It's been incredibly busy for me the last couple of weeks. All the Geo's and the core tech guy are on break, leaving me with a lot of things to get done. Luckily I have two young Mongolians working with me now, so that takes a little of the workload off.
Between trench mapping and sampling, organizing a soil sample grid, doing the daily quick log and report for the drill, and overseeing our sample shipping I haven't had much time for an update.
I have my break in 5 days, Going to stay in UB over Canada Day, as there is a very large party that the large amount of expats put together. I'm also going to finally do the tourist thing, see some of the temples, museums, random sights of the city. Also going to try and go do something I will never be able to do anywhere else, and possibly not for very long (it's a surprise! in case it falls through). After UB I head down to Thailand for two weeks to chill on the beach, and maybe take a dive course (if I can find a cheapish one). So ready for it
Last week we went an hour west to a town called Baya-ovoo (pronounced Bayawaa), for a disco party. It was quite the experience. Started out with incredibly formal dancing (those Mongolians can sure cut a rug...to waltzes and polka) and switched over to a techno dance party around 10.30.
We also found our first snake in camp, just a little racer not too exciting. And also our first thunderstorm. I thought about the irony about something the boss, Jim, told me before we left Vancouver: "It's nothing like the arctic" and here I was wearing full rain gear in a rain soaked, flooded camp. We stay in during the rainstorms as the rivers and streams which criss cross the landscape, and seemingly every single road crosses at least one of, fill up extremely fast, as the ground does not too much water with no topsoil. The storms are also extremely electrical, and we saw some pretty spectacular lightning. It's not that great of an idea to throw on the cruiser vest filled with metal and take a hammer out to the field during those storms.
Last thing I'll talk about today, we had a little camp fire up on the hill next to this old half of a car. Roasted some marshmellows, drank some rum, enjoyed the sunset. It was sort of Heather's going away shindig, and it was a very nice evening. I have a few artistic photos of the car on the hill. We dont' really understand what it's for, as it is not always up there. Sometimes it moves. Sometimes it appears on different hills, and once right next to camp. We don't know who moves it, or why...just that it's not a stationary object. It does make for some pretty neat shots though.
A camel spider, about 4-5 cm long..apparently has 10 legs...well, 8 legs and 2 uh..reaching arms? yea I dont know. Big fangs though. 
And the elusive wild Mongolian Ass. They're actually very rare, and it's pretty special to see one. These three were roaming about out near the drill. Where camels, horses goats and sheep will let you come right up close, this things bolt if you get anywhere near 100m of them.
A camel spider, about 4-5 cm long..apparently has 10 legs...well, 8 legs and 2 uh..reaching arms? yea I dont know. Big fangs though. 
And the elusive wild Mongolian Ass. They're actually very rare, and it's pretty special to see one. These three were roaming about out near the drill. Where camels, horses goats and sheep will let you come right up close, this things bolt if you get anywhere near 100m of them.
