June 19

Today was a very long day. After flying 5 1/2 hours to Moscow, we headed out for sightseeing. We went to Red Square, where we were so busy running after our guide that we could hardly see anything. Here's St. Basil's Cathedral. 

                                 

And then us with it. 

                                      

This is Red Square, which is way bigger than I pictured it!! 

The watch tower below is part of the Kremlin. 

We then proceeded to take a cruise down the Moskva River. 

Our evening was crazy and unfortunately we will have to cut this journey short. It's been amazing so far, and we are very sad to leave the trip early. More later. 

June 18

Today went to the world's oldest and deepest lake, Lake Baikal. The lake is also the longstanding ancestral home for many small distinct indigenous groups, including Tofalars, a group of nomads who practice reindeer husbandry for sustenance. It is said that Lake Baikal holds 1/5 of the world's fresh water reserve and the lake itself is in the shape of a half-moon. Below is a picture of some more statistics from a marine biology museum we visited today. 

                                   

We also saw Baikal seals, probably the fattest and cutest seals I've ever seen. Fun fact: these seals are the world's only freshwater seals. 

We also visited Saint Nicolas the Miracle Worker Church, pictured below. We had to wear our babushka scarves over our heads and we even had to tie a silk skirt over our pants because there was a religious ceremony going on. 

                                   

We then went to Lake Baikal, pictured below. 

We took a short cruise around part of the lake. 

And so I had to have a Titanic moment. 

We also visited a local bazaar that was a fish market and souvenir shops (obviously more touristy than it originally sounds). 

After a long day of sightseeing, we headed back to Irkutsk. Tomorrow we are headed to Moscow! 

June 17

Today we left Mongolia to fly to Siberia. The plane crew was dressed up in traditional Mongolian outfits and made our day! 

 As soon as we got off the plane, we went sightseeing. We stopped at a random house to see an example of traditional wooden carving the Russians used to do on houses. 

We then went to Znameskaya Cathedral, where the great Decembrist revolutionaries were buried. We had to cover our heads inside, so we needed up look like babushka's (old ladies)! 

Here's a close-up...

We had a group dinner where the food kept coming and coming. You know you're in Russia when all the tables were offered vodka every five minutes. Yikes. Here's some of the food... Fried corn, shrimp, salmon etc. We also got salad, stuffed pike, eggplant, meats, and more fish. It was a Siberian feast in the recently renovated Slobosa historic quarter! 

Below is a picture of part of the historic quarter. There were many shops, restaurants and bars and lots of locals were out and about. 

Tomorrow is going to be a very long day with our trip to Lake Baikal, so it's off to bed! 

June 16

Today was a jam packed day. We visited with a nomadic family who lived in the middle of nowhere. We saw the inside of their gers, equipped with satellite TV! It reminded me of Africa and the Masai in the middle of nowhere who have cell phones. We took a short camel ride on the family's two-humped camels which is very typical for Mongolia. 

Here's a picture of my mom riding a camel. Look at that face on the camel! He wasn't too friendly... And some of the camels kept spitting at people! Ha. 

This was one of the gers of the nomadic family we visited. As you can see there is nothing around except for small sand dunes, their camels and the desert. 

From there we visited the Flaming Cliffs which get its name from the way the light reflects off the ciffs at sunset. Unfortunately we didn't see that but it was still pretty. The Flaming Cliffs are famous for dinosaur bones, and this location is where the first dinosaur egg fossils were found. Here's a picture of my mom and I with the Flaming Cliffs in the background. 

This is a better picture of the Flaming Cliffs. It doesn't get much more desert-y than this!!! 

We also met with a Mongolian paleontologist who showed us dinosaur fossils in their natural habitat. This area of Mongolia is protected so no one can take the fossils. In fact, the airport scans all suitcases to make sure no one is taking fossils from the country. Below is a picture of a dinosaur fossil, possibly a vertebrae, that was found the other day just how it is pictured below. The pen is there to show scale. 

There are also fossils in the rocks themselves, pictured below. A person who isn't educated may overlook these rocks thinking the white is stones within the rock, but they are in fact dinosaur fossils. 

After another long drive and flight, we arrived back in Ulaan Baatar where we had a group dinner. We saw performances of traditional Mongolian music, dancing, and throat singing. The throat singing was my favorite, and we were told that this singing is created by making two sounds at once. It takes a lot of training and if you do it wrong, you can lose your hearing and/or hurt your voice permanently. 

June 15

This morning we went to see the collection of paintings, carvings and sculptures from Mongolian artists at the Zanabazar fine arts museum. 

From there, we went to the Tibetan-style Gandan Monastery where over 150 monks reside. We listened to monks chanting prayers in their sacred place, and the monks ranged from little kids to elders. Although we couldn't understand anything, the sound of the chanting was so beautiful and spiritual. 

Inside the Gandan Monastery, we saw the tallest indoor Buddha in the world. You can't get an idea of how big it was from the picture below, but it was probably at least 5 stories high. 

