S is for Surprise

4:30 am

“It’s going to be a good day,” Baagii says, grinning broadly as she enters our ger (nomadic tent) at the crack of dawn to rouse us. “I have many surprises for you!”

Baagii, our spirited guide in Mongolia, is the star of our fifth day’s adventure in Hovd. It’s a long, entirely true story, necessarily made short(er) for this post. (Words in bold gray are links to directly related posts.)

The first surprise of the day – which Baagii did not plan – is that Magsar, our driver, fails to appear at camp at the appointed time. An inauspicious sign? Yet some hours later arrive he does, hurtling towards us in the dependable old Russian van that’s been delivering us to diverse corners of this remarkable aimag (province), leaving a cloud of dust behind him.

Hovd, 2007

12:00 pm

After some hours on the road taking us southeast from the capital, quite in the middle of nowhere, Magsar stops at the base of an unremarkable rocky mound and Baagii summons us to climb it.

Baagii and Sergelen

Turns out this hill is chockfull of ancient pictographs of animals dating back to 3500 BC.  Cool!

Our next stop is to say hello to a family of goat herders. Baagii sits down with the women to milk the goats with complete ease and surprising dexterity.

2:30 pm

A few hours down the road when we break to answer nature’s call in the most charming outhouse, our local guide Sergelen shows us more rock art and takes photos for scientific record. 

Onwards. We have not seen much vegetation or water this day, so this little stream with a few trees delights us. 

As the van crosses the stream, intrepid travel mate Pam squeals, “I love driving through water!” My immediate retort with a laugh, “Better wait till we get out of it” is in vain; the van smoothly glides over to the other side.

That is where we soon find another of Baagii’s surprises: the Khoit Tsenkher Cave… or perhaps I should say first: the climb up to this cave! The parked van is bottom right of this image; the cave top right.

We are enticed by tales that the cave is rich with Stone Age pictorials, pointing to cultured settlements here in prehistoric times. Our party of middle-agers huff and puff to the top. Magsar and Sergelen are the first to reach the entrance, with me and my camera not far behind.

Baagii bravely scours the cave for evidence of the promised 15,000-year-old paintings…

…but in the end all we find is graffiti left by idiots visitors who preceded us.

I learn later that almost all the rock art in this important cave – which made the Tentative List of World Heritage Sites – has been defaced or covered in dust. So the only timeless treasure we see is this magnificent view.

We descend only slightly disappointed. And return to the side of the stream to savor a late picnic lunch and rest.

We continue onwards, not knowing our final destination for the day, open to being surprised. 

6:20 pm

As it happens, we never make it. We reach another stream, but this time we don’t get to the other side. When the van stops dead, our hearts skip a beat. This is my view out the left window.

One by one we climb out of the van and gingerly walk back through the rocky stream, thigh-deep in water, whence we came. Once all our feet are safely back on terra firma, I look at the van and see this.

Well, so now what? Can’t exactly call a taxi. Can’t call anyone; there’s no cellular network out here.

The boys look frazzled and offer no solution. Baagii looks calm and tells us, “Please just wait. I will go get help.” And off she goes, across the river. The rest of us… wait. Several go for a long walk, hoping to meet a herder, anyone, along the way. Others read, or meditate, or perhaps pray.

I watch Baagii in the distance. She vanishes around the mountain.  Exactly one hour after leaving us, I behold her in admiration as she appears on a horse and gallops away to disappear again around another bend.

In the meantime, I see Magsar and Sergelen across the stream when a vehicle approaches them. It stops; there is a discussion, and what? – the jeep drives off without them! Later I hear they were not willing to help, but I’d like to think – being in this über-hospitable land – that I just missed something in the translation.

Never mind, Baagii to the rescue! Again it is an hour later, exactly two hours since the van stopped midstream, when I spot her with the rescue team.

8:45 pm

It is this ragtag team of boys and men with Baagii and yours truly (in red) who manage in about 20 minutes to jiggle and grunt and 1-2-3 push… or make that rock and roll! this baby backwards to shore.

