Trip to Mongolia

We went to Mongolia at the end of July 2007. We wanted to see the natural habitat which has nurtured the repeated waves of very successful people impacting on the history of China, central Asia and even Europe. A few photos are shown below to illustrate various aspects of the trip.

To reach Lake Khuvsgul near the Russia border, we flew in a propeller plane, landing on a rough patch.

Lake Khuvsgul contains 1-2% of the world's fresh water on land. It is located in a taiga forest environment. We stayed in a ger camp. Shower and restaurant service are provided. The shower room is on the right-hand side of the picture below.

A severe thunderstorm hit in the late afternoon, producing some very spectacular views. Note the pink hue in the grey cloud.

Both of us liked the ger very much.

Our next stop was the site of Kharkhorum, the ancient capital of the Mongol empire, where Chinggis Khan started his series of conquests. The only credible remain is a stone tortoise, which was one of the four which guarded and protected the capital.

At the site, there is now a 400-year old temple, Erdene Zuu, the primary religious site of the remnant empire in the late 1500s. The Zuu contains a mixture of Chinese and Tibetan architecture. Both the Chinese and Tibetan forms of buddhism are represented by their own temples. Before the Russian destroyed most of the buildings there during the socialist period, even Islam was represented too.

We had the opportunity to see the wide expanse of the land by travelling on a 4-wheel drive for several days.

In the vast plains, there are interesting features like:

Thin grassland with sand dunes in the distance

Well-weathered hills; the gentle slope is made of the debris of weathering. I had the feeling of seeing my current state of development in this image.

Towards the end of the trip, we had a relaxing day at the Terelj National Park, only one hour away from the capital Ulaan Bataar. It is a place with picturesque rock formations.

The last night in Ulaan Bataar was a pleasant surprise for us. The hotel was full and we were given the last available room of the hotel, something called the Royal Suite. Suddenly we were back to modern materialistic "civilization". See tiny me in this huge room, the bedroom is behind the red wall at the far end.

My main observation from the trip is that life in the steppes could be physically tough but spiritually satisfying. The nomadic people look after themselves, mindful of the rhythm of Nature which contains both positive and negative asepcts. They are truly free to choose to do what they like.

By comparison, we city folks are so much controlled by rules and regulations that we have been deprived of much of the liberty we were born into. But we have been brainwashed to believe that we live in a modern age of "human rights". What a misconception!

We strongly recommend Mongolia to everybody as a very enlightening tour destination.