13 - 15 July - Mongolia : Bayangobi (Little Gobi), Karakhorum, Tsenher Hot Spring and on the way to the Great White Lake

13 July, Wednesday

Scheduled to leave at 8 am this morning, the alarm woke us up at 6.30 am.  Breakfast provided by the J Hotel was interesting - a fusion buffet of east and west.  We loaded up with potato clear noodle, an egg and some stir fry vegetables.  We gave Bujin a good bye hug.  She will leave the city to go and celebrate Naadam with her family in the countryside like other UB residents.  She was only guiding us in the city.  Tem would take over as our guide for the rest of the trip.

Tem to the waiting land cruisers. The rest of the adventure will be in 4WD vehicles.  We wondered how rough this trip was going to be that we needed 4WD vehicles.  May be we should have read the tour in greater details.  Being seasoned travelers who had not been thwarted by traveling conditions and trusting the tour company whom we had traveled many times with before, we had not read all the fine details.  Anyhow, the international company was not likely to risk our lives so we took everything in stride.

Me at my usual hangout spot in the vehicle
Ahead of me is the tower of the UB train station

It was three to a vehicle except for one vehicle that would have four.  That worked out alright.  The German lady would ride with us.  We randomly picked a car with a young driver. We had three and we strapped in.  The octogenarian and his room mate would ride with Tem.  The three young ladies got into another vehicle.  The two couples were the last to arrive and were upset to find themselves in a vehicle with not enough seat belts apparently.  So they asked that they change car with the three gentlemen.  
 

I settled into a spot in the vehicle, hanging onto an inside handle and facing forward.  I had a great view.  The driver of one of the the other vehicle thought it cute that I should travel that way and came over to check me out.  I noticed that our vehicle has a blue prayer shawl tucked behind the visor like a safety talisman.

Renewable power generation store

The first order of the day was to head towards the railway station and go to the Nomii supermarket to pick up our personal water supply for the first part of our trip.  There would be many stops later in smaller towns where we could pick up water supply but this was the first.  Many of our fellow travelers also picked up their personal supply of alcohol and snacks.  Nomii is a large supermarket, similar to Sam's Club in the US.  It was also our last conventional bathroom stop on the road for a while.

After Naadam traffic

The stop after that was to refuel the vehicles.  And we were underway on our adventure. Traffic was unbelievably light without the usual city traffic or the Naadam horse racing traffic of the day before.  The country side was beautiful.  Part of the way was the same route as where we traveled when we went to Terejl a couple of days ago.  We past the space that sold solar panels and wind generators for gers.  It makes perfect sense for a country this vast with only 3m people distributed over a large area.  

Several nomads were seen to making their way home after Naadam in UB with vehicles loaded with horses or gers and other personal effects.  We passed a few shaman totems all drapped in colourful silk although blue silk is always observed to be more prevalent. Nomads going somewhere on horses and horse crossings the highways were also usual sights.  4WDs were ideal vehicles as the line of sight over the beautiful country was so much more obvious than a car or bus.  Herds of livestock grazing by themselves (because their owners were probably hidden from view) on the vast stretches of grasslands (Mongolian steppe).  Overhead, raptors and vultures flying by.  This must be the best place in the world to watch them.  Photography of them though would be a challenge as they fly really high and fast in strong winds.  We saw some nests at the apexes of power poles.

Shaman's totem

Although the morning had been relatively blue sky, the skies became increasingly grey as the day went on.  It also started to sprinkle intermittently.   Lunch stop was at the village of Lun.  The usual restaurant the tour stopped at was closed for Naadam, so an alternative was found.  Our drivers and guide worked as a team to ensure that we were safe from a food perspective too.  That was probably for the best considering our bout with food poisoning in spite of our usual iron clad tummy that did not experience food poisoning in far remote reaches of the world where many would have.  

