Sue and Paul Connolly: Florence and Lawrence and yaketty yak yak

Sand dunes, snow and the simple things of life.........vodka.
Paul and I once again had the opportunity of being chauffeured around the Mongolian countryside by Rod's friends Tumee and Suldee. We were picked up early Tuesday morning and headed towards Central Mongolia stopping for a camel ride before visiting the Erdene Zuu Monastery in Kharkhorin which is surrounded by a walled compound. This is Mongolia's oldest monastery and was the first Buddhist monastery in Mongolia. It had between 60 to 100 temples and also many gers inside the walls and up to 1,000 monks in residence. Unfortunately during the Communist times most of the temples, bar three were destroyed and many of the monks were killed. Our guide informed us that many of the statues were saved or stored by locals and this place remained closed until 1965.

On to the next stop which was along a road that changed many times. Smooth tarmac to completely rutted roads, via detours and tracks we were closing in our destination. As the sun went down so did the temperature and before long our first sighting of snow. Paul was very excited about this as this was his first experience with the white powder. Photo shoot stop followed by a quick nip of vodka had us warmed up and ready for the challenges along the way.

We had been booked into a small unfinished shop/lodge and by the time we got there the cook had retired for the night. Instant noodles purchased with a cup of tea and another shot of vodka had us sleeping like babies. The only thing was the toilet was downstairs and then a short trek to locate it outside. Paul did this in his shorts and Dunlop vollies! Up early with a quick snack and off to find the crater. (Horgo extinct volcano)

To get to the volcano we needed to cross an icy flowing river by way of a very rickety bridge A new bridge had been built but wasn't opened. I am not kidding when I said to Tumee...."You've got to be kidding me. We are driving over this bridge with all the uneven planks that are not joined together"? For my benefit Suldee and Paul got out of the car and straightened some of the planks then they both walked across. Knowing that Tumee swam like a rock I stayed with him in the car to drive across. The snow was absolutely beautiful and the trek to the top of the crater was memorable to say the least. After a snow picnic we headed off to the White Lake with the backdrop of the Khangai mountains to gaze upon.

Another treat for Paul and I was to be able to visit the Tsenker Hot Springs set between pine and larch trees. It was dark by the time we arrived so we settled into our bungalow as it was too cold for the gers. Most of the resort rooms had gone to some locals who were there to attend a wolf hunt later on that night into the early morning of the next day. Paul was about to get out his placard to save the wolf however Tumee said he would get out his placard to save the sheep. A group of monks were also staying and I believe they were from Tibet however living in India.

Due to me having a few vodka injections early in the day I had a hot shower instead of sitting in the hot pool. All the guys went off to the men's pool and immersed themselves into a hot bath of 40 degrees. At the source of the water it is around 86 degrees......you can see the steam. There are pipes all over the place, which all the villagers tap into. After a goodnight sleep we left and headed back towards UB calling into a Turkish Museum.