Day 11: The Day I rode Pumpkin, the pooping bus

July 16, 2019

Today was our travel day. So we had to ride horses all the way to Blue Pearl camp. The first part of the five hour ride was okay. My horse, Pumpkin, was dark brown and small. One of the guides held the leash for Pumpkin and led me. It was really rainy and cloudy. The clouds moved lower and lower throughout the trek. For the first hour or so I was just kinda sitting on my horse trying not to fall asleep. You’d think that I would be super energetic but here’s the issue: everyone by then had been able to ride by themselves without a guide holding onto their horse, but I was one of the last four people to have to be guided. So I wasn’t doing anything. I didn’t have to guide Pumpkin or make sure he was goin g a good speed, I just sat there getting really sore thighs. It was like riding an uncomfortable pooping bus named Pumpkin. No bueno. Mariyama was riding a horse I like to call Cooper, because it’s kinda chubby but medium size and every time it ran, it farted with each step. It’s literally a horse Cooper.

After we had our first stop, I asked the guide if I could ride alone so he tied the leash on the saddle and I was off. I felt like a pro. I could post and steer and everything. Unfortunately I got hit by a lot of wet branches. Pumpkin was out to get me. Anyway, lunch was pretty short because it started drizzling and we wanted to get to camp before it rained too much. We trotted most of it. It really hurt my butt and legs a lot. It was a buttleg bruise. We rode for was felt like years. Nothing too interesting happened. There was a dog following us the whole five hours though and Kevin fell of his horse and Oskar had to ride in the van because the pain was too much. Besides that it was just buttleg bruises, sassy Pumpkin and beautiful scenery. Though the scenery was very obscured by the clouds at some points. When we finally got to the camp, getting off the horse and walking was so weird. My knees were super stiff and when I went to put my stuff in my yurt, it hurt to sit on my bed. The yurt is very cute though.

After we got settled, I took a nap before dinner. This place is kinda like a resort for foreigners but there are also a lot of Mongolian tourists around. The dining hall was filled with old drunk Chinese people. It was a bit strange to see since my whole family is Chinese and I never could imagine them drunk or drinking. The dinner was actually pretty good, but it hurt to sit a bit. After dinner I showered with hot water! Very refreshing. Although cold hair out in the cold weather isn’t too hot. After the showers a few of us took a walk along the beach and talked. It was really nice to talk with older kids. Very different than my other friends but in a good way. We only hung out till about 10pm since everyone was tired from the trek. I get to sleep in such a comfy bed, I’m so excited.