At breakfast, we discovered that some of our compatriots had had a trying night-- at least 3 gers got so full of small beetles that the occupants abandoned them. Two folks slept in the bus and the guide ended up locking himself in and honked the horn to get someone's attention. Amazingly, since our ger was closest to the bus, Jim (Mr. wonderful hearing guy) heard nothing. We saw a couple bugs, but nothing scary.
 |
| Ovoo where we suggested to the gods that we had seen enough bugs. |
The road west was a challenge to drive... heavily rutted, so the driver was swerving to avoid the worst ones and sometimes stopping suddenly. I was glad to be back far enough in the bus not to see the details. We stopped along the road at one place with a big pile of stones and a lot of prayer flags. We each added 3 stones to the pile and walked around it 3 times to be granted 3 wishes... a primary wish was for no more bugs.
 |
| Turtle Rock |
Our first official stop was Erdene-Zuu Monastery, the first monastery in Mongolia, founded in 1586, which is now a world heritage site. Altho much of it was destroyed by the Russians during the 1937 purge, many of the artifacts were hidden and someone convinced the military to save 3 of the 100 temples to preserve the heritage. We visited those three temples, dedicated to 3 stages of Buddha's life. I am starting to find temples relatively dull, so I was happy enough to be done. Then we walked to Turtle Rock, which marked one edge of the old capitol (from the 1200's ). I found a couple pair of silver earrings at one of the vendors set up there. Like I need more!! (I am now up to 150 pair...)
At our new ger camp, we scored a tent with a double bed (twins are standard) AND a sofa. Our next stop was the local market, kind of depressing. Most of the shops are semi trailers or shipping containers. We were challenged to find and buy 2 items for 500 T (37 cents) which Billy named for us but didn't spell, so our interpretations were all over. Everyone was teamed up and got matches and something else...we had cigarettes, others had toothpicks, and a onion. We all missed it...ice cream. Our pronunciation was so wretched that the locals were mystified. In honor of losing, Jim and I got an ice cream bar.
 |
| A double bed ger! |
Our last official stop for the day was a monument to the various Mongolian empires. Since this was at the top of a hill with our camp in sight, we decided to walk back. Had there not been a 10-foot wide canal we had to detour to a bridge to cross, we would have beaten the bus.
After dinner, a local musical group gave us a performance. There were 4 musicians, a singer, and a contortionist. They played a number of Mongolian tunes. The first song that featured the vocalist was a little too much of the Chinese style for my taste (loud, high, screechy), but the second showed that she had a very lovely voice. Two of the men were throat singers, who played horse fiddles, one of which was a bass version. There was also a Chinese - style harp. The best part of the show was the contortionist, a 15 yr old who always wore a lovely smile as she twisted herself like a pretzel.
After dinner, a local musical group gave us a performance. There were 4 musicians, a singer, and a contortionist. They played a number of Mongolian tunes. The first song that featured the vocalist was a little too much of the Chinese style for my taste (loud, high, screechy), but the second showed that she had a very lovely voice. Two of the men were throat singers, who played horse fiddles, one of which was a bass version. There was also a Chinese - style harp. The best part of the show was the contortionist, a 15 yr old who always wore a lovely smile as she twisted herself like a pretzel.
No comments:
Post a Comment