Turtle Rock, Temple, Tasty Treats, Trotting and Tons more.....

August 31st 2017

We were awoken, if only for 2 minutes, when the "Stove man" came into our Ger at 5am in order to relight the fire...it was our only desire!

I got up at 8am and had an amazingly hot shower; it was so good compared to the freezing cold one on the train. We had all agreed to meet for breakfast at 9am so we could get an early start on the itinerary for the day. Breakfast consisted of an omelette on bread, salami, a pork type meat which consisted of intestines (it was delicious!), a hard boiled egg, a muffin, a slice of orange and watermelon and a sweet cake...all on one plate!

After Breakfast, our first stop was turtle rock; yes, you guessed it...it looks like a turtle. It has no significance whatsoever, we asked, but it is pretty cool to see!

After walking around the turtle (it doesn't look like one from the other side), we ventured to the Aryapala Buddhist meditation retreat. It was a beautiful place overlooking the valley below; note to self, must get fitter as I was knackered by the time we climbed to the top. 

We also got to try the fortune wheel; this is mine: "The ultimate bodhichitta is transcendental and free from all elaborations. It is extremely clear, the object of the ultimate, stainless, unwavering, like a butter lamp undisturbed by the wind! Make of that, what you will....

After our trek, we got back into the car and we were taken to a nomadic home. It is custom to step over the threshold of a ger with your right foot and all visitors should sit on the west side (left of the door). We asked why the doors were so small as even I had to bend so not to hit my head; apparently ghosts are unable to bow their heads so they can't get in! Mongolians are apparently very superstitious people.

Our host offered us lots of food and tea to try; it is rude to decline. We tried süü (cows milk), öröm (sweet clotted cream made from cows milk), aaruul (dried milk curd), eezgii (sweet clotted cream combined with dried milk curd), süütei tsai (salty, milky tea) and airag (a clear spirit with a milky smell, made of fermented mares milk)....before you say it, I had Imodium with me, just in case! As a thank you, it is customary to give your host a gift; she ended up with our remaining "Ibrox Balls" which are red, white and blue mint sweets! What can I say, we weren't very well prepared but she was pretty pleased!

We were pretty full when we left the nomadic home but we were booked in for lunch at 1.30pm at the camp; all meals are included in the stay as there is nowhere else nearby. We drove back to the camp and had about 40 mins to spare so we wandered over to the Guru camp for a nosey. Our guide got us to dress up in traditional Mongolian dress (don't laugh at the picture!), then showed us how to play shugai (ankle bone shooting). This is where you take a handful of bones, all carved on each side, and drop them on a table. Each side is an animal (goat, horse, camel or sheep) then each player has to shoot using one bone at a matching one. It probably doesn't make much sense but it was great fun, although Agiimaa beat us!

We went back to our camp for lunch; another 3 course meal and we weren't even that hungry...but we ate it!

After lunch we had an hour to relax before going horse riding; I couldn't wait but Iain was a bit terrified as he had never been on a horse before. We met our guide outside the restaurant and had to put on calf guards and a hat before walking down to meet the horses. I mounted Buural (means Grey), my horse for the next hour. He was beautiful and very well behaved and apparently his mane matched my hair! And as you can tell from the next picture, he wasn't grey so his name was a bit odd! Iain, on the other hand, was led on a plodding lump called Hunger, yes aptly named, I know!

We were pretty tired after horse riding so decided a beer was in order. Our guide joined us and we played some more shugai while we talked about a lot of random things. 

That took us up to dinner or supper as the Mongolians call it. Again a three course meal including salad, a beef stir-fry with noodles and tarag (a Mongolian yoghurt) with berries from the forest. 

We were stuffed; it's the most we have eaten in days! As it was starting to get dark, Agiimaa took us out to try archery; definitely not for me but Iain was pretty good at it! I gave up and decided I would rather have a wine....!

It was then back to the ger for our last night in the camp. Iain decided to take a few pics as it was a clear night with no light pollution (we are 5,000ft high!) and got this decent picture

P.S We will be on the train to Russia for the next 3 days so until then......