It's now about -10 degrees outside - very sunny, very bright but definitely very very nippy. I go out with my scarf wrapped round my face as my nose and cheeks really hurt after about 20 mins.
This week I went up to Darkhan, which is about 3 hours drive north of UB. The road is really well paved - probably because there are some mines up there. Darkhan itself is a really nice town - or two towns, Old Darkhan and New Darkhan - and its power station and factories are behind a hill, so that you don't see them from the town.
The hills round the town are really nice for walking in. I had a great walk on my last day, round a low ridge to the east and south of the town, watching the sun set. At one point a car left the road and drove up the dirt track towards me - it parked right next to me at the top of the hill, and 4 policemen got out, not looking very happy to see me. However it transpired that they had come to pray at the "ovoo", the big cairn at the top of the hill. I moved away to give them privacy; they walked round the cairn 3 times, murming prayers, and then scattered vodka on the stones. These cairns were originally built by shamans, as a big pile of stones holding a bare wooden mast that points to the sky. This signalled to the gods that the shamen were there, that this was a place where earth and sky could meet. However the ovoos have now been incorporated into Buddhist rituals, and are often now covered in prayer flags and offerings - rice and sweet food, empty vodka bottles, ornaments, scribbled messages ....
1 comment:
Your photos have a very wintery light...v atmospheric. Your walks sound very interesting.
Presumably you are able to update the blog more regularly because you're still in UB?
Clocks turned back here at the weekend so we are descending into the darkness till December 21st. Still, the colours are great...
Hope you are fine!
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