Trip Day 3 - Terkhiin Tsagaan Lake

05.27. – From Tsenkher Hot Spring to Terkhiin Tsagaan Lake (aka White Lake), sleeping in an actual building

The next morning, we had breakfast in our ger (some VegArt cinnamon buns and cashews and a dragon fruit), then tried to take a shower, since this resort actually had a shower. The water was merely dripping though, and really cold, so hubby decided to let it go, but I washed at least some parts of my body with that cold dribbling water. Then we were off, driving through muddy landscapes – we even encountered a Mongolian couple and a guy on a motorbike, the three of them trying to get the couple’s car out of the mud where it was stuck; our driver and Uka went to help them (we also offered, but they declined) and together they managed to get it unstuck; Uka was actually pretty cool behind the wheel, drifting out of the deep mud as the 3 men and the woman pushed the car.

Stopped at this rock 'shrine'.
We had to walk around it three times, throwing more rocks at it for good luck.

On our way to the day’s destination, the White Lake, we drove across a city called Tsetserleg. It was so interesting to see what a (bigger) city in the countryside looks like – not nomadic but definitely not like Ulaanbaatar either. People mostly seem to live in houses, and there are even a few buildings that have several floors, and sports centres and dozens of petrol stations and restaurants; but there are also yaks and pigs and horses snacking on the grass by the streets, and of course they only seem to have squat toilets (outside, for the most part, it seems).

Many (often abandoned) houses had trees (full-on gardens) on their roofs in Tsetserleg

Some parts were pretty modern

The colourful roofs (and no tall buildings) make these countryside cities really fun to look at.

Outside Tsetserleg, we drove over a mountain that was almost red in colour (all the colours are so washed-out looking in Mongolia, everything is dull at first glance, but the details are so diverse across provinces, we had much fun noticing the subtle (or not so subtle) differences whenever we got into yet another valley or over another mountain). Not much later, we reached a paved road, proper two-lane asphalt, the first time since the middle of the first day, apart from the paved main street of Tsetserleg. We drove another few hours (it was only about 4 hours in the car this day, the shortest drive we had) until we reached the lake, and after climbing a very steep mountainside in the jeep, we got our first view of the half-frozen-over Terkhiin Tsagaan Lake.

The mountainside road from Tsetserleg

This river looked pretty cool too
(and look at the trees on the other side, they seem so small - everything is HUGE here)

Crossing over a mostly frozen-over river. At the end of May.

The driver started a fire in the small house (it was a single room with a small double and two single beds, a table, and two chairs, and the fireplace/stove in the corner, with a portable sink with a small water tank above just outside, put there for us), then we had lunch. The family (apparently the driver’s cousin and his family) that owns the camp are vegans (due to their strong Buddhist beliefs) so they offered to make us food too. Another pleasant surprise. They made us vegan khuushuur (so much of it, we could only eat half of the heap, kept warm for us in a rice cooker) and gave us tea (not milk tea, for a nice change, as they don’t drink milk either). It was really good, and after lunch, we walked down to the lake (about 100 meters from the camp) while Uka and the driver were having their own (meat-filled) lunch and talked to the locals. The lake, with the mountains as backdrop, looked amazing. We went back to the house after a few pics, as Uka had mentioned that she wanted us to take a hike together after lunch.

Our first glance of the lake (yes, that is ice)

Our sink just outside the house

This yak was so cute - watched me pee quite a few times too

Vegan khuushuur made by the camp owners

Look how pretty it is!!

However, when I asked when we would go, she said we should leave the camp around 6 pm and rest until then, and since it was only 4 pm, we decided to go for a walk until then. We walked out to the small strip of land that arched into the lake. There was sand under our feet and the sun was shining (with such a force, at 2000+ m and in the end of May in Mongolia, it only feels this strong in Hungary in the middle of summer), the water clear and glinting in the light. But then there was a sheet of ice in the middle of the lake and massive blocks of snow on the shore at a few places. So interesting. (The outside temperature was about 8 degrees at this point.) However, it was a bit disillusioning how much junk there was all around the lake and even in the water. People seem to leave their trash everywhere. Even in the mountains and valleys we’d crossed, there was trash everywhere among the dung – bottles and pieces of plastic, mostly. It’s sad how Mongolians don’t seem to even try and keep their country clean. Although I must admit, it can’t be easy to collect and store trash out in the wild, as there are no garbage trucks coming once a day (or ever).

The 'old man rock' by the lake

And more pics of the lake bc it was beautiful

Look how clear the water is!

Rocks and water and a vast field of ice

Snow casually chilling in the sun (again, end of May)

We got back from our walk and had about an hour of rest (some of it we spent outside, sitting in the sun, but as soon as a cloud got in front of it and the wind picked up, it became really cold). Then we went on another walk, with Uka this time (which she’d called a hike but it was really just walking by the lake on flat ground, so it was a walk). We went to check out the signature stone columns/heaps by the side of the lake. We originally intended to watch the sunset from there but the sun seemed to not want to set (in fact, it got higher and higher up in the sky as we walked further and further away from the camp by the bottom of a mountain). So we just took a few pics, talked a bit, and went back to the camp to have dinner – the family made us rice, tofu with onion, and even some fries, as my hubby had requested fries.

Chilling in the sun between two walks

The signature rocks (just google 'White Lake Mongolia')

Loving the view (and climbing rocks too)

More lake pictures (with the rock)

dinner

After dinner, it was golden hour, the sun starting to actually set, after all, and so we went on a third walk with my husband. We took in the beautiful view of the sunset over the lake from the big rock formation (that Uka said was called Big Man Rock). I even took off my shoes and walked a few steps in the water. It was freezing cold (I mean, the daily high was 8 degrees and the lake is still partially frozen over, and this was at sunset) and I could barely feel my toes after a second in the lake, but I still stood there for a bit to enjoy the full experience. If there is a body of water this clear, I need to get in it, even if only up to my calves.

The sun just before setting behind the mountain.

My feet were painfully freezing, but totally worth it!

And more lake and reflections

The houses we stayed at (and the jeep)

On our way back to the camp, we saw a guy on a motorbike herding his horses back home, and their silhouettes looked amazing in the setting sun. We have also found another proper squat-toilet with walls and roof and everything (with no less than 4 stalls, actually), but we didn’t want to waste time and not get back to the camp before nightfall, as our phone batteries were basically dead at this point. (There was no electricity with the nomad family, of course, then we could charge the phones in the resort by the hot springs, but then we took many pictures all day and drained our batteries again. In this camp, electricity came back around half past 9 in the evening but went away again the next morning – apparently, they only have electricity in the evening, but they didn’t seem surprised by it so it must be a regular thing.)

Random guy herding his horses back home on the mountainside - on a motorbike

We put some more wood on the fire, used the wet wipes to ‘bathe’ (as we have done the two previous nights too before bed, might I add), brushed our teeth (that is something we did every night too, with some of our drinking water, spitting wherever we could), and had a quick pee outside. There was a big container at the ‘backyard’ of the camp that gave really good coverage from the camp and some of the lake, with a steep mountainside right in front of it, so the only way people could have seen me pee there was if they wanted to go by the mountain on that dirt road – and even then I could hear them approaching on their bikes. This made a perfect pee-spot for me which I have used enthusiastically while at the camp.

Fireplace in the house

At 4 in the morning, hubby got up again to start the fire (although I thought it would have been okay, since the house was better at keeping in the warmth than the gers before had been, it was cold but not freezing). Just a bit after 5, the driver came in, wanting to start the fire for us, but he realised we had already done that and backed out, leaving us to sleep some more.