This morning was another early morning. We had to get off the train at 6am – so the Provodnitsa had her head in our rooms waking us up and turning the light on at 5:15am.
After we successfully dragged our sleepy bodies of the train – we found a freezing cold and still relatively dark Ulan Baatar waiting for us. We had to wait on the platform for about 15min while Ann attempted to find our local guide and driver, who spoke excellent English and in the end found us before Ann found her.
Luckily many banks in Ulan Baatar are open 24 hours (eh?) so we were able to go to the bank at 6am before checking into the hotel. Mongolian money is at such a high exchange rate that they weigh it instead of counting it.
Yet another van trip later we headed to the hotel for breakfast (eggs, bacon, capsicim salsa, cold thinly sliced potato pieces, pasta, and sausages), and a luke warm shower. The highlight of the morning was being able to drop all our laundry off to be done cheaply. The promise of clean clothes has never before been so exciting. There was also a quick stop at the supermarket to stock up on supplies (an important travelling task when visiting this par to the world with a vegetarian).
We then headed straight out to the National Park – and the Ger camp that was to be our accommodation tonight. I think nearly everyone slept on the way out – it was about an hour and a half’s drive.
I woke up just in time for our stop at one of the the hilltop religious sights. A canne of rocks, with a large pole standing up through the middle,and prayer flags attached at the top. We did the requisite 3 laps for luck, throwing a pebble onto the pile each time.
I was later to be informed by one of our drivers that many locals have now got too lazy to stop and walk around three times, they now simply beep their horns three times as they drive past.
After this stop I was finally awake enough to take notice of the scenery we had driven out into. The landscape is simply jaw-dropping. It is gigantic. The sky seems bigger here then anywhere I have ever been before – and it is a brilliant blue. Almost luminescent.
The hills in the area we were perfect curves – it was like we had walked into the photo used as the Microsoft Windows background; perfect green slopes and blue skies spotted with fluffly white clouds.
However, at this time of year the grass is more of a russet brown colour. Sprinkled between the slopes were crops of rock. That looked like they had solidified half way through melting, adding more beautiful curves and lines to the scenery.
Our Ger camp was right in the middle of it. We had been warned about how boring and terrible the food would be here, but the lunch included when we arrived was one the nicest meals I have had since we left Europe. There was a warm corn and cheese soup for entree. And pastries filled with mutton and spices, served with salad for main. Greg had a vegetarian version of the pastries that was filled with cabbage and carrot and such like. Then locally made ice cream with berries.
One quick nap later, and I was off for a horse ride with seven other member of our group (Greg declined and went off gleefully with the camera for the afternoon).
The horse ride has to be my absolute highlight of the entire trip so far. We paid 15 000 Mongolian dollars (roughly $15 Australian) for 2 hours. They introduced my horse to me as the lazy one.
Our horse ride took us out along the valley, and back. It was a wonderful way to see a larger part of the area we were staying in. It was absolutely peaceful. You could hear the birds, and cows, and the very very very occasional car. It was so peaceful in fact that my horse stood still and refused to move again for anyone.
And thus I learnt how it got its reputation. The final solution was to tie it to the back off one of the guides horses for a while and make it follow.
Our fantastically happy guides (dressed all in traditional clothes- which is actually not that uncommon here) soon taught me the words for “Go Go” in Mongolian, which sounds something like “choo choo”, and as long as I issued them loudly about once every 3 minutes my horse would happily trudge on. Which was actually a great pace for taking in the scenery.
We went past a traditional Ger which was home to a local family (whose car was parked out the back) came out to say hello to us. Their son, who was probably about 2 or 3 has to be one of the most beautiful little children I have ever seen. He just stood and watched us completely unfazed by the 10 riders that had arrived in his front yard.
On the way back Ann’s horse bolted not once but twice. All we saw was this tiny figure bouncing off into the distance. One of the Mongolian guides galloped off after her in a wide arc, came around the front and caught her horse both times. It was spectacular, and not just a little bit funny.
After another beautiful dinner (spiced carrot for entree, and a noodle stir fry, followed by a tart but beautiful yoghurt – the dairy is wonderful here), we retired early to our Ger. The sky was clear outside and the stars were out. They were increadibly bright. The milky way almost looked like a long cloud across the sky it was so clear. You can see why the Gods of the sky are commonly worshipped out here.
Inside our Ger the fire had been lit inside a little pot belly stove, we had a bottle of red, and we sat with our Ger mates, Presh and Shanika, until climbing into bed before 10pm.
It had been a long but fantastic day.
Alice.
