September 27, 2001 – Terelj

Late at night, after getting up in a freezing cold ger tent, and working for an hour trying to ignite a new fire from the few glowing embers remaining in our woodstove, I headed off up the path to the camp's washroom. I met one of the Australian tourists, Murray, who was very sick from too much airag (fermented mare's milk). His enthusiasm was only dampened for a couple of days. After some medication from the UN office in Ulan Bator, he kept a low profile for the next few days on our train journey, but sprang back to his old energitic self soon after.