well here we are again.

So I am really behind on the blog. No internet means alot of time inbetween entries.
I last left you in Northern mongolia in a city called Moron. Let me tell you about the northern mongolians. They are very hard working people who have a simple life. They were the same clothes each day and eat the same food each day and sometimes each meal. This last winter was very long and cold. Alot of snow meant that the animals had no food. The one family we stayed with lost 300 animals last winter. That is half their herd. And when we last left them they had just found out 10 oxen went missing. they are due to move to their summer location this week . but pretty hard to do with no oxen to pull the carts. Every where we went all we heard about was the harsh winter. The city of Moron is about 35000 people and is the 2nd largest in Mongolia. Ulan Bator is the largest of course. 70% of people are out of work in Moron. More than double the national average which is 30%. so as you can imagine people here are quite poor. I have already left my good wool socks behind and promised my sleeping bag to our guide when I am done. I will mail it from UB.
On our last day here in Moron we went to see the Deer Stones. These are grave markers from the bronze age about 4K years ago. Each one has carvings of Reindeer on them. there are 16 in total. There are Deer stones all over the world but here in Moron there are the largest grouping of them. Lots of reasearchers have studied them but can't figure out why or who put them here.

After walking around the deer stones we decided to sit in a meadow by a river and play a local game called sheep ankles. Yep they are played with sheep ankles. You get 10 or more of them. They each have 4 sides and you roll them like dice and so far I have learned 3 different games. I need to practice to be able to beat our guide.

We arrived back at the airport and hung out with all the other tourists waiting to fly back to UB.