A Second Trip to Terelj

This past weekend we took a short overnight trip back to Terelj, just about an hour outside of the city. We went with Sheridan and Amrah, in the comfort of their car. We were going to stay in a summer house owned by Amrah's father, a house none of us had been to before. Somehow we found the camp where it was supposed to be located, and tried the set of keys we had in several doors before finding one that opened. It was like a little abandoned ghost town. Some of the small buildings were kept up, while others were only shells, no doors or windows and lots of trash inside.

The little house had the bare necessities, and lacked a few too, depending on what you consider necessary. It was 2 rooms - a bedroom with 5 single beds in it lining the walls, and a living room/kitchen which had a woodburning concrete stove, a small table and some office chairs. The beds here, in case we've never mentioned, are not like beds at home. They don't use mattresses. They use the box spring, and thats it! In our apartment we've loaded it up with blankets to help cushion, but camping we had only our sleeping bags with us. We drank enough to make it comfy regardless. :) No toilets, no running water, etc.

Got a fire started right away, and settled in to cooking dinner - fried hotdogs and junk food. A mother dog and her three puppies showed up and made instand friends with us. The pups were still nursing and so friendly. Here the dogs usually all cower and run away from humans, because they are used to being chased away with stones or etc. But these dogs were so friendly and happy to play. I think they ate more of our food than we did, and everyone found excuses to take them out something to eat again and again.

Terelj is by far my favorite place here so far. Its not too far out of the city, but once you're there it feels like your worlds away from everyone and everything. The mountains and scenery are so beautiful. The silence that surrounds you is overwhelming sometimes! You hear NOTHING except for a bird now and then. No need for earplugs - its like the silence just stuffs into your ears and fills them up. And the view at night -- we went out to look at the stars at least twice - with nothing giving off light for miles around us, the stars were amazing. We layed on our backs in the grass (freezing, but it was worth it!) and just stared up and wished we could somehow capture what we were seeing to show you. And I'm not a good enough writer to do it justice! I've never ever seen so many stars in my whole life. Even with all the stars and some of a moon, the dark was also supressing a little. The minute you stepped outside it surrounded you and you couldn't see more than a foot or two in front of you! Here is a great photo of Clayt, Sheridan and I in the dark - none of us could see each other at all and we just stuck poses in the pitch black.

Sheridan and Amrah loaned us their Dels for this photo. They are really warm!

Having a little fun in our hooded sweatshirts - we had no tv, books or board games - what did you expect us to resort to?

Clayt took this photo during sunrise - 5 am. He woke up because the fire had gone out and we were all freezing. Nowadays it gets light at 5 am and stays light until about 8pm.

This is one of the birds we see everywhere here. They are the size of a crow, but their call sounds like a squeaky sneaker.

Some goats and sheep and their babies out grazing. Some were only a few days old.

You know who this is. We took advantage of the opportunity to have our photo taken together in such a nice setting.