Lara visits, Dan visits

Big bro Dan came to visit for a week and Lara came for two weeks to UB. My friend Sanaser kindly showed us around town taking us to Zaisan Tolgoi (Soviet soldiers monument) and a few bars.

Bogd Khan Mountain: South Side

Last weekend I went hiking again with my friend Laura and many of her students to the south side of Bogd Khan Mountain (the other blog post was from the north side). Pictured below you will see, aside from austere but beautiful Mongolian nature, a cauldron made to feed 1,000 people, Laura's students, colleagues and some of their families, ovoo (ritual piles of stones, scarves, and other offerings), vodka, and the Manzushir Monastery, which was destroyed during the Soviet purges along with hundreds of lamas during the 1930s. There was also lots of singing and I will make a post dedicated to Mongolian music at some point in the not too distant future.