Monday 30th April

We were up bright and early this morning and left our hotel at 7.45am. We had learned from our mistake yesterday and stopped at mcdonalds for breakfast on our way to Anda’s hostel. The tour to the grasslands left at 9am and there were 18 of us on a mini bus. It took 2.5 hours to get to the grasslands and as we left the city the scenery turned to mountains and then flat plains for miles. We were staying with a Mongolian family on their farm in yurts, which are round little huts, sort of like a wigwam, made of wood and covered in a thick material. There were 6 of us per yurt and they were surprisingly big inside with lot’s of blankets. We each had a thin mat to sleep on, a pillow, a blanket and a sleeping bag. We had been told that we needed lot’s of layers for the grasslands as it gets really cold and can be quite windy. It was 23 degrees in the city but was quite windy in the grasslands.

We had lunch after we had settled into our yurts in the farmhouse, which was a small room big enough for a dining table, with a small kitchen and small bedroom off it. Lunch consisted of a bowl of boiled rice, potato soup (a watery broth with boiled potatoes and strips of lamb in it which was very tasty) and lamb dumplings. This was probably the best meal that we had had since arriving in Inner Mongolia which was a big surprise.  After lunch we had free time for 2.5 hours where we could explore the landscape. We were sort of on a hill and could see for miles which had amazing views. In the distance we could see tourist camps which is what the Chinese use instead of an intimate setting on a farm like we had. We soon found out why, the farm had no toilet! We were told that we were to go and “find a corner somewhere” which was laughable, we were in the grasslands which were pretty flat and went on for miles, there were no trees or bushes to hide behind! We ended up having to go up the hill and into a dip which couldn’t be seen by the farm, but if anyone came from any other direction you would be caught with your trousers down! Once again I was singing the praises of whoever invented hand sanitiser gel as there wasn’t even a sink to wash your hands in.

After wandering to the top of the hill and taking photos I was a bit bored of the grasslands. Yes, the views are beautiful and yes, it is very peaceful but oh my god is it boring after a while. Someone said how amazing it was to be able to experience this nomadic lifestyle and it took all of my will power not to laugh. I think it’s far from amazing. Times have changed, technology has moved on. They could have running water, heating and a proper toilet if they wanted to, it would make life far easier for them and much nicer for tourists. Yes, I know, could I sound any more narrow minded? I just feel that it’s pure laziness on their part not to drag themselves into the present, but that’s just my opinion.

 We sat taking in the view and reading our books for a bit and then it was time to go horse riding! Now this I had been really looking forward to and the picture on the tour poster was of a gorgeous pure white pony that I had envisioned myself galloping off into the sunset on. The reality was a little different. We took the mini bus to a stable where there were ponies lined up along a wall. I was given the first pony which I had to clamber up onto in a far from graceful manner.  My horse riding lesson was also extremely brief, I was told “pull left to go left, pull right to go right, pull up to stop” err ok, is that it? I was thinking, but he had already moved onto the next person. My pony WAS white, but a little bit grubbier than the one in the poster. It was extremely sot though and I think I patted it the whole way round. Matt was given a slightly bigger black pony which seemed to have a mind of it’s own and didn’t seem to follow Matts steering. We started off walking up the hill and across the road for about 30 minutes. By this point my knees were aching a bit and my bum was sore, I was glad when the tour guide announced that we were heading back to the stable. This didn’t last long though as our ponies started off at a trot which seen as I can’t even remember the horse riding lessons I had as a child, I was not prepared for. My allergic reaction had kicked in by then aswell so I had a rash all over my hands, I was wheezing, my eyes were stinging and streaming and I was sneezing like mad! We got back to the stables and there were 3 dogs there which scared the horse at the front which started bucking and threw off his rider and ran off. It was a bit scary to watch as none of us wanted our horses to react like that, but the guides soon had us off our horses. My knees were aching so much it was difficult to walk as I got off my horse, horse riding really was quite painful. I was covered in horse hair so I tried to brush myself off, washed my hands with hand sanitiser, used my inhaler and eye drops and had another antihistamine, but it was worth it!

We jumped back onto the mini bus and returned to the farm for our next activity, shooting the bow and arrow! The bows were quite new and still stiff so it took a lot of strength to pull it back, this obviously wasn’t our sport as neither of us hit the target, in fact, only two of the group did which made me feel a bit better. We had more free time until 6pm when our tour guide came round telling us that it was time to pick up poo. She knocked on our yurt door (it had gotten very windy and cold so the bow and arrows were abandoned and we had sat in the yurts to read our books) in a sing song voice she said “it’s poo time!” I asked if we would be given gloves and she said that we would use our hands, I honestly thought that she was joking and laughed. She wasn’t. She was deadly serious and walking round the field picking up cow dung with her bare hands and putting it into a sack. Now I’m sorry, but with no running water on site, there was not enough hand sanitiser in the world to make me do that! A few people agreed with me and we stood to the side, but I was really surprised at how many people got stuck in and seemed to be enjoying picking up poo! If that wasn’t bad enough a few of the younger guys started throwing cow dung at each other. If any of that had hit me there would have been hell to pay so I was relieved when our guide announced that we had enough cow dung and could return to camp. When we got there a bowl of warm water was produced for the 13 people who had been picking up cow dung to rinse their hands in. Needless to say after the third person the water was black. I was so glad that none of them were cooking the food for dinner.

At 7pm dinner was ready so we traipsed back to the farm house and I forced hand sanitiser on everyone sat at the same table as me. We had steamed bread, the leftovers from the potato broth from lunchtime, a big bowl of cabbage and what was supposed to be the famous Mongolian boiled mutton, which was pretty much a plate of bones with barely any meat on it, I think we got 5 small chunks of meat off it which was extremely disappointing. Dinner was ok, nothing like lunch and I ended up eating my emergency packet of crisps that I had brought just in case. At 7.30pm we went to watch the sunset, which was a lovely pink colour but it was very cloudy so we couldn’t see all of the colours properly. We went back to our yurt, torches in hand to shelter from the wind as it was really cold now and to make up our beds. At 8.30pm we were told the bonfire of cow dung was ready so we could all go outside. We stayed for maybe 10 minutes but the smell was really bad and the smoke was stinging our eyes so we went back to our yurt to read and were ready for bed by 9.30pm.

See more pics here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/78649657@N03/sets/72157629752637610/