Our adventure into Mongolia’s wild west began the previous day in Ulgii, the capital of the Bayan-Ölgii, the most westerly of Mongolia’s 21 Aimags. Seka, our driver, arrived and we loaded up the Uazik (the finest vehicular creation of the Soviet era) with supplies for a few days. It was early October and the weather already wintery. After half a day of driving deeper into the west the weather took a dramatic turn and when we arrived at the homes of the eagle hunting families everything was dusted with snow. The eagle hunters’ wives received us with a table burdened by snacks and steaming mugs of Suutei-tsai — a milky concoction with a whisper of tealeaves boiled through and a glob of butter melted in. Read the full story about our trip to Mongolian Altai.
