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Honeymoon
90 photos
Doug is amused by the automatic beer dispenser during a layover at Tokyo Narita airport.
Taken in Tiananmen Square after helping some Chinese students practice their English.
The entrance to the Forbidden City with Mao Zedong's picture on the front.
If the moat doesn't stop you, the five layers of brick beneath the city prevent you from tunneling in.
He may look like a teenager, but he has a gun.
Detail of the imperial roof.
A fire breathing turtle-dragon. Fortunately, we didn't run into a live version of this beast.
Cindy looking contemplative somewhere in the Forbidden City.
Don't forget to look up or you'll miss the cool ceilings.
Doug and Cindy pose on the slippery, steep and crumbling Great Wall of China.
We agree that the "Great Wall" is an appropriate name.
Just what every honeymoon tour needs ... 12 year old triple boys.
After 1000 steps, now they tell us.
The 580 year old Temple of Heaven with three tier wrap around steps.
Our entire tour group (sans Doug) plus our local guide (in pink).
Rooftops in the Panjiayuan marketplace.
Form of a Purple Potato Bush.
Mozilla goes to China.
Our first stop in Mongolia, we learn that even Asian pigeons don't eat rice.
We rolled these drums for good luck.
Our first day in Ulaan Baatar (Mongolia's capital city where over the population lives).
An immense Bhudda carved from a single 27 meter long piece of sandalwood from Nepal.
Monument to Russian/Mongolian cooperation in World War II.
Cindy makes friends with a Pigmy goat.
Cindy on the inside of the Russia/Mongolia WWII monument.
Doug with Ulaan Baatar in the background.
A flattened out 360 photo of the mosaic on the inside of the WWII monument.
The Bogd Khaan Winter Palace could use a new coat of paint and maybe a lawn mower.
I think our love seat will fit, but not sure about the sofa.
Mongolia is a place of few fences since over 30% of the population are nomads.
A fellow guest at the beer garden where we stopped for a cold Mongolian lager.
Wrestling, archery and horseback riding are the Mongolian equivalents of our football, baseball and basketball.
Even in the middle of Mongolia, you can still check your email (for only $1.20/hour).
Weighing one of 7 planes in the Mongolian Airlines fleet prior to our flight to Moron.
You say Muren, I say Moron, some say Murun. Mongolians aren't too strict in their spelling.
Our honeymoon suite, in the only hotel in town with running water (ice cold).
Mongolian's don't name their horses - they just refer to them by color.
Two boys from a Mongolian family we visited.
We gave them postcards and stickers. They gave us fresh mutton, mare's milk and dried cheese.
These kids can ride a horse better than Cindy can.
A real Mongolian barbeque - hot stones and a milk can.
They sang a traditional Mongolian song ... the best we could come up with was Old MacDonald.
This photo of the newlyweds brought to you by REI.
Our drivers in front of a prayer rock pile.
What we remember most of Mongolia - wide open spaces and no people.
Mongolian style highway rest stop.
It's okay, not a lot to run into out here.
That works with dogs, but Yaks?
Home sweet ger.
Our lodging on the shore of Lake Hovsgul, close to the Russian Border.
Hey, that rope is attached to my nose!
Doug tending to the fire for his dear (and cold) new bride.
We called our horses Tahoe and Zorro and rode for six hours.
We visited the elusive reindeer people, a small population of 2,500 families.
Don't be fooled by their small size - Mongolian horses helped Genghis Khan create the largest contiguous empire in world history.
Don't be fooled by their small size - they are stronger than they look.
Lake Hovsgul.
For my next trick, I'll make Cindy disappear.
Mongolian Indiana Jones?
Try as she might, Cindy couldn't reach the other side of the lake.
Twenty minute recipe for fresh home-made Mongolian vodka from fermented mare's milk.
70% of Mongolia's population is under the age of 25.
A old Russian PT boat ready to take us on a cruise of the lake.
A bit nippy on our tour.
Sunset over Lake Hovgol, sometime around 10:30pm.
The airport in Dalandzadgad, gateway to the Gobi desert.
The rock hanging from the roof helps keep the ger from blowing away.
A goat in the Gobi.
Children learn to ride bareback as early as age three.
Hey, I'm a married man.
Can I keep him, pleeeeeeeeease?
What is it with Cindy and goats?
Finding a ger in the gobi is like finding a needle in the haystack.
106 degrees in the flaming cliffs of the Gobi desert.
Where are my goats?
First sign of heat exhaustion - mistaking a rock for your camel.
We named our camels Homer and Ralph. Camels are mean, stinky and aren't very comfortable.
Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.
Cindy talked Dolly off the cliff after 20 tense minutes.
It's only 102 degrees in the shade.
Stargazing with the triplets.
Yak and baby yak.
A glacier in the Gobi, probably gone now due to global warming.
Gravity is all screwy in the Gobi desert.
The ger camp in the Gobi.
The trip's cook made us a banana bread cake with one of favorite sayings on it.
The manhole Doug stepped into after exiting the plane.
Cindy looking cute in the arrivals section in Beijing (back from Mongolia).
I think I'll pass.
Mongolia changed our perspective on life.