Goodbye Mongolia

After Bayanzad, we drove into town to stay in a hotel nearer to the airport as we had an early flight back to Ulan Bator.

While it looked glam on the outside, it wasn't as comfortable as the ger camps we had been staying. No heating, no hot showers.

Wild flowers were also blooming by the end of our journey.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We got on the plane and headed back to Ulan Bator, Spend the last couple of days visiting town square, Gorkhi-Terelj National Park, monasteries and museums. Also did some last minute shopping. Bought some Russian caviar which were really cheap, few packs of Arak, fermented camel's milk, couple of Chingis Gold etc.

Our guides took us out for a nice Mongolian BBQ dinner on the last night. While the food out of Ulan Bator was quite simple and mostly just meat dishes with mutton being served most of the time. Restaurants in Ulan Bator was quite good. I don't actually remember have any bad meals in Ulan Bator. Korean influence was very strong and lots of Korean restaurants can be found everywhere.

Our flight out was just as memorable. We got hauled up at the airport for overstaying and not having valid visas, paid a fine ( how could we have overlooked this ! ). Flight from Ulan Bator to Beijing was delayed by a few hours due to bad weather and we missed our connecting flight out. Had to go through immigration process rebook flight before finally making it back home. What a journey !

The Flaming Cliffs, Bayanzag

From Gobi, we moved on to Bayanzag aka The Flaming Cliffs. This place is well known for it's fossil finds and its a famous dinosaur excavation site where complete dinosaur skeletons have been found. Along the way there are many make shift stalls selling whatever they can find. Stones, bones, fossils and even fossilised dinosaur eggs. Complete specimens of dinosaur skeletons can be seen at the Mongolian National Museum in Ulan Bator which is definitely worth a visit.

Our Driver ( retired senior govenment official who got bored staying at home )for this leg of the journey.

 

 

This is actually a restaurant. We stopped here for lunch before heading out to explore the cliffs.

 

Terrain around the area is dominated by Saxual Trees.

 

 

The famous Flaming Cliffs.

 

 

Gobi, the memorable climb.

We settled into Julchin Gobi Tourist Camp, dumped our stuff and headed to look for camels to bring us into the desert.

The Mongolian night sky was beautiful filled with countless stars. We could see the milky way but it was too cold and I was too tired to get out of my ger to take some night shots.

 

 

 

 

 Selecting and preparing the camels. These camels are double humped.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our guide a young afro mongolian.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The start of the camel ride up the dunes.

 

 

 

 

Gobi up close and personal.

 

 

The long climb to the top on foot. The herder wouldn't let the camels take us higher as he felt the sand was too soft.  

Our foot prints.
It was very difficult trying to climb up to the top of the dunes as the sand was expremely soft and some of the dune edge were really steep. At some places we had to get down on fours in order not to loose our balance and fall off.

 At the top of the dune, I emptied my water bottle, filled it with Gobi sand and brought it home.

 

One last shot as the sun begins to set.