Mongolia Pictures

President Obama endorsing a Mongolian detergent. Maybe instead of moonlighting, he should focus on our nation's problems?

I didn't understand this woman's clothing. Maybe somebody else can explain.

A little girl looking back at a relative during Naadam 2009.

Over a dozen Mormon missionaries on an Ulaanbaatar street. Mongolia has one of the highest number of Mormon missionaries per capita in the world. Wonder why?

This cartoon of Mongolian laws was posted on the side of a building. I found it hilarious. Obviously, from the poster, it is illegal to get chased by a cow skeleton or punch people. What other laws can you see being broken?

In one of those rare did-that-really-just-happen moments, an angry drunk driver raged down the sidewalk, and turned sharply onto the street just feet away from me. He then intentionally rammed into the front of the forward yellow bus and into a car. After that, he moved back onto the sidewalk and sped away as people literally jumped out of the way. Hopefully no one got killed. Afterward, I snapped a picture of his bumper on the sidewalk.

Mongolia has some of the most beautiful land I've seen, much of it free from the fences and powerlines seen in other nations' countrysides. Unfortunately, Mongolia has a small littering problem. Note the plastic bottle in the picture.

Outside of Mongolia's capital, Ulaanbaatar, there are few miles of paved roads.

Overcast skies

Goats. Many goats, everywhere.

Toyota Land Cruisers have to be the most popular vehicle in Mongolia.

Being spiritual on Kublai Khan's old stomping grounds.

This is as close as we came to wild camels. I jumped out of the vehicle to get this picture.

More camels.

I moved in for a closer picture, but the camels wanted nothing to do with me. Here they are running away from me with their silly floppy humps.

Some herders at sunset proving that motorized transportation isn't always the best. Notice the menacing terrain.

We stayed in this ger for a night. You can see some dairy products being dried on the roof, a fallen basketball hoop, and part of a solar panel on the other side of the ger.

An active shrine for a recently-passed relative was inside our ger. A little bit of food from meals is left for the deceased person, and the candles are lit at night. The little blue wrapped candy was part of the offering we took to the family in exchange for letting us stay the night. They left a piece at the shrine.

One of the most efficient practices I saw in Mongolia was using cow dung as fireplace fuel. These are free, easy to collect, easy to handle, require no tools, and burn well. Essentially, we are talking about condensed, dried grass.

Jigjidiin Mönkhbat is a Mongolian sports hero, 1968 Olympics Freestyle silver medalist, 6-time national wrestling champion, and father of Yokozuna sumo star Hakuho Sho. He sizes me up here, and sees I have the reach and a bit more hair. He, on the other hand, has "old man strength" and the ability to crush me. It should be a good match.

Flower.

Every ger, it seemed, had a dog standing guard. This dog is making the rounds.

Another flower.

Yet another flower.

This is the first of a series of 8 lakes, only 5 or 6 of which still have water. I'm standing on a steep mountainside in this picture, and the driver is telling me to move back to level land.

Mongolians build these rock shrines everywhere.

This past year, I've had a fascination with shipping container homes, so I was happy to see this series of shipping container stores in a small Mongolian country town.

Side view of a shipping container store.

Mongolia has vast amounts of gold, but lacks the infrastructure, equipment, and organization to mine it properly. Because the country has no way to enforce laws, individuals have gone out on their own or in small groups to pan.

Ninja miners have no incentive to repair the land they mine, so the valley ends up destroyed. You won't see pictures like these in travel guides.

The mining destruction to the valley is evident.

Some of the ninja miners can afford heavier equipment.

Birds of prey everywhere.

This picture could have been taken in any valley, near any mountain. Mongolia has more cows, horses, sheep, goats, and yaks...

Mongolia is making real gains in road improvement, but they completely close the new routes while in progress.

View from above, near the highest waterfall in Mongolia.

Girl taking a freethrow. Indiana has very little on Mongolia when it comes to love of the game.

Gers, the Mongolian nomadic dwellings, don't require a single nail. The wooden frames are held together with rawhide rivets, then covered with a thick felt.

I ran into this little wild puppy while on a hike. You can see a den to the right. He was very careful about eating outside his home. Getting close enough to to take this picture took about 20 minutes, as I gained his trust.

I took the orphan puppy some leftover dinner and tossed it in his den. You can see he is still very uncomfortable with me being so close. I, too, am a little uncomfortable since I never received my rabies shot!

Some little kids playing around.

