Day 1

Got on the road around 10am, accompanied by some Mongolian rap courtesy of Bimba our driver.
We headed towards Ambergayasalat monestery in the north, passing mountains of the hangai mountain range as far as the eyes can see, dusted in snow, small gers with herders on horseback, dotted throughout very sparse countryside. I'm surprised at the abundance of wildlife, both domestic and free. I saw my first double humped camels this day...and a dog that I mistook for a wolf, plenty of birds, Mongolian hybrid yak cow's (they're very hairy!), Sheep, goats, and of course many, many horses.
We stopped for lunch by the road, perhaps the only road going north, the driver, Idra, says to me reassuringly "no meat no meat.....just a little bit of sausage".... I laughed at had to explain. The Mongolian people, understandably, do not quite get the idea of vegetarianism. They are survivalists, through and through, eating white foods in the summer and red foods in the winter, sharing with eachother the odd leg of a cow. Maybe throwing in some green food, maybe. Creating any and every item of clothing you can possibly think of from any and every part of any and every animal you can think of. I have the upmost respect for them.
Ambergayasalat Monestery is nestled 35-40km off road, after a rally drive through a frozen river, trying to follow some sort of direction I think by intuition, we arrived in the cul-de-sac of the mountains. Sat in the base is the monestery. I was overcome with a sense of reflection, peace, calm, stillness. Home to the monks and families of monks who still attend the monestery, we were offered a place to stay in the ger and wooden house of one such monk. We kept the wood fire going throughout the night to keep us warm.Les mer