Archaeological Treasures of Mongolia - the second half

The first few deer stone and burial mounds were weathered and hard to read. The deer in the deer stones are stylized. The deer are supposed to take the dead spirits to the sky and therefor the legs of the dear are more wisps than fully formed appendages. Just outside Muron, at a site named Uushigtiin Uvur, there is a group of well preserved deer stones. And there is one with a face carved on the side of the stone. The deer stone have belts around them like the Mongolians wearing their dells. And like Mongolians there are tools hanging from the belts. I could clearly see an axe on the deer stone with the face. It is kind of impressive that people could have carved something that would say something to people thousands of years later.

We also visited the Hyadagiin Deer Stones after a bit of searching. These deer stones are in the middle of the countryside in a country that has virtually no road signs. It is amazing that the driver, Nagi, could find his way all over this vast landscape and find anything.

As the trip in time was slowly coming to an end, the scenery was getting more and more beautiful. The highlight at the end of this trip around Mongolia was three days at lake Hogsvol. Sometimes it is easy to be dismissive of pretty scenery. But in Mongolia, I think mother nature has created a work of art that is truly breath taking. Mongolia is an immense space, and the combination of lake, mountain, trees and animals, is inspiring. This is no doubt a harsh country, but there is a harmony and beauty that I think transcends the mortality. Like I felt before in Angkor Wat, the immortality of nature is not in having some live or be preserved for all time. The immortality of nature comes in the cycle of life and death of the plants and animals. The important thing is to enjoy life in the present, to have no regrets when our time is up.

On the first day at Hogsvol lake, my guide took me horse back riding. We had a Mongolian horse guide and we visited his house. We played a game with the ankle bones of sheep and goat. I drank milk tea from cow's milk. I have not eaten camel meat, or drunk Airag (fermented horse milk). I did have a sip of Mongolian vodka from a herder. But fortunately I had nothing turned out to be as repulsive as the yak butter tea I had in Tibet. I had a sore bum from three hours of horse riding.

On the second day, we climbed a 2500m mountain, Khyasaa Uul, to get a view of the 130km long Hogsvol lake. I knew something like this would happen to me in Mongolia. That is why I have been doing my best to walk and climb the hills in Guilin and Vietnam. I have spent up to eight hours a day walking in cities, but this four hour hike up and down this mountain was exhausting. I lost count of the number of times we had to stop so that I could catch my breath. I could have given up at any time but we had plenty of time and it is not that often that I have had to breath really hard. After two hours, we got to the top of the mountain, took a few photographs and it began to rain. And it was a pretty heavy rain so we started to make our way down the mountain. It was fascinating and a bit eerie seeing so many ovoo(piles of stone for prayer) up on the mountain. The view was worth the strenuous climb.

Today, my bum still hurts from the horse riding and my leg muscles are sore from mountain climbing. And then I went kayaking on a small lake next to the ger camp we are staying at. It was as difficult or strenuous as I thought it would be. But the worst thing was the swarm of flies on the surface of the lake. Fortunately, the flies did not bite. Unlike the mosquitos at the White Lake, which left long lasting bumps, these flies just swarmed. Very unsettling.

So after all the sights and adventuring, my journey in Mongolia is coming to an end. I will be flying back to Ulaanbaatar from a small town called Muron. This was always planned because there is only so much time and I have a train to catch to Moscow. But this trip was about 1800km. I am sure that I have more to see and experience ahead of me, but the raw beauty and truth of Mongolia, is unforgettable for me. And there is much more to see, at the very least I will need to visit the Gobi dessert to the south one day. Time to wash clothes and prepare for 5 days on the trans siberian express.