2008 Mongolia
Sunday Aug. 17, 2008 Terelch National Park
Day 04 Submitted by Deborah Eimers  deboraheimers@hotmail.com

Since it is Sunday, we visited three different houses of worship.  We started by visiting Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral, a stunning new construction resembling a  brick yert with about 40 Mongolian and a smathering of foreign members, a Korean Priest and two African missionaries.

Religious stop 2 was in the mining town of Nalaih at a brick built Mormoon ‘temple’.  The poor young man from Utah, who is doing his two year missionary service, held up pretty well under questioning about where he gets his converts.

Stop three was at what is probably the smallest Muslim Mosque in the world and built of various materials. A talented horse-head fiddle player, the elderly Iman counsels on alcoholism and is seen as a fortune teller to the local non-Muslims to whom he gives advice.  It was interesting to note that several scraps of blue material were tied to a bare tree outside the front door of the Mosque.

Once again becoming ‘shaken tourists’ we continue on to Terelj Lodge, one of the many camping areas in the Terelj National Park.  Thankfully there was a business group meeting in the dining room so we go to have our lunch in one of the beautifully decorated yerts. 

After lunch and before dinner was free time.  Some hiked around the area, napped, read, or just let lunch digest before dinner which was again inside a yert and fabulously delicious.  After dinner we were treated to the horse-head fiddle music of Morin Khuur (at the right), who is a Mongolian National Treasure, and a younger, but almost equally accomplished musician. 

Before snuggling up in our yerts for the evening, we visited under the stars and wondered about living in such conditions, the wonderful music we had just listened to and out horseback ride the next day.

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