Hello from Moron

By kate on August 15th, 2004

Yes, we’re currently in a town called Moron… but don’t laugh, it means “river” and is pronounced “Murun”.

Unfortunately, Steve got a nasty bug and got sick in the middle of last night. He hardly got any sleep and threw up several times. Instead of a long day of driving, we drove 2.5 hours to Moron and splurged on a hotel room rather than camping. Now (the afternoon), he is resting in the room while I do errands. Luckily, I’m not sick at all so I can take care of him.

That illness aside, we’ve been having a great time. We have been up around Lake Khovsgol, and went on a two-day horse trek. It was about 5 hours of riding a day, and by the end we were both really good at handling our horses. Steve got a pretty lazy horse (this was backed up by our guide), so I got to gallop more than he did, but we both had fun riding through beautiful pastures and valleys. However, our back- and under-sides are quite sore today. 🙂

We were camping at a guesthouse yesterday and were able to see them slaughter a sheep for dinner. I found it pretty interesting, as icky as it may be. Steve thinks that his illness might have been a psychosomatic symptom of watching the butchering, though. Later last evening, they cooked the mutton in a rough pressure cooker over a fire while all the tourists watched.

The roads are pretty rough in Mongolia… anytime you go from place to place, you’re guaranteed hours of jouncing and jostling. It’s too bumpy to read or do much but look at the landscape and think. We bought a few tapes from the meager selection in UB: Radiohead, Run DMC, Madonna, and Westlife (a boy band – our guide’s choice). Trust me, that was the best we could find. They did have lots of Yanni but we gave that a pass. Like the rest of the world, Mongolians mostly buy CDs these days, so there aren’t many tapes around.

The biggest surprise for me here is that it’s not nearly as hot as we expected. The nights have been quite chilly (OK because it means less bugs) and the days fairly comfortable, in the 80s. It might get hotter as we head south, though.

Pictures start here (#33 – #69).

Assuming Steve is better tomorrow (the signs are positive), we’ll be heading next to Mount Otontanger, one of the highest mountains in the country, which has snow year-round. We’ll probably take two days to get there, or maybe more if we meet up and hang out with a nomad family.

That’s about all for now. I’m not sure if/when we’ll get to another city with internet access, so you may not hear from us again until the end of the month. Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of Steve.


Filed under: animals, music, travel
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One Response to “Hello from Moron”

  1. Hello, My Name Is Kate » Mexico trip recap Says:
    September 2nd, 2007 at 7:42 pm

    […] the next two days in Mazamitla. The high point for me was getting a chance to ride horses. Since our time in Mongolia, I’ve been looking forward to riding again. And, even better, I got to ride with […]

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