Dalanzadgad, Mongolia | 4 July 2006 | $3.33 USD
Dalanzadgad?the big city in the Gobi! This is the only time during our 8-day trip that we were able to take a shower (at the public bath house for $0.67). The shower felt great but walking back to the house through the dusty streets left me almost as dirty as before. Although it was an actual town with concrete buildings many of the private homes were merely a fenced areas with a ger in the middle, or sometimes a small concrete house with an extra ger beside it. We didn’t have much time to explore the town after a 3.5 hour breakdown in the desert delayed our arrival until the evening. I was the only American on this trip (my other van-mates were Northern Irish and Dutch) so I had to celebrate Independence Day alone, like I usually do on the road.
The price included breakfast and dinner cooked by the family/owners. Luckily, the town had a few shops and I was able to stock up on chocolate (which promptly melted?it is the desert, afterall).