Mongolia

Well it's been a week since I returned from Mongolia and just thought I would add one more entry to the blog with some links related to the trip.

A selection of my photos from the trip can be found here

The sheep/goat ankle bones used for fortune telling and playing games are called Shagai and information on them can be found here

Next is a list of links that will show you some of the locations around Mongolia on Google Maps

1st night Ulaanbaatar47°55'17.0"N 106°55'06.9"E

Hogno Khan Mountain Ger camp (2 nights) this is a rough location based on the Erdene Khamba Monastery location 47°24'05.5"N 103°39'06.9"E

Erdene Khamba Monastery 47°25'38.8"N 103°41'38.8"E

Karakorum 47°12'05.9"N 102°50'35.6"E

Anja Ger camp (1 night) 47°11'04.0"N 102°48'00.4"E

Secret of Ongi Ger camp (1 night) with Monastery near by 45°20'03.0"N 104°00'29.2"E

Gobi Tour Ger camp (1 night) 44°07'49.6"N 103°42'07.6"E with the Flaming Cliffs north west of the camp

Gobi Oasis Ger Camp (2 nights) 43°36'56.3" 104°19'10.7"E and near by (east of the camp) is the airport that we flew back to Ulaanbaatar from. West of the camp is the mountains where we walked the gorges.

Then it was the same hotel in Ulaanbaatar for 1 night

Chinggis Khaan Equestrian Statue 47°48'22.7"N 107°32'07.2"E

Falman Meadows Ger camp (2 nights) 48°05'30.84"N 107°50'57.67"E with ridge walk to the south and mountain bike ride to the north east

Then it was the same hotel in Ulaanbaatar for 1 night

Heading Home

12th August 2017
The time soon comes around to head home. It's been a great trip and we seem to have packed so much in in the last few days that I'm ready to head home. Mongolia has been great, I'm not sure why I didn't come here sooner, it's got all the things I love about a foreign country - nice scenery, traditional way of living, Buddhist monasteries and great history.
The bus to take us to the airport picked us up at 8:30am (1:30am UK time), we said our goodbyes and thank yous to Kenzo. To get rid of my remaining Mongolian cash I give it all to the driver as a tip. As it's just under 3,000 Turgriks it looks a lot but remember it cost 3000 to buy a can of coke in the camps. I still have US dollars left should I need to buy anything at the airport's. After a short wait we are able to check in for both the flight from Ulaanbaatar to Beijing and Beijing to London. Once through security I started to hear rummers of a delay and sure enough it eventually comes up on the board that the flight is delayed. How long for? We only have 2 1/2 hours in between landing and the London flight leaving so can't afford to much as although we are arriving on a international flight we still have to go through security at Beijing. Time passes and then the board shows a delay of 3 hours! That's it then the connection will have gone. We pin our hopes on the fact that there is a large group of 22 people from the UK, mostly children, booked on the same London flight. There's 6 from our group plus a few others we talked to, so that's a lot to rearrange travel for, may be they will hold the flight? Our plane is also delayed coming from Beijing due to bad weather in the Beijing area, may be if lots of flights are delayed again that may help us. Drinks and biscuits are supplied due to the delay.
We eventually arrive in Beijing at 5:00pm our connection flight should have left 35 minutes ago. Once we depart the flight we can see from the board that it is delayed and due to leave in 30 minutes, can we get through the airport including security in that time? As we head to the transfer area there are some Air China representatives holding up some flight numbers including ours, "yes we are on that flight" pointing to the London number. They stick a red Air China logo sticker on each of us and shout "hurry, hurry!". That's great surely these stickers will help our transit. First step, the man who checks your boarding card and stamps it for transfer. Look I have a big red sticker on my arm! No he still checks it and then stamps it. Surely the sticker will help with security? Step two the lady that checks your passport and boarding card again. Look I have a big red sticker on my arm I'm in a hurry! No all things need checking and they need to take my photo. Step three the security search of you and your hand luggage. Right last time we were here all cameras had to be removed from bags. I'm taking no chances and remove half of my belongings from my rucksack. This is the last reason I could have been given this red sticker for, proudly displaying it on my arm I expect a swift outcome. So after the third time they put my rucksack through the machine, removing the reaming items I finally get them to tell me why. "Do you have coins in your bag?" Yes my wallet it has British coins in it, I show him and then repack my bag. So shouting "hurry, hurry" at us and giving us a big red sticker actually achieved nothing. Of course to add to this we now have to get to the gate, the last but one gate in the terminal of course. As we arrive just before 5:30 we see the previous passengers only now departing the plane, it ain't going no where fast. The longer it takes the greater chance our luggage will be transferred. Two hours after arriving at the gate we finally take off.
On landing in London I make my way to the baggage reclaim with a little bit of hope, after all there was time to transfer the luggage. As my bag appears on the carosel I feel like doing the Mongolian eagle dance of victory, but I'm to tired. By the time I checked into the hotel at Terminal 4 for the night it's been 22 hours hotel door to hotel door.

