13th Century Park, Mongolia

Mongolia is also known as the Blue Sky, referring to their Shaman religion god which literally the Blue Sky. And indeed their sky is always the clearest blue with barely any clouds.

We began our journey to the countryside to visit the 13th Century Park where replicas of the settlements in the 13th Century were built, such as the King's palace, Shaman's house, Herders' houses. And so our bumpy 3 hours ride began..

I went there in October so the grassland has all given away to brown desert like scenery. The guide kept reassuring us that it was much prettier in summer.

Enjoy the pictures.

At Chinggis Khan Park, where supposedly Chinggis Khan dropped his whip long time ago.

Chinggis Khan's whip.

We climbed up dark, narrow staircase up the statue to emerge out of his.. crotch.. 

Here is the view up the horse's head.

The warrior's settlement.

The fattest I have ever been.. as Mongolian warrior.

The keeper's daughter, the cutest rosy cheeked Mongolian cherub.

Captivated by iPhone's front camera.

Struck a pose on the bed before the wood gave away and I was unceremoniously thrown down. No picture of me falling down as my companions were too busy laughing *phew*. I should note that noone helped me up from the bed for a few seconds while everyone was busy laughing. 

We quickly exited the ger before the keeper found out about the 'damage'. Hey I should sue the attraction for my grievous injury.. of ego, embarrassment and loss of face..

Arrive at the King's Palace for lunch. 

Hitler took Swastika from the Mongolians. It means power and is used for war purposes.

The grandest ger. All ger is round and has ventilation at the top for the heater placed in the centre of the ger.

Lunch was Mongolian traditional food. Meatpie. Taste like crispy naan with beef? inside.

Salty diluted soya milk. There was no water so I was forced to drink this. Yuck. I love my soya milk sweet please.

Beef/lamb? noodle. Anyway the meat tasted so strong that my companions weren't able to eat it. I was hungry so I ate quite a bit. The guide and driver slurped it down in minutes.

Real fox fur complete with head and eyes. Creepy.

Posing as Queen with driver as King. He was really enjoying himself. He also posed as warrior for my companion's shoot.

Lounging on wolves' fur.

Blue sky.

The Shaman's hut. The colourful wooden pointed spears are used to ward off evil spirits.

Sacred tree for prayers and offerings.

Look at the humanoid drawing in the Shaman's hut.

Riding a camel. If you play the video, you will notice that the camel is controlled through tugs on the huge stick piercing its nose. It made some whining sound when the handler tugged on the nose piercing to get the camel to kneel down. Pitiful.

Short camels. The Arabic camels are much taller.

Didn't get to ride a horse as the horses were 'moody'. The tourists before us apparently fell down and made a lot of noise, thus scaring of the horses. Anyway after hearing this story, it killed my enthusiasm. I didn't want to fall down.

Short Mongolian horses.

Baby cot in the craftman's ger.

Making flour. She gave us curd cheese when we went in as a sign of hospitality. Apparently it is polite to accept it. It was sooo sour your face can wrinkle from the taste. I thin I spit it out when noone's looking.

Lord of the Rings in Mongolia?

As expected in the countryside, there was no modern toilet with running water to do our business. We tahan for almost 4 hours on our journey back to be stuck in a massive jam in Ulaanbaatar. Desperate we jumped out of the stationary van and ran to a random hotel. SO relieved. When we walked back to our van, it had only moved 5 metres, sigh.

We went straight to the airport to catch the flight home and it ends my adventure in Mongolia. Many Europeans spend weeks exploring the countryside, horse riding and sleeping in campsite. While the scenery is no doubt breathtaking, I want my modern comfort and daily bath please. So I am really not sure if I would ever go back there for a holiday in the grassland.

One last picture of Mongolia. Blue Sky.

This is irrelevant but I must put this in. Gosh the best food I have eaten after 4 days in Mongolia, during my stopover in Korea. I love you Namdoo (dumpling).