Rosie & Jim's Travel Blog

A blog of all our travels

  |     |   Three Nations   |   Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar
Now that the Venerable Gankhuyag Lama (Gana) was feeling better, Troll had organised for a small group of to visit the Monastery once again to receive the teaching of the Heart Sutra. We therefore had to get up extra early to get our kit packed and arrive at Gandan Monastery before 0830 (bearing in mind it is an hour’s drive). Once there, we met with Gana who took us to the library to meet the Head Lama, it was he who was due to give the teaching. After the teaching, Dawn and Troll took refuge with the Lama, gaining new refuge names. Gana then showed us his office, which, by the way, is awesome and not at all what we expected for a monks office!...

  |     |   Three Nations   |   Mongolia, Töv
Todays programme our “Review Day”. We started the day early so that the all the reviews could be completed in time for lunch. Everyone boarded the coaches (yes, that is coaches parked in the middle of a field 4 miles from the nearest road). Our first stop was the Temple Restoration project. On arrival, a number of the groups were both surprised and pleased with the progress made since the day they worked on the temple. We were less so, due to the fact we were the last group working on it. We all gathered together outside the temple and were graciously thanked by the head Lama, with a little help from our translator. We were then invited into the temple where we presented a...

  |     |   Three Nations   |   Mongolia, Töv
The day has arrived for us all to take part in a mock Naadam Festival run by the Mongolian Rover Scouts. The day began in the usual lazy manner, with the archery competition starting only about 1 hour late. The competition was split into two categories - male and female, and each Aravt stepped up one at a time. The target was a toilet roll within a very small wall made up of black wicker baskets (I think) about the size of a toilet roll so the competition was fierce with almost nobody hitting the target even once. It then came to the turn of Tiger Aravt (i.e. us). Out of the 8 of us shooting, 4 of us hit the target at least once...

  |     |   Three Nations   |   Mongolia, Töv
Today we finished off our Aravt programme with the last part of the service project work here in Mongolia. We made our way back into Zuunmod to continue the restoration works to the Buddhist Temple there. On arrival we noticed that the temple was already looking very good having had 4 large groups working on it over the previous programme days. We were told that the works that needed completing were the last coats of paint to the roof, and the painting of some of the prayer wheels and statues, so we set to it. Due to the number of us working on the temple, the detailed sections of the roof were all but done by lunch time, and the statues and prayer wheels only...

  |     |   Three Nations   |   Mongolia, Töv
As part of the service projects we were asked to do a litter sweep of the valley from the entrance of the National Park up to the temple. After a fairly good lie in, this was today’s task. On entry through the park gates the 80 (ish) of us lined up and set off. In total it took approximately 4 hours to complete the sweep of the valley and we must have easily filled 120 black bin bags with rubbish. We headed back to site then for a relaxing afternoon/evening. Dawn ran a guided meditation for those that were interested and a lot of people washed clothes. The evening was spent with a Mongolian cooking competition, although our Mongolian Rover Scouts were not allowed to...

  |     |   Three Nations   |   Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar
Another trip to Ulaanbaatar today, but this time it wasthe whole expedition group together. This was meant to be a day to mark the end of the Aravt based programme, but due to the day lost in the floods we still have one more day to go. The day began at Gandantegchinlen Buddhist Monastery. We were due to be meeting up with the Venerable Gankhuyag Lama (who we spent 2 weeks with at the World Jamboree in 2007), but it turns out he was very ill. Instead we walked around the monastery to see it in action. In one of the halls there was a large group of monks participating in their morning chanting, which is a beautiful, yet haunting sound, whilst the very young...

  |     |   Three Nations   |   Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar
Today we took a ride into Ulaanbaatar to work on the Scout Project in the centre. The project involved helping the local Scouts to sort out their first Scout Hut. The building was in place, so it was just finishing the building that was required. Once we have a copy of what the Scout Project originally looked like, we will post it here. When we arrived there was only a small amount of white paint left so the caretaker was dispatched to the local hardware store while we used up the last of the paint. We then had an hour’s break waiting for the paint to arrive. When it did, our bus driver told us we were leaving for lunch. At this point we protested...

  |     |   Three Nations   |   Mongolia, Töv
The next day we awoke to a clear sky, which was good as it was our day hiking through the National Park. As usual we set off on Mongolian time i.e. late! But it was only expected to be about 15 miles of relatively easy walking with a bit of scrambling. Turns out altitude is a pain in the neck! Just after setting off through the gatesd of the National Park, we came across a Cairn which our guide requested we walked around it 3 times placing a new stone each time to wish the walk luck. This seemed like a good idea so we all obliged and headed off into the forest towards an old Buddhist Temple. The temple had once been a home...

  |     |   Three Nations   |   Mongolia, Töv
Having had a good nights sleep in proper beds at the shelter, we all felt a little more refreshed. A scouting party was sent back to site to assess the damage so we headed out into Zuunmod to see what was about. It turns out, not a whole lot. It was interesting to see that a lot of the shops appeared to be operating out of people’s front rooms. At lunch time, word got back that site was livable so we walked back admiring the countryside. On arrival back at site, a national park official was discussing where the Gers had to be moved to. The committee also got a good ticking off about digging toilets, and ditches to divert the flood waters. So after...

  |     |   Three Nations   |   Mongolia, Töv
Day 3 started very slowly, it was our day on site so we all had a lie in, then waited for the Mongolian musicians and artists to arrive. Our morning activities started with sewing our names onto a piece of fabric. Time was limited so nobody finished this. This was followed by some traditional Mongolian music. The Morin Khuur, or horse head fiddle, is a two stringed instrument with a fairly amazing sound, and the Choor is a form of flute. We all listened to these instruments being played for a bit, then we had a go ourselves. The Morin Khuur is apparently as difficult to play as a violin so many of us sounded awful! Once we had all had a go and managed...