Uliastai

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We checked out of the yellow ger this morning to travel further northwest, supposedly to meet four more ladies at Uliastai who would be joining us for the rest of our journey in Zavkhan Aimag.

Along the way, we past some ancient burial sites. At the sites were some standing stones known as "Deer Stones". These are cultural monuments dating from the Bronze Age (4th to 3rd centuries BC) to mark the grave or commemorate local people of high rank. The stones at the burial sites are piled in an interesting pattern, a rounded hill ending with a long tail.

We had lunch at Uliastai, the aimag centre of Zavkhan Aimag. We waited anxiously for the four ladies but was disappointed to hear that the domestic flight from UB took off ahead of schedule because of some VIPs. And of course they missed their flights. So we spent the night at Uliastai Hotel - the best hotel in Uliastai with no ensuite shower. Nevertheless, we were very pleased with the nice lady who manned the common shower room. We have to communicate in sign language though.

Uliastai is Muno's hometown, where he was born and lived till 7 years old. The primary school he studied is located diagonally across the Uliastai Hotel where we stayed for the night. At Uliastai, we went for a walk around the town, a typical Mongolian town with bare infrastructure, but the area is quite pretty, with a river running across and surrounded by mountain ranges.

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