Selenge

This week_end I went with my friend Tseegii and some other teacher in the north of Mongolia.

On the way there is first the steppe, very sandy, with a lot of animals and their guardians with their horses

The weather has changed again, it was 25 degrees now it is 1 degree and very windy ...

but after the vegetation is changing.
Here there is a lot of cherry trees

and we arrived after 2 hours to a camp for teachers from our university

 there they can spend a day or a week in a ger

but now since this is cold, this is not very convenient

Actually we went there just to have a lunch: bread, cheese, ham and some vegetables, delicious!!!

Some people there were preparing some traditional mongolian dish: Khorkhog(Xopxoг)
They put the meat with hot stones, and they cook it during a very long time.
I haven't tried it so far, so maybe :-)

But actually we were there for one reason: these flowers. They are there 2 or maximum 3 weeks a year.
And they are supposed to have some good effects.
You just seat under it during 5 minutes and breathe!!
All the people are doing that, and the colors are beautiful

And this camp is at the border from Russia, so actually I am kind of in Russia on this side, and without a passport, so bad!!!!!!

After that we took the road again. And many road are just stone or stand, or whatever

And then we arrived at another place which is again the border with Russia.
Some militaries are keeping the border and actually as a foreigner I am not supposed to go there, but they let me visit:-)
Very nice!!!

Everywhere in mongolia you have these stones with the scarps.
This is to pray or for memory

And this is russia, if you continue you will go the the lake Baïcal
But then you really need a visa :-)

What is nice there is to see the stone

And the nice view from Russia with a lot of wind, and really strong!!!

The stones are really straight going in nothing!!

And there we can see some statues. These are 2 mongolian soldiers :-)

And this is Genghis Khan with is 5th wife, oh yeah (mongolian macho :-))

And this stone has the shape of a face!!

And some mongolian dogs, with a very big fur. They are living outside so they need to survive the winter time...

After that back to the city of Selenge (I think) and there we bought some bread.
This is famous, because the receipt is coming from the russian and this is a different kind of bread.
Actually this is very good!!!

And then we had dinner, a traditional mongolian dish.
This is the dough of the Buuz

And under it you have some meat and vegetables

I like it very much :-)
But there is meat I am happy so...

And after that our final stop was to the mother tree

These are very old trees where the people are coming to pray

So we give some offering: milk, cakes, sweet, …
And then we make a wish

We have to turn around 3 times (like for the buddha)
But here this is not buddhist, I am not sure about what this is.

Here we have the hair of some horses

and when we walk around we spread some milk too

and this is full of offering.
The place was quite impressing for me

And this is a song for the mother tree

And a final photo with the name of the region where we were.
This was gain a very trip, with different things to see.
And really a local trip, I was the only white around :-)

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