Wampum

Wabenakis in Maine used to dress up in fringed buckskins and put on northern plains-style chief's bonnets, and set up teepees along old Route 1, so they could sell ash baskets and other genuine indian curios to Bostonakis (Whites). Carl-Magnus Dumell catches this in his Going to Mongolia (for no apparent reason):

Judging by the search results from Google, most Mongolians wear colorful national dresses, live in tents and travel by horses. This is obviously not true, but the tourist industry is very sensitive to market demands. If foreigners are willing to pay to see something, then the tourist industry will make sure they get to see it. Even if they have to fake it.

The MSM is full of picturesque folklorics, mare's milk and so on. Junior was only on the ground for 240 minutes, and spent some of them doing a presser with Nambaryn Enkhbayar, doing 13 minutes of stand-up reading yet another disjoint, incoherent speach.

Google for Ulan Bator (or Ulaanbaator) for images of the city itself, not the fake indians authentic folkloric Mongolians that are in the set poses with Laura and Junior in the easily distracted MSM. My travels to Asia were limited to Beijing, after all, I was working, and only someone who was Mongol, or who simply had to leave Beijing would trade waaaay dowwwn to Ulan Bator. That's a New York, New York to Billings Montana jump.

On the up-side, Junior didn't turn to the local shamanistic tradition for guidance on ... who Fitz plans to try.

But here is the more important photo. From Moscow, 14 days ago. The 88th annaversary of ... the October Revolution. Enjoy.