Where Monks Chant

Possibly the longest drive of our trip so far, not helped by the initial half an hour needed to get back to the road from last night's ger, or the stop on the main road to say hi to people in a passing car, led us to our first real 'tourist attraction' outside of UB; the Erdene Zuu Monastery.
Thought to be the first monastery in Mongolia, and clearly important still to many people, the monastery is now part museum, part active religious site. The site was impressive, nestled in between foothills and mountains, original walls encased the monastery buildings and a few other sights including the foundations of the King's ger, which at 35m in diameter was supposedly big enough to hold 300 people. More impressive in a way were the pots to feed those 300 people (back on the massive scale). The religious side of the building was also incredibly interesting and the chanting of the monks seemed surreal but amazing at the same time. Random event of the day has to go to a 60 year old Mongolian man, who, after quizzing us on 'how many years' we had, said we were just babies and welcomed us to Mongolia....lovely guy I'm sure but we spent the next twenty minutes following him and his similarly aged friend from a distance as they accosted every group of tourists/females they came across.

Whilst the monastery was good, the highlight of the day had to be dinner; we walked back to our camp, as our guide had said she needed to buy meat for dinner. This turned out to be the majority of a small goat which was to be cooked in true Mongolian BBQ style using hot rocks and a traditional stove. Our UB experience of Mongolian BBQ had nothing on this, even ignoring the set up and method of cooking the taste was awesome. Sitting there with a huge grin on his face, Rhys came to the conclusion goat tastes a lot like 'lamb that's done more', which is probably relatively accurate.

The added benefit of Mongolian BBQ is it takes 40 minutes to cook, giving us time to have a chat to our guide and learn 'Khuruudakh' a Mongolian game like rock, paper, scissors but better as if you win it allows you to flick your partner in the forehead....definitely one to remember.

As night drew in, we got some photos of the monastery in the fading light, before turning in, happy to be given a lie in, as we aren't leaving until 10am in the morning. 

Erdene Zuu Monestry Walls

The working part of the Monestry

Mongolian BBQ Cooking

Enjoying the evening light