Things I Will Miss About Mongolia #1

With less than two weeks to go until I set sail for (much ado about)melbourne, it's time I recap on the wonders of Mongolia I have yet to 'big up' before now. This week's Things I Will Miss About Mongolia post is a shout out to...

MONGOLIAN MYSTERY MEAT GOODS

aka Meat I Have Eaten That I Possibly Should Not Have Eaten. This post is slightly more poignant given that I (very gently) embraced vegetarianism before getting on a Mongolian Airlines flight almost a year ago. As a general rule, when I go to a place that isn't Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane, I like to eat the food that everyone else eats. In Texas I eat deer jerky, in Dandenong I eat Dandee Donuts and in Mongolia I eat mountains of mutton. Case in point below. Yes, that is one big, old, fatty sheep.

I like to sample the local delicacies, like bull penis in hot pot.

I like to support the manufacture of processed meat goods, particularly those with delicious gelatinous hearts.

I like to eat animals that possibly have the Bubonic Plague.

And, of course, I like to eat the animals most revered by the country I am visiting, particularly in curries or garlic soups. They go faster.

Stuck And The City

So we're kind of in lockdown here in Ulaanbaatar. Swine Flu aka H1N1 has sent officials into some kind of porked out spin. Schools are closed, public transport outta the city has halted and everything closes at 9pm. Markets have been shut down, galleries too, and you can't play sport after 9... or something like that. Even more interesting is the revelation that horsemeat may help to keep the flu at bay. Because not much else is going on, here are some photos. A whole stack more over on Flickr.