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Some of the most beautiful buildings in Mongolia are the Tibetan-style lamaseries. The biggest is Gandan, in the suburbs of U.B. Entrance is free.
Walk around and turn every prayer wheel that you see. You will send someone's prayer to heaven. People attach their prayers to the wheels on little pieces of paper. Leave a Comment Address: Gandan Monastery, Ulaaan Baatar
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I highly recommend taking the opportunity to stay with a nomadic family. We stayed with two different families on our trip, the first family was the first day out of Ulaanbaatar. We eventually found the family after driving around for a while in the general area the guide and driver knew them to be. We were the first ones of the season so they weren't too sure where the family actually was, , so we drove around and around until we found them, after all they are nomads so they move around.
This family had a flock of goats and sheep and a small herd of horses. We also saw one cow with a calf. The family consisted of a father and his two grown sons, both whom were married with children. There were two family gers and one storage ger with the pen for the animals in the middle. The horses roamed freely.
We stayed in the ger of one of the sons, he and his wife and son stayed in the other family ger that night, which meant that we slept in their beds.
It was a fascinating experience, seeing how they lived and cooked, what their belongings looked like. This family had electricity from a generator which was used to work the lights and the television. It was quite amazing to see satellite dishes out in the middle of nowhere.
The other family we stayed with were camel herders in the Gobi Desert by the Khongoryn Els. They had a large herd of camels as well as goats and sheep. That family consisted of a mother, daughter, son and his family. They also had two gers, the mother and daughter in one and the son and his family in the other. They seemed a bit more affluent than the previous family. Their belongings seemed of higher quality, they had motorbikes and they had wind power to power their electricity. They too had the ever-present satellite dish. The animals were set away from the gers which was a blessing as camels are noisy creatures, grunting and groaning away all night long.
The second family also had a pit toilet, the first had the wide open desert landscape at your disposal ;-) Leave a Comment
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 Turtle Rock by hayward68
Unfortunately the city lost its significance when Kublai Khan moved the capital to Beijing in 1264. The city was destroyed by Manchu forces in 1380 and stones from Karakorum were used to build Erdene Zuu which, I believe, sits on the site of Karakorum.
What do remain are two stone turtles of an original four which once marked the boundaries of the city. The turtles are symbols of eternity. This one sits high on a hill from which you have an excellent view of Erdene Zuu. Leave a Comment Directions: You'll need someone to point them out to you, we drove up a hill in the van to find it.
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These sand dunes are absolutely stunning and are known as the "singing sands'" because of the sound they make when the wind sweeps across them. You could really hear it when you are on the dunes and a small avalanche would happen, as the sand ran over itself it would make a really weird sound, hard to describe but can be quite loud when the winds blow. The colour of the dunes changes as the light does, making for some excellent picture opportunities.
The dunes reach 800m at their highest and cover an area that is 6-12km wide and 150km long. We couldn't wait to climb the dunes though it is extremely hard, I gave up trying to reach the top but my friend made it all the way. I did get to use a snowboard on them though and that was tremendous fun. I kept falling down though so eventually used it as a sled and slid my way to the bottom.
Their is a water supply by these dunes so there are several families who live by them permanently and there are also tourist camps nearby. We sat high on the dunes and watched a herd of camels make their way across the desert to the water, have their fill and move on.
My friend's pictures from the top of the dunes showed me how impressive these dunes really are, they stretch out for quite a distance. Leave a Comment Address: South GobiDirections: 180km from Dalanzadgad
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The complex is Mongolia's oldest Buddhist monastery and was founded by Abtai Khan in 1586. In it's heyday there were about 100 temples and a thousand monks living on the premises. Today there are only five temples, tombs, stupas and a few small buildings.
This monastery is one of the few to survive the obliteration of the religious buildings in the 1930s. During this time many valuable artworks and sculptures were destroyed and many monks were either shipped to Siberia or killed. The monastery was pretty much empty of religious life from 1941-1990. Although it did become a museum in 1965, there were no monks living here. It was in 1997 that the government decided that the monastery should be restored.
Four large walls surround the complex and there is a gateway in the middle of each wall. The three temples are filled with Buddhist artwork and statues. It's quite a feast for the eyes to see all the colours and gold, quite a change from the desert outside.
Also in the complex are the gravestones of Abtai Khan and his grandson, T?sheet Khan Gombodorj, who happens to be the father of Zanabazar, a monk who was born in 1635. He became the religious ruler of Mongolia and was the first to have the title "?nd?r Gegeen (High Enlightened One). He is also famous for his his artwork and sculptures, often covered in gold, some which can be seen here at Erdene Zuu.
