Categotry Archives: Thursday Thirteen
T13 – The Buddhist Monastery in the Illegal Mining Town
If I ever actually heard the name of this monastery, i didn’t get it written down, and I can’t translate the Cyrillic on the top of the building, so I’m not sure what to call it. 1. View from the parking lot. The place is on the edge of town. The building was built in 2011. The group dates back to 1990, and a proud to have such a long history. Remember, all religion was crushed under Communism.
T13: A Hike to the Slot Canyons
Yep, still Mongolia. We hiked in to the slot canyons. 1. This is the view at the end, looking back.
13 Pictures of Ulaanbaatar
By now you’ve probably noticed that I tend to mention Ulaanbaatar a fair amount. Considering it acted as our hub, this isn’t too surprising. It’s also the largest city and the political center of Mongolia. So, of course I noticed a few things. 1. We flew in to the Ulaanbaatar airport (officially the Chengus Kahn Airport) three times. From the air you can really see the river that runs right through it. We’re still a ways out in this shot, […]
T13 Making Cheese Mongolian Style
One of the places we stopped to visit was a family that runs a dairy operation. They have about 40 cows which they milk twice a day each. They use the milk to make cheese, “curd”, yogurt, and adik. All of this is sold to other families in the valley Step 1. Milk the cow. I’ll say more about this in a bit.
T13: Music Factory
1. Folk music in Mongolia is unlike anything I’ve heard anywhere else. They use duo tone singing like a rougher, less esthetic version of the Tibetan’s as well as horns, and a variety of stringed instruments like the Chinese. Probably the one that most typifies the country is the horse headed fiddle. They come in a variety of sizes with commiserate differences in register. What typifies all of them is the square box, long necks, and of course the horse […]
T13: The Camel Family
Toward the end of the trip we visited a family that raises camels in the Gobi Desert. 1. The family has around fifty camels. The grazing near the dunes isn’t very good, so they keep the camels in a different area and bring them in only as needed to give rides to tourists.
13 Points About the Reindeer People of Mongolia
1. The race of Mongolians who live off of herds of reindeer on the border with Siberia are called Dukha. There are less than 300 of them left, and they are steadily decreasing.
13 Thanks
Can you come up with 13 things you’re thankful for in 90 seconds? Here’s mine: 1. I’m alive. This one is top of the list most of the time. 2. I’m not in too much pain at the moment. There’s always something hurting, but right now it’s not enough to make #1 go away. 3. I have a great family. 4. I love my husband 5. He loves me back. 6. Same with my kids. 7. I have visited some […]
13 Mountains
You knew I was going to do this at some point. These particular mountains are all from the area just north of Ulaanbaatar where the beginning of my book is set. 1.
13 Places to Pee
I meant to do this weeks ago when someone first asked me. Sorry for the delay. As I mentioned before, it can be a little hard to find a place to go in Mongolia. Here are a few of the ones I spotted. 1. This was at the back of a yard connected to a shop along a highway. It’s as close to a rest area as I saw.
T13 – Dinosaurs
1. Mongolia has some rich deposits of dinosaur bones, especially in the Gobi Desert. 2. Flaming Cliffs in the Gobi Desert has a bunch. This is where the first dinosaur eggs were found.
13 Steps to the Aryabal Meditation Temple
Early in the trip we went for a hike up to a Buddhist Temple. We were supposed to do some meditation there, but the monk was on vacation, so all we did was walk up and back. 1. We started at the gift shop. 2. I don’t remember how many miles we went, but it was a good long hike.