Nomadic families let nothing go to waste. Since their diets consist almost entirely of meat and dairy, they produce multiple products. This tin of dairy cream can be eaten plain, as the boy demonstrates, or put in milk tea as a light sweetener.

Many gers have satellite dishes. From what I was told, the nomadic families pickup several channels for free with these basic dishes.

Mongolians have finer teeth than anywhere else I've been. This dawned on me after being there over a week. A Mongolian woman told me she thought it was because of all the calcium they eat from dairy. I'm sure that's a large part of it, but they must also be genetically predisposed to having such straight, nicely formed chompers! Seriously, who would have thought Mongolians would have such fantastic teeth?!

More environmental fallout from mining.

This rock has a lot of folklore holding it up. One fun piece is that any person able to toss a stone over this huge boulder will be rich. Watch me attempt it in my video section. Do you think I was able to throw it over?

This woman hitched a ride with us. She jumped off a horse-pulled wagon, and the wagon driver was gone before this woman even asked us for a ride. It is poor manners to not help a neighbor, so it was no wonder they assumed correctly that we would give her a lift.

Gers get shifted around occasionally. Notice the gravel bed to the right. The terrain, even within the small area of Mongolia I saw, is so varied.

At nightfall, this long stream of horses made its way to the river. I thought for sure that they were being guided by a person, but they were not! It was a magnificent sight to see them all moving along, coordinated, on their own.

This poor yak lost his herd and has to put up with all these goats and sheep.

Wild country dogs in Mongolia have these thick, heavy tails. I never figured out why. Does anyone know?

Mongolian pond at dawn.

The proven roads are well traveled and defined.

Small town at sunrise.

Not everyone in country towns lives in gers open to the world. This little town has small cabins with privacy fences throughout.

Though this eagle is used for tourist pictures, Mongolians have a centuries-old history of using eagles for hunting. Eagles, falcons, vultures, and hawks are seen frequently in the country.

A man shows us his items for sale---a bucket full of airag (horse milk), and what I think is a sheep.

A woman pours airag into a recently used water bottle. Plastic 1.5 Litre water and cola bottles are the default storage containers for milk. Airag in the country is cheaper, costing just over a dollar per gallon.

Our driver had us finish bottles of water so he could get them filled with airag on our last leg back to Ulaanbaatar.

Nearly every family owns this style of cruiser motorcycle. Apparently they handle the terrain well, and can accommodate up to four passengers! Most are made in China or Russia.

One of the better basketball hoops I saw.

Many herders paint their animals to indicate ownership. Check out the magpie sitting on the top rail. Surprisingly, I also saw seagulls.

This is the first time I've seen gasoline sold at such a low grade (80). At 92 grade, fuel costs about $2.87/gal by my math. 17 July 2009.

Mongolian horses are small. I took this one for a ride. When I returned, the little boy in orange jumped on him and showed me how to ride properly. His feet were a foot off the stirrups, he used no crop, and had no fancy gear, but he knew how to handle that animal. All Mongolian children become experts in horses.

Slaughtering and butchering sheep for dinner is about as mundane for the nomadic people as washing a car is for an American.

This small child has nothing better to do than hold the leg. It's difficult to say whether the child is a boy or girl.

Almost all animals are used for anything practical---Mongolians eat them, make clothing from them, use them as transportation.

Sharpening the scissors...

Nomads, naturally, are nomadic. I had one chance to see a relocation in progress. This family packed all their belongings onto camels for the trip.

About 15 minutes behind the family, other herders moved along the animals. Traffic came to a halt until the bridge cleared.

Like horseback riding, wrestling is a national sport, something that every Mongolian boy does. The rules are fairly simple. Whoever is taken down first loses. Feet and hands are about the only body parts that can touch the ground without being considered a takedown. You can see the boy in blue still has a chance as he struggles to keep his balance.

Sprinting away.

Inside a cave.

This tiny cave entrance was in the middle of nowhere. We found it only because some others were near. Stopping for a look was worth it...

Terkhiin Tsagaan Lake. Dozens and dozens of rock shrines have been built at this beautiful lake.

My camera doesn't do the magnificence of this mountain justice. It is really big and I climbed to the peak!

On my descent from the mountain top, I ran into this little problem and decided to answer. How could anyone not want a picture on top of this thing?

Another look at this rock stuck between two larger rocks, and the problem to reach it.

A major pitfall in traveling alone is not having trustworthy, competent friends nearby to snap cool pictures. Luckily, when I climbed on top of this weird, stuck rock, the sun was setting and I was able to get a picture of the shadow. You'll just have to believe me when I say that the person in the picture is me!