Oh yes, of course your camel can lick my …

I am already giggling as I think of the Google search terms that will now bring people to my blog… haha… (Amended: I just edited this headline to clean it up a bit in case I ever decide to run for public office.)  But I really do have a great story to share and I am glad this silly title made you want to read it.

On the last night of my Central Mongolia tour, we stayed in a ger in the Semi-Gobi Desert.  We arrived just before sunset.  The family welcomed us with a bowl of salty milk tea, and snuff.  The snuff came from a small glass bottle and smelled like overly perfumed baby powder.  The smell stayed in my nose for the next several hours, and I have no idea what it really was.

At sunset I borrowed a camera and started taking artsy shots of camel silhouettes against the horizon.

A Mongolian tourist, who appeared to be drunk, mildly mentally handicapped, or perhaps both, approached us, hugging and kissing his camel with enthusiasm rarely seen in humans over the age of five.  He had his camel lick my shoulders and shirt.  He lifted up his own shirt to let the camel lick his nipples, and in the universal sign language of gestures, tried to convince me to lift up my shirt and let the camel lick my nipples.

That picture is blurry because I was too nervous and ticklish to stand still.

I think it was an odd ploy to convince me to take my shirt off!  Needless to say, his wish did not come through; my shirt stayed on!

This camel-licking game continued (and the giddy man attempted the same trick on Mongolian women as well) until the other group staying at the camp returned from their camel ride.

We then mounted the camels, tied them all together in a line, and strolled through the desert under the vast, starry sky.

P. S. I just Googled the words “camel lick Leslie” and this post is not the first one that comes up!  First Google shows us this informative advice column from Snopes.com.  The writer has done some investigative reporting regarding the veracity of the letter, and it is a highly entertaining read.