Welcome to Mongolia!

We made it to the airport in plenty of time, and I sat around and tried to upload my photos and write my journal.  I made the decision to make this trip without my laptop, and I was already starting to regret that choice.  Typing on the screen keyboard isn't easy, and the mobile apps are less consistent than the same programs on the computer hard drive.  Not to mention, I bought the tablet for a completely different purpose, and it isn't as fast or strong as I anticipate when working with photos or journaling.  But, it's too late now.  I've left home without my computer, so just make the best of it.  I got the journaling done (of which half of this entry was lost by the time I got home and started writing the blog), and most of the pictures loaded (after 3 tries) and uploaded to the cloud, and we made our plane to Ulaanbaatar on time.  I had redundant saving with me on a large, brand new SD card and a 1TB external hard drive, so anything that didn't load to Lightroom Mobile on the tablet, was still available.

We landed around 2:00 am-ish, and as promised, we had a driver waiting for us when we cleared customs.  My companion had to get the cash out, again, as I still had no way to access cash, but we weren't likely to need any cash until after the snow leopard camps unless we chose to go to town during our day at the hotel.  We got in the taxi and headed for the hotel.  When we got to a cross roads, the driver pointed out the city lights for Ulaanbaatar and turned the other direction.  Our hotel was supposed to be secluded and a good place for birding, so that wasn't unexpected.  After a while, we turned off the paved roads, and started down barely visible dirt roads.  The driver kept calling someone and turning around, obviously lost.  I didn't check time, but we must have traversed these areas for at least an hour.  My phone battery was running down, so I only took one picture.  

We sat in the back, quietly cutting up, and discussing which horror movie it was most like.  I always send Bruce and Chrissy a message when I board a flight, when I land, and when I get to the hotel, and we have daily "proof of life" message requirements when one of us is traveling.  Plus Bruce likes to track me on Life 360 when I'm gone.  So, I sent a couple of tongue-in-cheek texts to Bruce, who kept asking me the name of the hotel we were going to, and I couldn't remember it and didn't really have enough battery to look it up.  My idiot self didn't even think about grabbing one of those extra chargers out of my camera bag and plugging my phone in!  I told him I thought the cabbie was lost, and his answer was, "I know." Apparently, he had been tracking the whole debacle.  But it was a fun adventure, and suddenly, our driver pulled back out onto the pavement for a few seconds and off onto a different dirt road - this one with a sign that pointed to the Mongolica Hotel and Resort.  When we arrived, we were escorted up to our room, basically the penthouse suite.  Color me impressed!

I sent this video to Bruce and told him we had made it to our hotel, and his response was, "Charge your phone!"  Nothing about glad I wasn't Mongolia Chainsaw'ed or anything like that.  Just the instruction to charge my phone.  Anyway, I plugged my phone in, unpacked the CPAP, and fell asleep.

I woke the next morning around 9:30 and went downstairs, still in my nightgown, which can double as a long, black dress in a pinch (or not in such a pinch, and I'm just lazy).  This place has a pretty swank restaurant, but the guy said he'd bring breakfast up to us and confirmed that the water is not potable so would need to be boiled in the kettle if we didn't drink the bottles.  I got a message from the guys from Soaring Adventures to enjoy the day around the hotel, and that the driver would be back for us at 4:00 am the following morning to take us back to the airport where we would meet Bina, one of the principals and our tour guide.  I took absolute advantage of a day that I didn't have to get dressed and read my book while looking out the windows.  And the view from the window was good.  There were some birds, a herd of untamed domestic horses (that's an important distinction here), and a couple of kitty cats.  And I did some laundry, washing our traveling clothes.

A nice, early night to bed, and up bright and early to meet our taxi driver at 4:00 am for the ride back to the airport.  He didn't get lost this time.  He even joked about knowing the way this time!  And we met Bina at the check-in for our flight to Khovd.  The first thing I learned is that his name is pronounced with a long I.  I had been pronouncing the I as a long E, so that's going to take some getting used to.