After having lunch at the Gobi cashmere factory (one of Mongolia's key exports) we flew off to the Gobi Desert. "Gobi" means desert, though, so when Westerners say "Gobi Desert" they're basically saying "desert desert". The picture below is a picture of the Mongolian traditional gers that we stayed in. It took a 90 minute plane ride and an hour car ride just to get to the camp. 

This was our ger, the dragon ger. 

We proceeded to see traditional demonstrations of the three Mongolian sports. First, we saw Mongolian wrestling where there's no weight limit for the wrestlers. All the wrestlers have to do is flip their opponent over. They wore boots with curled up toes, which is ideal for tripping their opponent. 

We then saw an archery demonstration. The female archer pictured below has won many medals for her extraordinary talent. Some of her female students also performed archery with her. 

The last demonstration was a horse demonstration that had several components. First, the horses were wrangled. Then, we watched the guy below break this horse which has never been ridden before. He was bucking up a storm but eventually settled down. Finally we watched the nomads pick items off the ground while riding a horse. 

After the demonstration, I went horseback riding in the Gobi with a father son duo. The saddle was a Russian saddle with metal loop in the front and back. It was much more narrow than a traditional western saddle and the stirrups were way too short so I didn't ride for long. It was cool to say that I did it though! 

In the evening, there was a sandstorm approaching so the staff quickly ran around to all the gers saying to shut our doors. We survived though! 

    

June 14

Today was a bitter sweet day. We had our last Japanese breakfast, and left Japan. But, we headed to Mongolia! I took a lot of pictures out the plane window because it was pretty clear. Below is a picture I took while flying over Japan.              

                                   

This picture is from flying over Beijing. 

                                   

  

And below is a picture from flying over Mongolia. While we were flying over the desert, we saw many gers (pronounced like "air" with a g in front, so "gair"). Gers, more commonly known as urts (which is the Turkish word) are mobile tents that the nomadic people live in. We will even be sleeping in a ger tomorrow night in the Gobi desert! 

                

But for now, we are in Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia's capital. Who knew that in the middle of a giant desert, there would be a huge city! The name Ulaan Baatar literally means "Red Hero" and the city was named after the Red Army in Russia who helped Mongolia gain independence from China. Below is a picture from when we started to approach the city via plane. 

                                   

After years of wanting to visit Mongolia, we finally made it! 

                                   

Before we even went to our hotel, we did a little bit of sightseeing. We went to the National History Museum of Mongolia, which housed many artifacts including jewelry, clothing, animal fossils, pottery, and more. From the bus, we were also able to catch a glimpse of Sükhbaatar Square, the main square of Ulaan Baatar. Inside the white columned building below is a huge statue that reminds me of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. I couldn't tell what was inside, but I'm pretty sure it was a statue of Genghis Khan. 

     

Finally, here is a panoramic shot I took from our hotel room window. You can see an amusement park, the mountain range, and there's Genghis Khan's face etched into one of the mountains if you look very closely. 

    

Tomorrow we will go on a sightseeing tour to an art museum and Gandan Monastery before heading off to the Gobi Desert to stay in a ger. We will be in the middle of nowhere (it's a 90 minute plane ride and an hour drive in a four wheel drive). So, I will be posting my next entry in a day or two. 

    

        

  

June 13

After our traditional Japanese breakfast (which was the same as yesterday except the fish today was salmon) we departed for our tour. After a 60 minute bus ride, we arrived in Nara which was the capital of Japan in the 8th century and home to many shrines and temples. Our first stop was at Kasuga-Taisha, Japan's most celebrated shrine. These lanterns were all over this World Heritage site and provided a gorgeous visual contrast to the orange shrines. 

This was another shrine. 

And the picture below was part of the main shrine that people visit. 

And this was the outside of the shrine. 

After our quick visit there (that was actually too short) we went to the Todaiji Temple to see the enormous bronze Daibutsu Buddha. It's also a deer park, and although the deer are wild you can feed them. The only problem is... When you feed them they all follow you wanting more crackers!!! So, this was me getting attacked by deer. 

I put my camera lense cap in my camera case's outside pocket which apparently was a very bad idea at a deer park because when I got to lunch, it was missing! A deer must have gotten into my pocket thinking my lens cap was food because my lens cap is the same size as the crackers we were feeding them... I hope it didn't eat it! 

Anyways, after being harassed by hungry deer, we walked to the temple to see the big Buddha. 

Inside the temple, there was a Buddha many stories high with two guardian statues on either side. 

                                    

On the way back to the bus, I saw this deer relaxing by the pond and found him and his antlers so beautiful. Talk about picture perfect! 

                                  

After our lunch at the garden of Emperor Kammu's Imperial Palace (dating from 794 AD when the emperor established Kyoto as the nation's capital) we headed back to the hotel. Thanks to the deer, I had to go buy another camera lens cap. 

We spent our last night at the sushi bar in our hotel with a wonderful female sushi chef, which is very rare and a big deal in Japan. Usually it takes 10 years of training to become a sushi chef and this woman did it in less than 10 years. Below are some pictures of the sushi we had... I ate EVERYTHING! 

That was only some of it, but I won't make you too hungry!! But here's a picture of us with our new friend! 

Tomorrow will be a long day... We are leaving Japan and will fly to Ulan Bator, Mongolia!