Heading Home

12th August 2017
The time soon comes around to head home. It's been a great trip and we seem to have packed so much in in the last few days that I'm ready to head home. Mongolia has been great, I'm not sure why I didn't come here sooner, it's got all the things I love about a foreign country - nice scenery, traditional way of living, Buddhist monasteries and great history.
The bus to take us to the airport picked us up at 8:30am (1:30am UK time), we said our goodbyes and thank yous to Kenzo. To get rid of my remaining Mongolian cash I give it all to the driver as a tip. As it's just under 3,000 Turgriks it looks a lot but remember it cost 3000 to buy a can of coke in the camps. I still have US dollars left should I need to buy anything at the airport's. After a short wait we are able to check in for both the flight from Ulaanbaatar to Beijing and Beijing to London. Once through security I started to hear rummers of a delay and sure enough it eventually comes up on the board that the flight is delayed. How long for? We only have 2 1/2 hours in between landing and the London flight leaving so can't afford to much as although we are arriving on a international flight we still have to go through security at Beijing. Time passes and then the board shows a delay of 3 hours! That's it then the connection will have gone. We pin our hopes on the fact that there is a large group of 22 people from the UK, mostly children, booked on the same London flight. There's 6 from our group plus a few others we talked to, so that's a lot to rearrange travel for, may be they will hold the flight? Our plane is also delayed coming from Beijing due to bad weather in the Beijing area, may be if lots of flights are delayed again that may help us. Drinks and biscuits are supplied due to the delay.
We eventually arrive in Beijing at 5:00pm our connection flight should have left 35 minutes ago. Once we depart the flight we can see from the board that it is delayed and due to leave in 30 minutes, can we get through the airport including security in that time? As we head to the transfer area there are some Air China representatives holding up some flight numbers including ours, "yes we are on that flight" pointing to the London number. They stick a red Air China logo sticker on each of us and shout "hurry, hurry!". That's great surely these stickers will help our transit. First step, the man who checks your boarding card and stamps it for transfer. Look I have a big red sticker on my arm! No he still checks it and then stamps it. Surely the sticker will help with security? Step two the lady that checks your passport and boarding card again. Look I have a big red sticker on my arm I'm in a hurry! No all things need checking and they need to take my photo. Step three the security search of you and your hand luggage. Right last time we were here all cameras had to be removed from bags. I'm taking no chances and remove half of my belongings from my rucksack. This is the last reason I could have been given this red sticker for, proudly displaying it on my arm I expect a swift outcome. So after the third time they put my rucksack through the machine, removing the reaming items I finally get them to tell me why. "Do you have coins in your bag?" Yes my wallet it has British coins in it, I show him and then repack my bag. So shouting "hurry, hurry" at us and giving us a big red sticker actually achieved nothing. Of course to add to this we now have to get to the gate, the last but one gate in the terminal of course. As we arrive just before 5:30 we see the previous passengers only now departing the plane, it ain't going no where fast. The longer it takes the greater chance our luggage will be transferred. Two hours after arriving at the gate we finally take off.
On landing in London I make my way to the baggage reclaim with a little bit of hope, after all there was time to transfer the luggage. As my bag appears on the carosel I feel like doing the Mongolian eagle dance of victory, but I'm to tired. By the time I checked into the hotel at Terminal 4 for the night it's been 22 hours hotel door to hotel door.

