A visit to Telej

I must admit to being fearful of leaving the safety (and warmth) of our apartment home. So when the request came to go with our Finnish guests out to a Nature Reserve and tourist spot I was reluctant. After some encouragement by local staff and the need to be a good host presented, I conceded to take the trip.

We were six in all: Chinzo drove his car, Maadai provided much of the good hosting services including the provisioning and cooking, the Finnish volunteer team of Seppo 1, Seppo 2 and Esko, and myself - the host! We set off on a day that was not promising: it was overcast and lightly snowing at 6AM: I was not looking forward to this. What can I wear? How do I keep warm? What if??? a number of "what ifs" in fact.

Well, the day brightened up: the sun came out and so it was not dismal, but hung around zero for most of the day.


As we left the main road from UB to China and turned north, this was the kind of scene that was before us: remeniscent of the Nullabor plain for vegetation they were cold and stark hills. The countryside soon changed into more rugged terrain which was the feature of this area of Telej.



The first major attraction was Turtle Rock. Jumping out here I found it very cold and resorted to my thickest coat to stave of the very chilly (numbing) breeze; remember we have a sunny day though.

We travelled further on through the Park seeing many tourist accomodations from modern hotel looking places to Ger villages (of course). There were also two golf courses: one with obviously synthetic greens; the other with greens packed up until next summer; I guess you don't golf in winter here. We stopped at a plce that had two fairly sizeable hotels; one of them purported to be North Korean. We went down to the river and walked along the banks for a while. It was very refreshing: cool (obviously) fresh air; it was great to be outside and the feeling was exhilarating.

Here are a series of pictures I took on this trip

My First Snowfall in Mongolia

Yesterday it was quite cold and the report was for a snow storm in the afternoon: true to form it happened; this is the third time in my life I have been in a snowfall!!! Unfortunately Barbara is not here to see it or experience it.
This morning a white blanket covered the city. The traffic was unusually sedate as cars tried to stay stuck on the icey roads. I, too, was being very careful with my steps ... this is very new to me but I am a little apprehensive ... I don't want to break anything (meaning my leg or arm ...).
So, after arriving to work and telling people of my strange feelings - a numb face - I took a couple of pictures on the front verandah of WIND FM station.

The Journey Begins

This picture is not taken at the beginning of our travel, but it captures us standing close to the town square in Ulaanbaatar on Sunday the 24th of February 2008 with a temperature of about -10 degrees Celcius: the beginning of our adventure into a field assignment in Mongolia.

You will notice that there is very little evidence of snow in the street: it is a dry place though, of course, it does snow from time to time. There are traces of snow and many plates of ice on the ground along pathways and on the edges of the roadways.

We had an interesting time trying to find clothing to wear in such a climate. Thankfully there are folk in Manila who have experienced this cold and helped either in loan or purchase enough layers of appropriate density to cover our blood-thinned bodies.

We noted before coming that there are only three months of the year with an avergae temerature above zero; we were also told that people were glad that winter was behind them and that spring was in the air; these things are still sinking in to our tropically conditioned bodies and lives.

The view from WIND FM shows the combination of Ger and house in the district beyond the cenrally heated part of town. Part way up a hill, the view shows some pollution on a clear (albiet -8 degree) day as we look towards surrounding hills: all bare and brown with little evidence of vegetation.