We left Mongolia after 20 amazing days, smelling like mutton and with a lack of vitamins, but with the most rewarding experience. Our new destination, China! We took the Trans-Mongolian from UB, 30 hours non stop to Beijing. One interesting thing about this rout is that mongolian rail lines are based on the russian's, which are wider than the chinese, so at the border the train stops to get all off its gauges changed, coach by coach for 4 hours... then back on track.

...and last but not least, Khongor Guest House. The yellow building at the back, runned by Tooro and his familly, they are great and friendlly.

...UB circus...

...Skeletons of two dinosaurs intertwined in the last battle, one predator and another a herbivore, are proof of a fierce struggle for survival 70 million years ago.

Here is where jurassic park started...

...the Natural History Museum......

...a mongolian citizen entering his "home"......

This is UB. ....The Parliament and.... mongolian soldiers??

from left to right, our friends Dan, Marcia, Zayka, Loya and us with "furgon" at the background

a bit of civilization, UB at the distance

Nico, Miikka and Mikko... kippis!

on the highway to UB

Amarbayasgalant Khiid -both buddhist temples and the monks gers

On a very rainy day, after departing the frozen lake, we where heading towards our last stop on route - Amarbayasgalant Khiid. The heavy rain, though, did provoke some unexpected and difficult moments. The amazing thing was how the jeep did not die at the end...

our friends Nadine and Jerome, next to the drivers/friends Loya and little Budha

Marcia, Zayka and me

High up in the mountains that surround the lake you can find a different type of nomads that are called Dukha's. They have reindeer heards and their homes look more like teepees, rather than ger's.

Dan and me

Khovsgoll Nurr near the Russian border is 262 meters deep. It holds 0.4% of the worlds fresh water.

our nicely heated ger in the middle of the woods

the mongolian youth

the picture of arrival

To get to the shore of the lake we had to ride horses for almost 6 hours on russian saddles -a tiny pillow over two pieces of wood. You can follow a dirt road by car if you prefer, but it was worth the effort, the landscape is just amazing!...

When you travell north for 24 hours -mongolian travelling time is one third of the west, you arrive to this place. This is Khovsgol Nuur National Park, an alpine pristine lake, cousine of Baikal and the second oldest lake on earth... more than 2 million years old. It is said that both are conected underground, but so far that is just a myth. The sorroundings are alpine forested mountains plus the Yaks. The lake has for most of the year a thick layer off ice and temperatures drop to a max. of 18 degrees.

...mmmm interesting! a comunist rally before elections near Erdenemandal.....

it was time for the lady's to loose their winter jacket

......next stop, another ger camp near Erdenemandal. Early morning you start by drinking mongolian tea -goat milk with some green tea leafs and salt, plus eating the tasteless goat cheese hard as a rock.

cotiiii!!!, where's the meat... i'm hungry

real mongolians

their amazing itinerant camp area

does this horse look dangerous?

we had an improvised stop at this family ger... it ended up being the funniest horse ride -didnt let go of my horse, the best milk tea with salt, and... best of all, we got to wear their traditional clothes!

Saito's farewell

From left to right, bottom to top:

us, Zayka, Loya, Saito ...japanese with traditional mongolian hat, Marcia and Dan.

family portrait before Saito (middle with hat) heads back to his island... For his farewell we ate an amazing mongolian barbecue prepared inside our ger. The same stove, that thanks to Dan, remains warm all night, becomes the kitchen in no time. We will miss Saitos noices and his entomology intrest.

...be carefull from the dog, be carefull from the fire...

instructions on how to behave inside a ger!

remains of the buddhist heritage, Erdene Zuu Khiid... where you can see Zanabazar's work, the famous teacher sulpture Lama; "Michelangelo of Asia".

After hours of endless curvy dirt paths we finally reached Kharkhorin, ancient capital of Mongolia under Khan empire, set at the foothills of the nice Khanghai Mountains. The ruins of the ancient capital, the Erdene Zuu Buddhist monastery, the vendors selling all kinds of souvenirs and the nice hot shower made it a perfect and loaded stop after so many days of "only landscape". The mosaic in the picture above depicts when, with Genghis Khan, Mongolia became the largest contiguous empire ever! From 1206 to 1279 it reached 22% of the worlds total land area. (cyan, mongolian territory today) The monument is on the top of the hill with great views at the valley, where once stood the empires capital before being moved to Beijing.

... and maby some meat as well

at Arvaikheer market, on a stop for food and WATER

wild horses

friendlly or to much vodka?

Zkaya and me, immmmposible...

amazing skies, always there

and... the most essential stop... gas refill. The next gas station would be at least 7 to 9 hours away, or 300 to 400 Km. !!!

the images above are things we usually saw during rides from spot to spot; like falcons, horse heards, drunk mongolians on a bike in the middle of nowhere and endless roads...

Gobi sunset!

...the route to one of the highest peaks

resting like and with the camels...

after the 5 hr ride and a squeezed situation between 2 humps...

At sunset we arrived at Khongoryn Els -sand dunes at Gurvan Saikhan National Park. ...but these sand dunes are quite special as they are laid out as a strip of 80kms long, 10kms wide and 300m high, in the middle of the vast valley. They look like superposed, carefully arranged in the sorrounding, because curiouslly at foot of the dunes you could find herds of horses and camels on a green landscape... an intresting contrast!