Our first foray out of the city was to Aglag monastery, about an hour’s drive north of Ulaanbaatar. A friend of Alex’s had recommended a brilliant guide to us, who helped arrange the excursion. Bayka has since helped with almost all of our subsequent trips, because doing anything without a good grasp of Mongolian language and organisational structure is, at best, impossible, and at worst, like having your thumbs screwed.
So, “our driver” arrived at 8am outside our building and picked us up in a battered people-carrier. He was wizened and had prison tattoos all over his hands. Reassuringly, he brought along his gorgeous 5 year old grandson, who bounced around in the back (no seatbelts, obviously) and kept his grandad company.
We communicated by calling Bayka, and passing the phone between us and the driver and back again. Totally “legit”, as Alex would say.
This was our first glance of the Mongolian steppe. It was. So. Big. And brown. With a hint of green. There were gers! And horses! And a lot of dusty hillsides.
We took a left up a steep dirt track, and arrived at the bottom of a rocky, forested hill with the monastery glinting near the top. Besides inventive paintings of hellfire and torture, the monastery included a bizarre chimeric taxidermy room. This was filled with “monsters” of amalgamated rabbit heads, turtle shells, goat parts and shark teeth, eagle talons with sheep haunches. It was strange… We smiled and nodded, and the monk let us take a few cheeky snaps so that you guys would believe us.
The next feature was a meditation rockery, full of carved boulders. Ironic that my first chance to get some climbing on Mongolian rocks was thwarted because the Buddhists had got there first! Better luck next time…
The sculptural highlight was a granite rock cock (see below). We had fun clambering through tiny passages beneath the boulders, or squeezing between them. It was like a religious obstacle course. The view was beautiful – all the better for achieving enlightenment!
Even this little trip would have been so hard to arrange without someone translating the whole way. We’re a long way from home, and the language barrier is a huge obstacle.
The Mongolia Ambulance Project 