Where Did We Go?

Tiffany and I thought that the blog would be over now that we're back in the US and no longer have exciting, international stories to tell you. Really, what could we say about our lives now? Documented trips to Costco and Target?

As it turns out, we received numerous, (politely) angry comments about the death of our blog, which surprised us. So while we won't be able to post as frequently as before, we will still try for periodic updates of our lives. Hope you enjoy this update of our first 4 months back!

As soon as we returned to the US in late August, we had some traveling to do. Tiffany went on a traveling spree through Denver, Chicago, and Iowa (apparently, 4 months of traveling just weren't enough for the girl). At the end of her American tour, Zach broke from his diligent social schedule, I mean, study schedule, to meet up with Tiffany on the East coast. While we were out there, Zach was able to meet up with his friend and ex-colleague from their DC days, Andrew. As you can see in the photo below, Andrew and his wife Amanda are very busy these days with their first kid, a very cute little girl! We went and visited the new 9/11 memorial by the Pentagon.

From DC we drove out to University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, for Tiffany's friend Miriam's wedding. Not only did Miriam and her new husband, Dave, throw a beautiful and fun wedding, they even performed for their guests!
Here Tiffany rests on the steps of a beautiful building on the UVA campus.
The other big highlight of the trip? The sweet ride Zach picked up and got to zoom around in all weekend! Not to mention a stop at an institution, the Waffle House :)
So what is Berkeley's Haas Business School all about, anyway? As Zach quickly found out, it was about "theme parties" and "costume parties", or preferably both. For Halloween, with the election looming, it only seemed appropriate to dress politically. Zach was your everyday "Joe Six-pack", and Tiffany was a (pretend) proud "Hockey Mom", which was so convincing that she actually got berated in San Francisco for supporting Sarah Palin. Extreme liberals as well, it turns out, have no sense of humor.
Zach's school then decided to celebrate the end of midterms with another party. The theme was "Monochrome". We drew many compliments in our matching ballerina outfits, and Zach contemplated a career change to a professional costume-party-goer.
Zach got to see his first 49ers' game in years. The Tom Brady-less Patriots still won easily, and Zach remembered why he hadn't been to a game in years.
Meanwhile, Tiffany was actively involved with the Haas "Partners Club", an organization comprised of the Berkeley MBA students' significant others. Tiffany had some of the international students over to learn how to bake cookies!
Then Zach threw a party for some of his classmates at his good friend Cali's house in San Francisco. Here he is, building relationships, literally, in the form of a human pyramid.
One of the great aspects of business school has been the opportunity to meet all sorts of people. And then convince them to take photos in ridiculous poses... Zach flew out to Omaha to meet with the "Oracle", Warren Buffet. While Zach didn't learn any investment secrets, he did get a once in a lifetime photo with the richest man in America.
And at a Berkeley conference on diversity, Zach met his longtime 49er idol, Ronnie Lott.
Tiffany landed a new job at a greeting card company, Cardstore.com, where she is the director of marketing. She utilized her new skills to create our Christmas tree for this year.

Of course, Berkeley wasn't about to let the holidays pass without throwing another party!
And here we are, enjoying Berkeley's wonderfully mild winter!
And finally, we rang in the New Year with friends in San Francisco's famous House of Prime Rib. There's no better way to ring in the New Year than with good friends, lots of champagne, and large portions of red meat!
Zach recently returned from a trip to Israel, so that will probably be the next blog entry in a week or so!

Our Favorite Things

Looking back on our final post-China trip, there were highs (amazing views and incredible people) as well as lows (multiple bouts of food poisoning and 12 hour layovers). But the latter quickly faded to distant memories, as the former became embedded as some of the most incredible experiences of our lives.

As a wrap-up, we tried to narrow it down to a short list of our most incredible stops and experiences by country. Enjoy!

Ganges River Sunrise Boat Ride, Varanasi, India- Seeing masses of people who had made a pilgrimage to one of the most sacred spots for the Hindu religion was moving.
Camel Breeding Farm, Bikaner, India- Our first interaction with the one humped version. How can you not love the friendly, curious creatures? These 'young males' found Tiffany quite intriguing and couldn't help but come check her out at the gate.
Hobbiton, New Zealand- The set may have been partially torn down, but it sure was fun to reenact our favorite Lord of the Rings scenes here!
Franz Josef Glacier, New Zealand- We can't tell which was our favorite part, cruising over the glaciers in a helicopter or actually landing on the glacier and getting to walk on it. The whole experience was kind of like jumping straight into the Discovery Channel.
Climbing the Harbor Bridge, Sydney, Australia- For Tiffany, the climb up to the top was the worst part of Sydney, but actually being on the top and safely descending it was the best.