There were a number of people with goods for sale at the far end from the entrance. Some interesting things to be had if you're in the haggling mood. I bought a small carved turtle pendant well worth the $1 I paid.
Admission to the monastery grounds is free but it costs T3000 to view the temples, but this does include a guided tour. It will cost you extra to take pictures though it's worth the extra payout. Leave a Comment Address: 2 km from Kharkhorin
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 by iwys
Even around the capital city there are yurt suburbs.
You can rent a yurt at South Gobi Tourist Camp, if you really want to get away from it all.
If you find that you just can't live without one, it is possible to buy one, ship it back home and erect it in your back garden. A friend of mine did that. Leave a Comment
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Otherwise known as Vulture's Gorge (or Valley or Mouth, depending on what you're reading), this peaceful place is located in the Gurvansaikhan Mountains and is a 40km long canyon. A river flows through it and and the winter the ice builds up so thickly that in some years ice remains throughout the year. The sheltered and shadowed gorge keeps the sunlight from reaching the furthest areas. When we visited it was early spring so the river was still mostly frozen but the top was quite slushy. We walked a few kilometres into the canyon but when the slush became ankle-deep in spots we decided to turn back. It is a beautiful spot and I would like to see what it's like with the river flowing through it.
It's a great place to do a bit of hiking but my friend climbed up into the rocky hills and came down with ticks on him so I would beware of this and dress appropriately and check for ticks when you finish.
We spotted some mountain goats on the hills as we were leaving and tried to follow them but they move just too darn quick!
There's supposed to be an entrance fee for the park but everything was closed when we arrived so we just drove in. There's a museum at the entrance of the road into the gorge. Leave a Comment Address: 46km west of DalanzadgadDirections: The carpark where you walk into the gorge is a 10km drive from the museum.
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 Crater's edge, Khorgo Uul by Saagar
As part of a (worthwhile) trip to this area and national park only, or as part of the loop UB-Hövsgöl-Tsherkhin Tsaagan Nuur-Kharkhorin-UB, a side trip up to the volcano crater should not be missed. It is extinct (since 8000 yrs), but still warm so the snow will not stay inside it during winter, and some sulphuric gases emerge from it. The surrounding lava fields and mountains harbour another 10-12 smaller craters.
It is easy to reach from a rough road where the vehicle will take you if your are on a tour, and if you have the chance, you should definitely circambulate the crater rim, and take in the view and the pioneer plant community that is there. Leave a Comment Directions: Close to town of Tariat, and even closer to the Tsaagan Nuur Ger Camp 1 ( the valley one).
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Bayanzag is known as the Flaming Cliffs because of its beautiful red sandstone which changes to a dark red as the sun sets. This area is where American paleaontologist Roy Chapman Andrews first discovered dinosaur bones and fossils in the early 1920s. It is thought that the animals were buried by landslides.
We wandered around the cliffs for over an hour watching the colours change during sunset. You can have a look for fossils and dinosaur bones, good luck, but do remember that if you do find anything, you can't keep it.
There is a tourist camp nearby which has showers but it wasn't open when we were there. Instead, we stayed in the guest ger of our guides friend. He was a bit of an entrepreneur, a young Mongolian man who lived with his mother and owned a herd of camels. He was setting up his own gers for use by tourists. For a small fee he'll even take you for a ride on one of his camels, which I of course had to do as I absolutely love camels. If you'll notice in the extra pictures, I'm wearing my Virtual Tourist ball cap. The man on the camel beside me is the young man that I mentioned. Leave a Comment Address: South GobiDirections: 65km southwest of Dalanzadgad
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 Abandoned city by Saagar
Ruling over the independent people of the steppe was exceedingly difficult, thus animal ownership became illegal, and collective operations of animal husbandry forcefully carried out. Industries and agricultural kholkoses were set up and people settled in more or less artificially located cities.
Many of these industries and cities themselves are now abandoned, fully or partly, and agricultural industry production centres left for rusting dot the aimags. Many people lost their jobs when the old regime collapsed, and now dream of better times past, but economically and socially, these cities did not give much sense.
The photo shows such a city on the way between Tsetserleg and Kharkhorin. The most famous cities of this kind are probably Choir and Sainshand in the Gobi on the Trans-Mongolian railway toward the Chinese border - big suburb-like housing blocks, factories and power plants and all - just abandoned.
An interesting, but very sad part of Mongolia's history. Leave a Comment
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