There was so much good about the trip that I'll just briefly state that my traveling companions weren't much fun and our guide was terrible. With our driver that made seven people in an old Russian van. The vans are not comfortable and not pretty but they are virtually indestructible. And when they break down, they're easy to fix, as we would learn later.
Moving right along.
Most Mongolians are still at least semi-nomadic herders, moving throughout the year with the seasons to find grazing lands for their animals. Chinggis Khaan lived in a ger and so do most modern Mongolians. It's a circular tent. The shape helps it deflect the wind in the brutal Mongolian winters. The door always faces south (towards the sun). There is an altar opposite the door, with beds along the circumference. There's a hearth in the middle and vent in the top to let out the smoke and heat.
This is the first ger I slept in, on the first night of our trip.
And this was the view at sunset.
The next day the landscape became increasingly more barren. This is where we stopped for lunch.
There's the van, and there's the road. Outside of the cities there are no roads in Mongolia. And this is one of the better roads we were on.
Later that afternoon we stopped at the White Stupa. It's a cliff overlooking a painted desert. Millions of years ago this was all underwater. It was absolutely spectacular and one of the highlights of the trip. I would have liked to have stayed longer.
That night we stayed with a family of camel herders. When it was time to bring in the calves a little boy of about four went running out in his barefeet and started whacking them with a stick. Camels are notoriously ill-tempered creatures but they knew who the boss was!
These are Bactrian camels, the two-humped variety. They're endlessly fascinating. They look like they were put together incorrectly. They seem very awkward but they're some of the toughest animals on the planet. And they're photogenic.
We were really excited to see them and took tons of pictures. But for the next two weeks we saw them everywhere. I wandered out in the desert for a while and watched a duststorm pass by a herd of camels in the distance.
And that night we watched the sun set over the open desert.
The next day one of the suspension springs on the van broke. Our driver took it apart and hammered the pieces flat. Then he cut a piece of tire innertube and wrapped it around the spring, and tied that in place with piece of wire. He literally fixed it with a rubberband! Conveniently, that night we were sleeping at his house in tiny little town on the edge of the desert, so we didn't lose any time.
While we waited for him to fix the van we ate lunch under one of the few trees, with an actual gold mine in the background.
Later that afternoon we visited Bayanzag, Mongolian for "rich in saxaul," in honor of one of the few plants that thrives there. But it's more commonly referred to by the name given to it by American adventurer Roy Chapman Andrews: The Flaming Cliffs.
Chapman found some extraordinary dinosaur fossils here. His trademark attire was a felt hat and khaki pants, just like the hero from this summer's blockbuster movie he was said to have inspired.
Pictures don't begin to convey the vastness and magnificence of the scenery, but here's another one.
The next day we hiked through Yolyn Am, or Lammergeier Valley, named after the Bearded Vultures which fly overhead. The valley is commonly known as the Ice Valley, because for most of the year it is covered in ice, up to 10 meters thick and 10 km long. The only time it's free of ice is, of course, when I'm there.
At the bottom of the picture is tiny patch of sunlight. Just to the left is a single man sitting at a stone bench carving animals out of juniper branches, a lonely souvenir salesman.
The next day we stopped for lunch in the most perfectly picturesque valley. The air was crystal clear, not a cloud to be seen.
The Gobi is vast and contains a variety of terrain. It's not a Sahara-style desert of endless sand dunes. But there are dunes. We started to see them that day. It almost looked as if the different landscapes had been stacked on top of each other.
We spent the night in gers just below Khongoryn Els, the highest dunes in Mongolia. Here I am at the top.
Strangely enough, there's a swamp at the bottom of these giant sand dunes. The gers we stayed in are just off-camera to the left.
But on the other side it's all dunes.
And here's a fun self-portrait.
This is the view from my ger at sunset.
The next morning we rode camels. Here's the obligatory shot of me.
We even "helped" herd some goats and sheep. I'm pretty sure our host could have handled the job alone, but it was fun to pretend :-)
We stopped briefly the next day to watch a family making felt.
We had to change our plans the next day because of a slight change in the weather.
And yet, just a few hours later, this is what we saw, the most gorgeous valley shining in the sunlight.