I got called back for luggage inspection.  I had to open my suitcase to show them that what they thought was a whip was actually my tripod, and what they thought were small batteries (that aren't allowed in checked bags) was hand warmers.  We talked for a bit and learned that the mama snow leopard they had been watching was still there with her three cubs, who are now about one year old and will stay with her until they're two.  And we were going to Khovd, where we will drive over and meet an eagle hunter tonight and then head to the snow leopard camp in the morning.

We got settled onto the plane - and then came back off because of a "technical issue".  Personally, I'm glad they found it and fixed it.  While we were waiting in the airport, Bina gave us some cultural information, animal preservation/conservation,  language information, and pretty much any information we asked for.  He said it's only a 2 hour drive from Khovd to the eagle hunter, so we should be fine.  We went to the "Nice to CU" store and got some snacks.  We had fun trying to properly pronounce the town we were going to, and eventually reboarded our plane and were on our way.

Upon arrival, we met our driver, who took us to our hotel, where we checked in and had lunch.  Then we headed to Polbo, about a 2-hour drive, just as promised.  It was a pleasant drive and pretty scenery.

This statuary was just on the way out of town

One of the only signs of civilization between Khovd and Polbo, fronting a beautiful rock hill.

Lots of goat crossing signs

I especially liked this one

We went through part of the Altai Mountains

And skirted the highest peak, Tsambagarav, with an elevation of just under 4,200 m (13,500 ft).

When we reached Polbo, we met 69-year-old Leikham, a seventh-generation Cossack-Mongolian eagle hunter.  And just now, while writing this, I'm realizing that he may have been saying Kazakh-Mongolian instead of Cossack-Mongolian, which would make much more sense, since we were quite close to Kazakhstan.  These are two very different cultural groups, and Kazakh fits much better with a nomadic eagle hunter than the Russian warrior Cossack does.  Anyway, I digress.

We learned quite a bit about eagle hunting.  They catch them wild, preferably as fledglings or stolen directly from the nests, but sometimes trapping older birds.  It takes a little over a month to train a fledgling and a little over 3 months to train an older bird.  Most of the training is to teach them to kill but not eat the prey.  During hunting season, they feed the eagles washed cow lungs.  This is to keep them healthy, but hungry enough to hunt and come home for more food.  During the off season, they feed them rabbit.  Mongolians do not eat rabbit.  They only use female eagles for hunting because they're larger and stronger than the males.  They generally keep them for 6 or 7 years before releasing them in the wild again so they can breed and keep the species promulgating.  Sometimes, they will have an especially good hunter, and they will keep her longer, sometimes up to 13 years.  The tradition of eagle hunting is passed down based on interest, not based on birth order, and no descendants are required or pressured to take up the sport.  Recently, women have started entering the field, but Leikham is not a fan of that practice.

As is the practice in Mongolia, when visitors come, they put out food.  Most of this spread was candy and the Aaruul, a fermented yogurt made from some type of milk curds (cow, yak, camel, or goat).  He also had milk tea, which was yak milk and tea powder.  I thought that was quite good.

He also showed us many of the awards he has won for horse racing and eagle hunting (mostly on the walls) as well as the coats and hats he has made from the hides of animals, mostly fox legs.  They may not eat rabbits, but they do eat fox, and while I was never clear what they do with the rest of the fox hide, I'm sure it gets used.  These people are very thrifty.  Not much goes to waste.  The fox leg pelt is used in his coats and hats because that's the softest part of the pelt.

The inner lining of this coat took the fur of the legs of 30 foxes.  It's one of his most prized possessions.

This coat and hat are made of wolf, an animal too large to be taken by an eagle.

After talking and learning, we went outside and met Ana, his current eagle, with whom he is very happy.  She's a very sweet girl, and we even got to hold and pose with her wearing the fox coat.

As we drove back to Khovd, we drove through a short-lived but significant snow storm.  Still not really enough to put much on the ground, but it blew hard and obstructed visibility.  Didn't seem to faze our driver, though.  

When we got to Khovd, there were lights up all over town.  This is apparently the normal state of streets in Mongolian towns.

