The next day at Khuvsgul Lake we took a break, and did absolutely nothing! We woke up late and had some more beef samosa for breakfast.
After breakfast I truly vacationed; rolled out my sleeping mat in the sun and grabbing a couple of hours of shut eye in the warmth of the sun with the cool breeze making me happy. The Mongolian summer afternoon was just like our winter afternoon’s in North India! The locals saw me sleeping in the sun and thought I was mad to enjoy the sun. They all run for the shade. I probably am a madman and therefore did enjoy the sun. After that nice long rest we walked down the lake shore.
A good 5-6km walk we had, we saw a few people we recognised from UB, checked out a few more camps, one which was built with an Egyptian theme! We went to the only shop there to buy bread, unfortunately couldn’t get any. We then trudged back to camp hungry as ever, the couple running the campsite gave us fresh cream which was the thickest cream I have ever seen or eaten. Since we were unable to buy bread, we sandwiched the cream between two biscuits and for once had real cream biscuits and not the rubbish that you get to buy in the indian market (which is more like powder stuffed between two biscuits)!
Dinner consisted of dumplings which were stuffed with meat and cooked in front of me. The simplest recipe you could imagine. Mutton was cut with a lot of fat, some onion, salt, a local spice and stuffed inside dough which had been set aside with yeast. And this was all put in a steamer for 15 minutes. We then ate it hot straight off the fire. It was succulent as the bread had absorbed the juices of the meat, making my mouth water just at the thought of it!
In the 15 minutes while the dumplings were getting steamed, Jaga, the chef and guy who ran the camp took me to see how they slaughter the sheep. Which was very different from what I have ever seen before. Instead of slitting the throat of the animal, they just make an incision in the animal’s abdomen, slip their hand in and pull out the heart. The End!
After that the animal is cleaned, the blood is taken out and kept in a bowl to be cooked and pretty much every part of the animal is stored for consumption with almost nothing going to waste. As the meat was being washed to be stored and cooked, the heart of the sheep was cut, put on a skewer placed in the fire for 5 minutes and served hot! Not everyone would be comfortable eating an animal which they saw just 10 minutes ago alive and kicking! That sight though was pretty much the highlight of the day for me!
A wonderful day of rest and relaxation for our weary bottoms came to an end on the banks of the Khuvsgul Lake.
The animal being cut up…
Done and hung
And ready to eat