Turtle Rock

This last Friday, the Deans, John and I went to a Mongolian national park. The scenery was amazing and I was yet again amazed at how beautiful Mongolia can be. It was about a half hour drive to the park and then another half hour to get to a large rock called turtle rock. The park is gigantic! We got to the rock and John immediately raced Charissa, Emily, and Caleb to the top. I was on my way to try to catch them when I saw a camel. Pastor Dean asked the man standing by how much it was to ride him. It was 3,000 tugrugs which is a little less than 3 dollars. It was awesome! Unlike horses, camels lay down so one can get on them. I got on without difficulty, but when he stood up I first felt like I was going to fall right off his front. Then it felt like I was going to fall right off his back. By the time he got up though, I was comfortable. It was a two humped camel, so I rested my back on his back hump, and held on to his front. It felt like nothing could throw me off that camel. The man who owned him walked us down about a hundred yards then back. It was great. His fir was so soft that John and I went out and bought camel fir sweaters today. After the camel ride, John and I proceeded to climb the rock as high as we could. There were some close calls, but it really wouldn’t have been any fun if there weren’t. I hit my head on the roof way too many times on the bumpy roads, but even that was pretty fun. On the way home we stopped at a Chinese restaurant. So far I’ve eaten Chinese food prepared by a man from Singapore in Mongolia, American food prepared by a Cuban in Mongolia, and Korean BBQ chicken in Mongolia. And I thought America was the melting pot.