Time is going quickly and the miles and people we have met stack up. We are continuing to travel through Inner Mongolia. It is slowly becoming more and more desert-like, but we have been surprised to see how upscale the cities have been. We have gotten a chance to visit a number of places the last couple of days. We went out to visit the Geghis Khan (Changis) maseleum yesterday. It was amazing to see all of the artifacts that have been collected and protected for the past 600 years by the same group of people. He is highly revered by both Mongolians and Chinese, but it is a disputed issue as the Mongolians say most Chinese have Mongolian blood because of his invasions. His bones were scattered around the desert by his followers so there is no actual grave for him, but there is a pile of rocks to woship his horse at and a palace to hold his artifacts. IT is amazing to see how his actions affected this area in bringing together the many tribes and how he affected world history as a military invader. During the night, we stayed at a Mongolian yurt (ger), which is a must for any trip to Mongolia (just like visiting the Great Wall and China). It was rather comfortable with a fan and other modern conveniences. We even had some little cats and a puppy to keep us company. The old man said he was going to kill them over and over again, making Patty sad. Today, we traveled by bus in all kinds of places to get back to where we actually wanted to be.

We have gotten a chance to visit many people and try different foods. The mongolian food is rather interesting with lots of homemade dairy and I was very surprised to see Holstein cows up here and we did not get to ride the horses yesterday because it was too expensive and they would guide the horse for you. But tomorrow we are planning on going camel riding through the deserts at the Singing Sands and climbing and sliding down the sand dunes. It will be fascinating to actually see the desert all around us. Well, we are hoping to get many more chances to say hello and share a little bit more and some pictures when we return. Love and peace!!