Welcome to the last travelling post of MARCO GOLFO PART 1 !!! In the tradition of Golfco Pictures Blogs, there will be one more post after this one, featuring the BEST and WORST of my epic journey over the last 121 days from Istanbul to Beijing and Mongolia in the footsteps of Marco Polo !!!
DOUBLE STOP PRESS – INSIDE MY GER (YURT)
In the last post I showed you the outside of the worst Ger camp I stayed in at Orkhon Valley. By “worst”, I mean the most basic offerings. Nothing. No bathrooms. No Shower. No Power. The Ger itself was OK – clean and cosy with five beds, warm blankets and even a pot belly stove with exhaust.
Now let me show you how I typically set myself up inside every Ger I stayed in. The photo below was in the Ger at the shores of The Great White Lake. The Ger camp here was the best one of my trip through Mongolia. By “best” I mean the most offerings. Clean western-style toilets and vanities with soap inside a well-kept building. Hot showers in another building. Ger’s had power, the owners cooked the best beef I have had and they even supplied towels. The photo below shows my set up. Gers with 5 beds: clothes on one bed with running gear in one spot ready to go. Electronics on another bed closest to the power point. My “kitchen” on the table (every Ger has a table). What I call my “kitchen” is in fact three large supermarket plastic bags with the following inside: wine, water, cheese, olives, dark sugarless chocolate, mixed nuts, 3-in-1 instant coffee sachets and a roll of toilet paper. I carry and store the kitchen separately to my luggage. I had a kitchen on the truck for 3.5mths and in the van for the 2-week Mongolia trip. Every time I fly I rebuild my kitchen since I cannot take it on the aircraft. On my Ger bed is my wine, cheese, olives, laptop and headphones ready for dinner and a movie combined. Gers are excellent for drying clothes since you can hang them on the struts holding up the cone shaped roof. The only time I lit the pot belly was in Kazak Yurt at 3000m elevation and 5C. Overall, the Ger/Yurt experience is a good one especially with outside showers. See for yourself…
Our earliest start to date. Up at 6am and on the road at 630am. This was intentional given the rain yesterday afternoon – the tracks out there would be very muddy and we would need heaps more time to negotiate that mud. I would describe this morning’s drive as GREEN. Continuous green hills and flat green valleys full of cows, yaks, sheep and goats. Nomadic Gers everywhere next to large enclosures that house these animals during the bitterly cold Mongolian Winters. At around 1130am we stopped by chance outside the town of Khotont to watch a local woman milk horses. She then walked us back to her Ger to shout us some “Ayrag” or fermented horse milk. Each horse yields only 500mL of milk which is quite watery and light in colour – looks like cow’s milk with a lot of water in it. The horse milk is then placed in a plastic opaque drum and placed in the sun for 7-10 days to ferment. I then tasted it. It tastes like the yellow juice left over from the setting of Greek Yoghurt – a sour salty flavour but no smell or gammy flavour. I could drink a small glass (150mL) but no more. The milking lady drank a mug with me inside her Ger. Baikal explained that each town makes its own style and taste of Ayrag using different containers, differing times of sun exposure and fermenting times. According to many, this town of Khotont makes the most popular selling Ayrag in the country. This is was a terrific stop thanks to Baikal spotting the milking. At 1230pm we arrived in the city of Tsetserleg where we had lunch at a very western style café. With good reason. All of a sudden as we were eating, I heard a very Ozzie accent asking is everything OK ? I looked up and I saw a Mongolian looking lady who asked me which part of Australia I was from. I went straight to Bondi Beach and she immediately nodded. Elizabeth is a 4th generation Australian descended from Chinese immigrants that came to Australia in the 1880’s to look for gold in Sofala near Bathurst. She married Murray, an Ozzie of UK descent and they came to Mongolia 15 years as Christian Missionaries and loved it so much they stayed and purchased the Fairfield Café. They have 2 boys and 2 girls and opened a guesthouse above the café and hire bicycles and conduct tours of the local area. They only employ local people since work is scarce in this town. They purchased the café just before COVID and managed to hold on to it and their staff. Well done Elizabeth and Murray.
It was 230pm and cloudy when we left so I was keen to get to the Crater so I can walk around it before it rains. It is another 164km from Tsetserleg along a gravel road, so we gunned it as much as possible. Tsetserleg is 1,691m above sea level so the next hour was through alpine style country sporting pines, lakes and green fields. About 37km before the Khorgo Terkhiin Tsagaan National Park starts the Chuluut Gorge. A spectacularly deep gorge cradling the Chuluurt River below. It was now heavy with cloud with some sprinkling. I was worried that this may impact seeing and shooting the Crater so we gunned it straight to The Khorgo Terkhiin Tsagaan National Park.
