How camels are useful

- they can turn the wheel which bring up water from the well for the other animals. They will then drink about 40 to 60 liter in one time !

-... and they will carry 30 liter back to the guer without any problem.

Some rocks on the top of the mountain

On the top of mountains, or hill, you can often see "Ovoo", a mix of shamanism and buddhism traditions. When you visit the ovoo, you have to throw stones on it while turning around three times, in the clockwise.

Petrogryphs

Another things not to miss are the rockpaintings very close from Chandmani. You have to know where it is because it's not at all indicated and quite subtle...
Some people say that these drawings are between 2000 and 3000 thousand year old. It seems that there were much more trees because the artists painted a reindeer !

Waterdripping

20 kms (which means an hour by car)far from Chandmani, we found water dripping directly from rocks, in deep valley of mountains.
Some people say this water is the reason why Chandmani people do good Khoomi. Well, the taste was quite good, too !

Fumiko-San, the japanese teacher:

Chandmani landscapes

We visited Chandmani village where is famous as the mecca of Khoomi (throat singing), with Fumiko (the japanese teacher of Khovd university), Azvyl and his girlfriend Ogii... with the help of his precious soviet jeep!
During 5 hours of driving, we could see many different kind of landscapes: lake, desert, slightly green steppes and mountains.
Here are some photos around the village




Our host was an ex-japanese student, Batzayaa, and his very kind family. It was - by the way - our first night in a guer !

The father of Batzayyaa, a famous khoomi singer was unfortunately in Taiwan for 3 weeks for concert. But anyway, Batzayaa showed us fantastic khoomi singing !
This family appeared twice in japanese TV programs. Sooooo, they are used to see curious japanese visiors...

Tsaatan

Tsaatan is the new friend of the family! His name comes from the name of reindeers herders from the north of Mongolia.

Salad of the days "without electricity"

Because of a major storm in Russia and north of Mongolia, Khovd and all the Western part of Mongolia don't have electricity for already 10 days. 21 pylones fell down and it will take a while until mongol people repare them...Depending who you ask, electricity might come back in 5 days, 2 weeks or on 1st of June.

It took us some days to be organised without electricity. As our cooker needed electricity, we couldn't cook until we could catch a precious gaz-cooker. So, we made saldads...
One good discovery: Salad of "days without electricity":
- a can of tunafish (from Korea)
- a can of green peas (from Russia)
- gherkins
- mayonaise
You mix everything and it's delicious !
...And don't forget candles !

Some trees

We could finally see precious trees on the border of Khovd River (close from Bayan-Olgii Aimag) !

Stupid asian people from a small island which is my boyfriend's country are going to build a water-dam here. So, let's enjoy the place before...

a village at the end of the world

Welcome to Bayangol (if we understood the name well...), small sum (community) north-west from Khovd.
People of the village are mostly half-nomad, half-inhabitant. They will move to the mountains during summer to avoid mosquitos and to feed the animals.
As usual, lots of kids are very curious to see foreigners and their own faces in the camera of the visitors. So we can't avoid to take 4-5 photos of everybody. Then, they impatiently gather in front of the screen of the camera and begin to giggle all in same time.

Buuz

Buuz is one of the essential dish of mongolia. It's like dumpling with a LOT of meat inside. Let's see how to make it:
- Smash the meat and wrap it in paste
- Put some salt in boiled water

- Put buuz on a wire plate and steam them in a big stove

- Wait about 20 minutes and it's ready !

This family's one was quiet good !

Spring babies

Now is the season of baby goats. Since there's a lot of goats here, of course babies are even more ! And they welcome you with "meeee meee" chanting.


Carole couldn't resist to take one in her arms.

And somewhere around, camels were enjoying sun close from a pond. They look like kings of steppes because nobody eats them.
Look the smile !

Frida's Romeo

Frida wanted a boyfriend so I decided to create a new friend. But in Khovd, well...it's a bit difficult to find material for such things! But I found socks and gloves (+ cotton pads and rice) and here's the result :

As soon as Romeo was living, we went to outside of Khovd to visit the river. Still too frozen to let them swim.

Snow

Last Friday was intense snow storm. Already 3rd time since we arrived !
It takes usually about 1 day to disappear completely. Just enough time to take some pictures.

The red building is the theater, recently repainted ! And our flat is in the first grey building, on the right of the theater: a typical soviet building but quiet ok !