Mongolia Chapter 8: Today is Short!

This day is a short day, but it is also a day when I get to wash my hair, which is exciting and lush. We awake in the morning. Mutton has been had (though it did not sit well with me), sleep has been peaceful, the hike the day before was refreshing. And before we start out, LZYP and I are sitting at the breakfast table debating whether or not we want to head over to the stream and wash our hair. Our hair is pretty gross by now. And Mandaa, because she is awesome and Mandaa, looks at us like we're silly and says, "I'll warm some water up and ladle it over your heads." And can I just say ... Amazing! Warm water being ladled over your head and clean hair in the middle of your camping trip is a luxury that cannot be accurately described.

We pack out and head out, and we're kind of circling around a valley so that we can start to loop back, and Mandaa wants to keep the ride shorter so that we can end and camp at a natural warm springs. So we kind of trot out across the meadow and then we stop for a while to enjoy the view at a stupa that is located on the top of a hill facing a huge hill that is worshiped by the locals.

Mandaa tells a story while we're riding about how the locals used to worship snakes as the embodiment of the mountain god. And during communism, the communist sent in an ambassador to kill the mountain religion off. And so he went in and killed a snake to prove his point. Not long after that, his family was all killed in a tragic car accident and he lived miserably for the rest of his life. True story. Lesson? I don't know what religion is what, but don't mess with the mojo of local worship. That is all. Here are some delightful pictures from our stop at the stupa.




From there it's a lovely lunch and a short but lovely afternoon ride, and then we arrive at the warm springs, where there is an actual bathtub that somebody has put up in the stream and you can stop it up and bath in some delightful spring water. Pookie, LZPY, Donna and I partake. Siri shows she's Nordic by instead bathing in the freezing river. Nick and Aaron show that they are boys by having a floating can race and throwing wet shoes at each other.



Dinner is delightful, but Tina describes the night accurately as follows (because, remember, we were next to a warm spring, which means next to a marsh, which means the bug problem was compounded by mosquitoes), "Yeah, that was the night we all kind of gave up and just spent the night in our tents."

And it's a good thing that we did, because the next day was so very full of activity ...