Today, I am a tourist

** Gobi Desert - Day Six **

We had camped in a beautiful meadow the night before that was 100 per cent fly-free (I forgot to mention the insane amount of flies in Bugin Tsav that never stopped buzzing around my face and ears…ahhhhh!). I could have stayed in our fly-free meadow for a few nights, but we had to keep going Azaa had a flight to catch out of Dalanzadgad on September 6.

Today, I get to be a tourist. We first drove to the sand dunes (and I know I’ve talked about sand dunes already, but these ones were REALLY big and looked like the ones you see in photos of Egypt and the middle-east). I ran up and down one for a bit, but not long because the wind was really blowing and I got sand in my eyes and in my mouth. We stop at one of the tourist camps for lunch and to re-charge the battery on my camera, which is dead. I have snapped over 100 photos since I arrived in Mongolia. At lunch, I am told that the price for lunch is as follows:

$5 US for Mongolians
$10 US for Tourists

So I paid double the price for my lunch (even though I was paying for everyone anyways, because that’s the rule when you hire a guide/driver … you have to pay for all their meals while they are working for you).

Regardless, the meal was great (three courses) and I got to take a shower at the camp and power up my camera. After that, I released my second driver and vehicle because we were no longer in a remote area and were safe to rely on one car since there was plenty of traffic on the roads.

Then we drove to the “Flaming Cliffs,” a beautiful red rock mountain range smack in the middle of flatness. This is where the first dinosaur eggs were discovered in the 1920’s.

The sun is out and the cliffs look especially red. I snap some shots of the view and get a few great photos where you can see my tiny shadow on the red rock across the gorge.

I bought a few “miniature hand-made felt gers” for gifts for people back home. When you open them up, there are tiny felt beds inside! Then Azaa and I walked down into the cliffs with a local guide. He was dressed in traditional Mongolian threads – a long red shirt, his head wrapped in a turbab, puffy pants and embroidered leather boots that had an “elf toe” on them. Half-way down the walk, he dug up a paint brush from the sand. Then we walked over to another patch of sand and he started sweeping the dirt away. Beneath it – NINE fossilized dinosaur eggs! He had discovered them last spring, after a heavy rain. The water had eroded the sand on some parts of the ground and made the eggs visible. I snapped some photos of the Mongolian and his fossil discovery. Then he told my guide that he wanted 2000 turgegs from me. That’s the equivalent of US $1.50. Apparently, he was making a good living off showing tourists his dinosaur eggs! I paid him and we left.

We camp in another nice spot that evening, shielded by some low cliffs. That’s a good thing because the wind really starts to pick up. We play cards until the sun sets and I sleep well that night.