Mongolia is calling

[Matt_01]

After lunch we headed up to the Monument of the 3 Kings.

Looking back over the city

The mosaics represent the Mongolian Empire at what they consider the major periods. Blue in current Mongolia yellow was the empire and hopefully I have got this correct
3rd Century.

5th-8th Century

13th-15th Century

The Orkhon River

 

[Matt_01]

Last places were the local museum and a Ger Art gallery.
The museum was small but interesting
The Ger Art gallery was interesting and the artist was there so we had quite a good chat. He is Mongolian but lives in France during the Mongolian winter. He speaks Mongolian, French, German and English and he informed me his latest style is calligraphy.

 

[Matt_01]

Dinner was back at the Ger camp and I forgot to take photos o the meal it was buffet. This was the wine.

 

[Matt_01]

Day 3 First is breakfast and then to Kongo Khan - Uvgun Temple and then to the Essen Tasarkhai Dunes staying with another nomadic family.
Breakfast was a beef soup followed by fruits, bread, something that seemed like bacon and little sausages.The juice to me by surprise as when I picked up the jug it was warm and I assumed it was orange juice, it was See buckthorn and has an unusual but nice flavor.

Off we go, weather is not so good today I will start with the daily ‘nothing to see here’ photo however today was a little different the driver had agreed to me having a bit of a dive.

We arrived around 1.5-2 hours later at Kongo Khan which is a sacred mountain.

 

[Matt_01]

Uvgun Temple - the lady who guided us and explained the significance of the temple informed us that her Grandfather, Father and her Son have been or currently the Monk.


The upper temple

 

[Matt_01]

Next stop was our accomodation and it was another nomadic family. It was very different to the accomodation a couple of nights back as there were 7 Ger 6 were for the family, sons and extended family and the 7th was for the animals which I will come back to. The guide informed me the senior family member is quite well respected in the local nomad community as he looks after and mentors younger nomads in how to care and look after animals during the winter. He has around another 14 Ger in the colder areas that other nomads can use for their animals as required. The guide also informed me that his wife is a teacher in Ulaanbaatar and only comes back to the camp during holidays or when she can which is not common for nomad families. He is moving tomorrow which will take 4 days, I as informed he has 40-50 camels, over a 100 horse and cows, and more than 1000 sheep and goats. He also owns 2 or 3 appartments in Ulaanbaatar.

Lunch was Tsuivan which is special and it tasted good.
After lunch it was still raining and my guide informed me that camel riding would be delayed, I was happy with this and was secretly hoping it would be cancelled. I did take a quick look at the camels and thought to myself if I have to ride them I don’t want that big one.
The rain cleared and now off on the camel, the guide insisted I got on the big one and off we went.
At the turn back point I could see the camp in the distance and halfway back I was wondering how long it would take. The camel that was leading the push decided it was hungry so every 2-3 meters stopped to eat.
When we finally arrived back I gestured to the main camel guide and the senior family that my ‘nuts’ or what ever they call them needed some time to recover, the nomads understood and smiled and laughed.

 

[Matt_01]

The guide was taking a nap and I am sure this was not on the tour program but when the senior family member offers to go riding it would be rude to say no.


This is the Ger I am staying in. One of the little girls was taken with the iPad and was happy to sit and watch what I had downloaded. Yes that movie is Barbie Movie, I had downloaded that and a couple of other kids movies as I knew in advance there would be children at the camp sites.

This little one was born in the early morning, the nomad children play with them.

Dinner was Khorhog, it is apparently not cooked often, it is mutton and toasted very good. I was also shown the Russian hunting rifle.

 

[Matt_01]

In the evening as the goats were coming back it turns out there was more than 1 newborn and family collected them an took them out to find the mother goats so they could be milked.

The sacred Mountains at sun set.

In the morning the family starts disturbing the animals to find the kids which are removed from their mothers and kept at the camp site.

After breakfast we are heading for Hustai National Park.

 

[Matt_01]

To day is basically a road trip. Along the way we came across head on crash site with the driver just manoeuvred through. I asked why we did not stop and the guide advised (or similar words) ‘it may have happened today, yesterday or the day before’ ‘there is no one there so they have being taken to hospital or are dead’, ‘someone will come and move/ collect the cars either today, tomorrow or the day after.
The daily photo of nothing to see here.

These road site stops a seem to be always busy as they have flushing loos but it is still BYO loo paper.

Also I noticed when you arrive at the small towns there are speed humps at each end o the town
A random river shot.

And we mad it to the next tourist Ger camp the Moltsog Tourist Camp.

 

[Matt_01]

This place seemed to be in the middle of nowhere there was no cell reception but they did have wi-fi so I updated this TR to the best of my ability yesterday. Also the wi-fi passwords were not provided and if wanting to access the internet you had to ask. Anyhow after a couple of hours of free time we headed off to the Hustai National Park in search of the Takhi horses. The rangers telescope helped and we found some coming down to drink, there were also red deer and marmots.

 

[Matt_01]

Arrived back at the camp and the guide had arranged a different meal for us as lunch was just not good (I did not post pictures) so tonight it is Mongolian hot pot.
Turns out the Mongolians also like Karaoke, the tone deaf owner started the show and the others soon followed who seemed to be tone deaf and drunk.

 

[Matt_01]

I think I have almost caught up on the TR and I was hoping to finish it before I leave. This will not happen as we had to go through UB today and there were vehicle accidents and road closures it took 2-3 hours to move around 10-13km.

 

[drron]

A fascinating report with some very interesting pictures. Unfortunately a place I will never get to now but great coming along with you.

 

[Matt_01]

Last day of the tour and the daily photo of ‘nothing to see here.

When you travel between the provinces there are fees to be paid, it is a road tax.
The traffic in UB is bad at best, add 2 accidents and a road closure it too nearly 3 hours to travel around 10km.
Lunch

This was not on the plan but happened to be performing at the resort, Mongolian Throat Singing (if I could add audio I would have)

 

[Matt_01]

Last stop.

 

[Matt_01]

Once back in town I checked into the same hotel I stayed in last week but this time I had been given free up grade.

I then headed off to the Chinggis Khaan Museum.

 

[Matt_01]

Last evening in UB

 

[Matt_01]

In the morning I headed off to the airport.

 

[Matt_01]

Off to Hong Kong to join the AFF lounge crawl.

 

[Freq Flier 2013]

Were you able to communicate with the host families in any meaningful way? Are they generally happy with their current lifestyle?