Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Week 5 - Mongolia - Emily Van Torre

Сайн байна уу! (Hello!)

Waw, I have to say that the ballet yesterday was A M A Z I N G! I think I’ve never seen such a wonderful performance in my entire life. It was like I was in a movie or something, it all felt just so real. OK, I was hooked. But enough of that. We had to move on.

Today, we went to visit the stunning Khövsgöl Nuur, also known as the Blue Pearl of Mongolia. Khövsgöl Nuur is the largest lake in Mongolia. It’s about 136 kilometers! The water of this lake is so pure that you can easily drink it.
This must be one of the most beautiful places on earth. The lake made me so calm and so quiet, it was unbelievable.
This must be one of the most beautiful places on earth. The lake made me so calm and so quiet, it was unbelievable.

To make it even more spectacular, we went horseback riding around the lake.
The horses over here are rather small but hey, don’t underestimate them, they’re very fast and strong!

We spent two hours and a half horseback riding and the view was tremendous.
After that, our guide offered us some pancakes which were delicious with the yak milk tea. I’ve never had yak milk tea before but I’ve got to tell you, this milk tastes just as regular cow milk, delicious!

Then we moved on towards the Naran Tuul Market. This market is also called the Black Market and is one of the biggest in Asia.
First we had to pay an entrance fee of Tug50. 1 Mongolian togrog or tugrik is about €0.00059, just to give you an idea.
Besides, the Mongolian market is still growing and, obviously, the main economic activities in Mongolia are agricultural.
Luckily, the political influences on the economy are positive because the government wants to improve the economy. A way of doing this is by introducing a livestock insurance for herders
because the mortality rate is absurd: 50%!

Enough about politics and economy. The reason why we went to the Market is to buy a ger – a traditional Mongolian tent – and other stuff for the camping trip that was waiting for us that night. We were about to spend the night in a ger camp on the shores of the Kherlen River.
We spent our money on a lovely del, a traditional Mongolian suit. We also bought wood, horse tail and dried leathers to build our ger.

It was almost dark when we arrived at the Kherlen River. We immediately started building our ger. Pffft, what a tough job! Luckily for us, Mongolian people are very friendly and willing to help so it went easier and faster than planned.
After an exhausting but fulfilling day, we slowly drifted away towards Dreamland…

Goodnight folks!
xoxo Emily


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