Trip Day 4 - Khorgo, Tsetserleg, Karakorum, Mini Gobi

 05.28. – From Terkhiin Tsagaan Lake to UB, through Karakorum

Knowing we would have a really long day ahead of us, we got up at 7, walking to that toilet we’d discovered the evening before. Hubby refused to use it once he realised it was a squat toilet (what else would it have been? It’s not UB, there were ONLY squat toilets in the countryside, apart from that one oasis we stopped for lunch at on the first day, but that was still pretty close to the city.) but I had no such qualms, even though there was a guy grunting and loudly shitting in the stall next to mine. Under normal circumstances, I can’t go number two if there is someone that could possibly hear me, or even be aware that I am going number two, but I got used to using ‘nature toilet’ and pooping wherever it was possible (meaning there was at least a shed around me (or complete darkness) during these few days. I guess I am back to normal now, but I can go back to my countryside-roots quite easily, apparently.

The fancy toilet and a garbage collecting place

This puppy joined us by the toilets and followed us back to the camp.
Dogs are generally very friendly and tame in the countryside (unlike Hungarian dogs).

After a quick breakfast (the family made us some veggie noodles), we left pretty early, at around 8. Our first stop was Khorgo mountain, which is an extinct volcano close to Terkhiin Tsagaan Nuur. We parked by the bottom and hiked to the top, about 100 meters in elevation. There were volcanic-looking rocks all around, and once the way became too steep, there were stairs to help you get to the top. From there, you could see parts of the lake and some mountains in the distance to one side, and the crater on your other side. It’s about 200 m in diameter, supposedly, and it looks huge! Well worth the hike (especially if you like hikes, lol). We’ve never been to a volcano crater before, and this was a strong start for sure. Being at 2180 m (btw, the hike up should have been hard on our lungs, but after living at 1400 m elevation for months and spending 3 days at around 2000 m, we could actually breath perfectly), in wonderful sunshine under the blue sky, we actually took our hoodies/jackets off while gazing out over the landscape. At 9 in the morning, in May in Mongolia. Wonders never cease.

The stone stairs leading up to the crater

View of the lake in the distance (behind the mountain)

The volcanic crater - it was HUGE and breath-taking

Once we trekked back down to the car (much slower then the hike up, as my knees still have a hard time descending, especially on super unfirm terrain like these small rocks), we started for Tsetserleg again. We stopped there for lunch, at a restaurant ran by Uka’s friend. She was a nice lady and made us vegetarian lunch – full of eggs (really, really good scrambled eggs though, we ate some of it) and cheese (only ate a small bite of that to try, not worth it). Again, people here quite often don’t get that dairy and eggs also come from animals.

One of the big buildings in Tsetserleg

From Tsetserleg – where we got to know from Uka’s friend that there is some kind of livestock disease that could be the reason for so many animals dying – and us seeing more carcasses than would be normal – and possibly contribute to meat-shortage – we drove to Karakorum, the ‘ancient capital’ of Mongolia, from Chinggis Khan’s time. This took us back to Övörkhangai province.

Once we reached Karakorum, we visited the Erdene Zuu Monastery, the oldest surviving Buddhist monastery in Mongolia. They also have a building complex which used to be a monastery but is a museum (open for visitors) nowadays. We looked at all the Buddha statues and depictions of protection (?) gods (quite terrifying, to be honest). Also, Uka told us that this was a ‘yellow’ Buddhist temple, as opposed to the stricter ‘red’, which could also be seen on the scarf colours they used around the Buddha statues. We walked around a bit, used a (non-squatting! although kinda dirty) toilet in the corner, then got back in the jeep to start our long drive home (at this point, it was 5 pm).

The building in front of the 'museum'

The 'museum' with these 'fences', apparently a gift from China

The place was huge but mostly empty

Door knockers in the monastery

These white things surround the whole complex -
supposedly some 108 of them, which should be an important number in Buddhism

Buddha statue in one of the temples
(there were 3 - for the 3 stages of Buddha's life)

On our way home, we stopped three times to pee (in actual squatting toilets we found by the road/petrol stations), getting used to ‘nature toilets’ so much that we didn’t try to faint from keeping it in anymore. I was mostly gazing out the window and reading on my Kindle, hubby dozing off a few times. When we reached the small strip of land that is a ‘mini-Gobi’ about 2 hours outside UB, we asked the driver to stop (as Uka had promised we could stop to check it out on the way back). We climbed a sand dune (first ever time in a desert, even if super small, and basically not even a desert at all, which only makes it even more interesting, imo), grabbed a handful of desert sand, smiled at the camels, then got back in the car for the last leg of the trip.

Can you spot the camel?

Waves in the sand!

Gobi sand dunes

We got back to UB pretty late, and there was a traffic jam in the outer parts of the city. A traffic jam! At 10 pm on Sunday evening. This city is crazy. Took us another hour almost to get home. By the time the driver dropped us off (at half past 10-ish) at our apartment building, he was impatient and driving like crazy. In the whole duration of our trip, he was amazing, but apparently even his patience can be tested by stupid and reckless drivers and a freaking traffic jam at 10 in the evening, after having driven almost non-stop for 4 days.

Sunset on the road