What a curfew does to someone! 05.07.2008

After the riots, the country was on a State of emergency, with a night curfew... alcohol was once again banned in the country! (yes! i know!!!!) anyway we got together at Sarah's place/balcony and enjoy the rest of that little beverage we all still had at home! It makes me realise how much of a teenager i still am... Can't have it - I want it!!!!!

Missing our Senior Ruth, who once again escape the ban!!!! lucky cow!

Alcohol ban? who said that?

Latino Party (28.06.08)

Nadia's and Antonio's Bday... It also was the "San Juan" a pretty popular Venezuelan holiday, or just an excuse to have a Latino party at the Xanadu gallery...

some salsa...

Some tambores de San Juan

the traditional Pinata!

Which felt instead of breaking...

Summer Conference (18-20.06.08)

Twice a year we all get together to discuss point of common interest... work yes, but also a good excuse to see each other and enjoy! specially during summer...

The camp we stayed at
Resting by the river

or washing clothes...

And the traditional Mongolian bbq is a most!

for a country where it never rains... we had a fair amount of rain, not very practical when you waiting for the train on a non-cover platform...

Conversation with a Shaman

Lake of Khuvsgul, the cradle of shamanism in Mongolia...
An uncertain date
An uncertain time
Some information might be lost in translation...

We enter the ger and direct ourselves to the west side, the shaman is on the right and there's a few people around her. She smiles, i smile and think "what am I doing here?" I've been given Mongolian tea, we wait and nothing happens, she's taking with the people around here. We wait and I start getting a bit nervous...

Suddenly she asks "what do you want to know?",

I go blank... "I don't know", I say, "I don't have a particular question..."

She then looks through me, those little slanting eyes undress me (it feels that way at least). And she says something along the lines:

You had a boyfriend but another one is coming, you will meet him in the year of the rabbit (2011). You will only have one child, a boy.
Hmmmmmmm I guess I'll have to adopt the 3 other children then! My cynicism reaches the highest when i get nervous.
I do still have to ask, what do you mean I had A boyfriend?, i had a few not many but more than one...
"It is true but you only had one that really counted"
Touche!
"You lost him, but next time you'll be clever you will choose right..."

To try to recover composture I ask "what about my professional life?"
"You will go south" "you do a good work, charity"
Again, cynicism, "I guess i don't need to unpack my bags then!"

To wrap it up she says
"Your life in general is good, you will have a good life... But you need to be careful, to take care of it"

She goes around the other 3 friends and then excuses herself because she wont be able to go into a trance as she's been travelling all day, but her disciple will... The teenager girl who serve us the tea start getting prepared... some incense is burned, she gets dressed, and takes the sort of massive tambourine and start chanting with the head inside it. A guy is behind her ready to catch her. After a few minutes she asks (the shaman has to interpret to our translator as the girl is mumbling) for the two people of the year of the sheep to come in front of her. How did she knew???? We kneel down and she starts dancing and hitting the tambourine above us.... she says to me "you have problems with your legs (it's true my knees are screwed) you need to respect the mountain and the rivers, you have to give them offerings...." She keeps on going and call the 2 people born in the year of the rat (i think)... does the same and after a while she collapses....

We are given some incense that we have to burn in our home, to clean up the negative vibes...

I'm baffled, i really am!

NB: I never got to express my cynicism out loud... It was all happening between me, myself and I!

Lake of Khuvsgul, 11 days, at least some holidays! (07-17.06.08)

The first real holidays! until now I've managed to do little trips around the country and specially UB during the weekends or sometimes combine work with pleasure. This trip was my first real holiday! I heard of Khuvsgul before I came to Mongolia, it was and still is on my top 3 list of places to visit while I'm around this end of the world (want to go back during the winter when the lake is frozen). For different reasons of course, but the scenery was meant to be one of the most outstanding of the whole of Mongolia (I do agree know that I've seen it), and also because is the cradle of shamanism (what remains).

