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Published: August 16th 2006
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We spent most of our one year wedding anniversary on a very bumpy car ride on one of the 'best' roads in Mongolia. We left Terelj early and set off in the direction of Kharkhorin (the old capital of Mongolia in Ghengis Khan time). The road was so rough that people had given up on the paved road and created several alternative paths next to it through the country side. Our very sturdy Toyota Land Cruiser even blew a tyre halfway there which unnerved us a little! We really felt for the other people trying to navigate the roads in old Russian jeeps and minivans. Fortunately, the last few hours after a nice lunch were spent on a better, post-Soviet road. We arrived in our new camp in time for a visit to another nomad family and dinner. This family lived in a very different style of ger, much more basic but still quite cosy. We arrived at a bad time as their horses had run off into the mountains so the head of the family had gone off to look for them. Thus no airag today - horray! We had tes instead which was basically hot milk (unsure from which
animal!) and more of the ubiquitous 'milk products'.
Tebe has been trying to tell us that the nomads truly love visitors, but even this second visit still felt slightly uncomfortable, partly due to the fact that we cannot communicate with the family directly but still eat their food and partly because we could not imagine getting strangers visiting us at our house unannounced. It wasn’t until the third visit the following day that we truly started to understand that our visits are in fact enjoyed wholeheartedly by the nomad family.
This ger camp was in a beautiful setting again near sand dunes and a river. There were more grasshoppers than we had ever seen before on the ground though - literally every step provoked a storm of jumping grasshoppers - it was very wierd. Some were so big they could jump over our heads and we were covered in them all the time. That evening we spent comfortably sipping a small bottle of champagne we had brought to celebrate our anniversary, and enjoying the view of a rainstorm brewing on the horizon. The food in the Ger camps is very good and has been slightly modified for the
delicate palettes of the tourists, not like the onslaught of mutton that we experienced in Ulaan Baatar.
The next morning after a nice long sleep (only interrupted by Jenny’s bed collapsing and her having to reconstruct it around 3am) we woke up to a cloudy and rainy day. It was cold, but a nice change as Thor didn’t have to worry about the sun at all. After breakfast we drove off to the Kharkhorin monastery which formed the capital of the newly united Mongolia under Genghis Khan 800 years ago. Later, it became a united religious site for Buddhism, Islam and Christianity and the monastery even survived the Soviet/communism dismantling of religious sites in 1937. It was packed with tourists but nevertheless really beautiful and fascinating. We watched the monks chanting shakras, praying and drinking airag (we didn't expect that!) and wandered round the lovely temples.
After a good lunch we went on to the sand dunes on which we jumped around and had lots of fun. The sand is amazingly fine grained and of course went everywhere. Jenny went off on a wild sprint to the top dune from where we got some nice views of the
surroundings. Tebe and Thor spent time showing off doing some crazy rolling down the dunes....
The last visit that day was with a very nice nomad family with 4 young children. They had a snarling dog outside the ger and we were terrified to get out the car but fortunately one of the children laid on top of it so we could run inside! At first the visit was quiet, but then we asked if we could take photos and the family exploded in excitement as our camera could show them the photo of them on the small screen. After lots of funny photos they discovered the video function which was even better. Here we felt for the first time that our visit was not anything to feel embarrassed about - the family truly enjoyed that visitors came around with fun experiences which they can now share with other families. Before we left we promised to send them a copy of the photos. More airag here and it tasted quite different from the previous (apparently due to the different grass).
Our last evening at the Ger camp was amazing. First we had the most gorgeous sunset ever, which
after an hour turned into the best starry sky overhead. We sat sipping a beer and watched it surrounded by the crazy grasshoppers and even heard a pack of wolves howling....
The next day we set off back to Ulaan Baatar and on the way stopped at the Uvgun Khiid monastery which was on the most beautiful site at one end of an open valley. The main building was a ruin and around it were a number of smaller temples. The monastery had been bombed by the Russians in 1937 and the monks killed by blows to the back of their heads. Eventually parts of the monastery were rebuilt in 1992. We had to do some serious off road driving to get there but it was worth it - the valley was shady with pine trees and eagles soared over the surrounding cliffs. We arrived early in the morning before anyone else and it was very quiet and peaceful. After a little while an enormous group of archeologists from the local university turned up in big trucks, demanding access to the ruin. The female Lama was not happy and argued with them for a while until they finally gave
up and left. I guess even academics don’t wish to anger the gods...
Halfway home to Ulaan Baatar we stopped at a river and eat our packed lunch. We relaxed and watched as a herd of wild horses came down to drink and bathe. We also saw a lonely little calf who had lost his mother and had the saddest long mooing call for her. Finally we arrived back in the city which was a bit of a shock after the quiet countryside.
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claire
non-member comment
happy anniversary
It all looks and sounds amazing. Congratulations on 1 year. Keep the journals coming while I sit doing my boring 9 til 5! xxxxxxx