pinch, punch

it's june! we've crossed the halfway point and entered a new month all-in-one. this morning we decided to trek into the mountains in the time before the van came to pick us up and take us back to UB, deciding to take the route we took yesterday; mainly so we could appreciate it unimpeded by the terror of the saddle. our subconscious awareness of yesterdays ride was indeed correct, it was stunning. particularly as we looked down a valley and could clearly see for miles and miles unto the horizon (i'm guessing about a thousand miles).

the view was perfected when over a nearby peak, an eagle soared into view. it hunted on the warm breeze for about 5 minutes before swooping down in the middle distance. it was slightly too far away at that point to tell if it had made a kill, but before that it'd flown close enough to see the pattern on it's wings and the hook on it's beak.


back in UB it was bank holiday, a huge festival in honour of mothers and children. the city was completely rammed with thousands upon thousands of people. most of the people in the country actually. we made our way, very slowly though heaving crowds to sunbaatar square where the festival was in full swing. 3 or 4 stages belted out trebly music over incapable distorting PAs. on each stage some form of entertainment, one had kids with a cheesey dance routine, one a woman trying to get some information from someone off-stage and the whole conversation coming through the microphone. the last was the most impressive with a troupe of teen aged acrobats flinging each other into high somersaults and catching them one-handed on the other side of the stage. we had to move on though, the noise coming from the speakers was excruciating.


i am sunburnt. my pasty skin has seen more sun than ever before and turned a nice warm pinky colour. my skin being my skin, probably a remnant of my family's distant scandinavian roots, will turn back to milky white within days and i'll go back to looking sun-shy. rubbish.

we leave tomorrow, to head west and into a 6 day tour of the mongolian countryside. rumour has it that we'll be traveling in a - think its called a - UAZ "Bukhanka". we saw them throughout russia, millions of them, and have seen quite a few here. they're a cross between a van and a jeep and it looks like the design hasn't changed since the 60's. i am suitably excited, this would make the tour even if the destinations were rubbish.