Lord Nelson's Brewery, Sydney, Australia- Zach loved nothing better than to end our Sydney days with a nice cold pint and mashed potatoes topped with a meat pie topped with mushy peas. Leaping Tiger Gorge, Lijiang, China- Zach and Tiffany walked off all those meat pies on a two day hike through some of the most beautiful parts of China. This stop had Zach jumping for joy at the beautiful landscapes.
Food Markets, Xinjiang, China-Although it made Tiffany sick, the fruit and other cuisines available at the markets around Xinjiang were gorgeous to wander through and sample.
Kashgar, China- Wandering through the old town of Kashgar made us realize why part of the Kite Runner movie was filmed here. The roads were charming and the people (particularly the children) were gorgeous and friendly.
Gobi Steppes, Mongolia- Helping rescue a 3 month old foal who had lost her mother was incredible, almost like a Mongolian version of 'Bambi' (fortunately, the two of us don't get too emotional or attached to animals...).
Arbud Sands Camp Games, Mongolia- The camp horse hands insisted on us playing a range of 'amped up' children's' games. Zach was in heaven while Tiffany felt the experience was one shade away from Abu Graihb.
Paris, France- After a collective 5 cases of food poisoning, we thoroughly enjoyed putting back on the lost weight through a steady diet of crepes, pastries, and other goodies. Here, Zach enjoys his flower of gelato.
Paris, France- Here Zach bounds around a Paris treasure...
Chateau Andelot, France- We aren't sure what we loved most, our hosts or lounging around in luxury at a true French Chateau.
View from Room at Chateau Andelot, France- It just doesn't get more beautiful than that.
While we were sad to leave all of these incredible places and experiences, we were ready to retire a few things as soon as we set foot back in the US...

Our matching his 'n' hers Salomon travel shoes (the only pair of shoes each of us wore for 4 months)

And our trusty backpacks, which held all of our worldly possessions during our travels:

Stay tuned for one last entry on our life in the Bay!

Culture Shock! Back in the U.S.A.

Weeeee'rrrrreeee Baaaaaacccckkk!!!! Unbelievably, we flew from Paris and landed in New York and passed through US customs without having plans to leave the country for the first time in 3 years. What a strange feeling it was. And against all odds, we completed four months of traveling around the world without once losing baggage.
We met up with Tiffany's friend from college, Peitra (on the left, above), and her friend Stephanie, and started to re-acquaint ourselves with life in America. There's no better place to experience native Americans in their natural habitat than New York! Our tour began with a nice walk across the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan on a hot, sunny day.
We took a rest on the Staten Island Ferry, a great way to see New York City from the water, and FREE to ride. It was Zach and Tiffany's first time visiting the fifth borough of New York. Also on display right now in New York is a public art work called Waterfalls. Four waterfalls, each about 100 feet tall, were built along the water.
Tiffany also celebrated her 32nd birthday in New York. We went for lunch to Tao, for Chinese food ironically enough. Even though the converted movie theater boasted a 16-foot Buddha statue, Tiffany was not impressed, since she is now doomed to suffer from Snobby World Traveler's Comparison Syndrome. As in, "That's cute but have you seen the Reclining Buddha in Bangkok? 150 feet long and 50 feet high - Now that's impressive!"

The food, however, was delicious, and amazingly, the wait staff acknowledged our presence and actually brought us water (potable, too!) without us asking. Like a Chinese Dorothy, Tiffany said (to her Pekinese Toto), "We're not in Zhejiang Province anymore!"
We passed by the famous bull of Wall Street,
and Zach was reminded of his investment banking days in New York. We stopped by his old Credit Suisse office, where he lived during his first year after college.
For dinner it was Italian dining al fresco. We were apparently determined to regain any lost weight from our travels as quickly as possible!
Our good friends from Shanghai, Marc and Meredith, are now in New York and were kind enough to host us during our visit. Meredith was even kind enough to brave Times Square with us, a New Yorker's worst nightmare swimming through hordes of tourists.
We finished up by catching a show on Broadway, Avenue Q. Tiffany's initial fears of watching a boring children's show (the play features Sesame Street-like puppets) proved to be unfounded, as it turned out to be the raunchiest and most hilarious puppet show ever!

