Northern Mongolia

As we moved further north, it began to get noticeably colder. By the time we reached Lake Khovsgol, near the Russian border, the nights were close to freezing and the days only about 10 or 12 degrees C. We had two nights by the lake which gave us a full day to enjoy the area. We started out in the morning with a boat ride - most of it in the pouring rain and cold wind. By the afternoon the sun was out and several of us went for a fabulous horseback ride along the lake and up into the mountains.

All our meals on the trip were prepared by our cook and her helper. We had a mixture of what they called ‘western’ and Mongolian food, but whatever dish they served up it invariably contained lots of meat (mostly mutton) and was fried. Most of the food supplies were brought with us from UB and supplemented with some fresh stuff as we went along. We didn’t have a meal tent. If the weather was bad we sat in the bus and our juggled plates and bowls. Otherwise we sat outside on silly little camp chairs where we could enjoy the view which was always spectacular. As a group we all got along very well.

Our last major stop on the trip was to see the Amarbatasgalant Monastery which was built between 1727 and 1737. During Stalin’s purge in 1937, only 10 of the 37 temples were destroyed. UNESCO funded an extensive reconstruction between 1975 and 1990 but funds continue to be raised to do more. There are now about 30 monks living here (many of them very young) compared to the over 2000 that were there in 1936.

After 2 days and nights dealing with pouring rain and cool temperatures we all opted to spend the night in a ger camp near the monastery. The warm dry bed and hot showers (the first since leaving UB two weeks before) were quite the treat. But on our last night we were once again camped in the rain and wind. As we wearily tried to set up the tent in a small forest, I noticed that the plants we were stomping on were wild peonies. The wild flowers all over Mongolia were outstanding – many familiar, many completely unknown.

Barney and I had three days back in UB at the end of our tour before flying out to Beijing. We scrubbed ourselves and our clothes, visited several museums and wandered for hours through the large city market. The silk fabrics in the market kept us captivated with their variety of patterns and colours.

Photos from northern Mongolia and back in UB...

Northern Mongolia

Videos...

Milking the yaks...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d4TBwsy1VY

Monks at Amarbatasgalant Monastery...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdBgEoAAKUM