We had a long journey ahead, to Khyargas Lake, one of Mongolia’s largest and twice as salty as the ocean. The lake does provide an attractive summer home for birds, but we were a bit too early in the season and didn’t see many birds yet. The lake shores turned out to be rather bare and the surrounding landscape wasn’t very attractive, so we decided to push through, so the next day we would have more time in our next destination, the Khar Lake. As we couldn’t find a decent place to camp we decided to spend the night in a local guesthouse in a little village, somewhere in the middle of nowhere. We didn’t regret that decision, as wandering around the village added a unique new experience to our trip, as so far we hadn’t seen much of village life. The Russian influence was striking…