Ch 11: Ruff Riders

After a night of slipping into and out of consciousness I awoke an hour before entering into BaoTou, Inner Mongolia. The town itself is split into two parts- old and new. We chose to stay in the old as it was close to transportation.

The day took us on a journey south to the Singing Sands Gorges (XiangSha Wan). It's a series of desert dunes that formed out of the edges of the Mu Us Desert, a relative of the Gobi Desert. I came to play in the sands but found myself being offered rides on Mongolian horses into some nearby grasslands. How could we pass up the opportunity to ride Mongol horses in Mongolia!? The four of us each took a horse and followed along with one of the horse handlers. The horses were extremely manuverable and fast when they went into a gallop. I could see how Genghis Kahn and the Mongols took over the world on these bad boys. Not that I'm an awesome rider- far from it I also learned what "raw hide" means from this little experience. Some things however, are worth the pain.

July 10th.
Holy shit! As I look out from the cafe window, the owner is baring up the doors as a summer sand storm is just hitting. I can see the people scrambling outside as the sand comes through town. I hear it's a product of massive deforestation. I wonder if it's true. I'll have to ask Al Gore when I get the chance. My stomache is telling me it's dinner time, Mongolian Style.