So, my nine-day tour of Central Mongolia, including Kharkhorin, the ancient capital of the Mongolian Empire and a three-day horse-tour of the 8-lakes region is complete. Within two hours of arriving back in Ulan-Bator I began gearing up for a 9-day trip to the South Gobi... I leave at 8AM tomorrow morning and will be back in UB late on the 22nd, just in time to get a good nights sleep in a "real" (i.e. Hostel dorm) bed and hop on a two-day-long train/sleeper-bus connection to Beijing that leaves in the evening of the 23rd. It's 12:30 right now and I still need to finish packing... I'll do what I can to fill everyone in on what I've been doing for the last 2 weeks...

My "tour group" which included myself, Miquel, a Spaniard, Dan, an American, Carlo and Liat respectively Italian and Israeli, on their honeymoon, and our driver, Sagi, a local Mongolian from Ulan-Bator (UB) whose wife was in hospital about to deliver their first child on the day we left UB. (*NOTE* I still can't figure out how to spell Sagi's name. It's pronounced "Sahg-ee")

(Below: (Left to Right) Myself, Dan, Miquel, Carlo, Sagi and Liat. Out-of-focus photo taken by some poor soul at the hostel who was awake for our 5AM departure.)

A few of our adventures along the road included climbing a Mongolian "Mountain" to take a look at some wild horses in Hustai National Park, hanging out with a young boy on the side of the road who had "caught" an eagle, spending three days on horse in the 8-lakes area (Note: Mongolian horses are very, very small. I walked a lot.), having my tent attecked (read: trampled on and eaten) by a herd of Yaks at 5AM, and having our van break down more times than I can count.

(Below: Miquel looking very much like Indiana Jones. The Tilley hat is mine and I'm quite upset that it looks better on Miquel then on me.)

(Below: A boy and his eagle. Touching really. Shortly after this was taken a two van-loads of Chinese (perhaps Korean?) tourists showed up and swamped the pair with cameras and flashes.)
(Below: Miquel's comment: "They are Yaks." Do I need to say more? (Miquel is the one on the right.))

(Below: A view from the same campsite as the Yak attack. It's not all bad.)

(Below: You don't want your van to break down here. Ours did.)

(Below: A taxi-stand in Tsetserleg, a regional capital several hundred km due WEST of Ulan-Bator.)

This is posted, again, with apologies for such a short update, but I figured a short update was better than none at all.