After dinner, we went to our rooms for a good night's sleep and a good shower.  Tomorrow, we leave for the snow leopard camp.  I won't have overnight electricity to use my CPAP, and we won't have showers for a while.

A Long Layover in South Korea

To kick off this trip, my travel companion and I started off with a long layover in South Korea.  We booked a tour through Viator.  When we got to the airport, and I was getting ready to go to the ATM to grab some cash, I hit my first snag.  Before leaving home, I sorted out my regular debit card since I don't usually carry it with me when I travel.  Unfortunately, we stopped using Charles Schwab, which is the debit card I usually carry and I didn't mentally process that that one wasn't in my wallet, so I didn't have a debit card with me at all!  Had it not been for my travel companion, that would have been a terrible thing because I also didn't have any PIN numbers for my credit cards since I never get cash advances from them.  She was able to get some cash out, and we settled in to wait for our tour guide.

Chance Kim with Outdoor Korea picked us up on time, and off we headed.  First stop was the DMZ.  On the way there from the airport, we drove near the border, including some guard shacks on the southern side of the Han River, which marks the North and South Korean border along Incheon, where the airport is located.  Our guide told us that if you look closely, there are few to no trees on the mountains on the North Korean side because they have stripped the land of trees for wood for heating fires and construction.  Though North Korea has been attempting reforestation, it was noticeably bare on the northern side of the river.  Apparently these efforts have not reached the southern border.  

Once we reached the DMZ area, we walked around the public area to see things.  As expected, there were lots of historical markers.  Korea had been a Japanese colony until the end of World War II, at which time, like much of the world, the peninsula was split between the United States and the Soviet Union.  The goal was that Korea would eventually be reunified, but the sections couldn't agree on whether to reunify under communist rule or as a democracy.  Ultimately, North Korea invaded South Korea, resulting in the first time the UN sent military force to support a member state.  When the fighting was over, North and South Korea went back to their original split borders with a demilitarized zone between them as a buffer.  South Korea has included a Civilian Control Zone, which expands this area.  North Korea apparently has a similar zone.

When the Armistice Agreement was signed, there was an exchange of prisoners of war across the Freedom Bridge.  Some civilians managed to cross from one to the other side, as well, before the bridge was closed off.  Now, citizens of South Korea go to the end of the Freedom Bridge and write their dreams of reunification on ribbons which get tied to the wall at the end.

There are a couple of statues at the beginning of the bridge.  They look like just a depiction of a male and female South Korean service member, and I can't find anything that discusses their significance.

There is also a small park that runs under the Freedom Bridge.  It doesn't seem to get a lot of use, but that could be because we were there early in the morning.

To the right of the Freedom Bridge is a bombed out train that had been used during the Korean War.  It appears to have been manufactured by Mitsubishi.

There is also large Peace Bell that gets rung periodically.

And there is a park where people gather once a year to pray and ask the ancestors to reunite the country.  Most of these people who come to this park are old enough to remember family members from whom they have been separated since the end of the Korean War, so this park gets used by fewer people every year.

After walking around the park, I had to store my camera back in the car because it wasn't allowed on the military base with a tour.  I did still have my phone camera, though.

Once on the base, we went to see the Third Tunnel.  Since the Armistice, North Korea has continued to aggressively pursue reunification with South Korea under communist rule, which is a nice way to say they're continuing to try to defeat South Korea and dominate the entire peninsula.  One way they have done this is by digging tunnels under the DMZ and into South Korea.  Based on the size of these tunnels, the intent is to move ground troops, though one tunnel is large enough to transport artillery and small armored vehicles.  One of these tunnels, the third one found, is open to tourists.  It is large enough to transport 30,000 ground troops with light weapons per hour.  Before the concrete barrier which blocks the tunnel from being used, it is over 300 meters at an 11-degree incline.  Our guide told us that these tunnels were located by the South by boring PVC piping into the ground and pumping water into it.  If the water keeps running, there is likely a tunnel, and they bore through the bedrock to reach it and plug it with a concrete barrier.  Multiple other reports, however, state how these tunnels were discovered by accident, with the first tunnel being discovered by a South Korean troop on exercise noticing steam rising from the ground.  Upon inspection, voices were heard, so the soldiers started puncturing the ground with bayonets and other items until the ground above the tunnel collapsed, and the two countries exchanged fire for a short period of time.

