Mongolia - Kharkhorum

Morning in the Orkhon Valley

The last stop on our Mongolia trip was the ruins of the ancient city of Kharkhorum (also called Karakorum) which is part of the World Heritage Site Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape. It was a beautiful drive (as always) to get there, through wide open valleys, past rivers and over the rolling hills of the steppe. We stopped first in the nearby town of Kharkhorin for lunch (which I find interesting even though I do not understand the meaning behind the distinction of the town Хархорин (Kharkhorin) and the ancient capital Хархорум (Kharkhorum)).

Kharkhorum was the capital of the Mongol Empire under Ogedei Khan, the second Great Khan and son of Genghis Khan. We first visited the Erdene Zuu monastery, which not only one of the only surviving Buddhist monasteries in Mongolia but also the oldest. The temple was founded in 1585 using stones from the ruins of the city of Kharkhorum in its construction. The temple is surrounded by a wall with 108 stupas resembling a Buddhist rosary. The temple was ordered to be destroyed in the 1939 Communist revolution, and even though it was not completely demolished it did not pass through the period unscathed. It was only because of pressure from Stalin to maintain the monastery to display Communism's freedom of religion to international visitors that three small temples and the external wall survived. The surviving buildings were opened as museums in the 1960s and only in 1990 did it return to its original purpose and become a monastery again.

The temples which have been converted into museums hold Buddhist statues, art and tapestries, and the monastery is open to the public to visit. Unfortunately we could not linger too long as a big storm was imminent, and we had to race back to the van to wait for it to pass over.

Our last stop in Kharkhorum was the museum, which had artefacts that had been uncovered in the excavations of the ancient city along with models and so much information and history. It was  impossible to take it all in, and even though we had read up on the history of Mongolia it was still difficult to comprehend it all. In its height, Kharkhorum was an international, cosmopolitan city of religious tolerance with multiple mosques, temples, and churches.

We left Kharkhorum and drove toward Ulaanbaatar, stopping very briefly at the Elsen Sand Dunes (another large dune system - 80 kilometres long and 5 kilometres wide - but not quite as big as Khonghor Els) and stopped at a ger camp for our last night on the steppe.

It was a clear night after a few cloudy and rainy nights, so after watching the sun go down we did some stargazing and were able to see the Milky Way and our favorite Northern Hemisphere constellations. It was a good way to finish our trip. The next day we would drive back to Ulaanbaatar, try to fit as much sightseeing in the city in the afternoon and then it was back on a plane to Australia! Two and a half weeks had really flown by!

The river makes a 90 degree turn - the so-called 'Corpse Corner' where Mongols
defeated invading Chinese armies

The temple buildings (now museums) at Erdene Zuu

Golden Stupa

This small temple is thought to pre-date the monastery by about 200 years.

The active Lavrin Süm monastery at Erdene Zuu

At the edge of the Elsen Sand Dunes

A desert toad

A huge tourist ger camp on the hill in the distance

The sun setting on our last night on the Mongolian steppe

Mongolia - Horse Trek to the Eight Lakes and Return to Orkhon Valley

Horse trekking in the Eight Lakes region

We left the ger camp in the Orkhon Valley in mid-late afternoon. Because the horses are not contained in any pasture but are free to roam where they please, our guide had trouble finding them because they had wandered far away. But, he found them (with the help of our driver, who was not the type of person to just sit around waiting for something to happen) and brought them back to camp, saddled them up, and after he ate a quick meal we were on our way.

Because we started out so late our first day's ride was not quite as leisurely as it might have been and we did not have time to stop and take photos of the beautiful scenery. It was absolutely gorgeous, and the first day's ride was a little bit magical with the golden afternoon light shining on autumn colours in a beautiful mountain valley as we rode. This was definitely my favourite part of our horse trek, and the most pleasant due to the fair weather (even though it rained a little before we reached our destination), the easy terrain, and the initial euphoria of the realisation of a life-long dream. From the get-go it was apparent I had gotten the most difficult horse who would not pay any mind to my instructions, but I didn't mind too much (except for a bit of embarrassment) when he tried to gallop off before I could rein him in.

