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Published: July 17th 2008
Boggie at Gandan Monastery
Boggie explains the use of the prayer wheels - there are a lot of prayer wheels hereBreakfast this morning at 8.00 was simple but adequate; we had a couple of visits planned then off to the Guru Ger Camp about 70 km out of town. The first visit was to a famous Buddhist Temple and monastery and we all filed through while they were at prayer which apparently was quite normal but seemed a bit intrusive as was the visit to their school where the younger ones were also praying - but I guess they are used to it. The actual temple had a huge copper and gold Buddha inside which was most impressive but it cost to take a photo inside so we just sufficed with the outside shots. There were lots of pigeons outside also and a couple of people were selling birdseed for them, the kids wandering around us seemed decidedly dodgy and we thought they may have been pickpockets to we made sure we had our valuables secure. The Natural History Museum was next which basically covered the whole history of man in the Mongolian region from the Stone Age through to Genghis Kahn through to the Second World War. As previously stated Boggie’s knowledge was impressive and she wasn’t just reading the
Gandan Monastery
Temple of Boddhisattva Avalokiteshvara which houses the giant golden Budha. The Budha is as high as the building and most impressive. boards. We bought a couple of souvenirs and wandered past the guys with AK47’s (don’t take pictures of guys with guns!) to the city square to see the statues of Genghis Kahn et al and all the official buildings. Genghis Kahn was a huge hero in these parts and it is incredible to think that the Mongols under his rule conquered a big part of the known world including China and Russia on horseback only to be broken down by internal feuding after his death. Anyway, it was a beautiful day, must have been about 26 deg and sunny so it was a bit warm walking around but we met up with our coach by the post office and went to lunch. There seems to be a lot of Italian themed restaurants in UB as it was with the one we went to with pizza and pasta on the menu (still not selling any alcohol though), we both had pizza which was pretty good and we had a good chat with Boggie. After lunch we headed out of town to the ger camp where we were going to stay for 2 nights, it was like going away on holiday during
Gandan Monastery
Old Mongolian Lady selling birdseed to feed the pigeons your holiday. The countryside outside of UB was not what I expected; it was all green with spectacular rock formations and animals roaming free. We were going to Terelj National Park where there are many ger camps scattered around and Mongolian nomads make their homes. We had to keep reminding ourselves that it is only like this 2 or 3 months of the year and during winter it can drop to -30 deg, but for now it was perfect. We got to the camp at around 3.00 and settled in, most of us decided to go for a wander around as we had free time until dinner, so we explored our local surroundings and took some photos. After walking up a thirst we partook of a few drinks on the deck while enjoying the peace and tranquility of our surroundings before dinner, a nice bottle of Sangre de Toro was probably a little extravagant but I think it was worth it. Dinner was simple due to limited facilities and the remote location but we wern’t concerned and after dinner we had a couple of really good exponents of the traditional Mongolian Horse Head Fiddle come and play for us. It
Kublai Kahn
The Grandson of Ghengis sits at his right hand side may have been partially due to the intimate nature of the performance but I thought that they were better than the guys the night before, we all thought they were awesome. (we even bought their cd). With dinner over the girls were lighting the fires in the gers and it was time for bed, so by the time we had done our ablutions we were ready to snuggle down, another full day was planned for tomorrow.
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