It was a great re-entry into America, because while we were sad that our international travels were over, we met up with good friends, discussed the fun and frustration of living abroad, and were reminded of all the great sights and experiences that the US also offers.

Next it was on to Chicago, where we stayed with Tiffany's parents and celebrated Tiffany's grandfather's 90th birthday party! Amazingly, her grandfather, aka Papa, is in fantastic shape and his heart was more than strong enough to survive the "This Is Your Life"-style birthday party, where Tiffany's parents arranged for various people from Papa's past to come out and surprise him.
A family picture around Papa and his wife, Nana, also still equally spry and lively, was taken with Nana and Papa holding a caricature of themselves. Tiffany had given a picture of her grandparents to an artist in Shanghai before we left. The artist then turned out a drawing of Nana and Papa in traditional Chinese dress, with the dress including Nana waving a traditional Chinese fan, and Papa executing a kung-fu kick!
After all that excitement, Tiffany and Zach headed for the Tomaszewski's vacation home, on the lake shore in La Porte, Indiana, about an hour from her Chicago home. There we met up with Tiffany's good friend Elizabeth for some rest and relaxation.
Tiffany's brother, Tommy, owns the sweetest, most adorable boxer dog, aptly named Cassius. Cassius was not left wanting for affection that weekend!
Here we are with Tiffany's parents (on the far left and right), and cousins Skip and Muffin. Skip and Muffin are twins, those are not their real names, and there was much good-natured arguing over the root of their nicknames.

Barbeques, swimming and boating on the lake, family reunion, and lots of time with dogs that we knew wouldn't give Tiffany rabies... We couldn't ask for a better way to return home!

From Chicago we fly to the San Francisco Bay Area, where we will settle in for the forseeable future! Wow, what a strange thought. We are going to try and post a "Tiff and Zach's Travel Favorites" blog entry to summarize some of our highlights from the past three years, but after that we're not sure if the blog has any future (ie. "today we found the neighborhood Whole Foods, yippee!") in America.

Well, if not, it has sure been a great ride, and thanks to all our loyal and faithful readers. You have inspired us to keep the blog going these past three years, to always carry a camera to catch any chance encounters with hanging underwear and other humorous cultural idiosyncrasies, and to force us to reflect upon the highs and lows, the absurdities and frustrations, and more than anything, the immeasurable value of our experiences.

This rollercoaster may be over, but there are other rides...

Chateau Andelot, The Anti-Shanghai

From Paris we took a 2 hour train ride into the French countryside to visit our good friends Anne and Michael. Like us, Anne and Michael went abroad around the same time that we did. Unlike us, they chose to live in a quiet, unpolluted and peaceful city, Bourg-en-Bresse, to manage a French chateau and bed & breakfast. The medieval castle you see above? That is their Chateau (!) and it was about as opposite an experience to Shanghai as we could imagine.

The Chateau sat on top of a hill overlooking a picturesque French countryside.

You absolutely cannot help but sigh every morning in happy appreciation when this is the view you wake up to.

Zach found a relic sword which he found appropriate to carry around in a medieval home. The Chateau was built in the 1200's and one of the walls in their garden was originally constructed around 800!

Anne took us to visit the nearby town of Chateau Chalon, where we admired the quintessential French country town. We sampled wines and strolled the quaint streets all the while feeling as if on a movie set and waiting to see Juliette Binoche emerge from a doorway arm in arm with Gerard Depardieu.

Flowers were in full bloom and enhanced by the intricate wrought iron decorating the gardens.
Tiffany rests on a bench in front of a nicely decorated home.
We also stopped into town to enjoy the open plaza and check out the local stores.

And, of course, fuelling up on an espresso stop.
A beautiful vantage point overlooks the valley. Along with the nice bench shaded by the tree, all we needed was a good book, maybe some wine, fresh fruit and baguette...

In Shanghai, pedestrians are never allowed to step onto the grass at public gardens. I suppose it makes sense, since 1.3 billion people tramping all over the lawn would make for a very short-lived lawn. But here at the Chateau, a wide open expanse of grass is too good to resist, and Tiffany flaunted her freedom by prancing back and forth across the Chateau's lawn.
Dinner al fresco at the Chateau. Michael whipped up a delicious cold pasta dish, and we added some meat, cheese and bread, and popped open champagne to celebrate living abroad and the end of our "Big Trip".

Here and below are a few more pictures of the grounds of the Chateau. We had such a great time wandering around the Chateau, exploring the herb garden, and checking out different rooms of the castle.

