Blogs from Mongolia, Asia

Our next adventure took us about 4 hours to the west to the town of Kharkorin, the location of the former capital established by Chenghis Khan - Karakhorum. Erdene Zuu Monastery Our first stop was the Erdene Zuu Monastery, a Tibetan Buddhist monastery constructed in the late 16th century. We were told we had 90 minutes here, which seemed like a lot, but there was actually quite a bit to see and we wound up a bit rushed, or at least, I was. It was originally intended for the surrounding wall to have 108 stupas, 108 being an important number in Tibetan buddhism, but I did not count. It was also constructed using ruins from the old capital, which did not last long. At its peak, the monastery held 62 temples and housed over 1,000 monks. ... read more

Had I not been asked to join a photography trip, I would not have gone to Bayan Olgi, the Western part of Mongolia bordering with Kazakhstan at the end of August last year. Getting the visa was without a drama as the Mongolian Embassy in Jakarta was thinly staffed. After much of persuasion, we managed to get our visa in time and left for Ulaanbataar, transiting in Hong Kong. It was great to be back at Ulaanbaatar as I could see the development progress in such a short time. I did recall there were not many tall buildings seen during my visit years ago, during which main roads had potholes. This time, the traffic was heavy, tall buildings sprang and roads were nicely paved. It was amazing to see how coal did to the economy. Mongolia ... read more

Having the lowest population density of any country on Earth has always made Mongolia extremely appealing to Magdalena and me; this is the reason why when living in Newcastle we often chose to go hiking in the invariably empty Cheviots, the UK’s least visited national Park, as opposed to the much lovelier but also much busier Lake District. Every Mongolian square kilometre averages just 1.9 people, compare that to 274 people per km2 in the UK, 334 per km2 in Japan, which I now call home, and a thoroughly cosy 18,960 per km2 in list-topping Monaco. A consequent highlight of Mongolia’s emptiness is that you can pick a direction and walk. You will see more wildlife than humans, more animal tracks than vehicle tracks, and hear more bird song and animal noises than mobile phone social ... read more

Day 27 to 30 of 80 Footsteps of Chinggis Thursday we had booked ourselves a guided tour out of the city to reach a Chinggis (Ghenghis to us westerners) Khan monument and a National Park. We wanted to make a day of it so chose a tour with a couple of extras rather than a quick out and back. Just as well really. The route to the statue was about 65 km out of town. Regrettably, though, they are rebuilding the main highway in that direction so all traffic, both directions, is being diverted onto the roughest, unpaved, rutted, gravel track - a bit like the 2 border roads we encountered in Georgia /Armenia. But with 'rush hour' volumes of traffic, many of them treating the whole width of the road as a dirt race track. ... read more

Day 24 to 26 of 80 Small mild panic on Monday morning as we arrived early at the station to find our train not listed but train times either side of ours were. Unable to find an english speaking railway person, we started to wonder whether there was something up with our train. But a more thorough search of the station showed a side room listing the long-distance trains, including ours. Phew. Ulaanbaatar is around 500 km from Irkutsk, as the crow flies. Regrettably trains don't fly so by the time it has travelled 150 km from Irkutsk to reach Lake Baikal which is only 70km south, taking 3 hours in the process, and then overshot to past midway along the southern shore for a stop at Ulan-Ude, where the Trans-Mongolian splits off from the Trans-Siberian, ... read more