Mongolia Adventure: Day 1. Ulaan Bataar to Amarbayasgalant Monastery

Friday 1st September

Planning, planning, planning... A hectic day of last minute shopping, banking and organising. Mel and Rob went off to do their personal chores whilst we did ours. In the afternoon all of us met up for the first time with our driver, Tukso, who took us on a "guided tour" of the local food market, to stock up for our 3 week sojourn into the mountains and desert. What a godsend he was in this place. We've never seen such a complex and interesting market as this. Without him I'm positive we'd get lost or get ripped off - being foreigners. We walked around the maze of shops, which had an indescribable variety of foodstuffs. Tukso let us get what we needed, checked the amounts, loaded up boxes and carried them back to our van for us. Mel and myself then disappeared with him to buy garlic and potatoes and Tukso led us to this rather grubby cellar somewhere in the market, but what a place. A natural fridge, as it was so cold down here. We picked what we needed but Tukso kept on adding more to the packets! We wondered why as we didn't need this much! Anyway, on paying we discovered that the heaps and heaps of produce we now had was so dirt cheap and he obviously knew this! We are going to eat very well on this trip. We finally left with food and supplies for an army! Tukso then took us to 2 other more modern shops for those items we failed to find earlier...

A Hail Storm and First Monastery

Back at the hostel it was time to prepare ourselves for our 3 week adventure out into the wilds of Mongolia and finally some dinner at a local Mongolian eatery before climbing into bed - the last one for the next 3 weeks.

Saturday 2nd September

Day 1

An exciting day for us all. Tukso was at the hostel at 9am ready to pack in all our tents, packs, pots and pans. All went smoothly, we set off by 10am in a jam packed Russian made Fergon van, only to discover we'd forgotten the meat in the fridge! Back we went to fetch it and after numerous stops for Tukso to pick up spare parts and oil for the van, we were off! Only half an hour outside UB we were in the hills already. We passed our first 'ovoo' [prayer mound] covered in fluttering prayer scarves and were told to climb out and walk around it 3 times as a sign of respect and to contribute our good wishes to the gods by throwing something, even stones, onto the heap. One wonders why UB was built exactly where it is because not 20km out of town, we were driving past all the local herders with their cows and horses way out in the Mongolian steppes. Not a single sign of a city being anywhere remotely nearby! The weather changed rapidly today as we hit a short but intense hail storm and the air was decidedly cold. This somehow added to the atmosphere in the hills, casting a mysterious magic around the place. Time to eat. Tukso stopped at a passing cafe but alas there appeared to be no food here. We were informed that we would be catering for ourselves only but when we did stop for lunch, in the middle of nowhere, we felt very mean by not sharing with him. Being Mongolian Tukso loves meat and dug heartily into our salami! Well fed, we continued until we came across a fast flowing river in which David and Rob tried their hand at some fishing. We had all the fishing paraphanalia except for a rod, so myself and Mel watched in amusement as they concocted a handmade one with a branch. Result = no fish!! Next port of call, the Amarbayasgalant Khiid - one of the top 3 monasteries in Mongolia. It's been here since the 1700's, is in total disrepair but is beautiful, standing in isolation at one end of an enormous, remote and fertile plain. We went to look around to experience it's haunting peacefulness. Our camp spot was nearby and we were surrounded by herds of horses and nomadic gers. the BBQ'd chicken kebabs we had fascinated Tukso as he was only interested in 'mahg' [meat]. An incredible first night under the Mongolian stars.