40 Hours in Inner Mongolia (Part 1)

Inner Mongolia was so Amazing that I think I’m going to have to spread this out a bit over a few blog posts.

We finished work at 6 pm on Tuesday and headed back to the residence, where we met up with Tana’s husband, father and cousin, and then drove to Zheng Lan Qi, Tanna’s hometown in Inner Mongolia, with them. We had a nice time in the car but Tana got a bit car sick and you couldn’t see much of the beautiful scenery as it got dark fairly quickly. On the other hand, the parts that we did see as we were leaving Beijing were magnificent. There was some wild wall and beautiful mountains.

When we arrived, we were treated to a wonderful Mongolian meal of sweet breads, milk tea and mutton. The milk tea and mutton deserve a further explanation. Milk tea is a traditional Mongolian drink that is much like regular black tea with milk, but it also includes salt and sometimes butter. Families keep a large pot of it in a thermos and drink it throughout the day. It also becomes a kind of soup because you dunk all your food -- from mutton to dumplings to bread -- in it. As for the mutton, we had traditional meat that literally translates to “Hand grab meat.” Basically it’s a pile of bones with the best meat I have ever tasted on a plate in the middle of the table. Everyone takes a knife -- or teeth or hands -- and pulls it off to eat it. I have never eaten more or better meat in my life!

I went to bed around 12:30 but apparently Tana stayed up talking to her family late into the night. They gave me a comfortable bed on the couch and I slept very well. In the morning, I discovered that what we ate for our midnight snack was typical breakfast food and got to enjoy lots more. I also met the cutest and happiest 2 year old I have ever met -- Tana’s niece.

Around 9 o’clock we headed off into the grasslands for the Mongolian cultural festival that was going on. We watched singing, dancing, horseback riding and even some poor monkey being trained. Tana’s very generous mother bought be a beautiful traditional Mongolian necklace when I wasn’t looking. They made me try on a beautiful traditional Mongolian dress, but I’m pretty sure it must look better on Tana because I looked very silly.

We made our way back to Tana’s parents’ place and had a large variety of tasty dumplings for lunch (all with mutton of course) and then an early afternoon nap.

I am going to try to get some pictures on Facebook soon and continue my tale tomorrow.

Preview: mosquitoes, sand dunes, shopping and bus ride