We can't think of a better way to end our international travels: good food, great friends and gorgeous surroundings. And after spending most of the trip by ourselves, it was a true pleasure to swap stories with Anne and Michael, and compare tales of "Americans living abroad" and the contrasts between crazy Shanghai and classic, French countryside.

Next stop: New York City, US of A!!!!

J'adore Paris!

It's hard to believe that our 3-year international adventure has come to an end. But what better place to end it than in France? We left Shanghai and arrived in Paris, and for the first few days wandered around in a daze and wonderment at both the classic architecture and the proliferation of non-Asians.
We found a great apartment to rent in the heart of St. Germain for only $99/night. And mind you, that's 99 US Dollars, not that naughty Euro which keeps running away from our poor, weakened greenback. Vacationinparis.com is the website, in case you're interested. Just remember, to some extent you do get what you pay for. As you can see above, we didn't have much space (yes that is a bunk above Tiffany). But for our purposes, it was perfect, great location and cheap.
That way we saved more money for one of the true pleasures of Paris -- the food! The exquisite gelato held in Zach's loving hand was carefully crafted into a flower petal form by the scooping artisan. In Paris, if you have a chance to be artistic and beautiful, carpe diem! seize the day! On the flip side, the process of serving wasn't the most efficient and resulted in quite a line stringing out the door. But such is the pace of life in Paris, and it was a welcome change from the frenzy of Shanghai.
Tiffany reunited with her old love, the Nutella crepe. For her, to munch on a fresh, warm crepe while strolling the streets of Paris is a romance that will never fade.
Almost everything in Paris had a certain "Old World", magical feel. Up the street from us we found a band holding court and entertaining an appreciative crowd with a lively jig. Even more amazing was the designated dancer, a 70-ish year old lady (in the green on the left), who whirled and hopped to the music with an enthusiasm and energy of a girl, much to the delight of her audience.
We found her counterpart across town, a smooth-stepping, older gentleman, who swung his partner consistently with panache to the sweet sounds of a jazzy French band.
We found ourselves exclaiming "Ooh, this is sooo cute!" ad nauseum, but really, there were very many things in Paris that were sooo cute, like this window display of an umbrella store.
Here we passed the legendary Moulin Rouge, the famous dance theater and title of one of Zach's favorite musical movies (starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor).
Life imitates art? Tiffany stikes a pose next to a group of sculptures in the Rodin museum garden.
There was plenty of time to muse over our journeys in the classic company of Rodin's masterpiece, The Thinker.
We explored the church, La Madeleine, in awe of its imposing neoclassical architecture.
Paris is littered with parks and we enjoyed exploring them and walking the quiet, tree-lined paths.
A classic town square. The fountain is running, sidewalk cafes are filled with expresso sipping, chain-smoking Parisians, and park benches are filled with pedestrians munching on fresh baguettes. "Je ne sais quoi" was never more relevant...
Inside the museum L'Orangerie, we walked the oval rooms paneled with Monet's famous Water Lilies paintings, which he completed over the course of 25 years of work.
Inside Paris' central garden, the Tuileries.

The finishing touch on Zach's finely crafted photo of a grouping of garden flowers: the unexpected insertion of a Tiffany head.
One of the unique metro signs marking an entrance to Paris' underground labyrinth of public transportation. Again, no opportunity for artistic expression left un-utilized.
Another outpouring-of-cute moment. Fuel efficient? Yes. Tiffany-sized? No.
An impressive lineup of cannons outside Les Invalides (the Army hospital and museum) with the Eiffel Tower looming in the background.
Even the windows are on guard duty at Les Invalides.
Sometimes jet lag can work to your advantage. We had the city all to ourselves and were able to enjoy the dawn light breaking the horizon and slowly spilling out over the River Seine.
Lest we forget our roots, Tiffany spotted a museum advertising the display of the Terracotta warriors of China.

After wearing our soles thin on the cobblestone streets of the City of Light, we understood why France is the number one tourist destination in the world. Delicious food, timeless art and immaculate gardens combine in the perfect recipe for romantic culture and nostalgic appreciation of European living at its finest.

3 Years Later, Ciao Ciao Shanghai!

After wrapping up their dusty stint as Mongolian nomads, Tiffany and Zach eagerly returned to China for one last, relaxing visit to their favorite beach resort and to say farewell to the Motherland. The Hilton in Sanya has been one of their favorite get-a-ways during their time in China, and it was fitting that they celebrated their third anniversary there, as they had also celebrated their first anniversary there. It is a picturesque resort. The cool, aquamarine waters of the vast pool system that run throughout just beg you to jump in, and sweet scents of colorful, tropical flowers draw your eyes as well as tickle your nose as you walk around the grounds.

