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Published: November 4th 2008
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Km travelled 12803
31.10.08
The little boy Dava shook hands with us and energetically waved standing with his family while our Jeep slowly turned on its bumpy way. Today we tried the half frozen river crossing. Without big success we have to say. Ochkhar stopped the car and got off to check the river and find out where best to cross, and at the end valued that we were in the best place. So we tried, as I said. The ice was very thick, not enough to support the car, enough to break the car's headlights. We eventually came past a lady on her horse that advised us about a bridge close by. Good. Good.
After the failure in finding the Tovkhon monastery we decided to make an after lunch stop at the small Shankha monastery, another ruin left from the communists in the middle of nowhere.
A young monk showed us the three temples, two of which were still standing from the 17th century.
The road towards the Mongol sand dunes was constantly crossed by tumble weeds running their miles skimming across the ground. When we got to the sand dunes it was very windy, the air freezing.
The family we were staying with had already moved to what they call the “winter place”, at the foot of Khongo Khan, the big rocky mountain. As soon as we got there, Dava asked the family man if he could take us for a camel ride. She was very worried about it because she hadn't been informed by the tour guide that we were meant to do it. Boor, a beautiful man in his sixties, with thin moustache and scruffy old clothes, took us around with his camels. The camels themselves were exceptionally beautiful, incredibly hairy and definitely too tall! Well you know, you see them sitting on the ground and you only realize how tall they are when you're already sitting on their back!
But oh, we loved it! Admiring the wonderful landscape while the camels slowly walked, waving their big bodies on top of pin legs, the soft two-toed feet slipping a bit on the ground.
Boor lit a cigarette and lead us. When a car passed by, the camels started running. That was fun! Me and Mike holding our camels' humps with our jaws dropped! It's been a great time.
Back to the ger, Ochkhar took us
to the sand dunes with the car. It was still quite windy, but we had some more fun there trying to climb the dunes and then roll down!
The night was probably even better than the day. The four of us shared the same ger that only had three wooden benches, so me and Michael offered to share one. You can imagine what a comfortable sleep it has been. Anyway for dinner we bought some Mongolian beer to celebrate our last night together. Unfortunately Ochkhar had to leave but soon he'd been replaced by Boor that joined us for the drinks. It's been great fun, Dava obviously translating all the time between us and him, we had an amazing conversation! Michael got along very well with Boor, that was especially jealous of Mike's beard! He asked Mike to come back to drink vodka with him while I'll be home with the kids! Crazy.
We really enjoyed spending the night with him and after drowning our faces in the pages of our books, we tried to sleep.
01.11.08
Km travelled 13083
Sunrise at Khongo Khan was stunning. The sky completely empty. We said goodbye to Boor and his
wife with the hope to come back. We left in a rush on the early morning, with Michael running around to take the last shots, so we could get to Ulaanbaatar in time to sort out our things.
And fortunately, after a quite long stop for a lunch of (by now very much hated) dumplings, we reached the city early in the afternoon.
We left Mongolian Harry the driver (named after his resemblance with Michael's popa) and Dreamy Time (named after her pyjama t-shirt) and went out. Michael got back with a brand new jacket and we got food for the next train journey. I must admit our pleasure in biting some salad and tomatoes after one week of Mongolian food! A relief! I also had finally the pleasure to talk to my family today on the phone, and the bit less pleasure of having to talk to my bank to make sure they won't block my cards again.
For your information we also had finally a proper shower after a week, and that was nonetheless a big pleasure. As you can imagine Michael had also the excitement of getting back to his beloved Sopranos.
Tomorrow we'll leave early to
get our train to Beijing, and we are really looking forward to it.
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Lorenzo
non-member comment
Che viaggio immenso. Guardare con i vostri occhi già mi rende felice. Go ahead!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!