From the book My Mongolia by J. Peter Morrow (published 2017) – memoirs of an Amercian who lived in Mongolia for 15 years.

“Monglia is the last horse-based nomadic society in the world. Nearly half of the population still live in gers, their traditional felt tents, many of them herding their animals in isolation in the country side. Most of the rest live in Ulaanbaatar, an ex-Soviet-era regional city of Russian, Mongolian, and international character that is now a gold-rush boomtown.

Then there is the rest of the country, four Californias in land mass with 2.9 million people, the least densley poulated country in the world. It includes unbroken steppe land that once extended to Ukraine, Siberian Taiga in the north, towering glacial peaks in the west and the incomparable Gobi Desert in the south. In other words, it is packed with beauty and nature, mostly undisturbed by humans. “

IMG_20191001_065101 — Our ger camp in the Gobi Desert.

IMG_20190930_142317 — Victoria doing homework in the ger.

IMG_20190930_154421 — Free time in the afternoon.

00100lPORTRAIT_00100_BURST20191001070839034_COVER — This looks like a doll house, but this is actually our ger in the Gobi Desert.

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20191001_112439 — Sand surfing in the Gobi.

00100lPORTRAIT_00100_BURST20191002125740240_COVER — Puttiing together a little toy ger.

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IMG_20191002_171142 — Playing around on the Flaming Cliffs, an important archeological dig site where the first dinosaur eggs were found back in 1922.

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IMG_20191003_094207 — Playing “ankle bones” with our new friends. Really fun game played with dried goat ankle bones.

Golden Eagle Festival

After the Gobi Desert we went to The Golden Eagle festival, which is an annual traditional festival held in Bayan-Ölgii aimag, Mongolia. In the eagle festival, Kazakh eagle hunters (Burkitshi) celebrate their heritage and compete to catch small animals such as foxes and hares with specially trained golden eagles, showing off the skills both of the birds and their trainers. Prizes are awarded for speed, agility and accuracy, as well as for the best traditional Kazakh dress, and more.

The Eagle Festival is featured in the 2016 documentary The Eagle Huntress, in which the 13-year-old Kazakh girl Aisholpan becomes the first female to enter and win the competition.

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