Another decent hotel breakfast paved the way for a lengthy car trip east of Ulaanbaatar to a nomadic ger camp. I'm fairly sure there are a fair few of these set up for tourism purposes, but as it was low season, we were the only guests! The ger itself (a round, fur-lined tent sort of contraption) was surprisingly comfortable, clean, and the iron wood-burner stove heated the interior well enough to stave off the chill from the outside. Lunch came early, and it was enormous! A salad, soup and full meal of goulash filled me and filled me with confidence for the rest of my stay out in the steppes. To burn off this super-meal, I did a bit of archery with our guide. I'm sure my incompetence might have played some role, but I'd prefer to blame my failures on how spectacular the surrounding landscape was, and the bitter chill which caused me to lose all sensation in my fingers within minutes of leaving the ger.
Shortly afterwards, we had a chance to try riding Mongolian horses- hardy but small beasts, which seemed to completely ignore all of my commands and only respond to the voice of the nomadic gentleman who brought the horses out to us. Helpfully, he spoke no English. Not a word. This was made all the better by the bit of paper I signed waiving all liability, before I realised my helmet didn't fit. I'm still alive, though!
Late afternoon gave us a chance to go and see a nearby abandoned monastery, another legacy of Soviet occupation. En-route, we stopped at a rocky formation with a small opening where we learned that 100 monks from said monastery hid during the communist revolution, for a whole week. It's difficult to imagine quite how bad conditions would have been. After this prelude, the monastery itself, populated only by wild dogs and aging rock-paintings, was an eerie experience. I was considerably lightened up by a stop at a nomad's ger on our return journey, however. He invited us in though we had turned up unannounced, offering us Mongolian donuts (tasty), milk curds (not tasty), home-brewed alcohol and tea and fermented horse milk. It was just as delicious as you'd imagine (I did actually enjoy it). We then saw a camel in the livestock pen outside the ger, rounding off the experience rather well indeed!
That evening, another three course extravaganza involving steamed dumplings was closely followed by beer and games involving sheep knucklebones and cards (Mongolian poker, or 'star' appears to be my game).
Side note: it might sound incredibly pretentious, but the night sky is amazingly clear when you're away from civilisation. I had a bit of a 'wow, I'm really doing this' moment. Gap yah etc.
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