Mongolian Mountain Adventure

10th August 2017
This morning we woke to a blanket of mist, we are quite high here and it soon started to lift.
So this morning some of the group are going rafting and double kayaking. The yak cart takes the equipment up the river and then they came back with the flow. They all seemed to have fun but got very wet and cold, one of the ladies, Maggs, ended up in the river. They also had a dog accompanying them who swam some of the way, more about him later. Anyway, although all in the group are nice people I decided to spend some time alone and go for a walk on my own. There are are few ridge walks near the camp that form horse shoe shapes. So once the mist lifted and armed with a map drawn by one of the best cartographers in Mongolia, Kenzo, I walked one of the ridges above the camp. The ridge had lovely views of the surrounding mountains. I had hoped to sit on the high spot and eat a nice bit of smoked cheese I had saved from breakfast, but as I approached it I could hear the familiar rumble of thunder so headed straight down the other side of the horse shoe to eat my cheese. About 3/4 of the way around the rain started so it was on with the water proofs. When I got back to the Ger, Robert my roomie, lite the the wood burner which helped to dry me off.
After lunch three of us went horse riding. The horses are not stabled so the local herders go out and collect them from the country side the day before. Each herd is in a harem group and consists of a stallion, mare's and a few bachelor's. They roam free throughout the winter and protect themselves against the wolves, therefore although they are calm natured you don't want to make a sudden sound around them. Kenzo and two herders accompanied us, each of them riding their own horse and had a rope to one of the other horses. Also accompanying us is the dog that went rafting this morning, no one seems to call it over it just sees people getting ready to leave and joins them. As we ride along we can hear marmots calling and we can also see one in the distance. It's lucky for the marmot that he is off in the distance as the dog goes into hunting mode looking to catch one. The others get ahead of Kenzo and I so Kenzo gets the horses to trot a little to catch up, not my favourite part of the trip! We are out for about an hour and on they way back the dog disappears and then reappears wet, not sure what it was hunting in the river.
Upon our return the majority of the group are leaving with one of the camp staff on a guided walk. They are going to do the same ridge I did this morning, for me I have hired a mountain bike for an hour and head off up the valley floor on my own.
The library Ger also contains his and hers traditional Mongolian clothing to try on, I declare it the dressing up Ger and dress for a photo.
The dog that likes rafting and horse riding also likes been stroked and gives you a nudge if you stop. I went and found him and spent some time fussing him up.
Tonight is out last night sleeping in a Ger, tomorrow it's back to Ulaanbaatar.

Horse Racing With The Boys

11th August 2017
Today we had a bit of a lazy morning, some that did not go horse riding yesterday had a chance to go this morning.
I had a walk down to the river and on the way back saw the yak cart, loaded up with water containers, heading to the river to collect the water. Apart from the manager/chef all the other staff maning the camp are university students working through their holidays.
After my walk I went to the library Ger to write my blog. Kenzo, Khashaa and Puujee came in and Khashaa and Puujee dressed up in the Mongolian outfits to have their photo taken. Ever since we came to the mountains Kenzo has been wearing Mongolian clothing.
Kenzo then asked if anyone wanted to play a horse racing game with them, as there was no other volunteers I agreed to play. To explain the game I first need to explain the use of some small animal bones that are used to predict your future. I think they may be ankle bones from a sheep and they are used like dice. They can't really ballance on the two ends and the other four sides are unique and represent a camel, a horse, a goat and a sheep. To tell your fortune you roll four bones together and you read the combination thrown off a chart to predict your future. The "best future ever" is if you throw all four animals. Now in the library Ger there is an old tin full of these bones. The boys laid out the horse track using about 70-80 bones, each bone represented a space on the board. We then picked a bone from those that were left to represent your horse. The four of us then took it in turns to roll four bones to determine your move. For each horse you throw you move one space forward, if you throw the "best future ever" you move forward four places. The game took a while and I was first to reach the last space on the track, I just needed to throw one more horse to win. When it came to my next go I managed to throw the necessary horse to win. Since Khashaa is a wrestler, and they do an eagle dance if they win a bout, I got up off the floor and did the eagle dance. The boys then continued with the game to see who came 2nd, 3rd and 4th. After the game Kenzo brought me the bone that represented my horse and said it I traditional to keep the bone if you win. I now have a small animal bones in my luggage that means so much and will remind me of sitting on a carpet in a Ger playing horse racing with the boys.
After lunch it was time to leave the camp and head back to Ulaanbaatar for the last time. Before leaving we had a photo call with the camp staff.
We had a two hour drive to reach the tarmac road and then another two hours to the hotel. When we reached the hotel it was time to say goodbye to Khashaa and Puujee, they have been great drivers keeping us save both on and off the tarmac roads.
We then meet up for our final group meal and to say our goodbyes as we head off on different flights tomorrow. Kenzo is stopping at the hotel tonight and is seeing each small group off as they go to the airport, it's a nice touch as I'm sure he would like to get home to his family.

