Yes, it's true, I'm back; and while I'm going to fill you in on Mongolia, I'm also, I know, going to find it impossible not to get involved in the up-to-date real world. (As soon as I'm unjetlagged enough to be able to discern it. I mean, did someone really say "legitimate rape?") Thus I'm going to post my Mongolia thoughts and photos making it obvious in the subject line, so those of you who don't want to read my other runnings of the mouth can avoid them.

First: thirst. Much of Mongolia is arid, even up in the mountains where we were. In the cities and towns you can usually buy bottled water; in the countryside, though, it's down to boil it or purify it. This means you can only drink what you managed to make drinkable that morning, or the night before. Which means, as much as your water bottle can carry. Which means, in turn, that I was always thirsty. Even a stream like this you don't really dare drink from, not because it's polluted -- the new mining industry is making that happen in some parts of the country, but not yet in the western mountains -- but because strange bacteria, even benign ones, are strange bacteria. In the end it didn't matter much, because our dishes were washed in cold water from whatever stream was handy. Still, those purification tablets got a workout. And I haven't stopped guzzling water since I got home.


lakeweed-covered rock