21 - 22 July : Last 2 days in country side Mongolia - another volcano and a UNESCO Monastery

21 July, Thursday

At some point in the night it had rained and was still raining.  The tent was cosy and warm though.  We had not even needed the sleeping bag and the air mattress was actually  quite comfortable.  We rolled everything away in preparation for decamping.  Amra's vehicle was locked and all our camera gear were inside, safe and dry.

Our view shortly after decamping - Selenga River

Breakfast was served off the tailgate of Ganso’s vehicle.  With the rain and the wet, it was a little hurried.  The Mongolians ate the leftover meat for breakfast while the tourists stayed with the bread and boiled eggs washed down with coffee.  We collected all the garbage and secured those on top of the vehicles.  The rest of the leftover meat was packed and placed on top of the vehicle as it would be delivered to the nomads as a gift.

All the plastic bottles were handed over to the nomads as well.  They would use these for fermentation of mares milk, etc.  Almost everything get a second or third use in this place. The Mongolians have a good relationship with their land.  Everything in nature is their backyard so one tends to see much less plastic rubbish here than most other places in the world.  

When we were delivering the goodies, one of our fellow traveler asked about the unscheduled stop.  They were concerned about the overnight meat and reuse.  

The discussion turned to the difference in strength of the immune systems of various lifestyles and who would survive in the world if all goes to hell in a hen basket.  For those of us who grew up in poor developing countries, we know that a little challenge ever so often to the immunity system could only benefit and strengthen it.

Goats in the pen at the nomad 

It started to rain harder again as we left the nomads to make our way to the volcano called Pot Mountain  Even the goats of the nomads did not want to leave their pens that morning. The first half of the trek was not too bad as it was on sealed roads.  We passed for the first time large agricultural initiatives - like the wheat fields of the prairies.  

We pulled up for lunch at 11.30 am along a small strip of restaurants.  Gana thought the canteen he picked was the best but Amra wanted to check the others.  He deferred to Gana after checking a few.  We went back to join the others.  He had joked earlier that we are leaving and going elsewhere but the other three are staying.  

Lunch was the usual basic.  What was surprising here was that there was a strip of restaurants but the only facilities were the outside outhouse.  In that rain, doing a nature call meant getting thoroughly soaked.  Hand sanitizers are absolutely necessary too.

Wet Wet Wet

We decided against bringing our camera into the restaurant so we left it on the seat and Amra covered it with our jacket to hide it from view.  He also parked the vehicle right in front of the restaurant so we have line of sight to it.

The ger camp that we were to spend the night was not far from the lunch place.  After travelling for around 30-45 minutes after lunch, we turned off the sealed road and headed for a camp a the bottom of the mountain ranges.  The rain continued to pour down.

Arriving at the ger camp, we decided against taking our bags with us to the ger.  We would collect it from the vehicle after the rain stopped.  We ran through puddles on our way to our ger.  It was damp, a little wet from where the rain had come in from the bottom flaps and cold.  Roy had taken out his bag and when we thought we would like ours, we went in search of Amra and found him drinking a green cola in the restaurant.  We told him about the cold and damp.  The restaurant was not much warmer.  We went back to the ger.  Before even 5 minutes had passed, a man in traditional gear and serious rain jacket appeared with wood to light a fire in our stove and mop the floor.  He tied a line between the two central poles near the stove and suggested that we dry our wet stuff over the stove.  He instructed us to keep the fire going.  He was spending a lot of time with us.  We felt so special.  

We decided to wait a little longer before collecting our bag.  Just before even 3pm, the sun came out.  In a really short time, the grounds were already dry.  The ground must be rather porous.  We wanted to shower so we headed to the hut Tem shared with the drivers to get Amra’s key.  He decided to come with us as he was going to get cards so that they can all play.  On the way to the vehicle, he asked us if our ger was warm and we told him about the man who came to make the fire.  He told us that he sent the man to our tent!!  That was really sweet and nice of him.  When we looked around at the gers, ours was the only one with smoke coming out of the chimneys.

