After packing up for our afternoon flight, we headed for Zaisun Hill to get a spectacular view of the whole city. We went through a shopping mall to cut out several hundred stairs. And then walked up the last 280 steps to get to a monument to Russian/Mongolian Friendship on top of the hill. The view of the city striking - with lots of tall buildings in the valleys, and “ger districts”, where most people still live in traditional gers for at least part of the year.
In addition to the lovely view, the monument itself was an amazing mosaic made of local Mongolian stone, representing the major milestones of the relationship between 1911 (when Russia helped Mongolia get the Chinese out of the country) to 1991 (when Mongolia got their independence). An especially interesting event was the battle of Khalkin Gol in May to September 1939 when the Japanese attacked Russia by going thru Mongolia - making it what some consider to be the first battle in World War
We had an amazing lunch at a Mongolian fusion restaurant called Temple near the famous camel train statue. We gushed over the amazing decor, and the gushed some more over the food.
Before leaving town, we stopped at the GOBI cashmere factory. We arrived early, so we got to see some of the lovely products for sale. Then we had a complete tour of the factory - from raw wool to finished product and quality control and packaging. They make more than 2 million products a year, making them the largest cashmere producer in the world, and one of the largest employers in Mongolia. The cleaned wool feels like clouds!
We headed to the airport and got our box dinner for our 6:20 flight. Ruth got some lovely photos out the window!
We arrived in Murun, the capital of the district, and got into vans to take us to our lodge. It was a wild ride in places, often on rutted dirt roads, with detours around major damage to the paved road. In some places there were several options because when a section of dirt road becomes too muddy and rutted, drivers just start a new one over the grass. We loved the amazing views of bucolic life - horses, cows, sheep, goats and yaks by the thousands, beautiful meadows, mountains and a lovely sunset. Very spectacular.
This monument marks where 50 latitude and 100 longitude cross. So we are close to there!
Our first day here at Lake Khovsgol was also action packed. Our first activity was to visit a local shaman to learn about her life. She talked about what led her to the role, and how she helped people to solve problems in their lives by talking to spirits (mostly using a mouth harp). We all practiced playing the mouth harp, and then she offered to chase away bad spirits for anyone who wanted. It was actually quite moving.
On our way back to the ger camp, we stopped to go in an hour-long horseback ride. It was so much fun riding over the permafrost, through the lovely larch forest up to an overlook of the small town, Hatgul, nearby. We walked a half mile back to the camp, enjoying views of the Lake and lots of yaks on the way.
In the afternoon, a few of us took a hike up to the top of the mountain over our camp. It was a beautiful walk through an open larch forest with lots of wildflowers. The trail was blazed with painted fried eggs - which was entertaining. The hike up was quite steep, but the view was worth it. Our guide, MG, was so knowledgeable about flowers, birds, animals and geology - it was great to have time to explore these topics.
We got back just in time for dinner, and before the rain. What a perfect day!
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