The Khorgo Terkhiin Tsagaan National Park comprises of two famous attractions: the Terkhiin Tsagaan Lake or Great White Lake and the dormant Khorgo Volcano or Crater. We visited the Crater first. The Khorgo volcano is one of 10 volcanoes in the national park and became extinct about 8000 years ago. The rim is 2,210m above sea level, 5km around and 75m average above the bottom of the crater. The Khorgo Terkhiin Tsagaan Lake is 16km by 10km covering an area of 77.3 square kilometres and 40-50km around the edges. It is 20m deep and its water surface is 2,060m above sea level. It was formed when hot lava stopped the flows of 2 existing rivers. The lake is renowned for its fish and birdlife, including the Ruddy Shellduck and Great Cormorant. The hot lava also exploded leaving behind 33 “caves” or large holes formed from further cooling and erosion. The two famous caves are called “Yellow Dog's Hell" and “The Ice Tunnel”. The first got its name from legends that local dogs would get trapped and die here and the second because ice forms inside the cave during winter and some it stays icy throughout the entire summer. The surrounding area also features interesting geological formations like solidified lava bubbles called "basalt yurts".
We arrived at the Crater at 530pm and headed straight up. An easy hike of 700m from 2096m at the base to 2193m at the rim. Only 13min. The crater throat is very narrow and dramatic (as you will see below). Just as I took my last shots it started to sprinkle so I abandoned my walk around the rim so we could visit the two caves before the rain got worse. The two caves are 3km from the Carter and only 500m from the roadside so we got there fast. Luckily the sun poked its head out and I got some good shots of both The Yellow Dog's Hell Cave and The Ice Tunnel Cave which are only 500m apart. The Yellow Dog’s Hell Cave was named after a yellow (golden) colour dog that lived in the first Century AD. He was the personal pet of a Princess who was forced to marry a rich merchant so the king could acquire gold. The Princess was taken far away and the dog tried to find her. He fell into this volcanic hole and cave and howled for many months in agony hence his “hell” and eventually starved to death in this cave-hole. From here it was straight to The Great White Lake only 11km down the road. We headed straight to a rocky outcrop called “Grandfather Rock” that sits on a thin peninsula stabbing the middle of the lake so great views of the entire length of the lake. The rock looks like a grandfather sitting in his rocking chair. Thank goodness the weather held up and the sun’s disc was visible through the cloud. The Ger camp was only 1.7km from Grandfather Rock set back 300m from the lake shore. It was the best Ger camp I stayed in because it had a big well-kept building with western-style toilets, vanities and showers. The Ger had power and the owners cooked for everyone with service to the Ger – not room service but “Ger Service” !!! That night they served Mongolian Beef Stew with rice. The beef was chunky, soft, tasty with no fat and lots of it – the best beef I ate in Mongolia to date. Add Grenache Rose from Italy and I was in heaven…
My run along The Great White Lake was magic despite the 6am rise and 9C that made it happen. Sun shimmering on the water, Gers everywhere, sound of birds lakeside, faint rising light. Terrific. It reminded me of the Gallipoli run so long ago. After another terrific hot shower, we set out at 830am to drive to the ancient capital of Karakhorum. Lovely morning. Fluffy clouds, enough sun, cool and comfortable – not only temperature-wise but road-wise given it was paved the whole way but still uneven and with potholes since it dumps snow and ice everywhere in Mongolia – there is not one square metre of land or lake that does not get snow. Amazing. We backtracked along the same road as yesterday to Tsetserleg where I met Ozzies Elizabeth and Murray. This took 2.5hrs. Then another 1.5hr backtrack to Khotont where I drank fermented horse milk. We were making good progress and the weather was great. From here on it was new road to today’s destination which is only 38km away. The landscape was the same as the backtrack countryside until the modern town of Karakhorum showed its colourful face around 1230pm.
Ancient Karakhorum was an entire city founded in 1220 and became the capital of the Mongol Empire between 1235 and 1260 and of the Northern Yuan dynasty in the late 14th and 15th centuries which ended up destroying it. Its ruins are actually still buried underground in the modern town. These ruins were not excavated to keep them safe from the communist destruction which took place from 1924. In 1998 Mongolia signed an agreement with Germany to raise funds to dig them up – this is happening but at a snail’s pace due to lack of funding. The only thing that remains and was restored is the Erdene Zuu Monastery, which is the oldest surviving Buddhist Monastery in Mongolia, founded on the ruins of the old capital in the year 1586. More buildings were added over time. It is surrounded by a quadratic wall (420m long on each side) with 108 stupas. By 1872, it contained over 500 buildings, 62 temples, 10,000 stupas and housed around 1,500 monks. The communist era destroyed most of the complex leaving only 3 temples, 108 stupas and some smaller buildings.