Zach cleaned up for the anniversary celebration with a long soak in the room's giant bathtub.

Then it was a romantic night of room service dining and duty-free pink champagne. Tiff and Zach came to grips with the astounding realization that 3 years had passed since getting married in Chicago that fateful day. And the evening was spent laughing and rehashing all the adventures of the 3 years since.

The time in Sanya passed quickly, as Tiff and Zach made sure to enjoy all of China's best offerings, like great massages, perfectly legal Cuban cigars, and a brand of drug-store ginger ale called Watson's that is hands-down the best ginger ale they ever drank.

After one last, long stroll down the pristine beach, satisfied and stuffed with non-Mongolian food, they headed up to Shanghai to say their final farewells:

Farewell Shanghai, with your towering, modern skyscrapers and your eager-to-be-pale Chinese toting sun umbrellas!

Farewell Shanghai, with your massive modern art constructions, laden with complex symbolism that no one understands but with which everyone is suitably impressed anyway!

Farewell Shanghai Centre co-workers and friends, who blessed Tiffany with their kindness and helpfulness, and kept her sane in the midst of working for a crazed management ruled by the idiosyncratic and the inane!

Ah, farewell Shanghai, for all of your practical nature and belief in air-dried laundry!
Farewell, Shanghai, and your odd sense of advertising pets with terrifying, Godzilla-like gerbil pictures!
Farewell, old home, Top of City (not "Top of THE City", mind you), where Tiff and Zach found comfort and solace and a place in China that they readily called "home"!
Farewell amusing English translations accompanied by equally amusing images!
And, finally, as they headed to the airport for the last time, farewell Credit Suisse van, who drove Zach all around Shanghai and completely spoiled him, and farewell Xiao Xu, the van's faithful driver, who eagerly arrived to escort them, not caring, or more likely not realizing, that Zach was no longer an employee!

Farewell Shanghai! Farewell China! Farewell!

Mongolia Part 2 - Boys Camp

Before I forget, I wanted to mention that Mongolian is a very strange sounding language. They share a border and a lot of trade with Russia, and the influence, including a Cyrillic-based script, is evident when they speak. It sort of sounds like Russian with a heavy lisp. Imagine Sylvester the Cat with a Russian accent ("thhhssssufferin' thhsssuccotash comrade!"). And while the culture remains Asian, the fashion, especially in the main, capital city of Ulaanbaatar, is definitely western. All in all, very confusing to try and absorb.

Anyway, after leaving the Siberian taiga grasslands of Jalman Meadows, we continued on to the second half of our Mongolia journey, located in the Gobi steppes and where we arrived at Arburd Sands, or what we named "Boys Camp". The difference was evident that our second stay in the gers would be a little rougher. Run by a man who came from a long line of horse riding nomads, he had a motley crew of about 8 Mongolian boys and 2 women that did the cooking. Our tent got dirty the first day during a rainstorm, and pretty much remained that way the entire stay. The toilets didn't have the pleasant, odor-neutralizing potpourri spray of Jalman Meadows, either. But we soon came to love the easy-going, rough and tumble nature of the camp.

The staff showed us how the gers were built, and with me stuck in the middle, they quickly constructed a ger around me in about 10 minutes.

Here we are with the head of the camp (in the middle of Tiff and me), and some of the boys. We loved the fact that these tough guys were dressed in traditional Mongolian silk shirts, or the full gown with sash, often wearing bright, flashy colors.


But most evenings after dinner, they gave no quarter when it came to game time. Here we are engaged in the mortal combat of tug-o-war. Most of their games involved some sort of violent action, whether it was dodge ball (or "fish in a barrel", as they called it), marco polo (where one person was blindfolded and ran around trying to tag people, all the while getting pushed in the back and tripped by laughing friends), or even duck-duck-goose, where the chosen "it" person had a balled up scarf to throw at the opposing player.
I tried to teach them a less violent form of entertainment, with the classic "human pyramid". I think their favorite part was when the pyramid collapsed and crushed the people on the bottom.They taught us about the "Three Manly Sports", in which Mongolians compete every year in an annual Naadam Festival. Wrestling, Archery, and Horse riding are the three skills dearest to every Mongolian man. I tried to avoid the random wrestling matches that seemed to break out around camp every day, but I did work on my archery.
We had a few wicked storms pass through while we were there, part of the very welcome rain to hopefully end the 8-year drought that Mongolia was suffering through.
After the storm passed we enjoyed incredibly beautiful skies, with the vast landscape lit up by a multitude of colors, and particularly stunningly scenic sunsets.
As we tried to experience the nomadic life in the Gobi, we tried our hands at riding camels again. Luckily, unlike India, we didn't encounter any sandstorms this time. But the lack of saddles and only a few, thin layers of blanket between the camels' spine and our bottoms left us sore and eager to return back to camp. Both camel and rider were quite happy to be free from each other and back at camp.
After the last, terrifying experience riding horses in Jalman Meadows, we knew we had to try it again and bury those memories. The gentle horses, combined with the soft, sandy soil kept the horses' pace slow and Tiff and Zach very happy.