Offerings at local eateries were limited.  Usually there were only several alternatives.  We had noodles with pork and vegetables and Roy had beef and egg with rice.  We all drank tea.  One fellow traveler had brought her own food supply on the trip - she was having German rye bread with peanut butter which she was eating with rice and eggs.  Best be prepared if one's diet were restrictive.  One other fellow traveler was constantly making demands for food cooked in ways unfamiliar to the locals - this was going to be an "interesting" trip with respect to food ...

After lunch, we went to use the facilities before we continued the trip.  Here, they had only the outside dunnies.  There were two unisex side by side, two standing planks over a long deep hole on which the user would squat.  One had to be careful not to fall in.  The alternative was the open air outside.  The newer one we used were a little wide but nicer than the older one which smelled really bad.  Some of our fellow travelers opted for the alternative.

On the road in Mongolia

On the road again after lunch, we observed two crashes.  The first was a  head on which we are not sure if anyone survived.  The second involved a single drunk driver who was seen without shirt and with his hands secured behind his back by the police who were measuring the distance the car had spun off the side of the road.  Most drivers on the road had been relatively safe thus far.  There were just a handful of dangerously aggressive driver who appeared out of nowhere to overtake us and expected that they would be able to get back into lane in between our four vehicles convoy as if we were not there to avoid collision in a two lane highway.  Condition of the road was as good as rural Australia.  Taking into consideration the financial state of this country and the population distribution, it was actually in great condition.  The highway though would share the space with numerous unmarked animal crossings of huge herds.  1000 animals is the herd of a well to do nomad here.  Often the herds were large and mixed of cattle, horses, goats and sheep.  We even saw two sheep dogs.  A single nomad was observed getting off his motorcycle to check on horse dead on its side at the side of the highway.  Nomads herding on motorcycles was a new but not so prevalent sight.  A single dog lie dead in the middle of the highway and everyone managed to not mangle it.  People here have a relationship with their animals not seen elsewhere in the world.

The drivers took a smoking fatigue break around 2pm.  Our drivers observed good safety standards.  Our convoy used their signal lights to help each other navigate.  They also watch out for each other.  Our driver, Amar, explained this to us.  During the break, the question was posed as to whether anyone wanted to do a camel ride as this was the only opportunity to do this on the trip.  The two young ladies opted to do this.  Amar pointed out our camp in the distant hours before we got there ... at the base of the rocky outcrops of distant hills.  It was difficult at times to estimate distance here because it is so open.  As far as the eyes could see may be around 10-20 km away.

Before too long, we approached this area with little sand dunes to our left and a wetland like area to our right.  It had been raining all afternoon since lunch, at times the downpour had been relatively heavy.  We wanted the vehicles to make a stop but we would have to wait.  A few minutes later, we would pull into the compound of a nomad's ger.  This would be the group's first visit with a nomadic family, our second.

This nomadic family has some camels for camel rides.  There were several gers in this family unit.  They had a few dogs too.  Tem explained how the ger is set up.  Gers are made from panels of wood that are secured in such a way they can be widened out like an accordion.   Several panels are tied together surrounding two poles that support the roof. No one should stand or do anything between the two poles holding up the ger as these represent the man and woman who own the ger.  Family gers are usually 5 panels.   In winter, additional felt is put on top and around the ger to keep it warmer.  Bottom edges of the ger can be lifted to allow ventilation and create wind flow when it is hot.  The nomad who owns the place looked a hundred years old.  Nomads lead lives that exposed them to the weather all days of their lives.  

Looking outside from inside a nomad's ger

Tem also explained that when nomads greet each other, they exchanged snuff boxes momentarily in friendship.  He did not have one but accepted that offered by the nomads.  Also, the first conversations would be about non personal matters such as the weather or some community events.  Only later after warming up, can personal questions be brought up.  We were offered tea, fermented mares milk and curds during our visit.

After the visit, the young ladies would go for their camel ride.  The rest of us would head back towards the dunes which were next to the lake and wetlands.  Hooray ... we had seen some interesting bird life there and hoped to get some pictures.


On the way earlier, we observed many raptors in the sky.  Some were sitting on the grass as there are no trees nearby, only low bushes.  Some sat on power poles.  Geese, cranes, herons and cootes were seen at the lakes.  We had missed photographing the cranes with red wings.  The replacement lens was way slow compared to the lens we had lost.  It just did not focus fast enough.

