Dalanzagad and Yolyn Am

Yesterday, we were about 10 hours south of Ulaanbaatar in and near Dalanzagad, which in Mongolia counts as a city ( just over 20,000 inhabitants).

The city has character and some charm, despite the majority of buildings being directly or indirectly Soviet style. ( Until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, much of the development of Mongolia was led and supported by the Soviets).

It's interesting to see how the restaurants are similar to those in the DDR, but with old-fashioned chinese furniture and exclusively Mongolian food. Some old people still dress traditionally, but that will be gone in the next 10-20 years. The only supermarket for a few hundred kms is interesting too. Inside it resembles a chaotic warehouse, with a disproportionate amount of space for sweets and biscuits. Since Mongolian dishes are overwhelmingly lamb and noodles, maybe there isn't much need for a broad range of goods.

In the afternoon, we went for a short hike (7km) in Yolyn Am, which is a canyon, with a frozen over river. The signs say there are snow leopards, wolves, bearded eagles, and ibex here, and indeed, we did see the latter two. The ibex stood 100m above us on the edge of a straight cliff face, blissfully unaware that one false step would mean certain death. The eagle was flying to teach one of its offspring.

Despite the frozen rivers, the night in a yurt near Yolyn Am was warm and comfortable thanks to better draught proofing and a stove that stayed on all night. Amazing improvement over the previous night.Read more