Tiffany befriended the youngest member of the staff, and he proudly showed her around the camp.
While Tiff was exploring the beauty of life at Arburd, I quickly reverted to my childhood, finding fascination in the artifacts of death around the desert. Bones and animal remains littered the desert sands, which exposed the reality of harsh life in the Gobi steppes.
I got into the swing of things, and jumped and ran around the sandy desert.

While Tiff maintained composure and calmly enjoyed the natural beauty of the land.

Another day dies out with a blaze of glory.

We took a day to visit a sacred Buddhist mountain, where many of the rare, native animals could be spotted. We were quite lucky and saw everything from gazelle sprinting across the fields, to ibex argali sheep (similar to gigantic bighorn sheep) perched high in the mountain tops.

When we stopped for lunch this adorable little beggar cleaned up with Tiff and me. Who could resist that face?!

As we drove through the valley splitting two mountain ranges, we continued to marvel at the vast, picturesque Mongolian land.

We were fortunate to run into our camp head's famous horse master father, Choidog, who at the spry age of 80, famously said, "While I have breath in my body, I will ride and train horses." He continues to breed and train race horses for the Naadam Festival.

We visited a few local nomadic families to experience Mongolian life. After the babies are separated from their mothers, the moms are lined up for their daily milking. Here Tiff helps release the moms after the milking is completed.
And then, in one of the cutest scenes we witnessed, the babies are let loose from their pen, and like a massive after school pickup, the babies bolt out of the pen, yelping for their mommies, while the moms bleat out "Here I am!" and everyone runs around until the proper parent-child match ups are made.

Space inside the gers is at a premium. "Now, where did I leave my handbag? Oh right, it's next to the slab of raw mutton..." And the hanging cord on the left between the blue mixing bowl and the stirrups? That would be the sheep intestines, squeezed out and looped together and sold for god knows what use. The ger family assured us that the sheep had been slaughtered that morning so all the meat was fresh. Whew!

The goat and sheep milk is turned into a variety of foods, from milk tea to yogurt, cheese and curds. And with all those animals running around, who needs firewood when you can use dung chips? The very casual way in which the ger mom shoveled out handfuls of the dung chips only served to reinforce the knowledge that we could never make it living as Mongolian nomads.

But the absolute highlight of our entire Mongolia trip came on our final day and was completely unplanned. On our first day driving to Arburd Sands, we came across the heart-breaking sight of a baby horse, trapped out in the pouring rain, timidly nuzzling the unmoving body of its mother, who, without sufficient strength and fat reserves after the years of drought, had apparently succumbed to the many consecutive days of cold rain. Full of supplies and bags, we had no room to squeeze in the poor foal. Although the head of the camp drove back to the site that day after dropping us off at camp, he reported back that the baby foal was gone.

Well, we had pretty much written off the chances of the baby foal surviving without her mother, but sure enough, three days later on our return drive, we spotted the weak baby. With nothing but a canvas cord and years of horse training experience, the camp head (with our tour guide) managed to capture the foal and secure her legs. We then lifted her into the back of our car and took her over to Choidog's ger camp.The two little boys at Choidog's were given the responsibility of convalescing the foal, and immediately their eyes lit up and they ran off to get her some water. She had lain so still in the car that we weren't sure just how weakened her state was, but she eagerly lapped up the offered drink, and the boys were already preparing some watered down sheep's milk to feed her in a few hours and discussed trying to find another mare in the next few days to try and nurse her back to health.
Tiff and I were thrilled to have had a small part in saving the little pony's life and, after determining that indeed the foal was too large to fit into our carry-on bags, made sure to give her lots of hugs and well-wishes before we had to depart.