Friday, January 14, 2011

A Trip To The Flaming Cliff, Bayanzag, Mongolia




A beautiful sky set the tone for the day and we are roaring to go again. Breakfast was American club sandwich with always gratifying salad, western Mongolian fusion style! After filling the stomach we were on the way to witness the much anticipated site famous for dinosaur paleontology including first nest of dinosaur egg and other fossils discovered by paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews in 1920s. Bayanzag means rich in saxaul (Haloxylon amodendron) in Mongolia. It’s a kind of hardy plants that survive some of the harshest desert condition. Bayanzag is also better known to the western as “The Flaming Cliffs” due to the orange rocks and red sand surrounding the site giving it a fiery facade.
The ride to the site take few hours and we decided to stop at a small town for a toilet break and do some stretching. After some searching we finally found the public Toilet. It was indeed an unforgettable experience. Should have took some pictures to show, anyway it was a hole dug into the soil as deep as 3 meters deep. Just imagine if you trip and fall… We finish our business as fast as we could and I probably hold my breath throughout. On the way back to the small minimart, we saw few Mongolian kids playing in the middle of the road and decide to be Santa Claus. We brought many soft toys, candies and stationery with us after some read up from a forum. The kids were overjoyed and so were we. Those children simplicity and content to the slightest affairs were valuable lesson to me, perhaps when you have less; everything that comes along is a gift.
When all kids get their little presents, we bid them goodbye and continue our journey. Reaching the site, we were greeted by 3 eagles on the saxaul forest. Honestly the saxaul forest doesn’t quite excite me more than the 3 eagles, in fact I was a bit lost when Alimaa our guide try to explain the saxaul trees to us. I was more deeply lure by the surrounding backdrop, a group of tourist ridding camel on the plain with beautiful diverse shadows from the clouds casting on it. The sight was simply surreal, like in a movie scene. The famous Mongolian archaeological site was up next, but sad to say we only view it from a distant. I am not sure whether we are not allowed to explore the site or that is just the standard tour we get. I did however get a few good shot of the site and we manage to purchase some beautiful souvenir from the one and only souvenir store there. Once we finish our ‘shopping’, we headed back for our late lunch. The journey usually covers long distant and along with it are many beautiful views and sighting city dweller like me never have chance to lay eyes on. Many unexpected surprises, both good and bad were also part and parcel of the trip.
We were stop abruptly by our super enthusiastic guide Alimaa pointing to a mirage in the desert and insist I snap a few shot of it. It was certainly a chance I will never miss, especially with a new SLR camera I bought for the trip. Almost reaching the camp, we were again stop by a little lamb out in the desert. It was barely few days old, probably lost from the herd. Alimaa said it will definitely die if left on its own devices. After leaving reluctantly, we stop again and decided to help the little lamb find its owner as we have no schedule itinerary. We finally came across a mulish herdsman on a horse and happily approach him, but he simply refuse to accept as the lamb does not belongs to him. We finally brought the little lamb back to the camp with us, and guess what; it doesn’t even know how to drink from a bowl. The helpful camp staff than improvise a bottle to milk bottle and let it suckle with some milk in it. It was when the little lamb settles down that we had a rest, a truly eventful day coupled with many ambiguous thoughts.