[Day 34]
Naadam, the national festival in Mongolia


We got up early to get to the Naadam games in time (competitions in wrestling, archery, horse riding). No breakfast at the hotel, but at least the cars had been safe behind a locked gate. Had time to explore the old Manchu ruins

We had mixed up Ulaanbaatar time with Khovd time, so we came one hour early. And then it turned out that it didn’t start at 10, but at 13.00. We met other travelers, and had a nice lunch in one of the restaurant gers (we had Horshr or something sounding like that)

More and more people turned up for the games. We were ready and found a place to sit, but the competition didn’t start in 13.00 either, but at 14.30. Worth waiting for though, but we didn’t sit through all of it

We left Khovd late, wanting to get towards Altai. Back to bumpy and sandy roads. Found a great camp in a “crater” looking like the moon. Wine from Samarkand (looking old by now). Millions of very hungry mosquitoes made us go to bed early (after a couple of bottles)

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