Even though we prefer traveling independently going to the desert on our own didn’t seem to be the smartest move.
So we found ourself on a Sunday morning together with Noemi from France and Jen and Santos from the States, our driver Amrah and our guide Serjii in one of the Russian breads (most robust Minivan ever build) on the way to Gobi.
By that a nicely routine started: eating breakfast (bread with jam, varied with fruits, eggs or cheese (Scheibletten Käse), driving or hopping over mongolian streets (in Europe they would fall in the category of field paths), eating lunch in a small shop in one of the sparse villages (not always easy with vegetarians on board), hopping further over bumping roads, snacking preferable „Schokoladenrosinen“ (import from Germany) and listen either to „Barbie girl“ from Aqua or mongolian pop songs spiced with the drivers voice.
In the afternoon after admiring the landscape from the window in the bus (usually roads were to bumpy to read or do something else) we arrived at the destination of the day and walked around for some time before heading on to the close by family or ger camp, were we stayed for the night. It is an incredible amount of bus driving involved which really underlined the vastness and sparsely population of this beautiful country.
Lunch was an event in it self. Typical mongolian food being prepared in the tiniest kitchens, sometimes not more than to pots on a stove.
Learning about buddhistic roots. Piles of stones decorated with blue bands have to be circled clockwise three times while throwing additional stones on the pile to worship soil.
The water supply in the desert comes from wells, where you might meet herds with their whole livestock …
… that of course includes goat, sheep, horse, but also these friendly looking guys.
I guess since motorcycles more and more replace horses for transport, they are also treated as part of the flock.
Here the six highlights of our trip:
1. Day: Staying in a nomadic family drinking airag (fermented horse milk, 3% alcohol and very sour) and eating mongolian cheese (in principal dried goats milk and unbelievable sour). We learned the mongolian drinking game, how to milk 20 goats at once and that Mongolians love getting pictures taken of them self.
You will be able to read from my face how sour airag can be (since it differs from family to family) have a closer look on my face.
The usual way of drying cheese in the country of sun and blue sky.
Playing the mongolian way of scissors (luckily I didn’t had to drink more airag even though I lost).
How do Mongolians get their goats lining up that disciplined before getting tied together and milked stayed a riddle for us.
The Mongolians love their horses as much as german love their cars and you know this might sometimes by more than their wife.
And they like to get pictures taken of themselves while teasing tourists.
Luckily our bus driver was much more skilled in driving his Minivan than in playing cowboy.
Even on a constant camping trip also nomads enjoy the luxury of electric light and even TV’s (almost all got a solar panel next to their her.)
2. Day: Visiting a small Monastry located at the shores of a oasic flood in the steppe desert. The impressive fact about it is that today 6 but before the communistic depression 1000 monks were living there. Today you can still find the ruins of numerous destroyed temples since only one was rebuild so far.
The only re-build temple is guarding over the ruins left over by the russian depressors.
The inside of the temple is richly decorated in the colour of sun – orange and sky – blue.
The idyllic river does not only give a good photo motif, but also the possibility to get the dust out of your hair n cloths.
3. Day: Getting up at 5:30 and being rewarded with a colorful sunrise bathing the valley in warm atmosphere. Being hit by the full power of the desert heat, nearly knocking me out by lunch. 1.5L of water prevented the worst so I could enjoy me first ride in something else than a bicycle, a camel. I can state it is as shaky as the bus rides in Mongolia. We were abandoned by the big sand dune overruling all plans. Our camel guide indicated us to go up (we didn’t brought water nor cameras). We anyway made it to the top and were saved by a Danish couple handing us a bottle of water.
Sunrise captured by Santos.
It is said a camel can carrie the weight of a sumo ringer, but it looks a little shaky anyway.
From left to right. Camel 1, camel 2, camel 3, camel 4, camel 5, camel 6. Camels don’t get names, because they are kept half wild. (Guide, Tom, Santos, Noemié, Steffi, Jen).
Finally on top of the dunes, which are not that broad and surrounded by flat steppe on one side and mountains on the other.
Thanks again to our rescuer with their water bottle.
4. Day: Countless hills covered by a thin coat if green grass. During our walk in the „water valley“ we also found us standing in falling water the first time in five weeks. Arriving at our Ger we were still wet and pretty cold.
In june the valley is still filled with ice, wonder how the Minivans make their way in tis period.
When we visited „water valley“ in august, there wasn’t that much ice left, but water from the button and the top.
The area surrounding the valley is dominated by greenly covered hill inviting for a stroll.
The owner of the ger, inviting us for a bowl of ariag (my intestines couldn’t really handle any more) and some snacks.
5. Day: A warm shower (the first since we came to Mongolia) and the colorful and completely dried out white lake. By now my intestines started reacting on the amounts of airag of the recent days and I could not enjoy the day as much as I would have normally. We arrived at the close by ger camp just before the rain started omitting any outdoor activities for the evening. Instead I helped our guide Serjii preparing the vegetarian version of mongolian
chuuschuur.
The lake dried out several hundreds of years ago. Today you can see the the several layers of sediment in numerous colours.
It is also possible to hang out on the coloured dunes „inside“ the former lake.
Enjoying vegetarian chuuschuur in the darkness of a kitchen ger.
6. Day: We explored an area of weirdly shaped but beautiful rocks, had a look into a cave, where monks meditated for 1-2 years without drinking and eating (can’t really believe that) and walked through an abandoned temple hidden between the rocks. Furthermore this day hold another surprise for us: a cold wind causing temperatures to drop drastically and making me very thankful for the two extra layer in my backpack.
There was damn little space in this cave, and no drinking and eating???
The area was characterised by stone pillars and stonemen.
Sunrise is finally warming up the air after a very cold night.
7. Day: And than all the way back to UB with a lot of impressions and new friends.
Was a great time, unfortunately Serjii (our guide) and Amraah (our driver) are missing on this picture.