After the rain stopped, we went to take a hot shower.  We heard our name being called as we were heading to the bathhouse, but not seeing anyone, we walked on.  Roy had to rescue our neighbours because their door had become stuck due to the rain.  We used the stall at the back end and being alone, we had the best hot shower in that camp that day.

As we were returning from the shower, we note a pair of demoiselle cranes flying low over the camp so we marked where they landed in the field where the cows were grazing.  We grabbed our long lens from the ger and went back to try to photograph them.  They were quite far away.  Perhaps later when they wander a little nearer. 

Demoiselle cranes in mating dance

10 minutes before departure time for the hike up Pot Mountain, we spotted Dr outside.  We called her over and together we walked to the field where the cranes had wandered closer.   We were rewarded with close up photos of the cranes in a mating dance.  No matter what we did, the cranes did not seem to care about us.  They were totally absorbed in each other. We kept a respectable distance, not wanting to spook them or have them fly off since they were putting on such a great display.  We note that the others had gathered near the vehicle so reluctantly, we ran back to the car to find that the decision has been made that we would drive to the foot of the volcano and hike up from there to its rim rather than walk to the foothills as originally planned.

Dr rode with us.  Amra announced that it was driver’s that day so he and the rest of the drivers will drive the way they like to the volcano.  Ganso said that they should have a race like a rally.  But Gana and Amra had not agree because they do not like racing.  In their minds, they were already winners.  They drove fast to the volcano.  On the way Gana slid. Amra laughed saying that he knew that was coming and had avoided that stretch.  It was a slippery ride, the slipperiest that the drivers had ever subjected us to.  We could see that they handled their vehicles well in extreme conditions and were glad that they did not subject us to such rough rides everyday.

During the drive, Gana indicated that there was something to photograph along the way.  It appeared that since we showed them our photos, we have turned every driver into our photo opportunity spotters.  Amra tried to explain what he saw but we could not understand so he asked for our camera to take a shot with it.  Later when we checked, there was a rock where they had thought they saw a marmot.  The marmot had probably gone back to its hiding hole.

At the foot of the volcano, we climbed the 45 deg slope.  None of the drivers came climbing with us.  We were the last one up the mountain.  One has to admire Brian as he was climbing quite quickly.  Good thing it had rained as the wet ground made the pumice stones that lined the track less slippery as they sank into the softer ground with our weight.  We tried to use as much grass as possible for grip but it was still a tough climb.

The crater and its lake

At the top, everyone in our group except Brian and we went down to the pond at the bottom of the crater.  Brian and us stayed along the rim and explored.  We walked once around a shaman pile and was surprised to see the amount of monies people placed there as offerings – 1000s was not uncommon.  Neither were bottles of alcohol.

Beautiful slope of Pot Mt

We were tempted to make a full round the rim but as we were only 25% around it, the others had already re-ascended from the crater.  It was pretty at the top.  Coming down as usual was more challenging.  Even Brian was challenged.  We had Roy walked in front of us as he was more surefooted compared to us.  One foot in front of the other with one weight in front rather than at the back, we managed to prevent ourselves slipping and came down the mountain safely.

Artists and their models

The drivers were having a picnic near the vehicles.  They offered us some snacks.  Gana and Amra were weaving flower crowns like those worn at midsummer festivals in Riga. Gana gave his to Hannah and Amra to Dr.  

The drivers raced back to the ger camp.  They slid everywhere and there were a few hard stops.  Good thing we were all securely strapped in.  At the end, Amra announced that it was the first and the last rally for the trip. 

Fog coming into the valley - in front our vehicles

Dinner was a surprise : curry meat with potatoes.  The drivers were not seated with us on the top floor.  They were seated at the ground floor, which was not the nicest thing.  We were offered hibiscus tea by the Swiss Group next to us.  On our way out, one of them asked in German if she may ask where my travelling companion was from.  She said Australia but was born in Malaysia.  They were really curious as to why she spoke German so she told the story of her German friend not telling her before she visited him in Germany that his mom spoke English and how she had learnt it in a hurry to be able to at least communicate with his family.

the swallow and its chicks

We returned to the restaurant shortly after dinner because we had spotted a pair of swallows flying around during dinner.  They had built their nest in a nook inside and above the door of the restaurant.  They had five little chicks.  As we left the restaurant, we noticed a fog rolling in.

The restaurant at night

We re-lit the fire in our ger as the place was rather cold.  We allowed the fire to die a little so that the ger is not too steamy but shut the rooftop flap.  In the middle of the night, someone came around to adjust the roof flap so it was open again. That made us really really cold.  This was the evening when all of us were tired fighting with the wet and the cold so we all turned into our ger early, settled down to enjoy the warmth and do our individual quiet activities.

22^nd July, Friday

This day will be the last that we spend in nature as the next day we would be heading back to UB.  How time had flown.  We were then feeling that we could live in this nature forever, that we did not want to live.  Big sky country can be so addictive.  There is also an ease around this with few folks, animals roaming free, a wolf may be peeking around the corner … etc etc … it would be really strange to leave this big nature.  Even going to the bathroom in nature was no longer daunting, strange or inconveniet anymore.

The clouds were low but it looked like the weather would clear.  The clouds were low.  We were expecting rain and sure enough shortly after breakfast it did rained.  We bumped into Vivian whom we had met earlier at Lake Khuvsgul.  She had arrived with her guide and driver earlier last evening and she was actually occupied the ger next to us.  Some Chinese tourists came wandering by and wanted to see the inside of her ger which she refused.  She was staying there that day.   We said goodbye.  

Breakfast that morning was paltry – some egg pancake and a single sausage roll with some bread and jam.  We saw the availability of Mongolian breakfast of noodles in broth with meat and wished Tem had ordered that for us instead.

wet approach to Edernet

That morning, we would visit Edernet and have lunch there.  That initial drive was ok even in the rain as it was on sealed road.  Along the way, we passed some local Naadam festival horse races in progress.  Traffic was diverted.  The diversion was a mud path.  We saw Prius sliding everywhere.  Edernet is the second / third largest town in Mongolia depending on when the census was.  Around 85,000 people live here.  As we approach the town, we were finally again getting some radio signal for our phones.  A phone was ringing. Amra thought it was ours but it turned out to be his.  22 messages on his phone.  He looked a little frantic.  Seemed like his other life is summoning him.  He would have to resume his other life as soon as he complete the trip with us the next day.

When we parked the vehicles, it was still raining.  Amra mentioned that he was talking with his grandfather who was with the other group at Kharakhorum where it was raining as well.  It was as if the entire country was raining.  We discussed lunch arrangements before we all went for a wander on our own in the city.  There would be a vegetarian option and a meat option in town today.    

We decamped from the car in the rain and went to look for a place to have a warm coffee.   Dr, Jule, Lee, Roy and us went and found a café which sold coffee and tea. Concept of cafe has not quite caught on in this town.  We realised that the tea with salt which the Mongolians had been having and which we had taken a liking to since Lake Khuvsgul was actually sold in packaged form so we would get some from the supermarket to take home to Australia.  

In the city, they were having an armed forces appreciation parade day so there was a gathering in the town square.  It would have been fun to watch were it not so wet and cold.

Everyone decided to go vegetarian.  Brian, Roy and us were the only ones not doing that earlier.  We decided joined the group as did Tem.  The drivers ate at the meat place.  Amra had complained about the bad food at the previous ger camp.  To him, meat is heaty but milk and dairy are cooling.  The ger camp had not served much meat the evening before. The drivers had not eaten much, so they were all really hungry.  The vegetarian place served really tasty imitation meat.  We shared juice of raisins and blueberry, and calzones filled with vegetables.  We like the best our dish of imitation meat on mix of rice and buckwheat.  The vegetarian dumplings in soup were not bad too.  There was no wifi here but we had access to the wifi of the meat restaurant.