By the time the Third Tunnel was located, there were defector reports of the tunnels being dug along with information that Kim Il-sung had ordered the tunnels built in 1971, to be completed by 1975.  The South Koreans had been searching for tunnels for several years, and in 1978, work the North Koreans were doing in the Third Tunnel caused an old bore hole to burst open.  That bore hole was marked and supported with a PVC pipe in the tunnel to help keep the tunnel from collapsing in that spot.  The fourth and last tunnel was discovered in 1990, but there are believed to be many more that have not been discovered.  However, the North Korean government has seemed to abandon any attempts at winning the Southern part of the peninsula through ground action and has recently been working more on ballistic missiles, having detonated some testing missiles as recently as last week.

Before we entered the Third Tunnel, we had to put all of our belongings in a locker.  That included batteries, gloves, and cell phones.  There were no pictures of the tunnel.  We  put on our hard hats and headed down to the actual tunnel.  It was an eerie feeling, descending approximately 73 meters below ground, passing by MOPP stations in several places along the way.  MOPP is the masks and clothing worn as protection from the use of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons.  Coming back up that 11-degree incline was brutal, but I made it with just a couple of rest stops.  And, after a short rest, I had enough energy left to take some "tourist shots" outside when I got my phone back.

After we finished the tunnel area, we headed to the Dora Observatory.  We entered the 3-story observatory and looked out at the DMZ and beyond into North Korea, including into the North Korean village of Kaesong, also known as Propaganda City.  This city has always been basically uninhabited, but was built as an attempt to get South Korean citizens to defect to the North.  The observatory has an amphitheater with several rows of seating to look over the North and an outside section with the large binoculars for looking out.  Despite signs all over the place stating there are no photos to be taken, we were allowed to retain our cell phones.  So... 

Taken somewhat surreptitiously, so it's not the greatest, but you can see the little town that was built to try to entice South Koreans to defect to the North.

After the Dora Observatory, we stopped by a gift shop.  Our guide bought us each a rice soda.  It was pretty good, but very, very sweet.  When we finally got back to the car, we headed to lunch.  He asked if we wanted Western food, Korean food that is intended for Westerners, or what Koreans eat.  We told him we wanted what Koreans would eat on a fairly regular basis.  So, he ordered Army Stew.  It's a mix of broth, hot dogs, sausages, greens, hot chili paste, and ramen noodles with the necessary Korean ingredient - a slice of American cheese.  It was absolutely delicious, and I'm going to have to try to duplicate it for dinner once in a while here, at home!

Then we headed to town, Seoul, to see the hanok village.  A hanok is a traditional Korean house.  Many of them have been demolished in favor of high-rise apartments that can house many people in the same space, but in the larger cities, some traditional villages still exist.  In Seoul, the Bukchon Hanok Village exists in the center of town, between the palaces.  We drove close to the village and parked, then walked through the Bukchon Hanok Village.  We looked in some shops and were able to find postcards to send to the young children in our lives, but since it was a Sunday, the post offices were closed, so we weren't able to get any stamps to mail them from South Korea.  

I took this driving past one of the palaces.  You can see the corner guard post and the palace wall.  There are 5 palaces in Seoul, and I'm going to have to go back to spend a day seeing them along with other things.  You can get into one of them for free if you're wearing hanbok (traditional clothing).

One of the first walls we encountered was a tribute to many important historical figures.

Hanoks do not frequently have holes in their roofs.  We couldn't come up with any reason why this one would be built this way.  We thought about maybe a courtyard in the center of it, but we couldn't be sure.

The streets between the buildings (both old and new) were very small, but people still drove down them and parked.

This is the roofline of the village.  You can see a few modern buildings have been built through here, but new regulations don't allow any more to be built.  Also, according to our tour guide, all new construction has to be single story so they aren't bigger than any of the palaces.

