Trip Day 2 - Tsenkher Hot Spring

05.26. – From Orkhon Valley to Tsenkher hot spring, staying at Khangai Resort

In the morning, I had a short walk to the neighbours’ toilet – because they actually had one built outside their gers. It took about 10 mins to walk there, so they were pretty close, and it was my first time using a proper squat-toilet outside (instead of just using the ‘nature toilet’, as we started calling it with Uka, which meant stopping wherever we could find a tree, a bigger rock, a small hill, or anything to squat behind, and just getting it done). Breakfast was some oats for me (the family gave me hot water) and bread and cashews for hubby, who was super sleepy, even after I let him sleep in a bit after getting up at 8.

This is what all (better) squat toilets look like in the countryside (no doors, of course).

We said goodbye to the family and went to check out a waterfall quite close by. They said the waterfall was still ‘stuck’ the day before but as it was raining just before we arrived, the water started flowing and the waterfall was actually ‘working’, so we brought good luck to them. (At first I always thought these were only meant as a form of politeness, whenever someone we visited or Uka told us we brought luck for one reason or another, but I am starting to think they actually believe it. Mongolians are very superstitious and spiritual, in a non-flashy way.)

With the nomad family (kids away in school) in front of their ger

The waterfall

The waterfall was pretty great, apparently one of the biggest ones in Mongolia. From there, we drove to Tsenkher Hot Springs, leaving Övörkhangai (or Uvurkhangai) province and crossing over to Arkhangai. This off-roading also provided us with our first time being over 2000 m above sea level! We drove over valleys and across mountains and even through a forest, for about 6 hours altogether after the waterfall-stop, stopping twice to use the ‘nature toilet’. This country truly is beautiful, only you have to get out of the capital city. And then drive for days. But it’s just impossible to show with pictures or describe truthfully how vast and giant and interesting Mongolia is, and we’ve only been to Central-Mongolia during this trip. It must be experienced.

Herds and mountains - endlessly

Even more animals and mountains in the background

On the way, we drove across the village where the kids go to school, and stopped at the local shop to buy some cigarettes for the driver. I grabbed the opportunity and asked (okay, Uka asked for me) the shopkeeper lady if I could use their toilet. (In Hungary, or anywhere in Europe, your answer would probably be a hard no. Here, it was an ‘of course’.) I walked into their backyard through the back of the shop (and their house too, apparently), and – walking by the husband chopping wood – used their toilet (in a small wooden shed). On my way out, I looked up at the guy chopping the wood, and he looked back at me, completely baffled. I waved at him (grateful that I got to use their toilet) and he slowly raised his hand in greeting, as if in a trans, staring. It was so hard for me not to laugh as I walked back to the shop (the lady now breastfeeding one of the children right behind the counter, no big deal) and got in the car.

Just imagine what the poor guy must have thought, peacefully chopping some firewood in his own backyard in a tiny village in the middle of nowhere in Mongolia, when a white, blond lady walks in casually, enters his toilet without a word, then exits, waves at him cheerfully, and leaves. I may have been the very first (and last) white person he encountered in his life. He must have thought he was dreaming. None of his buddies in the pub will ever believe his story, I guess.

Random street in the village

The forest we drove through

One of the spots we stopped at to use the 'nature toilet'
(no good coverage but you can't be picky in Central-Mongolia)

Once we arrived at the hot spring valley, we had a late lunch (got there just before 4 pm) in the resort’s restaurant (rice and mixed veggies, a bit lacklustre but okay), then spent some time resting in our tourist ger. I am saying tourist ger because it was ger-shaped and had the customary fireplace/stove in the middle, but it was definitely a more luxurious one than anything nomads (or even people in ger districts in UB) live in. It was a lot bigger, had wooden floor, and huge and soft beds, not to mention four chairs and a table. (In all the gers I’ve been before, there is only a smaller table they put next to the bed for eating or playing on, and there are no actual chairs, only a stool, maybe two, as they usually sit on the beds anyway.)

View from the resort

The inside of the tourist ger (compare with the one from Day1!)

Tourist gers with windows and stone steps (this is the one we slept in)

We changed into our swimsuit/boardshort respectively, then went to soak a bit in the pools where the water comes from the hot spring, presumably healthy thermal water. It wasn’t such a special activity for us, as we have dozens of thermal baths in Hungary and almost every notable (and even less notable) city has at least one pool with thermal water with presumed healing abilities. I practically grew up sitting and splashing around in these. It was nice though, especially with the view of the mountains across the valley.

One of the pools

In the evening, I’ve made some pre-packaged bulgur-rice mix and tofu with carrots and onion for dinner over the ger stove, with equipment provided by Uka, and we also ate most of the pasta salad I’d packed for the trip. The staff had also started our fire beforehand so it was nice and toasty in the ger, and easy to cook over. It was raining outside anyway, so it was nice to be inside – even if our ger was actually leaking next to the bed. These gers can’t really keep the cold out, nor animals, apparently, as a small white squirrel (although I am pretty sure they aren’t actually squirrels as they live in the ground, like moles – I guess they are ground squirrels) ducked inside, took a look around, then ran out through a different hole at the end of the tent.

We went to bed around midnight, which is fairly early for us, but this trip was tiring, even if we spent most of it sitting in the car, bouncing in the back seat and gawking at mountains and horses and yaks and goats and sheep and valleys and rocks and dung and carcasses and mud. It was incredibly hot in the ger, I had to take off my pants to be able to fall asleep, but then of course I woke up cold a few hours later so I pulled them back up and pulled the blanket over us too. At 3 am, someone opened the door but backed out, presumably lost on his way back from the toilet or something. At 5 am, someone (an old man) from the resort came in to start our fire, as we’d agreed upon the previous evening. He took a long time getting the fire started, and hacked his lungs up while at it, so we spent about half an hour trying to ignore the poor chap before he managed to light the wet wood (remember it had been raining?) and left us to sleep.