The Mongolia Diaries: Day Twelve

I had somewhat of a decent sleep but it was a hot night. I wasn't the only one who thought so because in the wee hours of the morning, someone got up to open the ger door. The cool breeze that came in was lovely! Around 4:00AM someone else got up to put more wood in the heating oven and then closed the door. Ugh.

Staying warm

I had my alarm set for 5:50AM. I was up well before that in anticipation of a lovely walk. My phone said it was 7°C. I didn't exactly have clothes for that type of cold. I got out of bed and peeked out the door. It was quite windy and still dark and freezing. I put on my hiking pants, a t-shirt and two quick dry zip up hoodies along a windproof jacket (that was all I had) and a winter hat. I put a hood up over my winter hat and hoped this would do the trick!

The night before, I did ask if anyone in my group would be up for an early morning walk but most of them shrugged their shoulders and said they'd most likely be sleeping. At 6:00AM everyone was dead asleep so I went alone.

There wasn't much of a sunrise but I was able to call both my mom and my dad on FaceTime. Mostly because my phone had service and because I wanted to show them this stunning area!

I wandered down the Orkhon River until about 8:00AM. The different views of the river were amazing. I got up close and personal with some yaks and horses and came across lots of different animal bones.

I got back to our set of gers at 8:00AM and breakfast was being served. We were up for another long day of driving, about 400KM, so we needed to get on the road early. Before leaving, the family invited us into the family ger for fermented yak's milk. I asked my guide to politely decline for me.

I recorded some notes on my morning walk and noted a number of times that the place I was currently at was phenomenal. I also said that if I were ever to make it back to Mongolia, I wouldn't hesitate to head directly to Central Mongolia and spend my entire time there hiking and exploring.

After our visit in the family ger, we took some group photos as the two German girls were heading out on their own. They planned to hike from the family ger back to the old city of Mongolia which they estimated would take five days. It was probably a lovely trek!

A rough idea of our 400KM route

The first 150KM of our drive was along bumpy roads that took us through fabulous forests and mountains. At many points, we had to drive through rivers and huge puddles, if you could even call them that. It was probably the bumpiest ride to date, though it seems I keep writing that. Maybe I was just getting less tolerant of the drives as the days passed. The scenery once again was tremendous and the hills and mountains reminded me a lot of British Columbia with all the winter greenery.

At some point, we came to a paved road and you could sense everyone's sigh of relief. This was, quite possibly, the first paved road we'd seen in well over a week. We eventually arrived in the old city of Tsetserleg. We stopped at a restaurant for lunch. The decor in the restaurant looked like it was from the sixties. The wallpaper clashed with the curtains and everything was a faded purply-pink color. It was an odd place. I ordered kimchi potato mutton noodles which were quite delicious. It was a huge serving with some veggies on the side for 6,000 Tugrik. (TW$70/CAN$3.00)

After lunch, we went across the street to a local market. It was also a strange place. There were lots of numbered stalls with people selling a whole lot of the same stuff. Our guide picked up some food while I people watched. It was interesting to see the different people go about their business. There were a lot of country bumpkin peasants and most were dressed quite weirdly.

After the market, the two Australian girls wanted to go to a place called the Fairfield, which is an Australian owned guesthouse that has Australian coffee and baked goods. Strange, as the girls didn't seem to want to do much else on the trip but going for Australian coffee excited them.

We wandered over there and to me, the place was overpriced and the baked goods looked like they had been sitting there for two weeks. The girls ordered coffee, carrot cake and a danish. My guide and the French guy also ordered coffee and cookies. I watched the French guy take one bite of his cookie and by the look on his face, it was not delicious. It looked stale. Shame.

I decided to take a miss of the coffee and the baked goods and head outside to explore. Upon arrival, I couldn't help but notice a huge rock face on one side of the village which had a bunch of steps up to a temple. It happened to be around the corner from the coffee shop and all I knew was that I needed to climb those stairs. It was really neat to see the village from up there. I was told Tsetserleg had a population of about 1,600 making it the biggest village we had visited on this trip.

The colorful houses and gers were fascinating. They were all lined up on the hills almost in a grid like fashion with little dirt lanes. I was the only one up there and I took a long moment to enjoy the cool breeze and the views from above.

When I got back, my group was waiting for me. I asked them if the coffee was good and they said it was only okay. I wasn't overly surprised to hear that.

We had another 170KM of driving after the city but it was along mostly paved roads. I saw a couple of dead horses that had clearly been hit overnight by passing traffic. It made me feel sad. I have never seen so many dead animals in such a short time frame. I suppose that is another part of what made Mongolia so interesting. It's unlike anywhere else I've ever been. This was not one of the highlights, obviously, but it was still quite fascinating.

Our final stop for the day, was at a place called White Lake or Terkhiin Tsagaan Lake. The drive off the paved road to get to the lake was insane. There were crazy potholes. Our van was tilting this way and that. I was surprised we didn't topple over.

Terkhiin Tsagaan Lake or White Lake

We would be spending two nights beside the lake. Our ger was in a tourist camp. The most exciting thing was that we had electricity in the ger for the first time! There was a light with a switch! Over our travels, few other gers had lights and if they did, they were run by solar panels. We also had a power socket with two places to charge our devices! Talk about living the high life! The tourist camp also had one shower for all of the guests (cost: 5,000 Tugrik) with water heated by electricity!

I was contemplating a hot shower when one of the Australian girls said she was going to jump in the lake. It was just before sunset and my phone said it was 13°C. I decided to join her. It had been four or five days since I had had a shower and I thought it'd be nice to rinse off. The lake was f-f-f-f-freezing! It felt like my body went into a state of shock! I am getting too old for this kind of stuff! Ha!

The water felt slightly murky but I stayed in for a few minutes. We went back to our ger to someone inside starting a fire for us in our heating oven. Perfect timing as I was chilly! Dinner wasn't far behind that! We were served a delicious curry with tofu and no goat meat! After dinner, we played cards with our guide and drank a whole lot of beer before calling it a night.