Heron hovering above the lake, in the background a ger camp

Back at the lake, we changed the lens on our camera to the longest one we have.  We opted to stay near the lake rather than climb the dunes.  Our driver, Amar, appeared to be able to speak a reasonable amount of English.  He played some nice English music for us and told us a few things about Mongolia.  He walked around the shaman totem near the lakes.  He was watching my travelling companion go crazy with her camera.  He picked up some little frogs to show her.  Earlier when we saw a car broken down, he said bad car, long road, big problem.  Quite a funny but precise expression.  We had not known how good a command of English he had.  He understood more than he was able to speak.  He told us that he was the youngest driver, with 9 years of experience (he is only 26).  The car is his and he added two more suspensions to it so that it rode better.  In the winter, he worked in other places.  He had been in Japan as a computer programmer, and in Korea as a manual worker.  This young man has a lot of potential and his resourcefulness is amazing.  We wished he would stop smoking as it would likely kill him.  My travelling companion spent all her time chasing after photographs of all the birds there.

Frogs near the lake

To get to our camp, we had to do our first river crossing.  What a surprise that was for us as it was our first in Mongolia.  Amar laughed when we were a little startled by the slide of the vehicle at a river crossing.  He reassured us that  little rain was no problem; big rain would more problem.  Our ger camp, Khogno Khan mountain camp, was in the shadow of some big rocks.  It reminded us of our camp at Terejl, except that this was the more remote. The only power available was via generators.  It appeared to have only been recently expanded. Due to the last minute change in numbers, one couple would have to stay away from the others.  As the couples who caused the issue did not volunteer to take that faraway tent, we did.  It turned out that our tent also had no power connection so we had to charge our equipment in the ger of our friends - the German young lady and the  Dr.  The gers were two to share and not four as indicated in the tour documents.  Roy and we were happy.

Rocks behind the camp that we climbed

View from the top

We had sometime before dinner.  Having been riding all day thus far in the vehicle, we were looking to loosen some muscles so a bunch of us went to climb the rocks.  It looked rather smooth but we all managed.  There were also caves in the rocks to explore.  We did not get as far as the others who were more sure footed on such surfaces.  The view though was breath taking.  

Dinner at the restaurant building was good.  The food was quite varied and delicious.  It was also the charging point for all gers which did not have power.  After dinner, as Latin music played inside, Roy and my travelling companion broke into a dance as they are used to dancing to latin music and love it immensely.  Fellow travelers and other ger guests were watching as they clowned around, doing the dance.  

After dinner, it was to the hot showers - the shower room for the ger camp was adjacent to the restaurant building.  The showers were nice and warm.  The youngest duo of our group went to climb some higher rocks.  We jotted down our blogs, hang out with our friends while our equipment charged before turning in.  The first night in a ger camp for Roy and the rest of the group.  

14 July, Thursday

Originally, Tem would mix up who was riding with whom for the day.  Since our group had three couples in it and some issues between some couples and others in the group, we all arranged our own sitting arrangements.  We explained that our preference after having a group hurdles.  Today, Lee would travel with us in the vehicle driven by Amar.  

Passing the lake and the cranes
on that grey wet morning

Conditions of the roads today were a little worse – there were more pot holes – Amar explained these were built by the Chinese.  The roads the day before were built by Russians who worked with 20-30cm road base.  The Chinese built theirs with only 5-10 cm road base so they do not last in the Mongolian weather.  He also said that Russians also tend to build roads faster than the Chinese, implying some kind of delaying tactics from the latter.  One gets the feel that the Mongolians preferred to work with the Russians than the Chinese.

The morning started and continued to be wet.  The livestock and wildlife did not appear to mind at all.  The agenda today was to visit Kharakhorum – the ancient Mongolian capital – it is now museum.  The walled city had been destroyed many times and rebuilt.  In the compound today, there is the monastery that was built from the stones of the original ruins.  