We stopped at a family's ger as evening fell. This was not like the other ger camps we had stayed in where a family had a few extra ger for travelers to stay in, as this family had only one extra guest ger which we stayed in and our guides stayed in the family's pantry ger. We got up early in the morning to watch the goats waking up (it was really cute, mothers and kids would sleep next to each other!) and the women of the family milking the yaks.

It was a beautiful, crisp sunny morning. The sun got quite hot as we headed off through the valley, and we passed a large ger camp where we saw French-speaking tourists getting saddled up for their horse trek. It got a lot cooler as we headed into the forest, left the trail and started going up. (We realised on the way back that we had left the trail because it was wet, muddy and rocky.)

Unfortunately as we got to the top of the mountain pass it started to sprinkle.. then rain.. then downpour. We were wearing our raincoats at least but it was still cold and wet! We stopped for a bit until it let up, then headed down the other side of the mountain pass into a beautiful valley, with stretches of golden poplars, wide open marshes and huge beds of volcanic boulders. It was difficult terrain for the horses to travel, through brambles and muddy marshes and the path was rocky and difficult. It is worth noting that even in the best of conditions, the only way to get to this region is on horseback! (It was a bit of a comfort that our horses were experienced trail horses, who knew the trail quite well I trusted my horse to get me there, which he did (in the end at least.))

We arrived at our destination around midday, which was the edge of one of the eight lakes of the Naiman Nuur Eight Lakes National Park. We ate lunch and rested a bit, looked at the lake which was surrounded by the same volcanic boulders we'd seen ever since the Orkhon Valley, and when the sun came out we went for an afternoon ride to the largest of the lakes. It was another beautiful ride! We were a bit more daring with taking photos from the back of the horse and got a couple snaps along the way. Our destination was a beautiful, clear alpine lake surrounded by forested mountains. But we could see dark clouds coming in... so we hopped back on our horses for a quick return. Unfortunately we couldn't beat the rain, and got completely soaked on the way back. But it was quite cozy with the fire going in our little ger, and we got our clothes (mostly) dry before the morning.

The next day we were to Orkhon Valley. Unfortunately, because it had rained so much the trail was even tougher going back than it had been on our arrival, and we ended up walking our horses down the muddy, rocky mountain trail. And my favourite part of the ride, the ride from Orkhon Valley to the first family with whom we stayed, we weren't able to ride it again as the first half had taken so much time our guide called our driver to come pick us up.

The good thing about all that rain was the Orkhon river was full and the Ulaan Tsutgalan waterfall was raging! It was really neat to compare it, just two days apart but with (what must have been) a lot of rain in between.

Day one of the horse trek: Stopped for the evening

Day two of the horse trek: dawn breaks over the herd of goats

Sleepy goats

This old billy followed us around for a while

Small Mongolian horses with typical Mongolian saddles. (My horse is the one
with his head behind the tree..)

Setting off. We didn't really know it but we were about to head up over
that mountain

View out our ger door at the Eight Lake

Beautiful little blue flowers... I looked them up in a wildflowers of Mongolia
book I saw at the airport, but have since forgotten what they were.

Setting off on our afternoon horse trek to Shireet Lake, the largest of the Naiman Nuur

The pack horse tagged along even though our guides tried to get him to stay behind.
It was kind of cute (but he was a slow ambler and a bad influence on the other horses.)

I couldn't get my horse to stand still and pose for a photo..

Climbing up for a better view

Pebbly gravel all around the lake

Heading back, trying to beat the rain

Watching the rain from the ger..

Clouds clearing the next morning

Our ger camp in the Eight Lakes region

Heading back

Stopping for a break on the ride back to climb some rocks for a view

Full Ulaan Tsutgalan waterfall