THE MOUNTAIN PASS – XOIDTSENGER GOL RIVER – TSENGERIN OGUY CAV

We are sitting in the tent until 11AM, waiting for the wind to calm down and remembering our school years. A little bit later we take off the tent and begin to move around the mountain we tried to conquer last evening. Around midday we get to retank at the village named Manhan; however, no one knows about the caves here either. After some time getting wrong ways and directions, we seem to have found the right road. We are driving along a dry river, where two-humped camels we haven’t met before, graze. At about 3PM we get as close to our aim as possible: now we are only three kilometers away and at a local village we finally also meet a boy who knows the caves. 

We are even luckier than we first thought: for $10 we even get the lodging in one of the yurts and the entire family is cooking a national dinner, greasy lamb dumplings called “buc”. These are made on a stove placed right in the middle of the yurt. Too tired and too full with dumplings, we decide to visit the caves tomorrow. In the evening we are invited to the neighbouring yurt for Mongol vodka “arhi” made from the goat milk. It reminds fret birch sap and doesn’t seem strong at all. As usually, we communicate quite lively, operating with gesture and just few words from a dictionary.