Ulaan Baatar and Mongolia

We arrived in Ulaan Baatar at about 11:30 on the morning of Monday 20th May.  We were met by Ganz who was to be our guide for the next few days.

Platform at Ulaan Baatar

I really like this picture...

We were left in a hotel (The Bayangol hotel - I still have th pen!) for a very welcome wash and we got to use real toilets for the first time in ages.  After a while we were brought on a tour of Ulaan Baatar.  The weather was quite cold - light snow was falling as we set out for our walking tour.  A thing that really struck us as we walked around was the friendliness of the people - everyone was saying hello.  Also, the traffic was a bit mad, the Mongolians seemed to treat their motorised vehicles like horses - anywhere there was a gap, on the road or the footpath - they would try to drive their vehicle through!  Here are a few photos from the tour.

In Suhbaatar Square

Suhbaatar Square is the main square and is called after the first leader of modern Mongolia, who ruled in the 1920s. Here's the Suhbaatar monument :

In Suhbaatar Square

After our tour and a bit of dinner we went to the hotel to wait for our transport to Elstei Ger Camp, a magnificent place about 60 km out of Ulaan Baatar.  Poor Dec and Sandra were tired in the hotel :

At the Bayangol Hotel

The bus journey was very bumpy, I thought the bus might capsize but it didn't.  We saw an overturned truck and a person who had met with another type of accident along the way.  Anyway, when we got the the camp we found a very comfortable, welcoming place to stay.  The tents had a stove to heat them with plenty of wood.  There were comfortable beds and lots of space.  The bright colours made the scene very vivid or something.  Here's what the Ger was like inside, Brian Fitz's pictures :

...and another picture from inside the Ger...

We spent the night relaxing and taking in the remoteness and isolation of the Mongolian night.  Next morning we were due to go horse riding.  A few of us decided not to ride the horses, just to walk behind because we were not convinced of their tameness.  The herdsmen who brought us out capture the horses in the Spring and release them in Autumn.  They use the horses during the Summer for their work and, because they are free to roam the Mongolian steppes for a large part of the year, they are never completely tame.  Here are some beautiful pictures from the morning.  The scenery of the land - no fences in sight - is breathtaking.

Raffe and one of the shepherds

The two Brians

Incredible, unspoilt scenery

As we walked along, the shepherds looked after everyone, and tried to make sure the horses didn't get skittish.

Cyril being led along by his good shepherd!

A nice picture of Sinead heading back to camp

On the way back to the camp the horses started to get excited.  Brian Fitz's horse tried to take him to China.  As the horse was in an awful hurry to get there he decided the best course of action was to jump off.  It could have been a bit dodgy given the lack of medical facilities where we were but he suffered nothing that a drop of whisky, a few bandages and the old G.A.A. favourite, Deep Heat, couldn't cure!

Headin' home

Here are two pictures I took in the camp at lunch time...

Either my camera's in my coat or I'm getting fat!

My favourite Ger camp picture...

In the afternoon we went walking to visit some nomads who were living on a hill above our camp.  The family were really nice to us, and, like us wanting to know about their way of life, they asked us loads of questions about ours.  Topics of very special interest to the nomads were the weather and farming in Ireland.  We were all given tea and bread and some snuff.  We brought some gifts, cigarettes and sweets for the child of the family.  A very telling point came when we were asked about our religion.  Apparently some American missionaries were beginning to visit the area.  It seemed to us, though (and it was expressed by the family) that they had all the religion they needed in their way of life already; living with the seasons and the land.  I wondered later if this was why, when we were asked if any of us believed in God, none of us spoke up at all.

Walking to the nomads' home

A long walk

One of the girls in our group rode the family yak to the great amusement of everyone!

Riding the yak!

Here are two really nice pictures of the lady and man of the house.

After out visit was over we walked to the top of the hill which you can see four photos up.  The wind and the views were amazing :

Heading back to camp...

Here's a few Brian Fitz took that afternoon, the first of Paul, Sinead and our new friends and the second of Louise looking lost in the desert.

That evening was out last in the camp.  We had dinner, a bit of singing and a few pints.  There was a beautiful sunset...

...a group photo, minus Raffe who took it...(thanks Sandra for this one)...

The next morning we left the ger camp to head back to Ulaan Baatar.  We were delighted when all the people who were working in the camp came out to bid us farewell; they wished us the best of luck and asked us to return some day.   After another bumpy bus journey our first stop in the city was at the monastery of Gandan Khiid, the largest and most important in Mongolia.  The monastery's most important temple is called Migjid Janraisig Sum.  Here's Louise in front of it :

Within the temple above is a statue called Migjid Janraisig which means "The Lord Who Looks in Every Direction".  The statues was consecrated in 1996 by the Dalai Lama.  The statues is 25 m high and weighs 20 tons.  It is made from copper, gilded with gold donated from Nepal and Japan and covered with gold brocade and over 500 m of silk.  An original statue on the monastery site was taken away by Communists in 1937 and smelted down to make bullets.  Lining the walls of the temple are hundreds of images of Ayush, the buddha of longevity.  Unfortunately no photos were allowed in the temple but anyone who reads this should try to go there to visit it.

At Gandan Khiid

For that afternoon we had the time to wander around the city.  Myself and Brian O' went to the museum of natural history. The museum is worth a quick stop to see the dinosaur skeletons.  One very surreal thing happened there though. The was a school group of young children there.  Each time they met us as we went around the exhibits they practised their English by talking to us.  We stopped to look at an exhibit and a group of about 8 kids lined up in front of us at the exhibit.  The strange thing was that the kids were facing us and not the exhibit!  We were more interesting to them than the pre-historic skeletons! On our last evening in Ulaan Baatar we went to see a cultural show in The State Youth and Children's Theatre.  The show was wonderful with lots of music, throat singing, bright colours and, strangest of all, a contortionist.  Here are a load of the pictures.

I'm not listening!

The contortionist was extraordinary...

Mighty lassie!

Next morning, after a quiet enough night in the city, we headed off on the train to China.

 
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