Model of Kharakhorum in the museum

The museum had a model of the city at its zenith when it was an impressive multi-religion community.  The museum charged 10,000T to do photography.  It was very interesting as it show a slice of history that is widely known.  The rise and fall of many empires took place here.  Uigher empire that we had not even heard mentioned when we were in Khasgar back in 2009.  The interaction between the Mongolian and the Chinese thrones back in history that we almost never heard or read about.  We learnt that Kublai Khan was an emperor of China and he moved the capital of the empire to Beijing.  The Yuan dynasty which he started would rule China for 100+ years preceding the Ming dynasty.  Although the Great Wall of China was started as far back as the first emperor, Shi, it was the Ming Dynasty that built most of what is standing today.  That the Ming dynasty seized power from the Yuan might explain its presence.

Spinning the prayer wheels inside the
Kharakhorum walls ... in the background a temple of the
Monastery

After the visit to the museum, the rain abated a little.  We went to explore the grounds of the city itself.  The walls of Kharakhorum was punctuated with 108 stupas.  The Erdene Zuu Monastery has an Chinese style exterior while inside the Buddhism were all Tibetan in origin.  Tem took us through the various building and explained the displays found within - 8 symbols of Buddhism, human skull ceremonial cup, the hunter Buddha, the 9 guardians – 8 male and 1 female, 5 skulls on their head are the 5 categories of all sins.  The female guardian had sex with the demon so that she could kill him, she fell pregnant in the process so she gave birth but ate the baby.  For the non Tibetan buddhist scholar like us, sometimes it is difficult to understand where the demarcation line is between Tibetan Buddhism and shamanism.

The traditional costumes that inspired Star Wars
outside the ancient Mongolian capital of Kharakhorum

It rained on and off.  We walked around, explored other buildings, and spun all the prayer drums we could.  As we were exiting the gate of the walled city, we saw a group of locals dressed in all their traditional finery taking a family photo.  And in that instance, we understood where Queen Armadala's costume in Star Wars had originated from.

Next agenda was lunch.  Lunch was fried rice with vegetables and potatoes.  Food options outside ger camps were limited.  One of our fellow traveler who had been having issues with all the food options thus far said she was sick so Dr, the fellow traveler, helped.  We made a stop after lunch for her to procure antibiotics.   She reminded us of someone we would rather not bring along on any trip.

Rain continued quite heavily.  Unsealed roads we travelled on were basically dirt track through red book areas (i.e. protected forest areas) of Mongolia.  For the first time on the trip, one can see low bushes and tall conifer trees covering the mountain tops.  In the distance, we observed steams at the bottom of deep valleys.  The ride to our afternoon destination of Tsenher hot springs, the popular resort for local tourists as well as internationals included 3-4 river crossings.  These were best described as hairy and muddy affairs.  We were lucky that our driver was really capable.  He called the slides the Mongolian slides.  There were many of these.  What was amazing was that the locals did their slide in their reconditioned Toyota Prius, the most common and desirable car among the locals.  Some were on motorcycles!

From a distance, we could spot the camp area.  There were many camps around the hot springs.  It was like area with many ger spa resorts.  There were a string of vehicles all sliding and sloshing to the destination.  The rain did not stop.  In the distance, steam puffs rose from the valleys nestled between high hills covered with green trees.  The steam puffs stretched across the entire valley.

The camp at the end of the Mongolian slide
puffs of steam can be seen coming up from
the next valley

Finally, we arrived safely at our designated ger camp.  It was not a big one.  And it sat nestled between other camps on three sides.  We had view of an open area though which was nice.  The camp had access to power which it did not have to generate.  It had a nice restaurant building and bath house.  There were two large pools for soaking.  This time, our ger was the third one from the bath house and facilities and with our friends.  As soon as we had settled our luggage in our ger, we went to have a soak in the pools with the rest of our friends.  

Kites

Near the coniferous forest edge was this tree that was full of kites.  Kites were flying around and lining themselves on the power lines, jostling for positions for better watch,  It was interesting to watch.  The light though with the grey sky and late afternoon was not the best for photographing them.  They did remind us of our trip to far north Australia a few years ago where we saw the same behaviour among kites in Litchfield National Park.