Another view of the roofline

People in hanbok (traditional clothing).  You can rent it at many stores in the area.  Apparently, one of those stores had recently gone out of business and sold hanbok for ridiculously cheap.  There were TONS of people (both men and women) wearing hanbok.  Wearing hanbok also allows you free entrance to one of the palaces.

Because Bukchon Hanok Village is a residential part of town with a few stores and cafes sprinkled about, visitors are encouraged to stay quiet, and there are even quiet hours during which sightseers are not allowed in the area.  There were several people carrying these signs reminding visitors to keep the noise down.  She was not covering her face to avoid my photo, this was how she was holding the sign, and the picture just turned out this way.

One of the major streets (alleys?) of Bukchon Hanok Village.  It was very busy!

After walking through the village, it was time to head back to the airport.  We had an evening plane to catch to start our primary adventure in Mongolia!

The Many Faces of Death Valley National Park

We set an alarm to get up and started early because this is a huge park with no viable lodging on the west side of the park, the side we chose for this trip.  Google Maps said it was 40 miles to the park entrance and 105 miles to the visitor center.  I wish Google or any of the sources I checked would have told me there was a park visitor center at the corner of US395 and CA136 just outside of Lone Pine, where we were staying.  So, I downloaded the park map on the phone just in case we couldn't find one.  

On the way to the park, we drove by Owens Lake again.  We drove past it on the way up, too.  It looked like just another salt lake, but this one has a very interesting history.  Owens Lake used to be a salt lake, similar to but smaller than the Great Salt Lake.  That is, until the Owens River was diverted to fill the LA aquifer in 1913.  The lake finally went completely dry in 1926.  Since then, it has become the largest single source of dust pollution in the US.  And that's not just any dust.  This salt flat contains an alkaline powder dust that carries harmful levels of particulates and chemicals, including such carcinogens as cadmium, nickel, and arsenic among other toxic respiratory particulates.  To try to mitigate this and provide habitat for the birds and other animals that used this previously healthy wetland as either home or as a migration stop, 5% of the water flow was restored in 2006.  To further attempt to mitigate the air pollution, the state is using 3.5 square miles of managed vegetation covers, mostly saltgrass and gravel.  LA is also “shallow flooding” 27 square miles of the salt pan.  They hope this will minimize the alkaline dust storms, but I would think they would want to do more.  There are multiple chemical extraction companies operating on and around the lake, so there isn't really much of a push to fix the issue at this time.  The town of Keeler appears to be a company town dedicated to one of those mining companies.

It was a good thing I downloaded that map because the visitor center was closed that early in the morning, though it was apparently open when we were driving around last night.  And the park entrance was just the sign.  No fee station.  No maps.

Soon after entering the park, we saw Rainbow Canyon and watched it all the way until we finally got to the Father Crowley overlook.  It was beautiful.  I love colorful canyons.  Apparently, this one is used for flight training.  I might have to watch Top Gun again just to see the canyon in action.  They did a lot of filming in the area for that movie.  

Beautiful wildflowers throughout the park.  This one is chicalote, or Mexican prickly poppy.

There is some significant large-item pollution in Rainbow Canyon, maybe a result of military training without policing their trash.

There's a LOT of driving in this park.  We drove through Panamint Springs and saw the different wildflowers that were in bloom.  There hasn't been enough rain for a super bloom, but there were pretty desert flowers.  As we went downhill, the temperature was going up, and the landscape also changed.

Brittlebush

The motel office/grocery store/gas station for the Panamint Springs Resort.  You can rent little tiny homes here for pretty large amounts, but reasonable for being inside the park.

Devil's trumpet

Sand blazing star

We made it to the sand dunes, and I walked out and saw them.  They are amazing!  As far as can be seen.  They are formed from the erosion of the mountains on either side, which gets trapped in this spot and just blows around from dune to dune.  A couple of boys had an inner tube that they were trying to sled down the dunes with.  It wasn't working.  Probably because of the hole in the tube through which their butts dragged the ground.  At one point, they lost control of the tube, which started rolling across the tops of the dunes.  At times, it would start wobbling, but the wind would catch it again, and off it would go.  It finally went down the hill and the kids were able to catch it.

