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Itinerary: Drive 4 hours
back to the air port. Have lunch in Moron and pick up Sue and
Beverly. Ulaan Baatar . Music show & Farewell dinner
Reunion and Conclusion to the Case of the Missing Tool
Stupendous sun rise. there was fog covering the lake.
On one side a full moon was setting and other
other side the rising sun made the earth look like it was bleeding .
Reunion and Conclusion to the Case of the Missing Tool
The staff at Natures Door Ger Camp lighted our ger
stoves at 0500 to help us stay warm while dressing and packing our bags
for our departure this morning. They also provided a lovely breakfast of
museli, yak yoghurt, black current jam, and toast, and just when we
finished it, they brought out plates of eggs, cheese, bread and sausages.
Another Big Breakfast! We departed at 0630 with a warm send off by the
energetic Natures Door staff who had taken such good care of us during our
two night stay – providing extra blankets, replenishing the ger stoves at
0400 if requested, warming up the water for hot showers in the early
evening and keeping the compost toilets very clean.
During the bone shattering ride back to Moron the
mountains appeared very different in the early morning light in contrast
to the late afternoon-early evening light of our trip out on Sunday. The
group arrived at Moron late morning to meet up with Bev and Sue, who had
stayed in town so Bev could recover from being ill. She was much better
and had, the day before, visited the small local Buddhist temple, built in
the 1700’s, which is currently being reconstructed. It had earlier housed
2,000 monks and recently acquired a new and large statue of The Buddha,
carved out of a single piece of granite. Bev had good care and help at The
100/50 Degree Hotel and was delighted to be able to rejoin the MeliTour.
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We departed Moron at 1415
via an Eznis Airways SAAB 340 B prop jet which took off from a dirt runway
and arrived back in UB at 1530. Boloroo successfully retrieved Jim’s
confiscated tool from the Director of the Airport Office of Dangerous
Items, thus resolving the Case of the Missing Tool. The traffic was light
on our return to the Edelweiss Hotel, which by now feels like a second
home. After checking back into our rooms, retrieving our checked luggage
and a quick change, we departed for the 1800 performance by the Moonstone
Ensemble at their theatre. A gloriously costumed cast performed
traditional music on local instruments, including the morin khur (horsehead
fiddle) and the khuuchir (a smaller stringed instrument), a two-foot
square bass, a wooden flute, a flat harp (zither-like 6 foot plucked
instrument) and something similar to a vibraphone. The melodies produced
by this ensemble would surely baffle even Honneger. The performance
included throat singing by both female and male artists, dances, and two
female contortionists who performed mudras of The Buddha backed up by five
dancers posing as Avolokiteshvaras.
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We finished our tour of Mongolia with
dinner at the Modern Nomad restaurant where we were served a traditional
Mongolian dish khokhog (meat and vegetable stew) served in a small wooden
bucket that contained hot rocks. Boloroo instructed the non-vegetarians to
pick up a rock and roll it between hands before eating the stew. This is
said to relieve tiredness and improve blood circulation. Jim complied and
burned his fingers. The veg alternative was a tasty noodle dish.
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Meli asked each of us
to describe in one phrase their Mongolian experience – vast, the Blue Sky,
exotic wild life, rutted roads, solitude, yaks, and ever changing
landscape were some of the offerings. Meli gave each of us a Mongolia
animal memento (horse, camel, yak, sheep, goat or snow leopard) to remind
us of our Excellent Mongolian Adventure. What a trip
it has been! Anyone ready next year for the Yak Festival or the Tsaatan
Festival at Khuvsgul Lake in July, or the Golden Eagle Festival in
Bayan-Ulgii Province in September, or the Lunar New Year in February? |
