Are You Kamphey Approved?

“How,” you might ask, “do I get to Mongolia?”  if it were Carnegie Hall the answer would be practice but in this case it’s Mongolia so the answer is RESEARCH.

Reading and Watching:  If you do what I did, you’ll read the lacking wikipedia article on Mongolia.  then read the WikiTravel section on Mongolia.  Then go to the Doctors and ask them about Mongolia just to be told to go to CDC.gov to find out about Mongolia.  Then read 90% of Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, which can be found at your local library.  While still reading that particular book, go back to the library and rent a few DVDs: Mongol, The Story of the Weeping Camel, and be told that Mongolian Ping Pong is all checked out.

Food: If you’d like to know about Mongolian food don’t go to a Mongolian BBQ Grill. It’s a front for a group of college kids to have a restaurant job.  Nobody in the place is actually Mongolian and the food is farther from Mongolian than Greenland.  And know that even Chinese people don’t know about Mongolia nor what Mongolian Beef would actually be like in Mongolia.  Ironically the first American chain restaurant to open in Mongolia is none other than BD’s Mongolian Barbeque.  You might try to flirt with the young Chinese girl who takes your order every day at the NY Style take out Chinese place around the corner.  You might want to read the wiki article on Mongolian cuisine to find out that the three main foods of Mongolia are merely different combinations of Meat and Flour.  #1: Meat wrapped in a flour, then steamed.  #2: Meat wrapped in flour, then boiled.  #3: Meat wrapped in flour, then fried.  Don’t want the meat? Okay. Here’s some Boortsog.  Take your pick and munch on that.

Pictures:  So you want to see what Mongolia looks like.  You say “Show Me.” You say “Let me see for I will believe.”  If you take what a quick flickr search gives.  You’d think there was a lot of sand dunes. And you’d find a small oasis among the dunes.  If you continue you might think that kids are raised to be warriors from an early age.  When they get older they all wrestle.   As you continue to search you’d find some ubiquitous icons of America. And of course some odd portrayals of America. If you dig deeper you’ll find regular people doing regular things.

What do you want to know about Mongolia?  Do you want to see a picture of a Mongolian Fruit Stand? Does it Exist?  Do you want to know what the taxi ride is like from the airport to downtown?  Do you want to know the rhythm of a camel ride?  Do you want to find out anything all?  comment, ask, I’ll answer.  Keep reading, Keep asking.