We stopped at the visitor center and got a map and flat penny.  They gave us another pass holder and said to display our pass on the mirror, but with the wind, it kept trying to blow off.  I had planned to go down to Dante's View to see everything from one vantage point and then go down to see the individual things.  It didn't work out that way.  I told Bruce to take the turn to Badwatter, so we did all of those things first.  

The salt on Badwater was kinda powdery.  Probably a mix like that on Lake Owen, but they didn't say anything about other minerals on the signs.  I looked it up, and the composition of the salts in Badwater does not have the toxic components – like arsenic – but does have other minerals – like borax.  We walked out on it.  There are special snails that live in the pools.  

This is the lowest point on the North American continent at 282 feet below sea level.  This is only 132 miles from the highest point in the contiguous US, Mt. Whitney.

There is a little pool that hasn't yet dried up.  There are special types of snails and other creatures that hibernate under these crystals - like the dried lake in White Sands.  Here, they have boardwalks around this part to keep people from walking on it.

The thick part of the salt pans is open for people to walk out on.

We checked the temperature in Badwater before we left.  It was 78 degrees Farenheit

On the way back, we went to what they call the Devils Golf Course.  This is the spot where the salt doesn't settle flat.  

We drove down this graded gravel road, which still is not DIRT!

I took a comparison shot of this landscape from the ground just like I did in Bonnieville.  They're similar, but I think I like the Bonnieville shots better!

Death Valley

Bonnieville

I think I like the Bonnievill shots better even if I play with the temperature and make the sand in Death Valley more bluish (though I didn't have to do that to the Bonnieville pix.  The salt was just a more bluish tint.  I guess it has less dirt in it in Bonnieville.)

This one is Death Valley edited to cooler temperatures

On the way back up to the main drive from Badwater and the Devils Golf Course, we took the loop around Artist Drive to Artist Point.  This area is known for its multiple colors and textures.  This was one of the highlights for me, though definitely don't miss the sand dunes!

I take pictures of lots of signs in parks.  This one tells the different minerals in the mountains and that the color palette changes with the weather, with different minerals coming to the surface, changing the colors, with rain, some winds, and other weather phenomena.  Believe it or not, there is no copper in these hills.  The green color comes from green chlorite.  The red comes from both iron and red hematite.  It's hard to read the sign because they put white lettering on a pale picture, but blown up, it can be read.

I took some shots of Golden Canyon as we drove by and then we headed toward Dante's view with a stop at Zabrinski's Point.  A short, steep walk to the viewpoint with stops along the way.  Some kids were running up and down the path.  They didn't seem to be really getting in anybody's way, but I wish I had half of that stamina!

This picture shows the unique formation of this area.  The lower layers are the silt and sand that have formed into rock, but the top is lava that has been pushed out and deposited.  It's not just the dark lava, but it also includes gypsum and borax.

Finally, we made the drive on down that section to Dante's Point.  It was decent views, and I wouldn't really skip it because of FOMO, but I don't really think the views were worth the drive.

This was the last stop on the list.  We will have to go back because Scotty's Castle and the kilns were closed because of flooding.  (It amazes me that 2.2 inches of rain could cause such devastation, but I guess the ground here is just so hard for rain to penetrate.)  On the way out, we passed by a mining operation inside the fee area of the park

And this gorgeous formation.  We also stopped and I played in the sand dunes a bit.  I tried sledding, but it didn't work well.  I don't know enough about sand sledding to know if they just weren't steep enough or if the sand is a different type that isn't conducive to sledding or some other reason.  But people say they sled in here.  I didn't see anybody be successful and I certainly wasn't.

We stopped to see another friend in Sacramento on the way home and another overnight stop in Roseburg, Oregon.  We had to kill some time before check-in in Roseburg so went to a park.  There were lots of squirrels and geese and Rosebud trees.  I was surprised at the number of acorn woodpeckers!  I even got one in flight!  I should have taken the time to get The Baby out (my camera with the big lens), but the Lumix did an acceptable job!

We finally got back in time for me to get ready to go halibut fishing with some friends and to get started on Chrissy's wedding dress!