Watched the second season of Bridgerton, which was frothy fun. Of all the (gazillion) things to snap me out of its cheerfully anachronistic universe, though, was various characters going "ugth, but we can't, he's our cousin!" at the prospect of a fourth degree cousin as a potential match. (And no, they didn't grow up with him, none of them had met ( Read more... )

If you haven't already read the earlier post about the Naadam opening ceremonies, wrestling and archery, you can do so now. The horse races take place at a considerable distance from the city of Ulan Bator, not least because there isn't a race track in the conventional sense, though there is a finishing line. But racing involves gallopping about ( Read more... )

My friends, I spoke too early. Only yesterday I finished uploading all the Naadam photos, and there is no way I can present them only in one single post. I'll have to split the festival up. This is both due to all the spectacle there was, and due to the fact your faithfull chronicler was now armed with a proper camera again, having returned to the ( Read more... )

This is my last but one post, aka the one before the grand finale, which is the Naadam Festival. We were now approaching the capital again, but not before two more stops with magnificent scenery and one awesome temple. Also in this post: Edelweiss (which in the Mongol mountains is as common as daisies are in Germany, whereas for us Edelweiss is a ( Read more... )

In the later part of our journey, we camped at two famous Mongolian lakes, called "White Pearl" and "Blue Pearl" of Mongolia, respectively. In this post, you shall see them both, complete with an old volcano, Yaks and a lot of wrestling.

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As an interlude between beautiful landscapes, here's a post on how the most important human dwelling in Mongolia is built. In one of the camps we were staying, two more had to be put up (not on our account), and thus I had the chance to document the various steps. In case you ever want to build a yurt of your own, which, I can assure you, will keep ( Read more... )

Aka, my brave little mobile phone camera & self face the heart of Mongolia. Now, several places make that claim - Genghis Khan's birth place in the east, the brief ancient capical of the Mongols, Karakorum, are contenders - but in truth, there is only one obvious reply, and it has been made a world heritage - the valleys of the Orkhon River, ( Read more... )

The time difference is playing havoc with my internal clock, I woke up and can't sleep anymore (it's in the middle of the night in Germany), which is why you're getting the second pic spam already. The Altai mountains cover a great deal of Mongolia, actually, but one particular part of them is between the Middle and the Southern Gobi, and that is ( Read more... )

Well, she said, with a stunning lack of originality, I'm back. Since a few hours, literally, and what a journey it was. Mongolia is a breathtaking country, and I'll probably spend most of next week making pic spam posts, given the sheer number of photos I took. This despite the fact that after a week, the singing sand dune of the Southern Gobi ( Read more... )

Tomorrow afternoon, I'm off to a three weeks journey through Mongolia. Only right at the start and at the end will I'll be staying at Ulaanbataar, the capital, at a hotel which could have online access, but in between it's countryside, yurts and camping all the way, and this means that in all likelihood, you won't be hearing from me until the 15th ( Read more... )