Exploring Mongolia: hiking

 Matt, Caleb (USA expat and my previous co-worker) and I went hiking last weekend just south of UB. It was a beautiful clear day and the hike was full of hills, hills of rocks, long grasses, stinging nettle, and I even found a wood tick in my hair! Above is a new road being built on the way to the airport. We even experienced a little Mongolian culture on our hike! Read on...

We followed no trail but our own. To get to the nearby mountains, we first had to climb this pile of rocky sand left from the road construction.

 Let's go that way.

We had to crawl under the fence that you see to the left and we came upon what looked like a really crappy tree farm. There were a lot of small trees and it seemed that a lot of them had been cut or broken. Most of the remainder were dead. We also saw a huge hole dug out in the distance. Not sure what that was for. There are many inexplicable  holes in UB.

A beautiful array of wildflowers scattered through the grasses.

 Such a beautiful bright color was nice to see. There isn't much for colorful flowers in UB.

One of my favorite finds on this hiking trip! We found this huge mushroom attached to a tree stump. It was excreting some kind of liquid. I didn't want to touch it because I thought it might be poisonous. We also found a lot of spider webs attached to the mushroom.

Looking good Matt! It's hard to see, but there was a beautiful lilac colored flower spread throughout this area.

 

 The most dangerous part of our hike! These rocks were wobbly and were the home to many spiders! Mini landslides were just barely avoided.

Gazing at UB in the distance.

Halfway to the top!

Another view of UB.

So many textures within one flower. 

We stopped to eat a light lunch and got to watch several hawks fly nearby. We even saw a crow chasing a hawk!

More UB

We made it to the top of the mountain. 

On the ridge.

 It was a beautiful warm sunny day (there are many such days in the summer in Mongolia). Hats are a necessity because the sun is so strong.

 This is an ovoo, a structure of rocks and wood at the top of almost every mountain and hill in Mongolia. It is meant to be a connection between earth and sky. People tie silk scarves to these and the surrounding trees, and give offerings of milk and vodka and other things, for good luck.

Heading back to UB a different way.

 
You can see another ovoo at the top of this big mountain.

At the Zaisan memorial. This is a popular date spot and tourist destination. At the top of this hill is a big concrete monument created during communist days, commemorating the Mongolian revolution and the war between Russia and Germany, and between Mongolia and Japan (according to a pamphlet we read). We got Russian-style ice cream cones on the way up. These things cost 250 tugrugs each (about 20 cents) and Caleb once survived on them for 3 days!

 At the top of Zaisan Memorial.

 Here's a taste of the inside mural within the monument. We'll post again with a full panorama of this and some more narration.

fin.