Dava and Otuu put the touch of death on the sheep.



Here, there's slaughtering. That's my rain jacket Dava is wearing, and flies loved me the next day.



This is the removing of the pelt, which was the smoothest process I've ever seen.



This is removing the stomach. Look how much grass an average sheep eats!



Here's your final outcome. Not a drop is wasted. That pot of blood was used to make blood sausage later.



Here's how you dry out some sheep carcass before you cook it.



Here's the head and hooves after they were charred. I think they were later used in soup, but I could be wrong.



And then the meet is put in a pressure pot along with some hot stones that were heated in the fire, and that's how things are cooked.

In between putting the meat on to cook and eating, there is some dead time. Arron says, "Anybody want to go for a hike? A short one? Just up to those rocks that are about halfway up the hill? They're not that far."

Pookie looks skeptical. "Things here often look closer than they actually are, you know," he says. But we head off anyway. Hikers include me, Nick, Pook, Mad Max, Mandaa, Aaron and Tina.

Mandaa does nothing halfway. It is never even an option for her to only hike to some rocks that were halfway up a hill. She wants to hike to the very top. I AM WEARING TEVAS SINCE I THOUGHT WE WERE GOING FOR MORE OF A WALK THAN A HIKE. But in the end, I can't complain because Mad Max isn't even wearing shoes. Anyway, we hike to the first hill top, and the sun is starting to dip and it's so lovely. And then Mandaa says, "Let's keep going," so we hike to a second, higher hill where the view is even more stunning. And I am thankful for Mandaa being the type of person who just assumes that we want to keep hiking, and for my traveling partners being the kind of people who are excited about that. And of course I'm thankful for the stunning sun-dropping views we saw on that hike.




When we get back, the cook staff has made fresh liver and onions (real onions, wild ones, ones that got picked while we traveled) from the sheep liver. And what I learn is that liver and onions is DELICIOUS if it's fresh. I can't stop eating it.

Then the mutton comes out. Firstly, as Dava pulls the scorching hot stones out of the pot, he hands them to all the men around to see who can hold on to them. Pookie does an exceptional job. Then the mutton is served. Listen, I don't like fatty meats, and truth be told I got more than a little sick later, but it was worth it to experience eating something that had been alive just hours before. It was a new kind of sensation or something.



And even as I went to bed that night with my slightly upset stomach, I could hear them singing at the campfire. And it was all good. And it continued to be all good the next day when ...