Return to Ulaan Bataar

On the Ride to the Frozen Waterfall

After our camel ride it was back to bumping over rutted trails and dirt tracks. Along the way we saw on occasional very large brown and white bird sitting by the roadside. They were the same kind as one I had seen on the way to Lake Baikal and I assumed they were eagles, but Jack said that they were actually condors. We saw millions of the little mice they were probably feeding on, and several foxes which probably had the same food source.

Ger Camp with Satellite Dish

We reached our second lodging near a frozen waterfall towards the end of the day. The family here was a couple with three girls and a new baby boy. The oldest girl was just 11 and all of them down to the youngest very cheerfully helped with dishes, wood-hauling, and whatever other chores were at hand. I had bought a bottle of vodka at one of our stops so that evening I gave it to the man of the family and we all sat around drinking it and learning to play ankle bones. We also had a taste of the famous ‘airig’ (fermented mares’ milk)- the last of the season.

On the ride to the waterfall.

The next day we set off on horseback to see the frozen waterfall. I was unsure how much time we would really want to spend in the saddle- it was colder than it had been and had just snowed. At first our guide said we would be out all day, but then said we could ride to the waterfall, have lunch, and then decide if we wanted to do any more.

Frozen Waterfall from Above

We reached the waterfall in about an hour, tied the horses and then went down a steep path to the bottom of the small canyon it was in. From above it looked nice, but not particularly impressive. From the bottom of the canyon, though, it was stunning.

We walked around for awhile and then climbed back up to the top, mounted up and rode a little further to another ger, where we had an excellent lunch. While we were eating, Lin overheard them say they were preparing to slaughter a sheep. We agreed that we would like to see this and so we were taken outside, where a sheep lay quietly with its front legs bound. Telling his little son to hold the back legs firmly, our host made a shallow slit in the animal’s belly. Then he stuck his hand in and, we were told later, pinched its aorta. With the other hand he held the nostrils closed. In a short time, with no real struggle or much evidence of discomfort, it was dead.

After it was killed, it was moved inside to a patch of freshly washed floor for skinning.

After this warm break we all decided to ride on our horses back to the ger camp where we were staying. When we got back another van full of people had arrived– this turned out to be the group of friends from the Golden Gobi that we had met, briefly, at the first stop. Their guide and the family were busy preparing a traditional meal– the real Mongolian barbecue, made by heating rocks in the fire and then putting them into the stew pot. It was a delicious meal. Afterwards I started to tease one of the members of the other group about their not wanting to stay with us the first night. It turned out that it was another group who had turned down the suggestion, not them.

Erdenee Tzu Monastery

The final day of our tour we headed to Karakorum, the place where Genghis Khan had his first capital, and Erdenee Tzu, the most important monastery.

Walls of Erdenee Tzu Monastery

The monastery, it turned out, was closed that day, so we spent the night in the last of our ger camps and went to see it in the morning. After a brief tour of some of the main buildings, we were taken further into the complex, where monks were chanting their prayers.

Stone Turtle Marking the Original Boundary of Karakorum

The monastery was large in interesting, but there is little to be seen of the ancient city of Karakorum (as opposed to the town that has grown up on the spot) beyond a couple of stone turtles– two of the four that originally marked the boundaries of the town. One of them was located right next to a modern memorial to the empire Genghis Khan built: a handsome tile four-sided depiction of the extent of the Khan’s conquests.

Originally the plan was that we would go back to Ulaan Bataar after this, but we discovered that we had inadvertently made off with the backpack of one of the girls at the first family where we stayed. She had been home from school on vacation, but would soon be headed back, so we needed to deliver the backpack. We were happy to have a little chance to say goodbye to the delightful old pair, the camel driver and his wife. Though it added a little to our travel time, this brought our time in Central Mongolia in full circle to a happy close.