I slept very well in the night, despite getting up at some stage because I was cold, putting my fleece on and getting back into bed. I get up at 05:00 to see the sunrise over our camp here at Kharkorin.
Drone shot
Breakfast
This morning's breakfast is a buffet, and unlike the hotels in Ulaanbaatar and Terelj, there is no queue here so we can easily see what is available.
We are the first guests in the Chinese-style restaurant this morning.
Daari picks a selection of local tidbits for us to try.
1. A type of cheese – the Mongolians have a wide variety of dairy products, this one has very little taste
2. A type of curd – this is really nice, tart and slightly chewy. It is usually eaten as a snack, like crisps
3. A milk and yogurt product known as eezgii. It is very hard, and Daari assures me it is much better when fresh
4. Fried dough known as boortsog, a little like a doughnut and quite enjoyable.
Bantam Soup – essentially baby food, but many people like eating it for breakfast. Apparently, it is good for hangovers.
We continue on our journey through Central Mongolia today, heading into the countryside.
Demoiselle Cranes
Airag
At a ger camp, we stop to get some fermented mare’s milk, and also buy some home made milk vodka.
Ger camp, with the ubiquitous Prius
Passers-by can easily see which gers have airag for sale, by a bottle placed somewhere near the road.
Airag - fresh, fermented mare's milk, mildly alcoholic
Ovoo
The word means heap or pile in Mongolian, and these sacred cairns are found all over the country. They take on different forms such as this heap of stones, and people come here to place offerings and make worship.
Breaking of Camp
We stop to see how a nomad family deconstructs their home (ger) to move to their Autumn pastures, somewhere more sheltered from the winds. Each family has permanent spots that they rotate four times a year with the seasons. Their summer camp (this one) is near to the main road in order for them to have an outlet for selling their home made airag.
As soon as we arrive, a large vat of airag comes out and is offered to the visitors (us) as per traditional Mongolian customs.
Airag is traditionally stored in animal skins and is placed just by the door of the ger. Anyone walking in or out will stir the liquid each time, helping the fermentation process.
Mantakh (our driver) demonstrates how they stir the airag.
Mantakh immediately gets stuck in to help with the removals, while I mill around taking photos and Daari enjoys a cup or two of airag.
Their entire home, completely with its contents, will fit on the back of this truck.
I love the way one edge of the bed is curved to sit smoothly against the walls of the ger.
Tsetserlig
We stop in this small town to take a look at its ‘milk product market’, housed inside an unassuming grey building.
Outside there are stalls selling fruits and nuts, and we stop by the pine nut salesmen.
I am offered a couple of pine nuts to try, and I am surprised that they are so much larger and darker than the ones we get in the UK. As soon as I pop a couple in my mouth, everyone starts laughing.
I feel such a fool. It didn't occur to me that I'd have to peel them. No wonder pine nuts are so expensive if every single nut has to have its outer coating removed.
Redcurrants
Blackcurrants
The traders inside sell nothing but milk products and utensils associated with them.
There are food items in many different shapes and textures, each one starting life as milk (cow, goat, yak, camel, mare, or sheep), and each one has a slightly different taste. The traders are very willing to let me try their produce.
Zayiin Gegeen Monastery
Built in the mid-1600s, the monastery is a mix of Tibetan and Chinese styles.
Like Erdene Zuu Monastery that we visited yesterday, Zayiin Gegeen was also destroyed during Soviet times.
In its heyday, Zayiin Gegeen had over 30 temples and was one of the largest cultural and educational centres of Buddhism in Mongolia, with over 3000 monks from eight different provinces living here.
Detail of roof decoration
The monastery was turned into a museum in 1997, with ceremonial artefacts and everyday items on display inside the buildings.
In the centre of the courtyard is a statue from the Turkic period with a figure of a wolf on top. The multilingual inscription is dated to 584 CE and is dedicated to the first Turkic Khan. It's the only artefact from the early Turkic era in Mongolia.
Fairford Café and Guest House
We take lunch in this modern and clean restaurant here in Tsetserlig which caters to tourists by providing western-style meals.
David and Mantokh, our ever-smiley driver
David chooses a burger and chips
While I am tempted by the Cinnamon Bun
Taikhar Rock
In the middle of an otherwise flat area, stands the 66-foot high Taikhar Rock. Legend has it that an enormous snake appeared from the ground, so a local wrestler broke off the top of a nearby mountain to kill the snake. The rock is said to have several inscriptions dating back to the 6th century AD, but I am more interested in photographing it from a distance rather than seeing scripts in a language I don’t understand, so we stay near the car park.
The car park is busy today.
Chuluut River Canyon
The Chuluut River has carved itself quite a deep canyon over the years, and very pretty it is too.
Yaks grazing nearby
Khorgo Volcano
Large lava fields with lots of young Siberian Larch trees growing come into view before we spot the volcano itself.
The extinct volcano is situated at an altitude of 2,210 metres above sea level and adds an extra 120 metres or so to that height.
From the ground, it looks like just a heap of stones, but once I send the drone up, I can see the 80-metre-deep crater. There is no lake in the centre, although we are told it sometimes spews out steam. The volcano last erupted some 8,000 years ago, so I think we are fairly safe today.
Maikhan Tolgoi Ger Camp
Situated at the end of a long dusty dirt track, the camp has a beautiful setting on the shores of Terkhiin Tsagaan Lake.
Our room circled
The view from our ger is pretty good, and we even have a picnic table between us and the lake where we enjoy a pre-dinner drink from our Duty-Free rum. Terns flit about the surface of the lake, and cormorants dive for fish.
There is a biting wind, and the air is pretty chilly, so we are quite shocked when we see some German tourists bathing in the lake. Hardy folks, those Germans.
The ger is very similar to the other two we have stayed in, although this has a portable eco-toilet in the bathroom rather than a standard plumbed-in one (I understand they are in the process of upgrading the gers) to offer en suite facilities.
Traditional design with a very modern door
It's a fairly narrow double bed. You can see the bathroom on the left-hand side
The eco-toilet
As we want to have a shower and change for dinner, David draws the curtains in front of our huge glass door. Or tries to. The curtains come right off the end of the pole and collapse in a heap on the floor.
He then has to carefully thread them all on again. He is not amused.
Dinner
Potato salad to start
Main course is yak goulash
To finish we are given some individually-wrapped chocolates with a picture and the name of the camp on them. Very posh.
As it is way too windy (and cold) to even attempt to take pictures of the Milky Way this evening, and there is no other nightlife around here, we slope off to bed early.
Goodnight from Mongolia and THANK YOU to Undiscovered Destinations and their local team for arranging all this for us.
This featured blog entry was written by Grete Howard from the blog Grete's Travels.
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