Camel herders

After lunch, we headed for the monastery and the ger camp several kilometres from it.  There would be 35km of unsealed roads.  Even Amra was not thrilled at the thought of having to drive on this slippery and soggy 35km of unsealed roads.  They were all expecting the worst conditions.  It was so.  As soon as we turned off the main road, the dirt road was super slippery.  The sealed one had been rather windy in the first place.  Mud everywhere with lots of sliding.  There was one super bump. Amra apologised.  He had tried to prevent it but could not.  We wanted to go to the bathroom quite a bit but the mud made us feel reluctant to do so.  We stayed in the vehicle during the rest stops.

Before turning off the sealed road, we saw some camel herders.  We have not seen many where we had been, so this was a new sight for us.

Field of horse lips

Gana introduced us to this ball of blue flowers.  Amra said its name was horse lips because the horses love it as it was like a sugar ball to them.  

It took forever to navigate the 35km.  Finally, at around 4pm (after around 2+ hrs), we spotted the ger camp but we were not heading straight to it.  Instead a decision was taken to go first to the Amarbayasgalant Monastery first.  Amra said it was not far and when we asked him how far was not far …. A few km he said with a laugh.  Mongolian have a unique way with distances and time.  

At the stupa

Then we saw it, this rather majestic looking place in the middle of nowhere, or should we say in the middle of nature.  A white stupa halfway up a hill to its left.  Behind it a long stairs uphill to what looked like a huge Buddha.  As we approached, the red walls appeared.  It looked like a fortress, majestic and old surrounded by a small village.  As we got out to visit, the rain came on and off.  We wrapped our camera like a baby under our rain jacket and sweater.

The majestic Amarbayasgalant Monastery as seen
from the stupa

It was still majestic although it was in disrepair.  A lot of repair and restoration maintenance were underway.  A couple of young monks greeted us at the door.  This is a working monastery. The guardians at the outer gate made it look more like a Chinese temple.  The main temple was a mix of Chinese and Tibetan influences.  Since the tour is self guided, we did not have much information.

Those beautiful horses

After the main building, we headed towards the stupa.  The stupa has all seeing eyes.  Jule and Roy wandered off ahead of us.  We tend to take time as we wanted to do the walk meditatively.  Dr was doing the same.  The stupa had many buddhas surrounding all seeing eye.  Roy did homage to one.  We walked around meditatively and then walked over to the Buddha atop 108 steps.  There too we would do the round the Buddha walk as well as round the prayer bell walk.  Sometimes we did it together.  Other times, we walked alone.  Roy waited.  Dr and we were the last one back to the cars except for the troubled couples.  Dr and we had stopped to photograph a group of horses as a mom and foal were quite demonstrative in their feelings.

Back at the car, we found Amra taking a snooze in his seat.  Looked like he was tired by the drive.  Since we were all peckish, we lay into the bag of chips.  

Hoopa with a grasshopper

Dinner would be in half an hour so we decided that we would skip shower that evening and just make do with shower back at the hotel the next day.  We had barely settle into our ger when Amra called out to us to bring my camera.  He was excitedly telling us about a bird on a tree.  We switched lens and ran to where he was near the bathroom.  He meant the logs outside their log cabin.  Baatar was indicating by gesturing where we should take the photo of none other than the unique hoopa bird (we had seen one at the Sultan’s marshes in Turkey some years ago).  This one had a huge juicy morsel in its beak.   We took a few shots before it flew off. 

Naughty calf

We watched a couple of calves trying to sneak into the ger compound to munch on the grass in there.  The grass will always be greener on the other side.  LOL.  The owner of the camp shooed them out.

The weather had started to clear just as we were leaving the monastery.  And right then it was nice and sunny.  

Jule suggested that after dinner, it would be time for photos.  We were sent to round up the drivers and found them all lying down.   We gathered them up for a photo taking session and then we took some head shots of them individually.  

We spent our last evening in the ger chatting with our usual friends gathered in one of their gers.