Buddhist Monastery

Temple interior

Monks chanting

Altar area

Praying monk

       Next we got into another UB traffic jam and crept our way to the UB Black Market.  It seemed that all 1.8 million people were there!  After walking through the huge parking lot we walked briskly through stalls of everything under the sun.  We entered where all the pieces for a ger are sold.  We passed boots, rugs, linoleum, furniture, satellite dishes, solar panels, horse tack, incense, leather, clothes, cashmere, and on and on.  Prices are cheaper here than in the stores.

Morin Khuur or horse head fiddle for sale

Traditional design on a chest in the Black Market

Fur for sale

Underwear

Women's clothing

Visit to a Mongolian shaman

Stop - in Mongolian Cyrillic

Stop sign in Russian Cyrillic

Fri., 6/28/13 - Ulaanbaatar to Moron to Khovsgol Lake
       This morning we flew from UB to Moron in the northern Khovsgol province.  Four 4-wheel drive vans picked us up and took us to a very nice restaurant in Moron for lunch.  We walked across the street to a supermarket to buy snacks for our three days at the new ger camp.  The reviews from fellow travelers on this tour thought the food here was skimpy and not so good and advised us to take snacks.  I bought crackers that look like Ritz to put my peanut butter on.
       The drive to the turn-off to the lake was 100 kilometers on nice paved road.  It is the best road we have seen in Mongolia.  We drove through the wide-open spaces with large herds of animals and larch trees on the tops of the hills and then our four vans went off road across the "pastures" to stop and talk to a brother and sister moving their nomad family ger to the river for the summer.  A yak pulled a two-wheel cart with rubber tires and a second yak was attached behind pulling timber, a satellite dish, and a solar panel but this cart was rolling on the wire rims - no rubber.  Tomorrow they go back up the mountain and mom, dad, and the two teenagers will bring down their herd of 100 animals.  It was a real nomadic happening!

Nomad family on the move

Nomad family on the move

Note the wheel, the satellite dish, and the solar panel

       The last 10 kilometers of our trip were off road.  It was raining again and we had more black mud and rocky road to navigate.  It was quite a ride.
        Our ger camp, Ashikhai Camp, is on the shore of Lake Khovsgo  Our ger is larger than the last one with two single beds, a queen bed (not made up), a dressing table, a low table, and four wooden stools.  We have in-floor heat so we don't need a fire in our stove.  The bathroom (three toilets and two showers, hot tub, two saunas, and a massage room - only the toilets and showers are operational) is not far away.  However, our ger leaks and it is still raining.  The staff has been mopping the floor and we have two basins catching drips.  We hope for sun soon.

Our ger at Ashikhai Camp

Ger interior

Ashikhai Camp Lodge

Sat., 6/29/13 - Lake Khovsgol
       Our first visit today was at a nomad's yak and goat ger.  The family has 64 yaks, 18 of which are milked twice a day to make milk tea, yogurt, and cheese.  Each yak gives about one liter of milk.  The yak hair is sold to make fabric, felt, or rope.  There is a female veterinarian in the village that vaccinates the animals.  When a yak dies, they dry the meat for food. We had to sit around in the ger while grandma fed us bread, yak butter, and yogurt. Outside she was drying yak curds into cookie-sized cheese.  We then watched the process of milking the white goats. Milking the yaks was like milking a cow.  The baby yaks and goats were cute.

Ger of the yak herder

The NBA is everywhere - even in nomadic Mongolia

Yak herder

Yaks

Mommas and baby yak

Milking the yak

Scenery at the yak farm

Bread and yak butter

Every ger is equipped with TV!

Grandma with a brick of tea

The family

Herder, drinking milk tea, and grandmother

      Milk tea is made by boiling water, adding loose tea, and then yak milk and salt after the tea steeped. We also had milk tea made with cow's milk, goat's milk, horse's milk, and fermented camel's milk. We missed sheep and reindeer milk.

Tea water is boiled, tea added and allowed to steep

Some milk and rice are added

The rest of the milk is added and brought to a boil

Curds from yak milk

Milking the goat

Baby goats

Baby goat