Terelj - In the Ger Camp

On Thursday 30th, we spent the morning looking around Ulaan Bator. We saw the Gandan monastery, a collection of Buddist temples. While Buddism was suppressed under the Soviets, it has had a resurgence since independence. This monastery seems to have numbers of monks, including numbers of young boys. They have an associated Buddist University. We saw their library, which contains over 1 million Buddist texts in Tibetan, Sanscrit and the old Mongolian script. Mongolian Buddism is largely based on the Tibetan practices; indeed the last reincarnated king/chief lama was a Tibetan (he died in 1924).

Then to the National History Museum, where our guide took us on a tour and explained the history of the country.

Lunch at the Modern Nomads restaurant - good food and good Chinngis beer.

Then by bus to Terelj National Park. We were to stay in a ger camp for two nights.

Terelj is beautiful. Lines of rocky mountains border beautiful rolling valleys. Conifer and beech forests hug the lee of the hills. There are ger camps scattered in different parts, though largely isolated and unseen from each other. The gers are comfortable and extremely practical accommodation.

We walked in the clear skies and fresh air. We climbed hills and enjoyed the wildflowers. We bussed to see Turtle Rock (no big deal) and then to a Buddist Meditation centre recently built high up in the slope of a mountain (excellent).

We visted the home of a nomad family. We drank fermented mare's milk (very sour), Mongolian tea (milky and salty), had buttermilk with Mongolian bread and yogurt (all excellent). We learnt of the life of the family (seven children, 30 grandchildren). The old lady was 68 and had lived in that ger since getting married at 20. One grandson had three words of English - "hello", "goodbye" and "horse". In fact, these people's lives is bound to their stock and particularly to their horses. They are great horsemen from very early ages. Competitive races involve distances of 30 to 50 km bareback, with children of 6 to 12 as the jockeys. We saw mares being milked.

July 1st was Canada Day. Lyn had balloons and Canada pins, so we had a celebration in the "dining ger".

Altogether, a fantastic time.

Then back to UB. We did a little shopping and now are off to the train.