From Khogno Khan, we drove east back towards UB. Terelj is just west of UB, so our trip involved driving the same route we had yesterday, and then through UB to the other side.
The trip was just as bumpy and occasionally interrupted by animals as it had been yesterday, but now I was sore from the camel ride the day earlier, so I found it a bit more uncomfortable being tossed around the van's back seat (there were no seat belts).
For lunch we stopped in a village at a dumpling restaurant. Here we were served what I assume is more traditional Mongolian milk tea, and neither Andrea or I could take more than a few sips. The fat and salt were just too much to bear. The mutton dumplings, on the other hand, although shockingly greasy, were delicious.
Andrea and I were both surprised to realize the restaurant lacked running water, and we were sent out back to another pit toilet.
We reached UB around 16:00 or so, stopping briefly at a supermarket to get some snacks and beers, etc., and at a gas station for gas. From the gas station I took a photo of one of UB's poorer neighborhoods, which typically consist of gers in small yards.
As we flew into UB we had seen that the city is surrounded by these neighborhoods.
From the gas station it was another hour so drive before we reached Terelj. Our first stop was Turtle Rock, a rock formation famous for its resemblance to a turtle.
Because it is so close to UB, Terelj has much more infrastructure than Khogno Tarna, which really was just wilderness for the most part. Terelj even has electricity run out from UB!
The family we stayed with here is not nomadic, and it is obvious the majority of their money comes from tourism, not agriculture, where as clearly it was the other way round for our Khogno Tarna family. Based on what we could see in our valley, I would guess Terelj must be the most popular tourist destination in Mongolia--and even UB residents come here to escape the city. This gave it all a much different feel than we had had the night before.
Terelj is set among mountains, and there are far more trees and far less grassland here than to the south and west. Our family's camp was the highest in the valley, so just behind our ger was a mountain, which I climbed up several times.
As with so many spots in Mongolia, the slope had a small ovoo built on it.
Another difference is that there are far smaller herds, probably because there is far less pasture. Our family had about twenty cows, I would say, and less than ten horses.
They had a single goat, which seemed to be a pet, but not sheep or camels. Other families in the valley have yaks in their cow herds, but our family did not.
Dinner this night was prepared in a little cookhouse, rather than the family's ger, and was mutton and vegetable soup with sourdough bread. It was also delicious, although once again quite fatty.
The night was much cooler than it had been the day before, so our host lit us a roaring wood fire in our ger's stove, which heated the ger so much that I opened the door to let some cool air in! I became entirely convinced that this stove could heat a ger adequately in the winter.
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