On the way we came across a macabre spectacle: a herd of vultures were fighting over a carcass by the side of the road and we stayed for half an hour to watch these large birds come and go and fighting each other over the meat and threatening each other:
Further down the road the sand dunes made for a great panorama but there wasn’t really that much to do so we were even able to get to Erdene Zuu Khiid before it closed at 6pm. The monastery is quite large and basically a walled compound with several temples. The oldest temples date back to the 16th century and were built from the remaining ruins of Karakorum, the famous city Ghengis Khan had built to be the centre of his empire. The monastery was and today again is one of the most important sites for Buddhists in Mongolia however during Stalinism most temples were destroyed (only three remained). Monks were able to hide some artwork and you can today visit the area which is again a functioning monastery but also a museum. The Buddha statues are showing Buddha during several stages of life, the main temple and the side temples were all adorned with paintings and little statuettes.
They were marvelous and very beautifully decorated, every temple smelled heavily of incense and there were many, many prayer rolls all over the area. I don’t know why but many of the female gods were quite frightening to look at with rolling eyes and severed heads dangling around them – but they are goodies because they protect!
It was interesting to see that souvenir stalls were set up along the monastery’s entrances and also around the turtle rock (a rock carved into a turtle, one of the few leftovers of Ghengis’ city). This was the first time outside UB that we saw such stalls and were approached by vendors. There were many Mongolians who spun the prayer rolls and left some monetary offerings, there was a ger set up you could have a look at the re-building plans and buy some prayer utensils from a monk. Another interesting observation was to see how international travelers (and particularly Europeans, not to mention Germans) sometimes really hate to see other travelers. Mongolia, I reckon is still in a way one of the most secluded places you can travel. Apart from the beautiful landscapes, I think, the country enjoys the reputation to offer solitude and friendly hospitality to stressed Westerners who want to ‘get away from it all’ and maybe some people feel that crossing paths with other Westerners distorts this picture!?! Obviously our motivation to come here was a similar one but I don’t mind other people sharing this image so much. It was funny to see how some really try to avoid getting physically close to each other – it’s a bit like their body language tells you: ‘Hey you, get out of my intrepid travels, this is mine’! For a minute Holgi and I were very tempted to stalk them… In UB and now in Erdene Zuu Khiid there were more Europeans than we had seen anywhere else (Oelgyi, the last big stop before ypu reach the Western border, also proved to be populated by quite a few Europeans as we found out later on), but because we had already been a bit on the road we were getting happy about interaction with people we could exchange a few words with. Mongolia is not really touristy (although it feels as if they are catching up, Mongolians also holiday a lot in Mongolia) but I guess when you do a set of organized tours from UB you get maybe a bit more of the touristy aspects as if you travel on your own, by bus, car or bicycle and hence maybe these people had reservations to recognize or greet other travelers.
We finished again camping under the stars and were looking forward to reaching Tsetserleg where we would celebrate the middle of our travels. For once LP’s tip was gold: the Fairfield guesthouse was fantastic although we nearly did not end up there, we misunderstood the price and heard 70 000 instead of 17 000 Tugrug. Good thing that we rechecked because the guesthouse was fantastic! Beds came with breakfast (which is not the norm) in the great café (REAL COFFEE AND PASTRIES!!!!! Such a treat), the room was bright and the beds were comfy, the showers were clean and hot, the plumbing was good and not hazardous and all switches worked ;o) Absolutely luxurious!!! The staff was very friendly and organized a horse trecking day for us. We thought we’d spoil ourselves to an organized trip in order to celebrate our ‘Bergfest’, half-time celebrations, and spending a day on a horse back in the mountains and valleys around Tsetsterleg seemed just like the ticket.
Holger even found a garage in this town that was looking trustworthy and which did an ace job changing oil and doing a little welding job so Melville’s backdoors now shut more tightly. BTW we had to get tractor oil because cares here run on really thin oil… We spend the rest of the arvo getting rid of the Gobi dust which had gathered in Meville’s back. In the evening we went to the main strip in oredre to find some food. An elderly Mongolian who somehow thought we were American started to talk to us but after my somewhat (desperate) plea that we were not Americans but from Australia (he was very talkative although we did not understand a single word and my ice cream kept on melting) he suddenly started to hug us and repeatedly exclaimed ‘Ah, Australian – friend!’. We then moved on to visit the town plaza where a colorfully illuminated fountain was entertaining the mainly youngish crowds to funky disco tunes.
Next day Gaj, our guide for the riding adventure met us at the hotel.
He spoke a little English and we drove to his house to pick up the saddles and had tea and bread. We then drove about 12 k out of town to a valley where his brother and sister lived in gers. While the guys went to catch the horses we had milk tea, joghurt, bread and butter and were admiring the sister’s ger which was very neat, colorfully decorated, had wooden floorboards and housed three. Although this was a paid for tour, it did not really feel like it, which we both thought was a good thing as we so far we had quite successfully tried to avoid the more showy things you can do (such as ger camps with nightly dance performances or the like).
We had never been horse riding before so we had asked for a short ride this however must have been lost in translation because we went for the whole day. Gaj’s encouraging question ‘Good – ayh?’ was increasingly difficult to be answered truthfully ;o)… and boy did our behinds suffer! Horses, as most other domestic ally used animals in Mongolia, are kept in the wild. They will be branded and obviously they have been ridden in (is that how you say this in English!?! Or maybe better say tamed, but that’s also not quite right!?!), anyway they live usually not in fenced-in areas but roam the surroundings of where their owners live and will only be caught when there is a need. Hence the horses are not always too pleased to be caught and these two were no exception. To tire the horses a bit out (remember we were novices to riding) they chased them around for some time and then started to put the gear on. Just as Gaj was about to saddle the white horse it had a hissy fit and nearly tore down the pole-construction the horses had been tied to. Whoopsy – Holgi and I exchanged a few nervous glances. The light brown horse took the saddle without further ado. Before we were to mount the horses I quickly ran to the outhouse and as I came back Holger was on top of the light brown horse – Great! That meant ‘the white devil’ would be my ride, grrmpff…
For the first half hour or so Gaj kept Bor, that was the name of the horse, on the leash. Thank goodness, however, after some time Bor seemed to have calmed down and we started to get used to each other and could go on our own. To motivate our four-legged friends to keep moving we had to say ‘Cheeewww’ and pull our heels in their flanks, as we were told by our fantastic guide. It was fun and Gaj started singing along – many Mongolians we met, particularly herders on their way, love singing and there are many songs to sing when riding. We went a bit faster but this became a bit painful after some time, especially for Holger who had a really hard saddle. Gaj then took us to a mountain and we climbed up to a cave with him to see some rock paintings. After that we stopped by at another brother’s ger where the lady of the house again cooked up some food for us. When we returned to the start of our journey, we had done about 20-24 k’s and were quite sore… On the way back Holger’s horse decided to call it a day and stopped. Neither the very encouraging ‘Cheewws’ Holger send up his ears nor the good example of the leading horse could do the trick. Hence, Holger and the horse were taken on a leash to get them back home – seemed like the tiring out went a bit too far… That evening and the next three days we looked like sick cowboys because of our sore muscles :o) Unfortunately once we were back in the guesthouse, had enjoyed a hot shower and skyped with our families (which we had not been able to for more than two weeks) all restaurants in the town had already closed and we were left to finish the day with some nuts, bread and Lotte Chocopie. A memorable day!
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