There is almost 800 km from UB to Hatgal (the soum/town by the lake), as an European you'll think it takes 8 hours to get there... that's the math my head does automatically anyways, but it takes 20 hours of driving non-stop. When planning the trip we decided to take advantage to see the Amarbayasgalant Monastery (one of the few that didn't got destroyed during the purges), and take it easy, so: 4 days of driving up, 5 days by the lake and 2 day to come back.

I took around 460 photos during this trip and it's been so hard to select only a few... You know is true there's not much "to see" around here, you can drive for hours and not see a thing, but that nothingness is what makes this country stunning, I could spend so much time just looking at that nothing!

I could write details, but i know also that too much reading wont really capture your attention, so instead I'll just highlight a few thing next to the pics.

a ger skeleton...

The first day we drove to the monastery camp around and went to visit it in the early morning...

The modern ger!

Amarbayasgalant Khiid

the rebirth... get inside turn 3 times clock wise, and get out... you are then sin free!

Lunch! we had such beautiful spots

Erdenet, and the mines

2nd night of camping and the whole group!

It is quite rare to see white yaks!

Lunch spot

Camping close to Murun

Nyamaa (driver) and Bold (friend that travel with us for a couple of days, M. Hi-Tech, he had anything you could think of!)

THE LAKE!
Finally!

The compulsory group photo

Nyamaa, not posing No!

Pollution! The lake is completely frozen during the winter, cars, trucks go through it, and the result when the spring come is this! It disappears relatively fast, the wind pushes it to the borders... I was pretty shocked i have to say, they say is the 2nd fresh water resource in all of Asia after the lake Baikal...

Having say that, it didn't stop me from sunbathing by the frozen polluted lake!

A few hours later the dirt and ice is gone and we try to go for the swim experience, without much success! far too cold!

Our neighbours

After 10 month in the country finally got to eat fresh smoked fish! Soooo good!

I have thousands of photos of the lake, it's just absolutely stunning!

And as it happens, yaks cross the camp place...

...followed by those kids, who were probably asked by mum to bring the yaks home, and got distracted by some tourists... They spend hours playing, and having so much fun with the horses... as long as the camera was out they kept showing their skills! pretty impressive i have to admit!

As a miror

Pink mooned lake

Horse Trek

One day on a horse... I baptised mine "Tabasco". Before hand our guide asked us if we knew how to ride, when the herder arrived with the horses straight away gave me the nerveous one... Not sure then I blamed i didnt really knew how to ride... I'm happy now she insisted... Tabasco was amasing until now the horses i've been one have been quite lazy, not this one, i only had to let go and he'll start galoping . To be honest it took me a little while to feel confortable, but today i can say i had the time of my life! This day will be one of the top 10 moments of my life! Galoping along the Khuvsgul lake!


Not so sure then....
Ninna, also getting used to hers..

Ruth and Pascal

We visited the "fake" reindeer family... Sadly enough they buy some reindeers and bring them by the lake during the summer, they charge the tourist to take photos, meanwhile the reindeers die (wrong habitat)

Lunch break

My horse had to be at the head...

With Byambaa, he found it hilarious i loved galoping, and at the end of the day he'll come next to me and shout "schu!" and both horses will start racing!

While i struggled handling 1 horse Byambaa manage 6!

Hiking around the lake

After far too much rain we decide to go anyway, it had been snowing on to of the mountain!

We wanted to come back to the tents bordering the lake, but got stocked, had to climb the mountain... happy days!

Then i undestood why some people say Khuvsgul is a sea

The way back

Murun, the biggest city around the lake (well 80km away from the lake)

Random herders bringing the horses back...

The volcano

more than a hike it was a climb!

It has been at sleep for a while now... nevertheless it looks impressive

The reflexion of the see on the crater

The top of the crater...

This is where we camped!

The last day of driving we came across a salt lake

And as it happen many times during the trip the car broke down... And what do we do when the car breaks down? We sunbath... There's no point of getting stressed, just get the book and the matress out and wait!

NB: It trip was also a farewell to my partner in crime Ruth, also known as Eddie (from Absolutely Fab) who lived here for 2 years and is now in Dublin enjoying the beer gardens (If you read this darling, i doubt it, but if you do... I miss you! yours Patsy xx)