Inner Mongolia

*If my calculation are right, we should be home soon. But since I haven't mentioned Jason much, I thought he deserved his own story. This is about Jason's trip to Inner Mongolia in the summer of 2005.

Jason was getting bored in Beijing while JR and I were still in Texas, so he decided to take a weekend trip to Inner Mongolia. Knowing I would have no desire to go along, he took the opportunity to go see "miles and miles of grassland". As soon as he landed in Hohhot he figured out it was going to be an "interesting" trip. Upon arriving, he learned he was the only Western person that had ever been on this specific tour, and that his tour guide wasn't actually a tour guide. He was just the only person in town that could speak English and would agree to go along! So a Chinese driver took Jason and the English speaking non-tour guide about 3 hours outside of town to a Mongolian camp. The first night in camp they slaughtered a sheep that they would eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the rest of the trip. Jason also figured out that the water situation was going to be a problem...the only water they had was warm and tasted like dirt, not a good sign. He spent the first night in a traditional Mongolian tent called a Yurt (which was one of the things he wanted to do). The next day they rode horses that were "about as big as dogs" into the grasslands to a neighboring village. Jason swears up and down that the people were about "3 feet tall" and had some "serious inbreeding going on". They then rode back to camp to watch horse races, traditional dancers, and Mongolian wrestlers. The wrestlers had also never seen a Westerner before, and they wanted Jason to wrestle them. Of course he did, and although the wrestlers "only came up to about his armpit" he still couldn't beat any of them. Which they thought was hilarious. The next day he was getting pretty dehydrated and sick of mutton so he told the tour guide, "I'm done. Take me back to town." Now you might be wondering why I don't have any pictures of Jason with Mongolian wrestlers or horses the size of dogs. Well, while Jason was visiting a museum in Hohhot his Ipod and camera were stolen. After two hours with police who had also never seen a Western person, Jason gave up and came on back home to Beijing. And I'm pretty sure Jason won't be taking c eevb2weekend trips back to Inner Mongolia any time soon...or ever!