Unfortunately, we had to leave one of my favorite spots ever, but our next day was another beautiful drive through yellow grasslands, up some steep hills where it felt as though the van was seconds away from either falling backwards or tipping over sideways. After a short drive, we stopped to help a local family jump start their car by towing it and popping the clutch. As is the Mongolian way, you can't just leave after something like that. The family invited us into their ger, where we had some dried cheese, airag (fermented horse milk) and a few other things. We then stopped at another random ger in the middle of nowhere that happened to be the house of a friend of our driver. Again, we had some cheese, airag and they brought in a massive bowl of animal parts, though we all decided to pass. Not wanting to rude, I usually try just about anything, especially in a situation like this, but the were literally chomping away on livers, intestines, lungs and the like, looking as though they had just been removed from the animal. The hot springs come out of the mountain at something like 80 C, and they are then pumped down to the pools for tourists, though we found it still too hot to be comfortable. After a few minutes of the local owners laughing at us, we had to get out, but it was nice to be too warm for once. The following day, we stopped in Kharkhorin (Karakorum), the ancient capital of Mongolia, home of one of the biggest monasteries, and the last stop on our 10 day journey. On our second to last night, we also had a true Mongolian barbecue, which was not at all like the Mongolian BBQ that I have had in Atlanta. Sad to say, as the Mongolian BBQ in Atlanta is quite good. This meal, on the other hand...not so much. It basically consisted of some fatty slabs of goat, cooked in a massive pot with rocks, cabbage, potatoes and carrots. After a few hours of chewing, I concluded that the former type is better.
(Yak, yak, yak, yak.)
(The jeep of the other group that we met on the road, a nurse/trail guide from California who helped many people in our group through their sicknesses. One night while Frauke was up sick, I also could not sleep because I literally could not lay down, as the noodle soup that I ate, along with two other peoples' portions who did not like it, expanded in my stomach, and I felt like I was about to explode. Not pleasant, but probably worth it.)
(On the bottom left, you can see the jeep again, to give you some scale to these vast grasslands.)
(Muha and the local man that needed a jump for his Toyota enjoy some airag and cheese. This ger actually had a satellite in the back, so it had some black and white tv, along with pictures of their family and random art decorating the small hut.)
(Our second stop, at the friend of Muha's. This is just before the plate of mystery meat was produced.)
(Known for its wild horses and horsemen, we were a little hesitant to take a ride, but these little horses proved to be pretty tame.)
(Ingo and I stuck with the guide for most of our 30 minute trip.)
(Meditating in the pools fed by the hot springs.)
(A true Mongolian barbecue. Some not so prime pieces of meat, a few vegetables and vodka, it's not quite as good as the American version of Mongolian BBQ. Sorry to disappoint. Ingo was a bit frightened, apparently.)
(Erdene Zuu Khiid - the ancient monastery at Kharkhorin, once the center of the massive Mongolian empire.)
(Prayer wheels along the side of one of the buildings within the complex. Two stone turtles along the outside of the temple are supposedly the only thing left from the empire spread by Chinggis Khaan that stretched through most of Asia, all the way to Vienna and Iraq at one point.)
(The outer walls of the temple. I believe there are 108 of those points, as that's a lucky number for Buddhism.)
(We also got to experience some traditional music on our final night, thanks to this old man at our campsite who charged us a bit of money to see demonstrations of this instruments. This is the morin khuur, a violin whose strings are made from horse tail.)
(He also brought along two young ladies who were learning contortionism. Most interesting was his demonstration of traditional khoomii (throat singing). In this style, a few talented people are able to produce two singing sounds at once: one a bit of a low buzzing sound, along with a higher pitch voice. Very interesting.)
(And finally, here's our group. In front, from L to R: Aafke (Holland), Jenny (Malaysia), Me. In back: Frauke (Germany), Ingo (Germany), and Erwin (Holland). It turned out to be quite a fun group, and it was also quite cheap, since we split all of the costs.)
0 comments:
Post a Comment