The Magical Mystery Tour: Kharkhorin 28.08.12

Did not want to get out of bed this morning.....so tired but no mozzie bites. I was so cozy in my lovely soft bed in my ger, I really did not want to get up. We had some breakfast and packed up to leave for Kharkhorin city and Ger camp. Aagy had said we would go for a camel ride but I didn't realise it was first thing this morning!!! We drove back to the nomadic family we visited yesterday and jumped straight onto our lovely camels for a ride to the Gobi sand dunes.......the older children in the family led the camels but oh my goodness it was so painful and uncomfortable so there was a lot of shifting happening from all parties involved. The camels were so cute though, they were stretching their necks back and rubbing against your leg trying to have a scratch, even when they drank it was amusing....sluuuuuuurp sluuuuuuuurp!!!!!
Now have successfully checked off two items from my bucket list, camel riding in the Gobi and horse riding across the Mongolian steppe :)

We jumped back into our van and headed out to Kharkhorin, Mongolia's first capital city and the home of their very first Buddhist monastery. We arrived at our new ger for the night and the three amigos were back together again, it was like the first day of school, mucking around, laughing and acting like complete idiots.....I think we missed being all together. After lunch we headed to Kharkhorin monastery and city to explore, this place was huge, surrounded completely by a white wall with golden tipped turrets every few metres. This monastery had been in existence since the 13th century and was still in original state, the temples were beautiful and the people still come here everyday to pray and pay their respects. The artwork was incredible and some was from the 13th century as well, so incredibly detailed you could spend hours staring at some of the murals and still not find every detail that had been hidden in the paintings.
I should read into Buddhism perhaps, it sounds really interesting, Aagy told us that for every face of a Buddha there are 16 deciples each one different and there are 1000 Buddahs or more which is insane when you think about it.
The girls and I tried to do our self portrait, 'I'm not looking but I know the camera is there' photos with my tripod and we got a couple of good ones whilst being eaten alive by phsycotic mosquitoes and after dinner we watched a traditional musical performance which was beautiful to listen to. The idea of the Mongolian throat singing (deep growl almost with a whistle at the same time) originated from the traditional nomads who attempted to imitate the sounds of nature and then incorporated their own sounds and instruments which they still use today at weddings and special ceremonys....I invite readers to google or youtube Mongolian throat singing, it's incredible to listen to, I was mesmorized.....

We were headed off to bed when thunder clouds rolled in and gave us an impressive lightning display before we couldn't stand the mozzies anymore and retreated to bed. I woke up in the middle of the night and had a look outside, the sky was clear and those stars were back, stunning as ever with a near full moon illuminating the sky.......I love this country.....

Best Friends