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.