Woke up to a very beautiful
morning. Our breakfast was served in the dining hall but there was
also the option to enjoy the milk-rice on the terrace and enjoy the
sun and the lake.
We left for a short drive
today. Only some 75 kilometres but with 3 stops on the way. Kul Tigin
Monuments, Erdene Zuu Monastery and Kharkorin museum.
But first we
had the option to enjoy the morning drive on the roof top seats.
Sitting there really made the Monday
morning something special. It was a bit bumpy but we also had the
best view of the beautiful landscape surrounding us.
First stop was
in the middle of nowhere. Kul Tigin is a small museum which centres
around a few stones with inscriptions in Chinese and Mongol. It has
taken years to decipher – even a Danish
archaeologist was involved
and eventually broke the code. Kul Tigin was not sacred but whoever
controlled the area also controlled Mongolia in ancient times.
Then it
was off to the Erdene Zuu Monastery. One
of a few not destroyed by the communists during the 1930's. It was a
walled monastery surrounded by a high wall and stupas and there was lot of open space inside the walls. The setting and surroundings made it one of Malene's favourite temples on the whole trip. On the inside
of the walls there where both a traditional Buddhist monastery and a
Tibetan monastery side by side. Of the more interesting features was
a statue of a goddess who fought the Devil, lost, then had the Devils
baby, ate the baby and then conquered him – using his dead skin as
the saddle for her donkey.
We had lunch in town at a
local place and realised that we are now back to local food which
includes mutton and noodles. Coming back from the lunch we went to
the town museum where there was a really good exhibition about the
development of Kharakorin town that used to be the capital of the
Mongol empire. It included some really good explanations of the
findings they had done excavating a big tomb found outside town. Part of the exhibition was about the Mongol empire and Djengis Chan so a bit of repetition from the museum in Ulaanbaatar but that was okay since it's a lot of history to understand and remember. Next to the museum was a ger where we could try traditional clothing, puzzles and games - like the one at the Intellectual museum on Ulaanbaatar,
We arrived at the Ger camp
in the afternoon and realised that Mongolia is luxury Gers. We only
have two-person Ger's, ours even had electricity and a sink – and
real beds of course.
Dinner
was really good with a bit of meat and vegetables
and since the weather was so nice we decided to take a walk and climb
the nearest hill. There was a monument on top of the hill with
mosaics showing the current and ancient sizes of the Mongol empire
across Central Asia. Looking out over the landscape we enjoyed the
sunset, the horses in the valley and the riving slowly running down
there. Looking forward to a couple of days of wild camping.
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| Good morning |
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| Our ger camp |
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| Breakfast |
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| Ger cnumber |
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| Autumn and Mikkel on the rood top seats |
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| Daniella and Malene on the roof top seats |
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| Roof top seats on a beautiful morning |
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| First stop - Kul Tigin museum |
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| Eagle at the museum |
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| Erdene Zuu monastery |
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| Monks in the monastery |
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| Prayer wheels |
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| Skull on top of the temple |
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| Lunch - Mongolian noodles with mutton and carrots |
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| Mongolian soup - well,,,,,,, |
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| Alice in traditional Mongolian clothes |
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| Us in traditional Mongolian clothes |
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| Nico trying "the bones" - traditional Mongolian game |
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| Our ger camp |
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| Dinner |
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| Evening walk |
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| Christa, Katie, Malene and Daniella |
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| In our ger - luxury with beds and not just matresses |
