I did forget to mention the amazing Gobi fire. The wood is so hard that it burns forever. We put only 3 logs on the first night and they burned for hours. That was all we needed the entire night.

I have grown to love the way Mongolians speak English. They speak so softly and with such cute mannerisms. Dabaa said once, "Pinish, the road." They substitute F's for P's and V's for W's. They also pronounce each and every letter in the word. Instead of saying "finished" they would say "finish-ed." In their alphabet the R is a P.

It did snow the last day. Not much, but enough. The flakes were so small I thought it was some kind of magical fairy dust or something. They glinted and sparkled through the air while we hiked the granite paint-by-number looking mountains. I never occured to me that it was snow. I thought it was just dust, hair, or something floating around the air. It managed to make the last day so marvelous for me. Also, we saw so many groups of gazelles. Initially when we saw them we were told that as close as we got was going to be about it. The final day, we saw three herds of them! They run and jump so gracefully it is incredible to watch.

On the final day I managed to conquer some of my fear of heights. The granite mountain was so steep but I made it all the way up. It took me three attempts from different routes and some coaching from the boys above, but I made it. My legs shook and I tried never to look down. For most people I suppose it would have been not that big a deal, but to me it was something that made be sweat! I forced Colin to take a photo to commemorate my accomplishment.

I am sad the trip is over, as that means I have to go back to work on Monday! Not that I don't love it, I just enjoy travelling too. I still have my trip to Bali to look forward to, however the months after could prove to be long.