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Gandin Khid, National History, Black Market

After visiting the Buddist datsuns in Siberia I was looking forward to comparing them to the Mongolian ones. I was trying to get up early to catch the daily ceremony in the morning, but I had some trouble making it out of bed and didn't make it to the Gandin Khid Monestary until 10:30. It was about 30 minutes of walking, mostly down Peace Ave, which was the main commercial strip in town. The monestary was on a hill surrounded by a traditional circle of gers, but was large enough that you couldn't really see the gers.

I had heard that the monestary supported close to 1000 monks, and it seemed like a modest compound for so many of them. When I got towards the gate someone started asking for money for a ticket and I quickly checked to make sure that I was actually inside the monestary. I had heard of multiple scams of people selling fake tickets outside popular attractions. After deciding I was in the monestary I gave them the entrance fee and started following the stream of tourists towards a larger white building which appeared to be the most prominent structure in the compound. Inside was a very large statue of Buddha standing upright. I visited in a clockwise manner all the way around the statue past many altars and offerings for various buddhist deities and bodhi savas, which are humans who could have reached enlightenment but decided to continue earthly existence to help other people achieve nirvana. Really the place had a bunch of tourists taking photos despite signs indicating that you shouldn't. I repected the wish and realized that all the flashes were kind of annoying and contrary to the peace of the temple.

Most tourists at that point turned around and left, I probably would have if it wasn't for Galya showing me how to visit a monestary. So I walked around and peaked my head into some of the other temples.  There was a small ceremony of chanting from prayer scrolls with a few monks.  I watched them for 10 minutes and eventually I was joined by another tourist sitting and watching. I then turned the corner and saw a flurry of activity, people and monks coming in and out of one of the temples.  Outside the temple two horses in some sort of ceremonial dress were tied up outside the temple. Later I decided they were probably an offering to the monks.  There were about 30-40 monks conducting chants, ringing bells and other instruments. Some of the older more prominent ones were chanting different sections, and some chanting in distinctly different lower tones.  The experience was other worldly and I had never seen anything like it. There was a constant stream of followers coming and going. Some had boxes filled with food that was distributed to each monk.  The monks ranged in age from 8 to about 70. There were cans of soda, some candy, enough food to keep all them quite happy for at least one day.  There was a place for people to sit and watch on either side of the temple and about 25 people on each side.  Many mongolians and at least a dozen tourists were watching.  I sat there for 40 minutes watching and waiting to see if anything else interesting would happen. Sometimes more monks would enter and sometimes some would leave. Sometimes they brought in some new instruments or a rack of incense or any item essential to the ceremony. It looked to me like they were prepared to keep that chanting going for the rest of the day.  And that helped me realize that the followers were giving the monks food to help them acheive enlighenment.  And that the amount of monks in any monestary is a function of the support from the community to help them acheive that goal or at least to work towards it. I have to say it was a moving and fascinating experience. I have always had a terse relationship with religion in general, but even with me as a foreign tourist and a few monks sitting in a temple, I didn't feel like I was not welcome. I still think buddhism is just as thick with doctrine as any other religion, but It was something you could learn about while visiting a buddhist country and I always found myself curious.

I then walked back towards the city center and visited the National History museum. It was full of costumes, Gengis Khan, all sorts of ineresting artifcats, weapons, armor, a chronicle of communist opression from Russia, and threats of domination from China. There was a collection of gifts from foreign heads of state. An exhibit on the first mongolian cosmonaut in the early 80's.  It was a nice way to spend 90 minutes and learn more about the country and its history. I sat on the front steps of the musuem and let the world walk by for a while. I then walked to the Summer Palace of the Bogd Khan, but that was closed for some reason that I was unable to figure out. I was a bit miffed because it took me 20 minutes to walk there and then another 20 minutes to get back to where I started and figure out what to do next.h

I then went to my favorite internet cafe underneath the movie theatre and then resolved to take a taxi to the Black Market to save 40 more minutes of walking.  Before I took a taxi I returned to my hostel and got rid of everything except the equivalent of 30 dollars to make some purchases. It was one of the few times I wasn't wearing my moneybelt. The market was notorious for pick pockets and bag slashers. After I came back I met a strangish older gentleman from england who had hands stuffed into a pocket and his tiny purse like bag had a hole slit in it over the course of two visits.  The market was very large and had a daily attendence of over 50,000 people.  It had the largest most complete clothing selection of any venue I had ever been to. Sadly I couldn't find nylon pants with zip off legs.  All the pants with zip off legs were made out of cotton. I did buy some food, some insulated nylon pants which would later keep me quite comfortable on my horse trek. Some sunglasses as Mongolia was the land of eternal sun. I bought a couple of pairs of thick socks. In some places the crowd was so thick and the people were a bit pushy which is how you wouldn't notice a pickpocket.  There was also an entrance fee which was very small, but I got incorrect change and was pushed through without a chance to protest by the mass of people entering the market.  The diffence was less than a dime so I just kind of laughed in that typical sort of way. It was an exhausting two hours and I safely avoided the food market and I had to turn around a few times when I started getting into more isolated parts of the market. In general I was happy with my purchases.  I had considered buying a pair of boot-shoes for my horse trip but couldn't find much that looked big enough for my feet. I would partially regret not looking a little harder while I was on the horse.

I then took a cab back to my hostel.  Finding a cab in UB is quite easy.  Just put your hand out and the second or third car will stop you and take you were you are going.  Sometimes its hard for them to understand your anglo pronunciation or even impossible, luckily UB was so small that I could just tell them where to turn if things got complicated. Part of their great willingness to take you was because you had the money to pay them.  At first I tried to settle on prices before getting into the cab but they wouldn't have any of that. And when the ride was finished they wouldn't ask you for a specified amount. Wanting to be fair I calculated what was supposedly the going rate and then added 30% because that usually still amount to a dollar or so. The drivers always seemed happy enough with what I gave them.  It was the same as in Moscow, when the driver asked Lena's husband Serg, just to give him what was fair.  That we are so unaccustomed to being treated like that I think we tend to give extra.

I was trying to psyche myself up for a 20 hour ride in a shared jeep to Moron, packed in a small space with a dozen Mongolian strangers. It wasn't going well. I know that could have flown for 80-100 dollars and was expecting to spend $30 on the jeep ride. The distance was something like 600km but the pace was a completely off road one.  The pysching part wasn't going well. I got a bit upset at myself, and goaded myself into the seize the day mindset before I went to bed, because it was going to be an early morning and a full day.

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