View of the camp's pool and the valley
from our ger

Dinner was chicken wrapped in vegetables with pasta, julienne vegetables with tripe, and slices of orange for desert.  It could get quite cold in the night here up in the mountains, so fires were lit in the gers.  This was the first time we had a fire in our ger.  We had to watch that fire after it was lit so we stayed in our ger and enjoyed the private time we had.  At sunset, a bull came wandering into the compound.  As we went to the bath house to prepare for bed, we heard that a baby goat had walked into and settled in front of the fire place of our German friend and Dr's ger.  It acted as if it wanted to share that fire for the night and had done so many times previously.  Local children must have treated this kid as a pet.  We saw the kid as it roamed the paths between the gers looking for another open door as we walked back to our ger.  There were also huge ground squirrels here.  We observed one darting home under our German friend and Dr's ger.  

Amar realised that we listened when we repeated his bad car long road statement.  He started telling us more about himself.  He told us that he had worked as a DJ before when he was in Russia, the reason he has this flash drive of great music he played when we were driving.  He sometimes sing along with the songs he played in Russian, Mongolian and English.  We realised how he had learnt his English.

Tem and the drivers slept in the tall building in the compound.  They had a single room for all of them.  They do not sleep in gers which appeared to be reserved only for guests.

15 Jul, Friday

Camp at sunrise

We woke up in time to see the sun peeking over the mountains at the camp.  The air was incredibly fresh.  Interestingly, we could not smell sulphur.  Hot springs locations are usually associated with strong stench of sulphur.   Milk porridge was the main local staple for breakfast which we did not eat due to our intolerance for lactose  We had eggs and bread instead.

The road out of the Hot Springs headed in the opposite direction.  The rain had finally stopped but the ground was still pretty muddy.  Though not as bad as the day before, the journey was still challenging.  Our German friend was travelling with us again today.  Amar was telling us to looj out for wolves in the trees.  There are wolves in these forests. Apparently, he loved photography too.  He told us about a time when he thought he was photographing landscape near Lake Baikal but later found three wolves hiding in the tall grass in one of his pictures.  It was great to have as our driver, a friend who sees nature the way we do.

Amar followed the lead vehicle on the difficult trek.  The oldest driver, Baatar, who had the octogenarian and his room mate as well as Dr tend to take his own path.  He got stuck near the tree lines.  It took a little while for the lead vehicle to winch him out.  We did not go back to help but stayed where we stopped as there were already two other vehicles with him as he was #3 in the convoy.

The beautiful rest stop

We made a rest stop near a beautiful stream.  We needed a bathroom stop and the most sheltered out of public eye space in the open grassland was the front of a vehicle.  We were told that out of respect for the vehicles, no one in Mongolia do that in front of the vehicle.  So we walked a distance away and our German friend held a sweater out to shelter us. Everyone always turned the other direction when some one need to answer a nature call. We were also advised to stay away from the stream.

At the top of a mountain pass, we made a photo stop.  The view was amazing with the wide open space in the background and the horses in the front and nomad ger camps in between.  Along the way, we passed some shaman totems.  Mongolians must be quite superstitious as we even rounded one clockwise with all the vehicles to ensure that we have a safe journey.

Town of Tsetserleg

The town of Tsetserleg reminded us of Ushuaia in Argentina, with all its colourful roofs.  It is set against the backdrop of a mountain on which Buddhist icons were painted.  Our first visit was to the museum of the city.  There were temples within that museum.  Here too, our German friend and us found a present for Dr for her upcoming birthday.

The museum was an old school house and inn back in the 18th century.  Exhibits were of the ways people lived from those days.  Some practices are still the same.  There were also costumes of the various tribes that had been galvanised into the single Mongolian race and nationality.  The difference between Russia and Mongolia is that often tourist attractions have explanations in both languages here in Mongolia.  Upstairs there was a traditional bones game area.  Tem taught us some bones games.  The knuckle bones used had four sides, each side representing horse, sheep, goat and camel.  Before the onset of e-games, children were more creative in inventing their own games.

