Yolyn Am

The next morning, I awoke to a still very warm tent. so I went out to catch some fresh air. First stop was a cold morning shower and boy it was cold alright, somehow even colder than last night but twice as refreshing. I visited the nomadic family's tent to pay my respects by giving them some more of my milk tea which was slowly running out. I ran into Gana as well, he's taken a cold shower too. He smirked and told me "is good!" to which I heartily agreed. I love cold showers.

From the distance, a herd of camels were grazing and I went up to get a closer look. Nanami and Carmen also joined me afterwards. Soon, it was time to go and we said good bye to this memorable place, looking forward to where today was going to take us. Our next destination was Yolyn Am, otherwise known as the Valley of the Vultures or simply Ice Valley. Emily told me this was one of her main highlights and I was wondering how it could possible beat the epicness of the Singing Sand Dunes of Khongoryn Els. I was about to eat my words.

On the way, we saw a bigger caravan of camels, numbering to hundreds. Some more gazelles running around, and the usual horses. The terrain changed from deserts to grasslands to mountains. After several hours, we reached our camp near Yolyn Am where we got to rest in the tent for a bit. Hayata and Changyoon went to a nearby farm while we waited for Khulan to cook our meal. I went inside their lodge to find old Gana taking a rest, looking like an angel. He must have been so tired driving us around for so many days, even before the Gobi trip when I was with Emily.

When food finally arrived, Carmen cranked out her old speakers and the first song she played sounded so familiar, I couldn't believe that I was hearing this song a second time in Mongolia but I think it was Spiritbird again! Carmen so my reaction and thought I didn't like it and she was asking if she should switch it but I was like "Is this Spiritbird?" and she was like "Yeah!" I shared with her my experience with this song, and she told me she also gets goosebumps with it. Now I was really happy, with good food, good music and good people. All is well.

Now, I was planning on sharing with them some of the edibles I had for Ice Valley, all of them had a half gummy each while I took a whole one. Our roadtrip took us deep into towering mountains and we finally began our trek. It was around 4 kilometers and I was so ready to start, the effects were still slow but it was quite a beautiful place. Tall brown mountains on a cloudy day gave it a really dramatic earthy mood. I was wondering why it was called Ice Valley as there wasn't really much ice but the terrain was still quite breath taking. We encountered a small frozen stream, could this be it? No, couldn't be.

Hayata, Changyoon, Carmen, Khulan and I kept moving forward until we saw a baby yak that got separated from its herd, it was running around trying to find them and we tried not to get in the way. Khulan said it should be fine so they proceeded deeper but their pace was too fast for me, I wanted to take my time to enjoy so I let them go and waited for Ryo and Nanami instead who walked at a much leisurely pace. Together we made our way forward and at this point the edibles were starting to take effect. I was absolutely mesmerized and as if the high was one with the valley, now I could see why they called it Ice Valley. A huge frozen river was in front of us, at first we tried to go around it but when we realized it was unavoidable, we actually had to trek on the ice for the latter half of the trek.

I was ecstatic, I could see why Emily said this was her highlight. It was so unique, the energy of the place was insane and the sensory experience of feeling the ice crack under my feet was both exhilirating and a little bit terrifying. Everything was so majestic and I could see that Nanami and Ryo were so happy as well. We walked and took plenty of photos, Nanami helped me get my shot of the day too.

We walked on the ice until we ran into Hayata, Changyoon and Carmen, they were on the way back now. Khulan was there waiting for us at the end of the trek were the valley converged deeper and narrower, Khulan said it was dangerous to go beyond this point and this was where the trek ends. In this lake of ice, I was too satisfied. At the side, we saw a leg of an animal which turned out to be a horse. We were asking Khulan what could have eaten it and she said that it was a snow leopard. We thought she was doing one of her jokes again but turns out she was serious. A snow leopard! So close to the trail too, that was pretty dope.

I curiously asked if the water here was drinkable, she said that it was, it's very clean mountain water. At first, I thought she was joking again but when I realized she was serious, I couldn't pass the chance to try out some water from this powerful spot. I scooped up some water with my hands and put them to my mouth. The water tasted amazing, so clean, so fresh, so energizing. I was grateful to be able to drink a water from such a magical source. Nanami and Ryo were afraid that the water's gone stagnant and that it wasn't clean, but I trusted Khulan completely.

I thought the trek was already perfect, it couldn't possible get any better but boy I was so wrong. Khulan noted that there were yaks near yonder and I saw that from the top of the mountain, a herd was slowly descending. We waited and saw that more and more were coming until a huge herd were only a small stone throw's away from us. The hike turned from magical to straight up spiritual for me, being able to walk back with the yaks accompanying us was so emotional for me. It really felt like the Yolyn Am itself was seeing us off. They came down to drink the waters from the mountain as well. I could stare at them the whole day with plenty of photos in between.

Towards the end or the start of the trek I should say, I saw these stacked up rocks in the shape of a dome with a flag on top. I've been seeing a lot of these man-made structures around Mongolia, I saw Ryo bow to it in thanks so I asked him what it was. It turned out to be a make-shift stupa, so it's of Buddhist origin. I prayed and gave my thanks as well for such an amazing hike.

We also saw another leg, I asked Khulan if it was the same one. She said that it was, I asked her how she knows it to which she replied "I'm Mongolian", yes of course I wasn't doubting her skills but I was just curious what gave it away. She mentioned that it was the hooves, she remembered which was way too cool.

I went back such a happy kid, but the fun wasn't over yet.Read more