I spent two hours visiting and shooting the Erdene Zuu Monastery, which is in good shape and houses many artefacts from the still-buried Ancient Karakhorum including silk prints, pottery and jewellery. This is the only attraction in Mongolia that attracted a big crowd – so far I had been almost alone in what I saw so I spent a lot of extra time shooting to avoid people. I am surprised by the number of families that attend these attractions – even newborns and older people. The sky was heavily clouded but added to the mystique of this place. I walked from the south gate to the north gate that opens up into a huge field with a fence around it. This is in fact the resting place of the Ancient City of Karakhorum, which is yet to excavated. There are some parts dug up but not open to the public since they are not fully cleaned and prepped for visitors. Loya picked me up from the field and drove to the nearby museum. It is here I saw a model of the city (built from x-ray imagery of the field). I also saw other artefacts such as coins and weapons. My biggest surprise was hearing Greek !!! Yes – an older couple were looking at posters of Genghis Khan and his descendants and giving their opinions in Greek. I did not introduce myself since I was short on time. After the museum we drove up to a lookout that contained a mock-up of the huge wooden tepees used by Genghis Khan to signal enemy sightings and eventually attacks. It is also a monument to Genghis Khan. On one side of the viewpoint hill is an excellent view of modern Karakhorum and on the other side is a huge valley surrounded by mountains with non-other than the Orkhon River flowing through it. The monument to Genghis Khan was built here because Genghis was injured in battle in this valley and managed to survive. And the rest is history…
We arrived at our Ger camp literally 500m from the Erdene Zuu Monastery at around 5pm. Early for once and very welcomed. This Ger camp was also well-equipped with modern clean toilets, vanities and showers. It even had a separate restaurant with Wi-Fi. Clean white sheets and towel awaited me in my Ger proving that this was now the best Ger camp of all minus the lake view of my favourite Ger camp. This is the great thing about Gers – you can put them anywhere so most are just metres away from major attractions which is great for locals and foreigners alike since you get to sleep next to important attractions – bringing you somewhat closer to what it may have been like in the past to “live” these locations. This was the last night of my 10-Day Tour of Mongolia so I celebrated with some extra special Rose - come celebrate with me with the following images of the Erdene Zuu Monastery but read on after them for a brief account of my last two days in the capital Ulaanbaatar to bring Marco Golfo 2025 – Part 1 to an official end !!!
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We set off for the capital early at 630am to allow for expected high traffic due to people returning home from the Naadam Festival in the capital. The terrific landscape resembling the Arizona Desert looked even better under a blue sky with wispy white clouds and plenty of sunshine. It was 1130am when the colourful outskirts of U-B (what the locals call Ulaanbaatar for short) appeared. I was keen to get a whole BBQ chicken to celebrate my trip around Mongolia tonight. Only Carrefour Supermarkets have them so we tried the first one coming in from the west but sadly the chooks would take another 90min !!! This is the second time this has happened to me !!! Baikal explained that most Mongolians will lunch around 3pm (same as Southern Europe) which is why the chooks were not cooked. We headed instead for the Zaisan Lookout so I could photograph U-B – it is the best place to do so. And it was. Amazing view as you will see. From here we tried another Carrefour and BINGO !!! I got my chicken for $14AUD and was is big !!! Our next stop were the local markets so I can find a traditional hat and top coat to use when I launch the film !!! The city was busy and it was around 230pm when we arrived. Lucky we decided to leave early today since that gave us ample time to deal with traffic and not force my driver and guide to go home late. Another Bingo. I found a terrific traditional dress-like garment and belt, prefect for the future launch of Marco Golfo 2025 – Part 1. My hotel was away from the centre but surrounded by restaurants, supermarket, ATM and even a male-female hairdresser. Baikal was kind enough to cross the road with me and discuss in detail with Ogii, the hairdresser what he needed to do to me to transform me from caveman traveller back to Presidential resident of Bondi !!! At around 4pm I farewelled Baikal and Loya, my very worthy team who showed me 2,600km of wild and unspoilt Mongolia. I cracked open the Sparkling Rose and feasted on my BBQ chicken and can of peas well into the evening. Enjoy the final images of Ulaanbaatar and indeed Mongolia…
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I had a great sleep in to 9am on my final day in Mongolia and indeed Marco Golfo 2025 – Part 1 !!! Could not resist a last run in near perfect conditions – sunny and 20C. After my run it was time to transform my hair in time for dinner this evening with an Englishman that I travelled Africa and in time for Riza tomorrow !!! The hairdresser Oggi knew exactly what to do give his brief from Baikal. He is an artist. So careful to colour. So careful to cut. I ended up looking like him and was well pleased. Took one hour for a humble $24AUD. Earning a living is tough in the capital – no wonder the nomadic lifestyle is alive and well. Back to the hotel to complete this post and rest up for my dinner with Graham and his adopted family in Ulaanbaatar.
What a great and lasting local experience for me. Eating a home-cooked delicious meal with Baagli and her 5 children with great conversation of life in Mongolia thanks to Graham’s sponsorship of English and I was set to leave Mongolia with the best of memories. Baagli kindly picked me up from and dropped me off to my hotel but not before visiting the magnificently opulent main temple interior of the Gandantegchinlen Monastery. What a way to end this Silk Road Trip of Trips.
END OF POST
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