Lake Khovsgol, Mongolia

As I said in the previous post, I had no real goals for my summer in Asia besides a list of countries to visit. The only real set-in-stone goal that I had set for myself was to spend my golden birthday in Northern Mongolia on Lake Khovsgol.

Looking North from the Southwest shore

Brian and Conrad are fellow Montanans, and I travelled with them from Ulaanbaatar to the lake.

Woke up on the morning of July 23rd to sunshine, blue skies, and tons of wildflowers.

I decided to climb the mountain behind my campsite to get a view of the lake. There were no trails, so most of my time was spent bushwhacking through tall, wet grass. I got above the tree line only to hike up a steep, rocky slope. I finally reached the top and stood in awe at what was in front of me. It was a powerful moment... I felt a great sense of accomplishment from climbing the mountain, and achieving my goal of spending my golden birthday on Lake Khovsgol. In addition, the vast expanse of the lake in front of my was truly incredible. It was one of the greatest moments of my life, and I felt it necessary to take a photo.

From the top

Mongolia

Took a month long hiatus from posting on this thing, I chalk that up to sheer laziness on my part. Anyway, here are some more photos from my time abroad this summer. I didn't have too many goals for my trip, I tried to keep my schedule pretty open. One of the few goals I had before leaving was to spend my golden birthday (23 on July 23) in Northern Mongolia on the shore of Lake Hovsgol near the Russian Border. Everything went according to plan. More photos to come.

From the capital city of Ulaanbaatar, I took a 20 hour bus ride north to the small town of Moron (pronounced moo-ren). I had no ticket until minutes before the bus left, and my seat was a wooden box in the aisle, which I shared with an elderly Mongolian woman. We drove through the night across the landscape, on dirt tracks worn by other vehicles making the same journey. Sometime during the early morning, we crossed a mountain pass, creeping along slowly through trees on a road (more like a path) that seemed unfit for a large bus such as ours. The bus hit an uneven part of the road and almost flipped. Luggage flew off the racks and people screamed. I was standing up when it happened, and was instantly wide awake from the near accident. The bus creeped forward and we were off. I am so thankful for American infrastructure. The top mirror shows how packed this bus was, and the bottom one shows our two bus drivers.

The Mongolian Steppe. This was some of the last paved road we encountered on our way North.

Beautiful sunset in Moron.