Chanting Monks and Chinggiss Khann

9th August 2017
Having checked out of the hotel we made our way to the old Russian bus and to much applause found both Khashaa and Puujee waiting for us. They got back to the city at about 5pm yesterday having dropped us off at the airport around 7am. New drivers just would not have been the same.
First up today was a visit Gandan Monastery, it once held more than 100 temples but now only a small number exist following the purges of 1937. When we got there the monks were gathering ready for chanting, they all moved off to different temples and started chanting. One of the temples houses the 26m high copper and gold gold Midjid Janraisig Buddha statue. This is a replacement for the one that was destroyed during the purge. The original was reportedly melted down and used to make bullets!
After the monastery we headed out of the city and headed east towards our final Ger camp. On route, trying to out run yet more rain, we stopped at Tsonjin Boldog. At this spot Chinggiss Khaan found his famous golden whip, here now stands a 40m high statue of him ridding a horse. You can ride a lift up inside the horse's tail and then climb some steps to a view point on the horse's head and look back at the mounted future. When we reached the statue we still had some sun, by the time we walked out on to the view point the rain had caught up with us. In the valley where the statue stands there are also a few life size statues of  soldiers on horse's. The plan is to eventually to have 1000 soldiers and generals ridding behind Chinggiss Khaan.
Shortly after leaving the statue it was once again time to go off road, the rain had stopped when we stopped for lunch. Once again Khashaa left the track and drove up the side of an hill to give us great views of the mountains for lunch.
From the lunch stop it's a two hour drive to our next Ger camp in the mountains. On the way we had a terrific thunder storm and torrential rain. The old bus started to leak through one of the roof vents and Kenso was sitting on the bus under his umbrella. I don't now how the two drivers could see where they were going. We had to climb a hill and the track looked slippy so Khashaa and Puujee took the luggage van ahead to scout out the track ahead. They obviously considered it ok because on their return we continued up the hill. Once over the pass we appeared to leave the worst of the weather behind.
The new Ger camp is again a temporary camp with special permission to be in a protected area. The camp is set up in May and taken down in October. It is owned and run by the local company who own the vehicles we have been using. They are called Nomadic Journeys.
As at our first camp the vehicles are not allowed to drive right up to the Ger's, this time there was a Yak and cart to take our luggage to our Ger's. The camp consists of the sleeping Ger's, a library Ger, a dinning Ger, a kitchen Ger, 3 shower Ger's, massage Ger, shop Ger and down by the river a sauna Ger. The shower Ger's are much more luxurious than the one at the first camp. They have a wood burner inside and a bucket with a shower outlet suspended from the roof.
Now that we are in the mountains the temperature dropped in the evening and one of the camp staff came around to light the wood burner in our Ger.

Ulaanbaatar take 2

8th August 2017
Early morning start and breakfast as we are booked on the morning flight from Dalanzadgad to Ulaanbaatar. The flight is just 1 1/4 hours. The luggage weight limit on this internal flight is low, 10kg checked and 5kg carry on. I left some clothes at the hotel in Ulaanbaatar and have also off loaded some weight with the gifts we have given away, that said I'm leaving my walking boots, warm jacket (which I'll not need until the mountains) and a bag of dirty washing on the bus. I'll get them back tomorrow when we are reunited with the bus.
At the airport we wish Khashaa and Puujee safe journey as they have the 600km return journey to make in the vehicles whilst we take the airplane. We also give them some of the group gifts for their children which they will see when they get to Ulaanbaatar. Hopefully they will both be with us for the last part of our trip.
On landing at the airport we are met by two new drivers for the day, one will take us around the city sightseeing and the other will take our luggage to the same hotel we stopped at on our first night. Our first stop is the Bogd Khan Palace. This holds both the summer and winter palaces of the last king and queen of Mongolia. The Bogd Khan was seen as a Loving Buddha.
For lunch we went to a Mongolian BBQ. Here you fill a bowl with the raw ingredients that you fancy, select a sauce and take them to the chef's. When they have a maximum of twelve people waiting they start the cooking of all the meals on a giant hot plate. They are very skilled with their cooking implements tossing them in the air and then catching them. It's hard to describe, I did video them on my phone and will post a link sometime. As well as the entertaining way of cooking the food it was very tasty. Some of the waiters and waitresses were wearing T-shirts with slogans in English on the back, one read "Meat for mans grass for animals". I'm not sure if the young lady wearing "Real men rub their meat" was aware of the double meaning.
After lunch we checked in at the hotel and then some of us walked to the National Museum of Mongolia. This covered artifacts from stone age sites, the Mongolian empire, Socialist times, the purge and independence in the 1990's. We only had an hour or so there which was only time for  quick look around. On the way to the museum we past the parliament building. There is a large seated statue of Chinggiss Khaan outside the building along with one of his second son Ogedei Khaan and one of Chinggiss's grandchild Kublai Khan. Kublai tends to be the one who gets the blame for breaking up/loosing the empire.
The reason for a short visit to the museum was because we had to meet up to go to a Mongolian show. The show was held in a small theatre and include musicians playing Mongolian instruments including the horse head fiddle; traditional dancing; singing; throat singing; mask dancing and even a contourtionist. It lasted just over an hour and was very entertaining.  On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a restaurant called the Silk Road and had yet again another delicious meal - we always seem to be eating!