Our main destination today is to visit the ancient capital of Mongolia, Kharkorum, but we stopped along the way to see another smaller Buddhist temple and see our first sand dunes in Mongolia, the Elsen Tasarkha dunes.
Camp workers taking our luggage to our vehicles in the morning.
We went by clusters of these shops which turned out to be local restaurants for travelers.
Some local landscape in the area.
Some caution was necessary as animal herds feel they have the right of way.
Stopping at a small Buddhist temple in the area.
A prayer wheel and one of the few trees in the area.
Inside the small temple.
Artwork in the temple.
Some of us walked up to another temple located on the side of this hill.
Worshipers would add rocks to these piles as they walked up to the upper temple.
Looking down at the abandoned Buddhist temple in the valley below.
Inside the upper temple.
Views of the peaceful valley where these temples are located.
The ruins of the original Buddhist temple.
Another small temple on the temple grounds.
Our first view of some sand dunes, Elsen Tasarkha. This series of dunes are 80 km long.
Of course Scott had to climb the nearest dune!
A funny episode of Maggie trying to capture our lady professors as they leap into the air.
In 1220 Genghis Khan established his headquarters at Kharkorum when he invaded China. In 1235 his son, Ögedei, built a wall around the city and used it as the capital of Mongolia. In the 1585 the Buddhist monastery of Erdene Zuu was created there when Tibetan Buddhism was named as the official religion of Mongolia. It is thought to be the oldest monastery in Mongolia. In 1939 the communists destroyed most of the Buddhist monasteries in Mongolia and killed over 10,000 monks. Part of this monastery was not destroyed. In 1990 it became a functioning monastery once again. Today, only some ruins of the original city of Kharakorum remain but the monastery temple complex still exists. We toured both the temple complex and the nearby modern museum of Kharakorum, dedicated to the story of Kharakorum and Genghis Khan. Again photography was not allowed inside the museum unless you paid an exorbitant fee which no one did. It would be cheaper to buy a souvenir book; unfortunately none were in English so you will have to rely on the internet to learn more about the history of the city and area surrounding it.
More encounters with roaming animal herds.
The walls, with its white stupas, surrounding the Erdene Zuu monastery complex, built on the site of the ancient city of Kharakorum.
The temple complex contains quite a few smaller temples.
Inside the Erdene Zuu monastery complex.
This is the Lavrin temple, built in 1784.
Small shrine in the temple courtyard.
The stone objects are remains of the original city that existed here.
The golden stupa that dates back to 1799.
One of the larger temples in the complex.
View from outside the temple, looking in at the Buddha statue there.
We happened upon this family and Maggie offered to take their family photo. What elaborate outfits!
Obviously he was not too enthusiastic about all the picture taking going on.
The new Kharkhorum museum, featuring displays about Genghis Khan and the local area.
Before proceeding to our ger camp for the evening we stopped in the local town ( population of 14,745) for an ATM (amazing easy to understand and use) and walk through their local market. Each province in Mongolia has a centrally located small town to provide needed services and schools for the local population. Nomadic children come there to go to school, boarding in town until the weekend.
The local market in the village. It consisted of a series of small shops selling a variety of products.
Huge carrots!
Two local nomads coming to town to buy supplies.
Dried cheese products popular with nomadic families. There is always a bowl on their table in their ger.
A funny story here. We are outside a small market. The gentleman in the red coat just exited the market and handed a bottle to the man on the horse who tucked it into his coat and then sauntered off on his horse! Hilarious encounter!
Our ger camp for the night was called Secret of Silk Road and turned out to be not your typical ger camp. It is only a few years old and offered fancy amenities like a sauna, massages, laundry service and even an en-suite toilet and shower in our ger! When we saw that a 50 minute massage cost 110,000 tugrik (Mongolian currency) which is $32.37 both Scott and I immediately signed up. Had to be the world’s best bargain! Unfortunately we never saw another such opportunity the rest of the trip. And other prices were equally impressive. A 0.5 liter of beer was $3.53 and bar drinks were $5.89.
The main reception center and dining room of the Secret of Silk Road ger camp.
Secret of Silk Road Ger camp with 40 tourist gers.
Modern gers in the camp.
Our ger, again with a modern decorated door. I managed to bang my head multiple times entering/leaving these gers.
Pretty fancy ger, including a cushioned chair- a first.
En suite toilet and shower at this ger camp.
Price list for the various offerings at the camp.
The very large dining room of the camp.
Vodka tonics in funky, crooked glasses. They were so cheap we each had two!
Again a lot of great salads were available on the dinner buffet.
A couple of the main entrees.
Another marvelous Mongolian sunset.
Tomorrow we continue our trip southward toward the Gobi desert.
