Just like every morning, we both wake up with dead arms as the tent is quite small. Shortly after we rise a couple of Mongolians herding sheep on a motorcycle pull up. We do the usual pointing and mumbling game at each others bikes and when content stand in silence. They invite Alan and me back to their Ger so we pack up and head down to two Gers in the distance. On arrival we get invited inside one of the Gers and sitdown (i think we got the place of honour in the ger..sweet!) trying to remember our ger etiquette. The whole family filters in, 4 women, 4 men and 3 kids and sit and watch us eat pieces of goat, Aarag (fermented mares milk), salt milk tea, Mares milk cheese, bread, a lolly and a bowl of tomato sauce! This is far too much for us to eat as we have had breakfast and our appetites have been diminishing with the heat and fatigue. We try to taste everything though, but not too much Aarag as it whispered '...regret' when i sipped. I listened and drank all the salt tea as this is pretty good and leaves the stomach in tact. I pulled out the polaroid camera and spent a whole film taking family portraits...the polaroid is the ultimate friends maker. After a short while we gestured to depart as we were keen to get back to Ulan Bataar for a shower. We both very much appreciated being invited in by the family...it was quite a special experience for both of us and was a great opportunity to see how people live over here. After a couple of hours of riding alonag the usual snaking off road trails we arrive back in Ulan Bataar and negotiate the traffic to the guest house on the other side of the city. Although we are getting used to riding on the right hand side of the road in crazy traffic i still dont much like riding around Ulan Bataar and we usually take taxis when we are staying at the guest house. Here are some tips for riding in traffic here:
1. Use your horn. LOTS. All the time..dont assume anyone sees you, toot them anyway,..hell toot just for the sake of tooting, its fun! Its not like Australia, ...using your horn doesn't cause the occupant of the other car to hop out and beat you with a crowbar.
2. Dont drive in the traffic here. If you have to see tip 1.
Tomorrow we put our bikes in for a service. Probably stay here a couple of days to rest up and psych up for the next loop.
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