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Published: November 3rd 2008
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Km travelled 11823
26.10.08
Ochkhar has brown thick skin, like one that has seen many suns. His hair is dark and fizzy, covered by a tight green hat. He spits loud words between thin lips and keeps his hands always up on the steering wheel. His jeep is blue, blue outside and blue inside. Inside is all padded like an old piece of furniture.
Dava is a smiling girl that keeps the smile even when she's speaking. She just got her degree in tourism economy and she's our English speaking guide. Before leaving the guesthouse we've been lucky enough to have a chat with an American guy that gave us some advice on Cambodia. And before leaving Ulaanbaatar we had the opportunity to see how to get away from a police check point, which didn't seem very expensive anyway. Roads in Mongolia are all but smooth, so apparently everyone prefers to drive off the road. And now you understand the padding inside the car. Today we drive, drive, drive, with a few necessary stops, one for lunch. It's impressive how deserted is the landscape. No vegetation, no house, no people. Groups of sheep, goats, cows and horses slowly move
across drawing the landscape itself. A group of hungry big vultures had its lunch stolen by a dog now a black point far away. We're spending the night at this guest house arranged like a group of gers just off the Erdenzuu monastery in Kharhorin, that we'll visit tomorrow morning. The fire here inside our room keeps us very warm, and outside the snow sits on the ground. If there's one thing not exactly beautiful is that this place is covered in bugs. But we're friendly. We have everything we need. Also our meal served in the room. People are so nice that I really feel ashamed not to speak a bit of Mongolian, it would be great if we could talk to them.
Dava stayed with us for a while. We asked her all sorts of things about Mongolia and she fed us for a while. Before the end of the day we went for a romantic walk to the toilets and stopped to admire something that in our places we have forgotten. How beautiful is when the sky turns its lights on for the night and become the brightest thing you've ever seen.
27.10.08
It's been
a long, long day.
At 9.00 we crossed the gate of Kharhorin to go and visit the Erdenzuu monastery. The city of Kharhorin, ancient capital of Mongolia founded in the 13th century, was ten times what you see today and instead of the 10500 monks now only 30 are in the monastery. In the late 30s the communists destroyed almost everything that was here. Fortunately the monks managed to save few things and only recently they could rebuild part of the monastery. We hang around for a while within the city walls between young monks going to school and souvenir vendors. Then we set ourselves ready for the long journey towards Terkhi White lake. We soon stopped for lunch after a couple of hours in a town where we first experienced this funny feeling of being the only westerners for miles and miles. We had greasy beef pancakes that my stomach didn't appreciate much, with Mongolian tea, which is made boiling water with tea leaves and then boiling it again with milk.
We gave a couple of lifts today. One before lunch to a young guy who's truck had broken down and one to a policeman from the village to
the end of it.
As soon as we left the town snow covered everything. The road seemed endless, the landscape was all white, most of the animals seen before, including the multitude of mice seen on the road during the morning, were replaced by yaks.
We drove until dark was coming down we just a couple of stops for toilet need and to buy some horse milk. Before everything was covered in black we finally saw the lake, an incredible view, still. Dava made a joke on the phone and told the girl here at the guesthouse that we were not coming so there's been a lot of laughing when we got here. Our ger is colorful and very nicely decorated, and the family owning the guesthouse is very friendly. The man, Moogi, came to talk to us after dinner. He knows all the most common English words that he learned from the many tourists and taught us few Mongolian words. There's no electricity so we have a game of backgammon at candle light and go to sleep.
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