Mongolia 2018 continued

The following day we had a morning flight back to Ulan Bator (UB). In the we had a short city tour Bodj King’s Palace (Religious ‘King’) Zaisan Memorial which is on the hill overlooking UB and depicting the Mongolians gratefully celebrating their ‘liberation’ by the Soviets.

Later that day we visited the big Ghengis Khan a huge stainless-steel statue erected outside UB where he won a decisive battle against the Chinese. 250 tons of stainless steel was used and it is possible to get an interesting view by making your way up to the head of the horse. It was definitely an overwhelming experience.

The stainless-steel statue of Ghengis Khan

Another morning departure this time to Ugii Lake which is in the centre of the country and the vegetation is lusher than the Gobi. We end up taking a roundabout way due to quarantine in the area. We arrive at the lake settle into our gers and walk to the information centre as 150 type of water birds visit the lake. Unfortunately, not while we were there. That evening we watched as a while terrible storm cross the lake, with strong winds and a downpour of rain. We now understood why they had sandbags weights on the gers.

The next day we drive to the little town of Tsetserleg and visit the Buddhist monastery which is now a museum, then to Tsenkher hot spring after lunch we head for our accommodation.

Milking a mare

We have a free day but  were given the opportunity to taste fermented mare’s milk, I heard it was disgusting but it to me it tasted like vey acidic yoghurt, we also had some yak milk yoghurt as well as dried and fresh curd. They showed us the still in which mare’s milk vodka is made and we also had a taste of that but the alcoholic strength was more like beer than a spirit.

We even were lucky to see how they milk the mares. The foal is brought to its mother so the milk will be let down then the mare is hand milked. They milk the mare 7 times a day, but the foal still has access to its mother in between times.

While at this accommodation we saw some men constructing a ger and many little ground squirrels, some who used our ger a short cut, also there were a number of wild flowers around.

A drive to Kharkhorin, to visit Erdene Zuu monastery is the earliest surviving Buddhist monastery in Mongolia, it is a huge complex surround by a wall of stupas. In 1939 the Soviet government destroyed the monasteries however in 1990 they were returned to the lamas. Now Erdene Zuu has a monastery (one temple) and a museum which entails the rest of the buildings. It is a very impressive complex. After this visit we went to the Archaeological Museum also very interesting and informative.

Erdene Zuu

In the evening a group of performing arts students and their teacher gave us a concert of traditional Mongolian music which included throat singing the whole performance was very professional and enjoyable.

Another long drive to the Khustai National Park with the hope to see some marmots and the native Takhi horses. We visited the information centre and we went hiking with a biologist we learnt a lot about the area and flora and fauna but unfortunately, we didn’t get to see the horses who were so far away even with the binoculars they were hard to see.

Another early start to attend the horse races at Kui Doloon Khudag as part of the Naadam Festival/ It was a rainy day but we preserved. We huddled in one of the ‘foodie’ gers and some meaty pancakes. Then out to watch the race at the finishing line.

Only children are allowed to ride (5 -13 years) the distance of the race is 10 -25 km depending on the age of the horse. It’s a tough race and the children are responsible for their horses but there are also trainers around.

We returned to UB for a free afternoon. That night we went to cultural show similar but more extensive than the one we had seen earlier.

Opening Ceremony Naadam Festival

We were looking forward to the opening ceremony of the Naadam Festival the next day. It was disappointing that it was raining but it didn’t dampen anyone’s spirits. It was wonderful to see some of the participants wandering around before the opening. It was beautifully done like a mini Olympics opening ceremony. After its conclusion we stayed on to watch the wrestling, very big in Mongolia, the wrestling is different to the western style, then onto the archery, the targets are small and close to the ground and harder to hit than the large round targets we’re used to, the knuckle bone shooting, all the events are considered the manly arts, but girls are allowed to be riders in the horse racing and women can participate in the archery contests now.

Last day in Mongolia we spent it wandering UB again discovering a few other interesting areas, buying some presents and a cashmere beanie for me for our European winter trip on the horizon.

I loved  Mongolia and would love to see a different area of this huge country.