Terelj - Saturday October 28th

On Saturday, we went to Terelj, one of Mongolia's more famous national parks, with newly-arrived VSO volunteers and two VSO employees. Terelj is not too far from Ulaanbaatar, about 50 kms or so. Ganbold drove us in the VSO jeep.

We spotted some camels on the side of the road just after entering the park and stopped to check them out. Two men were sitting near the camels waiting for people like us to stop and ask to ride the camels. Shelina, barely a week into her Mongolian adventure, decided to go for it.



After Shelina's camel ride we drove on and stopped at a tourist ger camp. All throughout Mongolia, there are tourist ger camps that rent out gers for Mongolians and foreigners alike. VSO had rented one for us for the day. Urnaa and Ganbold showed us how to make buuz, the Mongolian steamed dumplings. We made enough to feed an army.

Stomachs full, a little too full perhaps, Aaron and I set out to explore the surrounding hills. Terelj is rocky. The huge weather-worn rock formations are really beautiful. There was a bit more snow there than around Ulaanbaatar but only in the more shaded areas. Aaron and I climbed around trying to reach the top but never quite made it. We would have needed rock climbing equipment and well, rock climbing knowledge. We met up with the rest of the group near some yaks and climbed another face of the hill.


Then it was time to go home. We spent a quiet evening at home, a little too exhausted from our climb and the fresh air.