Home Again

By Rachel

We took two days to get back to Ulaanbaatar, and stopped the first morning at a sand dune. Only about 3% of the Gobi is covered with sand, so this spot was very cool.

Later, we needed to buy gas in Mandal-Ovoo. This teeming metropolis had plenty of gas, but the pumps weren’t working. So while we made some noodle soups in a nearby ger a hand-pump was found. We all pitched in to pump 50 liters of gas.

That night we stayed in a ger in the middle of nothingness. It was owned by a friend of our driver. It has a cat.

The next morning we happened upon a family moving and sorting their animals.

After a long day of driving we got back to Ulaanbaatar in time to clean up, shop and get ready for the next day’s train to Beijing. We went had done such a good job protecting our guests from Mongolian food on the road that we actually went to a Mongolian restaurant.