A FUN Week in UB - Saturday

We left Choibalsan and spent a week at the mission home dormitory while we were waiting for our alien registration card and visa to be renewed.  It was a fun packed week spent with our beloved, Puje, and the other senior missionaries, and some of our friends who were in UB from both Murun and Choibalsan.

CHINGGIS STATUE:  On Saturday, we took a road trip with Puje as our taxi.  She was wonderful the whole time we were there to take us where we needed or wanted to go.  It was so good to see her again after 5 months and to renew our friendship.  She is a one-in-a-million sweetheart!  Anyway, we first went to the Chinggis Khaan Monument.  It was amazing.  The statue is made of 250 tons of stainless steel and is mammoth!  Chinggis Khaan's empire went from 1206 to 1271 and at one point covered almost all of modern day Europe and Asia.

LaNice and Puje on the front steps of the monument.

LaNice and Alan with one of the famous Mongolian short horses and its warrior rider! 

A little more about the great Chinggis.  Genghis Khan  Mongol:  born Temujin, was the founder and Great Khan(emperor) of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his demise.

He came to power by uniting many of the nomadic tribes of northeast Asia. After founding the Mongol Empire and being proclaimed "Genghis Khan", he started the Mongol invasions that resulted in the conquest of most of Eurasia. These included raids or invasions of the Kara-Khitan Khanate, Caucasus, Khwarezmid Empire, Western Xia and Jin dynasties. These campaigns were often accompanied by wholesale massacres of the civilian populations – especially in the Khwarezmian controlled lands. By the end of his life, the Mongol Empire occupied a substantial portion of Central Asia and China.

  

This traditional Mongolian boot is the largest of its kind in the world.  It stands 131 feet tall and is 9 meters x 6 meters x 2 meters and weighs 30 tons.  Mongolian traditional boots look just like this--only smaller!  We have asked many people why the toe is turned up like it is.  We got numerous answers.  Some say it is to protect the flowers and grass, other say it makes it easier to walk in the snow, and others have said that it keeps the feet warmer!  We are not sure what the real answer is!

 There is an elevator that goes up several floors and then stairs wind the rest of the way up the statue.  The walkway comes out about Chinggis's belt buckle and extends out to the horse's ears where we could see for miles.  It was quite an amazing vantage point.

After coming back down we met these two native Mongolians dressed in traditional Mongolian clothing.  Do they look familiar at all?

13th CENTURY PARK:  Then we drove quite a ways to see this park which was to depict Mongolian lifestyle in the 13th Century.  We didn't know we were supposed to make prior arrangements and, since it was so early in the season, there was not much going on there, except a Shaman ceremony and we really didn't want to go to that.  Fortunately, one of the people at the Guard House was willing to let us go in there to look around for a few minutes.  It was interesting.

 This is the King's Palace and we didn't see anything inside it.

Some random shots showing the surrounding countryside and some of the items used by the early nomadic Mongolians.

TERELJ NATIONAL PARK: Our next stop was a ways away also, but was at this park where there is a river and the area is very green.  It was quite a contrast with the desert-type area of the 13 Century Park. The prominent feature is Turtle Rock.  It's pretty obvious why it is called that.  The day was a little cold so we didn't spend much time hiking around in the area.

 On our way home we stopped that this really exclusive, ritzy and expensive hotel.  We just looked around and it was like a museum with the artifacts the owner had collected.

It was right on the river.  Since it was early in the season, there was almost no one there but us.  So we just wandered around soaking in the beauty.  Puje and Alan.

LaNice and Puje.

We concluded the time in Terelj with a dinner at a golf clubhouse.  We had a great view.

Then we drove back to UB.  We saw some beautiful countryside and had a great time visiting and catching up on the last 5 months.  The traffic in UB was terrible and it took us quite a while to get home.  It was OK, though, because the company was great and Puje is a good driver--even in the crazy traffic of UB!