Mongolia | Zaisan Tolgoi | Birthday Bacchanalia

To celebrate my Birthday I recently held a Bacchanalia at my hovel in Zaisan Tolgoi. Present were Uyanga, Jaga, Tuul, Yooton, and Saraa.

Gorgeous Uyanga with an equally mouth-wateringly delectable Chicken

Tuul, Jaga, Yooton (a.k.a. Enkha) and Uyanga reveling at my Bacchanalia

Tuul

Yotoon, a.k.a. Enkha

Jaga (left) and Saraa, showing off her truly formidable biceps. In her senior year in High School she won First Prize in the Girls’ Arm Wrestling Competition.

Mongolia | Töv Aimag | Horse and Camel Trips

Skipped out to Töv Aimag to meet up with Zevgee and his family. The general idea was to make an eight-day horse trip east into Khentii Aimag with stops at Khökh Nuur and Baltan Bereeven Khiid. This would be the 10th horse or camel trip I have done with Zevgee.

Let’s see: there was my first trip with Zevgee and his son Bayaraa in 1997, described in my Travels in Northern Mongolia. Then a 10-day 160-mile horse trip from Zevgee’s ger on Terelj Gol to the Minj River in the Khentii Mountains, just south of the Siberian border, retracing the route used by Temüjin, Chingis Khan, when he went to Siberia to capture his wife Börte back from the Merkits.

Looking north from the pass leading to the Minj River.

The extremely remote Minj River Valley near the Siberian border

Irises in bloom along the Minj River

Zevgee, momentarily befuddled, getting directions from Irina

On the way back from the Minj River we crossed Ongoljiin Davaa to the beginning of Ongoljiin Gol. This is the ultimate source of the 2,728 mile-long Ongoljiin-Onon-Shilka-Amur River System, according the National Geographic Altas of the World the 9th longest river system in the world.

Zevgee at the ultimate source of the Ongoljiin-Onon-Shilka-Amur River System

A year or two later Zegvee, his son Bayara, and I traveled to Bayankhongor Aimag, where Zevgee was born and where his brothers still live, and did a 124-mile camel trip from near the süm center of Shinejinst to the Sacred Mountain of Segs Tsagaan Bogd Uul near the Chinese border.

That was followed by a 109 mile horse trip Circumnavigating Burkhan Khaldun Uul, the mountain worshipped by Chingis Khan, with a stop at the Onon Hot Springs.

Then a 118 mile horse trip to Yestiin Rashaan the Hotsprings studied by Zanabazar, First Bogd Gegeen of Mongolia, with a stop at the ruins of Saridgiin Khiid, the monastery constructed by Zanabazar.

A year later we returned to Bayankhongor Aimag for a 272 mile camel trip following the Route of the 13th Dalai Lama from Shar Khuls Oasis to Amarbuyant Monastery.

Then back to Töv Aimag for a 168 mile horse trip to Asralt Khairkhan, the highest peak in the Khentii Range and after that yet another trip (my third) to the Summit of Burkhan Khaldun, the mountain worshipped by Chingis.

And just last year we did a Trip to Khargiin Khar Nuur with Gunj, the International Adventuress. I also visited Zevgee and Tümen Olzii for Tsagaan Sar Last Year in Baga Nuur.

Zevgee is a keen collector of photos for his family album so every year I take a family photo for him.

2008 Family Photo

Zevgee’s newest grandson, Kherlenbat

Then I bought a sheep and we prepared it for the upcoming horse trip. The first sheep I bought from Zevgee in 1997 cost $10. For this one I paid $55. And of course I did not claim the innards, the head, or the skin. The next morning we packed up our horses and left for Khökh Nuur.

Mongolia | Tov Aimag | Horse Trip #5

On the way back from Khagiin Khar Nuur we made a slight detour to the ruins of Saridgiin Khiid, the monastery founded in the 1654 by Zanabazar, the First Bogd Gegeen of Mongolia. Zanabazar built this monastery with the idea that it would become the center of Buddhism in Mongolia. Several of his most famous art-works, including his Five Transcendental Buddhas, were meant to be displayed here. It was not to be; in 1688 the monastery was destroyed by Zanabazar’s arch-rival Galdan Bolshigt. I had visited the ruins twice before, as described in my Guide To Locales Connected with the Life of Zanabazar. Saraa and Günj said they wanted to see the site so I agreed to go again.

Ruins of the 108-Pillar Tsogchin Temple

Corner of the 108-Pillar Tsogchin Temple

Clay figurines, known as shuteen in Mongolian, which Zevgee claims date to the time of Zanabazar. Someone had dug them out of the ruins and placed them on stone altars.

