Standing Out in Inner Mongolia

We woke up early after a restless night's sleep. It would seem that the hotel got such a cheap deal on box springs that they decided to skip the mattresses. No, as one might suspect, they're not really comfortable to sleep on without a mattress - we can now all speak from experience on that matter.

But the morning was spectacular.

A short walk down the block yielded a breakfast of meat and vegetable dumplings. Then it was off to a wetlands park. Well, not exactly a walk through the wetlands. Following a short ride up a steep hill in a turbocharged golf cart, we enjoyed a long walk along a hillside overlooking the wetlands. Spectacular scenery, with canola fields off in the distance. Lots of opportunities for pretty shots.

The business signs are interesting here - many have four languages: Chinese, Mongolian, Russian and English. Not that all of those are spoken, but it'll help you find the farm machinery parts store. And then you can load the parts onto your donkey cart.

Along the road there was a particularly photogenic canola field, so we stopped for a few shots. Apparently with tourist season just gearing up, the farmer is planning to start charging for that privilege. It still being early in the day, we escaped the photo-op tax.

After a few more hours of slow driving on a smooth but dangerously undulating road following the Gen River we stopped for lunch in another forest industry and tourism town.

How to pick the best place to eat in a town? Look for the purple bead curtains, of course! They fed us a sumptuous feast of northern dishes that had us rolling back to the van. And a nap for me, though that may have had more to do with sampling the local Hailar beer.

After we arrived at our hotel in Moerdaoga (with real mattresses, but alas still no WiFi), the kids settled in for another card game while the adults wandered into town.

The more remote we get, the more I stand out. I don't think I've spotted a single Caucasian person in any of the last three towns, and everywhere we walk people stare. Mostly in a friendly way.

Bess suggested I take some photos of the faces in the crowd at an evening performance in the town square, but it was simply impossible with almost everyone staring at me. So she snapped a few instead.

Definitely interesting mix of Han Chinese, Mongolian, and I'm sure quite a few other influences.

Back at the hotel a young man asked via our friends if he could take a picture with us - he had never seen a foreigner before. So we posed, while his friend snapped photos on his smartphone.

A long day of driving, but filled with wonderful experiences.