DK Orchard

Today was a wonderful day!  We were invited by one of the dentists to her family's geir in the countryside to eat a traditional Mongolian meal and to ride horses.  I'll try to present it as well as I can in pictures.

This is the geir or the "mobile home " people  live in.  The doctor's father explained to me that this was not his property.  In the countryside people can live where ever they want and their animals graze on the land.

 This is the doctor's father and mother.  They own 200 horses, 1,000 sheep and goats, and 100 head of beef cattle.  He is 60 years old and learned to speak English very well in school in Russia.

The horses are small compared to ours but very comfortable to ride.  Bolt, our driver said that most Mongolian children learn to ride when they are young.  Notice how the saddle sits forward on the horse and the stirrups are quite short compared to our cowboy's saddles.

The inside of the geir is quite comfortable.  They had a fire going in the stove, and the women were preparing the meal.  We were served refreshments when we arrived; cheese and bread and fruit and that yellow stuff which is served with traditional meals and quite tasty.  It's made from heating milk and stirring it  until it starts to set up.  You put it on bread and it has a sweet buttery flavor.  Notice that big pile of meat by the doorway.  They just slaughtered a goat.  That is placed in the milk can you can see, along with potatoes and carrots and turnips and very hot rocks, sealed up and steamed for an hour or so, kind of like our milk can dinner.  When the can is opened the hot rocks are taken out and placed on the plate with the meat.  You take one of these rocks in your hands and toss it from hand to hand until it cools down.  this cleans the hands and then you are ready to eat.  No utensils.

The women's side of the geir is to the right as you walk in the door.  Food preparation and kitchen stuff goes on there.  The man's side is to the left.

While the meal was cooking,we rode horses, took a ride to see the livestock, and watched the hands round up horses to lasso.  This is done with a long stick with a loop in it, kind of like our cowboys roping steers.  When they snag a horse with that loop it gets wild and crazy.  they get on their knees and take a wild ride thru the countryside until the horse slows down.  Fascinating!

They do a lot of their rounding up on motorcycles.  I don't think he trusted me to do it alone.

These are the horse ropers.

 When the dinner was ready we were invited in to eat.  Never had goat before but it was very good.  This is the real Mongolian bar b que.  They expected Clyde and I  to eat most of this.  We didn't do very well but we gave it a good effort.

These are great people.  So kind and easy to like.  We felt very special and made some friends today.