We stayed the night in Kharkhorin, former capital of the Mongol Empire. Chinggis Khaan didn't build a capital. The capital was wherever he pitched his tent. But his son Ogedei realized the need for a place for foreign dignitaries to gather and do business, so he made the trading post of Karakorum the capital.
One of the three main Buddhist monasteries is there, Erdene Nuu Khiid. Here is a group of young monks.
Sorry, I don't know the name of this building...
Sorry, again, but I have to mention a popular tourist site just outside of town. From the Lonely Planet website:
"Near Kharkhorin, a two-foot long stone penis attracts steady streams of curiosity-seekers. The 'phallic rock', which points erotically to something interestingly called a 'vaginal slope', is hidden up a small valley, about 2km southeast of Erdene Zuu Khiid. A giant penis, painted onto a sign by the road, points you in the right direction. Legend has it that the rock was placed here in an attempt to stop frisky monks, filled with lust by the shapely slope, from fraternising with the local women."
The valleys seemed to get more beautiful each day. This is where we stopped for lunch after the monastery.
We drove all day to see Orkhon Khiirkhree, the highest waterfall in Mongolia.
What a disappointment. It would be like driving all day to see the highest mountain in Delaware. A decent guide would have made sure we got there before sunset...
We stayed for a few minutes, then drove to the gers from which we would start three days of horseback riding. This is our hostess making milk tea.
It's more milk than tea, and Mongolians add lots of salt. It doesn't sound very tasty, and most tourists I met didn't care for it, but I rather enjoyed it.
The ger we stayed on was right on the edge of a lovely gorge.
The bed could have been a bit more comfortable, though.
We rode horses through through an area called Huiten Nuur, or Eight Lakes. This the view from our campsite. Not bad, eh.
We hiked the next day through this spectacular valley.
We ate lunch here. Sure it's a pretty view, but it's so windy there are waves on the lake. And look at the tree branches!
The storm on the horizon never hit us. But it made for some great pix.
The landscape was the strangest I've ever seen. It looks like grassland in parts, but it's all volcanic, so lava rocks are strewn everywhere. It looks like someone dug pits to put them in.
I like the way the hills and their reflections form an X.
About the only complaint I heard from other tourists about Mongolia was about the cuisine. It's limited. Because they're nomads they eat what they can take with them, mostly meat and dairy products. So I met quite a few people who had returned from tours who never wanted to eat (or smell!) mutton again.
We didn't have that problem. Our guide cooked us mostly vegetarian pasta meals. Filling and tasty, but I wanted to try local fare. I asked him to make us khorkhog. It's easy to make. Butcher a goat or sheep. Put the parts in a metal pot. Add onion, garlic and water. Add a bunch of hot rocks from the fire. Cover and wait.
It was yummy and messy and greasy and easily my favorite meal of the trip.
In my stay in Mongolia had I tried dairy products from cows, camels, sheep and goats. But I hadn't had yak milk. There were lots of yaks in the surrounding area, so I asked our guide to scare up some yak milk. I was curious to try it because the fat content is seven percent!
I loved it. It was almost sweet.
The next day we drove to the Tsenkheriin Jiguur Hot Springs, a bigger tourist trap than the waterfall. The spring itself is 90 Celsius, scalding hot, so it's pumped from the spring to the resort through the pipes at the bottom of the picture.
Among the many problems with this setup is that the pipes aren't insulated. So by the time it reaches the camp you're able to soak in lukewarm water that smells like rotten eggs in either of the two tubs in the back or the small pool in the foreground.
Because my tour guide screwed up and thought I needed to be back in Ulaanbaatar on a a different day I had to take drastic measures to get back. The next day was the worst travel day of all time. Long story short: 15 people in a Hyundai minivan over dirt roads for FIFTEEN HOURS.
But that's another story. All in all the trip was incredible. I want to go back to Mongolia and soon, before they pave the roads.
Seriously. You have to be willing to suffer a little to travel here, but it's worth it. It's impossible to comprehend how vast and empty the country is. If they make it easier for tourists to get around they'll spoil what makes the place so special. There are McDonald's restaurants everywhere in Russia and China but there are none in Mongolia. Hopefully it will stay that way.
And the people there are the friendliest I've met. It's not the elaborate courtesy rituals of Muslim countries, or the fake customer service smiles of America, but just simple kindness and openness. I think because people there are so isolated they genuinely enjoy any sort of human interaction, even with American tourists!
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