Two travel bees
and our travel diary
Wild camping and a visit to Genghis Khan
After a week in Mongolia, we headed out with our $20 budget-tent and a few worn-out sleeping pads on our own wild camping trip to Terelj National Park. We knew from our ger (yurt) experience that our summer sleeping bags we had brought from home were not suited for the chilly Mongolian nights and were able to borrow two extra sleeping bags from our guesthouse. We stacked up a pile of homemade sandwiches and a dozen hard boiled eggs, 6 liter of water and all the warm clothing we could find in our hand luggage. Two hours of local bus ride later we found ourselves in an autumn coloured narrow valley stretching from a turtle shaped rock to a small monastery.
Turtle rock
View from our campsite
A tent with a view
Terelj Natioanal Park is known for its rock formations against a backdrop of pine covered mountains. We spent 3 days hiking through the autumn foliage landscape and enjoying the sunny weather and a temperature that would climb to 20C around midday. At night we tucked into two sleeping bags and wore several layers of winter clothing to keep warm while listening to howling wolves wandering through the valley.
Autumn colours
Turtle rock from the other side
Fall foliage in Terelj
Resting in the sun close to a Mongolian cairn
Eating hard boiled eggs for dinner at our campsite
Genghis Khan, the greatest conqueror and emperor of the largest contiguous empire in history
Early morning on the third day, we jumped on the local Terelj National Park bus heading for the village of Nalaikh and found a local female taxi driver who drove us the last 20km to the statue complex.
Seeing the nomadic gers dispersed over hundreds of klimeters on the open steppe, we still find it difficult to believe that one man could unite the tribal people to an army able to conquer nearly all of continental Asia, the Middle East and parts of eastern Europe. Genghis Khan is a central figure in the Mongolian identity and his name and face appears on everything from streets, the international airport, bank notes, guesthouses and vodka. While the tomb of Genghis Khan has never been found, the Mongols have raised a 40m tall equestrian statue of the Khan on horseback a couple of hours drive from Ulaanbaatar, where according to legend, the Khan found a golden whip.
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The metallic tribute to the greatest Khan was the very last item on our Mongolia bucket list and the following morning we boarded a plane to our next destination: South Korea.
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Genghis Khan overlooking the steppe and two posing happy bees
The Khan, a few of his men and a somewhat less intimidating Dane
The Khan with a golden whip
The very final picture from a fantastic trip through Mongolia!
Thanks for tuning in!
- the bees