Three of us here in the office leased a car for the afternoon and went out to the suburbs or as it is frequently referred to here in Mongolia as the Perri-urban area of the city.
One picture is a downward shot of a Ger located inside its Hashaa. The Hashaa is the area allocated to the family for their area and they normally enclose it with a wood fence. The other picture shows the Hashaas next to one another out in the suburbs.
These Hashaas have no running water or sewer system, I might add, and there are thousands of them in the suburban area. In some of the Hashaas, the more affluent people live in there Ger or in an apartment in the city in the winter for warmth and then move into a small home on their property in the summer, when heating is not an issue.
There is bus service out into most of these areas but automobiles are very common in the city. When one moves further away from the city the little horse with the funny looking saddles becomes increasingly common. If one goes South towards the Gobi desert the camel is used by some for transportation. I liked this two humped camel and these are the type of camels they use here in Mongolia. I have not had the opportunity to see any camel hockey games or camel races but they are a special sport in this country. They say they are much easier to ride then the one hump camel.
I thought the horses were cute but the saddle looked very uncomfortable and the camel looked very ornery so for the time being, I think I will stick to the automobile and my walking boots.