Saraa at the altars

Mongolia | Töv Aimag | Horse Trip #4

I planned the trip so that we would be at the lake for the Full Moon. The night before had been overcast, but we were hoping for clear skies tonight. The moon was scheduled to rise at 7:41 pm.

Somber reflections by the campfire as we wait for the moon to rise

We were not disappointed. It was a perfectly clear night and the moon rose right over the lake.

Saraa with the Full Moon behind her. This photo is particularly fitting since her full name is Sarantuya, which means “Moonbeam.”

Mongolia | Töv Aimag | Horse Trip #3

The Way to Khagiin Khar Nuur

Finally we reach Khagiin Khar Nuur

Günj and Zevgee vie for the most stylish footware. And check out Günj’s silk jammies! She has been temporarily demoted from günj to female badarchin, hence the begging bowl.

Saraa reading her tea leaves. Is there Love in her Future?

Two kittens playing

Saraa trying on Günj’s hair

Günj with her own hair, which she apparently inherited from her Circassian grandmother. And we all know about those Circassian Women! There's a reason why female Circassian slaves always brought the highest prices in the Slave Markets of Nineteenth-Century Bukhara! See more on Circassian Beauties.

Saraa with still-lustrous locks from shampoo in Khiidiyn Gol

Badmaa, Saraa, and Olzii prepare dumplings while Günj offers advice.

Dumplings! This was worth two days in the saddle!Luscious dumpling!

Mongolia | Töv Aimag | Horse Trip #2

At the last moment Zevgee’s son-in-law Badmaa decided to come along on the trip. He would help Zevgee with the horses. Thus there was six of us: Zevgee and his wife Tumen-Olzii, Badmaa, Saraa, Gunj, and myself.

Badmaa and his three boys

Our group at Biren Buren Pass, the Continental Divide of Inner Asia. East of here drains into the Kherlen River, in the Pacific Ocean Watershed, and west of here into the Tuul River, in the Arctic Ocean watershed.

Günj and Tumen-Olzii, who although sixty-five years old is always ready for a horse trip

Dropping down to the Tuul River from Biren Buren Pass

Crossing the the upper reaches of the Tuul River

From the Tuul River we headed up Khiidiyn Gol. Around two in the afternoon we stopped for lunch and I immediately brewed up some Yunnan Gold black tea. Both Saraa and Günj remarked on how good the tea tasted. This was in large part due to the remarkably pure and soft water found in Khiidiyn Gol. I had been here on a previous trip and had sampled this excellent water before. Saraa immediately decided to wash her hair, knowing that the soft water would bring out the luster of her locks.

Saraa doing a quick shampoo in Khiidiyn Gol

Mongolia | Töv Aimag | Horse Trip #1

Came out of Occultation to make a short horse trip into the Khentii Mountains. Accompanying me were my friends Saraa, who had some vacation time coming from her job as office manager of a software firm in Ulaan Baatar, and Ms. S, a Turkish-born but New York-based auteur and adventuress who visits Mongolia each summer with the regularity of a demoiselle crane. From UB we drove four hours east to Zevgee’s ger on the Kherlen River north of the sum center of Möngönmört in Töv Aimag.

I first met Zevgee, now seventy years old, in 1997, as described in my book Travels in Northern Mongolia. This is the ninth trip, either by Horse or Camel, that I have done with him. This past winter he broke his leg and was on crutches for a couple of months, but now he claimed to be just fine, and while perhaps not ready to ride off to Poland to battle the Teutonic Knights appeared fit and fiddle enough to ride to Khagiin Khar Nuur, a small but exceeding picturesque lake in the Khentii Mountains about thirty-five miles ATCF west of his ger. This was a short and simple trip, but Ms. S had never ridden a horse before so I did not want to do anything too strenuous: I figured two easy days of riding to the lake, two days of relaxing at the lake, and then two days back.

Zevgee (third from right, standing) and his extended family

Ms. S. was promptly nicknamed “Günj’ (günj = princess) by Zevgee’s family. Here she looks like she’s getting ready to invade Armenia.

Günj, looking like she just spent an pleasurable morning whipping peasants

Saraa—linguist, calligrapher (she did the traditional Mongolian script frontpiece for my book Illustrated Guidebook to Locales Connected with the Life of Zanabazar: First Bogd Gegeen Of Mongolia, and office manager

Saraa in real teal deel

Günj and Saraa bonded immediately

One of Zevgee’s silver-chased saddles, valued at over $1500