North of the Gobi, we visit a group of families that live on the endless rolling grasslands of the steppe. Most of Mongolia is steppe, which most of Mongolia looks exactly like Montana. To the west, the steppe continues for thousands of kilometers: all the way across Central Asia and eastern Europe to the middle of Hungary. Angela's brought her new Polaroid "Xiao" camera on this trip. This is a small plastic camera that produces blurry little pictures. The pictures aren't much to look at, but they develop right away, so we can give them away on the spot. The pictures make Angela instant friends with every Mongolian family we meet. Even the shiest kids eventually work up the nerve to approach Angela and ask to have their picture taken. In the upper left of this photo you can see a white tent. This is a ger: a traditional type of felt tent that all Mongolian nomads live in. Flying over the steppe in a Mongolia Airlines helicopter, even the most remote regions are dotted with the occasional white ger. We also see big blocks of these gers in the cities. [ Previous ] [ Gallery ] [ Next: Nomadic matriarch ] |