What's Up Al ? 遊記隨筆 生活點滴

We would always remember the unique atmosphere of Mongolia - the vast open space, the rolling hills and green pastures, the constant reminders of the Great Warrior and Rule Giver in Chinggis Khaan,  the herds of yaks and wild horses, the lonesome gers (yurts) offering peace and shelters, the relaxing capital in Ulaanbaatar and the many interesting museums (dinosaurs, religious art, scary Tsam ceremonial masks), the colorful local markets, the walk-your-own-trails national parks and most of all, the Mongolians we had met along the way who were unfailingly friendly, helpful and courteous. There were still so much of this country we had yet to explore, perhaps another time, we would make this interesting journey again; but for now, I would just leave you with a few images of Mongolia.

Firstly, a piece of interesting statistics of this country, the average population density of Mongolia was last measured in 2014 to be 1.87 person per square kilometer - think about it, that's like one could on average, almost walk for 1 km without encountering another human being ! That's exactly what we found once we headed out to the national parks of Bogd Khan and Terelj as well as the huge stainless steel statue of Chinggis Khaan in the area of Tsonjin Boldog - we saw more horses, sheeps, yaks and gers (yurts) than people ! The two national parks each had their own special atmosphere : (i) with strange rocks (including the charismatic turtle rock), the Aryabal Meditation Temple and numerous nomad ranches, being the main theme at Terelj N.P. and (ii) miles of open hills, pine forests, the Mandshir Khiid Monastery, Ovoo piles (Mongolian ceremonial stone piles), ancient religious rock carvings and paintings and crystal clear rivers, being the main attractions of Bogd Khan N.P. - it was hard to pick our favourite. The Chinggis Khaan Statue was a magnificent piece of engineering where the base of the statue was designed to house a small but informative museum and by going up the escalator in the middle of the structure, we would emerge from the "crotch" of the great man and enjoy a beautiful vista of the surroundings - once the domain of Chinggis Khaan. The vast openness and walk-your-own-trail style of these sites were just our ticket to enjoy the freedom of roaming around amongst the hills, forests and wild horses and yaks in this lovely country.

Mongolia had enjoyed a special place in history, chiefly because of the great empire of Chinggis Khaan which spanned across much of today's Asia and Europe and it was no wonder that modern day Mongolia held numerous reminders of the great man - to start it off, we landed at the Chinggis Khaan International Airport ! Once we had our bearings by locating the Chinggis Khaan Square, we found the capital city of Ulaanbaatar to be a friendly place where we walked practically everywhere - to get to know the city as well as to avoid the non-moving traffic jam. Ulaanbaatar (UB) offered informative and well-presented museums such as the National Museum and the not-to-be-missed Zanabazar Museum Of Fine Arts which displayed the genius of the multi-talented Zanabazar, a direct descendant Chinggis Khaan living in the 16th Century, who was sometimes referred to as the Leonardo da Vinci of Asia with his all-round skills in languages, religious studies and the use of bronze in casting and design of aesthetic religious figures. We also visited UB's colorful markets which included the 8-storeys tall State Department Store (selling Chinggis Khaan Vodka) and the huge Naran Tuul Market which sold almost all the domestic items that one could think of, from baseball caps and ladies' nighties to industrial-strength steel-toed boots to microwave ovens ! Although mostly destroyed during the Communists era, UB still had a fair share of sacred temples and palaces in Gandan Khlid Monastry, Dashchoilon Khlid Monastry, Bodg Khan Winter Palace and the spooky Choijin Lama Temple with its scary Tsam religious ceremonial masks. We spent most of a day walking to the Zaizan Memorial located on the southern hills of UB where we had a great view looking down on the sprawling UB urban areas. Our limbs began to warm up and we were ready to tackle the many National Parks in Mongolia next.