No visit to Mongolia is complete without a camel ride across the sand dunes and deserts of the Gobi. I was lucky to stay in a Ger tent right in the middle of the Khongor Sand Dunes. This is a vast, dusty brown ocean of sand that stretches for miles. The sand dunes shimmer in the afternoon sun, and it can get quite warm. The camels of Mongolia are large, stocky, and full of wool. They have thick wool coats to withstand the extreme cold in winters.
I climbed on top of one such camel for a ride through the sand dunes, and I just went with the flow. We climbed for hours through the desert, with soft winds blowing from the west as I slowly trudged on. There are hills and mountains of sand dunes; the entire place is dry, airy, and dusty brown in color.
Camel ride
I moved through the desert sands with the camel navigating the dunes with ease. We moved slowly but surely, the tall, thin limbs and large, broad, flat feet of the camel carrying me through my journey.
The Mongolian camels eat shrubs and other plants that grow wild in the desert. They are gentle creatures, obedient to their masters, and have been carrying goods and people across the deserts for thousands of years. Camel milk is also consumed in this part of the world, and they even make alcohol from it.
In the late evenings, I stayed at the Gobi Discovery Camp in a Ger along with my guide, Animaa. She was a chubby Mongolian girl, very sweet but plump. She accompanied me during the first leg of my Mongolian odyssey. I slept in a warm Ger at night, as the desert gets very cold at night.
“You know, I don’t like the way you pay money to people, especially in the bar and hotel. You can’t throw money at them; it is very rude. You will annoy people; it is disrespectful,” Animaa told me, irritated by my habit of throwing money at people. “No, no, it’s just that I am in my own world, thinking about the next story and blog post. I also get confused with the money and the denominations, that’s all,” I replied, almost apologizing for my rudeness.
There was a huge black dog who would run across the garden area and around the tents. I would take slow walks around the place, exploring it during the evening.