Games with knuckle bones

Lunch was at the restaurant where fried yak ribs was served.  The locals loved this dish.  It was what we had for lunch.  The serving was hefty so we shared with Lee and Roy.  As usual, one person was not happy about the food offerings.  This was the best restaurant thus far on the road.  After lunch, we had some time to explore the market where folks in the region get their daily supplies which range from food to gers and all the furniture in it.  The market were housed in shipping containers scattered over an open area.  We had been told that we should bring a gift for a nomadic family with whom we would be spending a night camping later in the trip.  This being our largest market thus far, we picked up a set of colourful bowls for the nomadic family – 6 bowls for 18,000T.

The next leg of the journey was a 5 hr road trip to the Little White Lake.  Dusty unsealed roads part of the way followed by normal sealed road for a distance then local tracks for the final bits.  Toll was paid even when the roads were unsealed.  Tolls were required for all vehicles not from the region was the Mongolian system.  Dr was travelling with us on this leg of the trip.  Tem had told us after lunch that our vehicle has lost its airconditioning ability during the river crossing earlier that morning.  A tube had been cut and it had lost all the coolant.  We will live.  No problem.

On the way, we smelled burning so we told Amar.  He decided to have a safety check stop. The smell was not from our vehicle.  He called Gana, the driver of the lead car and he pulled over.  The smell was coming from his vehicle.   During the river crossing earlier, enough the mud had accumulated around the exhaust pipe and had started to burn.  Gonzo's vehicle was the only one in the convoy that ran on petrol whereas all the other cars are diesel.  A metal bar was fetched to knock all the mud out before we continue the road trip.

Gorge over Chuluutin Gol 

Our rest stop was what we would call the Grand Canyon of Mongolia.  Gana stopped us all at a nice spot for photo ops. Along the side of the road, the river had cut a valley not dissimilar to the Colorado River valley in Nevada.  This was smaller but spectacular as well.  This was the impressive gorge carved by the Chuluutin Gol River.  

A view in front of our ger camp

From there, there was another 10 km to go before we entered into the national park where the Great White Lake is situated.  We were little disappointed that the ger camp we would be spending two nights at was not right on the lake side itself.  We went for a short walk in the valley of the and photographed nomads going about their lives with their animals before dinner  - Jule, Durgha, and us.  The streams we crossed were super cold.  Brian found us and told us that Lee went for run.  

Nomad milking their livestock

Dinner was served in the restaurant ger.  There was nothing for normal travelers to complain about the food served as they always try to include some vegetables, knowing that non Mongolians do not tolerate too well meals which were all meat and dairy.   The young duo were going for a hike after dinner.  They invited us but we passed as we knew our physical limits.  We took the time to have a delicious hot shower at the bath house.  

Our ger camp at sunset

Back from shower, Jule and Durgha came over.  As it was still warm and light, we left the door open.  Lee came in shortly after followed by Tem.  Before too long, Hannah and Michelle were there too.  Our ger was now the party ger.  There was a knock on the door and who should come in but Amar.   Amar and Tem and the two young ones went for a beer run in the nearby town and they were back in 30 min when the rest were still in our ger.   The young ones said that Amar had driven like the wind.  They were back with two bottles beer for each of them.  The party continued till midnight in our ger.  Mongolians tend to drink quite a bit it appeared.  Beer limits were discussed - Amar’s limit was 20 beers and Tem around 12 or so.  Earlier at dinner, we had found a laser out tattoo on Tem's arm.  He said it was something he did as a teenager.  He was brought up by a single mom who was studying at the University of Nebraska until he was 10 which explained his excellent command of English. 

Amar told us about Cambodian tourists he was driving around on an earlier trip this tourist season who were eating only bugs because they did not eat meat.  And that happened for all the 5 days he was with them.  The drivers all appeared to be independent contractors who were called on to the job due to someone they know.  The informal network is how this place appeared to work.