Baga Gazariin Chuluu

Today we were going back to Ulaanbataar's direction with one last sight to see, Baga Gazariin Chuluu. Really unique natural rock formations. We freshened up in the morning and had a hearty breakfast, Khulan always made a ton of food and we were kinda sad that we couldn't finish them. Today, we had even had sushi which was pretty international.

We had lunch again in the middle of nowhere, it was much colder that day so except for Ryo and I, the rest ate their share inside the jeep. As usual, it was another 6-7 hour ride but it was always palatable with the amazing scenery. I had one last edible left that I saved until we passed through Mandalgovi, the same place we stopped by to get gas in the first day. Taking that in, listening to White Tara mantra, the ride became extremely profound and I had really deep insights.

When we stopped over for a break, the sky was looked so beautiful and with the greenery of the grasslands, I knew it was going to be a good day. We finally got to our camp maybe a couple of hours before sunset, our group separated with Hayata and Changyoon with me, Ryo going off alone and Nanami and Carmen chilling back at camp. Huge props to Bobbi as she really knows how to make the tour, the camp was situated in a huge field between mountains and it was breathtaking to think this is where we were staying tonight, I felt like a king.

I asked Khulan where would be the best spot to view sunset, I had wanted to go to the back mountains but she directed me to the rocky mountains up in the front, of course I trusted her judgement and told Hayata and Changyoon to head that way with me.

Baga Gazariin Chuluu didn't disappoint, giant rock formations forming these cascading like structures that stretched towards a rocky mountain towering above the rest. It felt extraterrestrial, I've never seen a place like this in my life. As we walked deeper into the the rocky labyrinth, it felt like we could get lost (spoiler alert, I did). I shared that we shouldn't go to deep and they agreed so we found ourselves some giant formations to climb on. We ran into Ryo as well, Hayata and Changyoon took their tops off and started to do some push ups on top of the rocks for a video while Ryo helped shot. I started to meditate on top of my chosen rock, feeling the wind caress my face, embracing the sharp cold, getting grounded by the earth. The energy was mighty here.

Ryo went ahead and told us which way the camp was. Hayata and Changyoon were saying that they were going back to get the girls and said good bye but then Changyoon then asked me if I was meditating, I said yep, they shared a look at each other and Hayata was like "I wanna try meditating too" so the two of them found their own boulders, Hayata to my left and Changyoon to my right and so the three of us continued meditating in this place. As the sun set, the wind's icey touch got even colder.

After half an hour of meditating, I needed to warm up my body, I saw Changyoon was already wandering about so I tried to find an even higher vantage point to watch the sunset. I crossed over to the other side and saw that there was another nomadic family with a farm and animals at the bottom. I found the spot that I wanted and would take refuge time to time behind the rocks to shield myself from the harsh wind but eventually I simply sat and watched the sun go down behind some clouds. I saw that Hayata and Changyoon went ahead so now I was left alone in this beautiful desolate place.

I had the idea to check out the nearby nomadic family and maybe make my way around the mountains to circle back to my camp. This was a huge mistake on my part as I did go down and did see some cute animals but eventually it didn't seem like the path was going where I wanted to be. It was just a huge expanse of nothingness, and the more I went forward, the more my doubt grew that this was the right place. I then decided to cut off and go diagonally to where I thought the camp might be, going through the rocky maze again. Another stupid mistake, I kept going forward thinking that this could be it, the camp should be here only to end up in a field of nothing again. At this point, the realization set in that I could seriously be lost right now, it was getting darker and colder by the minute with the sun already below the horizon. I checked my phone, I had no signal, no wi-fi (not that I would be able to find my camp if I had any) and I realized it was at 2% left, I could have used it as a flash light but now it was getting bad. I tried to remain calm but definitely started to run a bit more, backtracking and chanting the Green Tara mantra. I had a plan to use the biggest mountain as a landmark and to go back to the nomadic family to ask for help but at the same time I also trusted that Green Tara would help, then I heard birds. This place was devoid of life and I didn't see or hear any birds the whole time I was meditating and wandering around, suddenly there were the chirping of birds. I don't know why, but I felt like the birds might show me the way. I wasn't that stupid to just go for it, of course I had plan B which was to go back to the nomadic family, but it seemed like it was going to the general direction of my camp, back to where we started. I just followed the bird.

The bird changed from one direction to the next, I have no idea if it was the same bird or not but it changed direction 5 times across large distances, were there a lot of birds or just this one? I could constantly hear the chirping, I kept on praying the Green Tara mantra all throughout. There was one opening towards a field, it looked a bit familiar as I could see the back mountains. I was thinking of going left but the bird went right, so I went right and was absolutely dumbfounded to find my camp right there. I immediately thanked Tara and the spirit bird who helped me find my way back. With a huge sigh of relief, I went to the nearby farm to look at the sheep and back to my tent where everyone was worried about me. I tried to play it cool, "I was just hiking around" but that was really a life-threatening situation for sure. Well, it's not the first time I found myself in that situation, but it was a time for gratitude either way.

I ate dinner heartily and was happy to get the DJ priviledges again as Carmen said I had really good tunes. I also opted to join the card games for the night, finally the whole group was playing for the first time in a long time. We played GoFish first and then Carmen taught us how to play this Dutch card game that's similar to Uno.Read more