[Photo taken by my dear friend Ruth Lor Malloy]

As Baagii and I stand by the van still in the water, I assure her no one is upset. She is visibly relieved, beams me her dazzling smile and exclaims, “This was my surprise!” We both break out in a roar of laughter.

Back on shore, they decide to give the van time to dry out. We express our appreciation to the rescue team with small gifts we had brought to give along the way.

After dinner is prepared and eaten, the next question is whether this clunker can be made to start. While we hold our breath, Magsar gets behind the wheel, turns the key… and sputter, spurt - water squirts from the exhaust pipe - cough, cough… and vrooooom! Amazing!

The crowd claps with shrieks of glee. I turn to Baaggii and say, “Now no more surprises.”

We leave the stream at 9:40 pm and arrive safely back to camp three hours later.

This watery adventure full of surprises is linked with Our World Tuesday, ABC Wednesday (where the letter is S), Watery Wednesday and Outdoor Wednesday.

Pashupatinath Temple Reflected

Kathmandu, Nepal, 2010

This is a very small portion of the Pashupatinath Temple, one of the most significant Hindu temples of Lord Shiva in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage site, reflected in Bagmati River.

For James' Weekend Reflections. Details better seen enlarged.

D is for Dubrovnik

On one of the four days we were "stuck" in Cavtat (see last week's post), my mother and I took a ferry to Dubrovnik, a late medieval walled city in Croatia I had long wished to visit. A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979, this "Pearl of the Adriatic" on the Dalmatian coast was founded in the 7th century and became an important sea port from the 13th century onwards that once rivaled Venice.

Neither one day nor one post can adequate cover the richness and beauty to see and appreciate in the old walled town. Renaissance and Baroque churches, monasteries and monuments, with shiny marbled streets and small alleyways, make this a popular tourist destination. 

This is no dead historical tourist trap, however. It's very much a live city where children play and locals go about their business of living. A walk away from the main streets offered charming surprises around every corner.

This is just a brief photo tour to inspire you. [Photos enlarge with a click.]

 

Croatia, 2009

Linking with the community at ABC Wednesday with the letter D.

The Golden Pavillion

Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion Temple) is the only one of the original main structures remaining on the grounds of Rokuon-ji (Deer Park Temple) in Kyoto. And even this is not really the original. While the pavilion survived centuries of natural disasters, sadly in 1950 a misguided young arsonist monk razed it to the ground. Yet it is a true replica. And it IS grand.
 
In the 13th century this gold-leafed building was the not-so-humble villa of a shogun (general) until his death, when in accordance with his will it was turned into a Zen temple. 

Sitting on the edge of Kyoko-chi (Mirror Pond), it offers a perfect reflection for James' Weekend Reflections. This is a photo that's been taken by millions of admiring visitors over the years.

 Kyoto, 2009

As a bonus, I offer this less postcard perfect but more unique reflection of Kinkaku-ji as liquid gold with a purple water iris. 

This last photo is a closeup of the third floor with the gold-leafed bronze phoenix standing over one meter / nearly four feet tall. The bell-shaped windows are in the Chinese Song Dynasty style. The smallest of the three floors, this room was used for tea ceremonies and visits with close friends. 

Each floor was designed in a different style of architecture and had its own function. The ground floor was a reception hall used to welcome visitors and the second floor was for important meetings with honored guests. Simply put, the higher up you got into the building, the more intimate you were with your host, the shogun.

In 1994 this site joined the many historic monuments of ancient Kyoto inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage list.

B is for Busker

Stephansplatz (St Stephen's Square) is called the heart and soul of Vienna. The cathedral is the key historical landmark, and an imposing one it is. 

Yet for me it's the various street entertainers there who put the smile on my face. I  admire the courage of these buskers in displaying their talents to earn a living only from the generosity of appreciative audiences.

 

Vienna, 2011

B is the letter of the week at Jenny's Alphabe-Thursday and I link to the players with these buskers.

C is for Church

One of the most distinctive experiences I’ve enjoyed in my travels is a private dinner on the front steps of a church. And not just any church, but the gorgeous Paoay Church in Ilocos Norte, the northernmost province in the Philippines.

Ilocos Norte, 2010

Known also as San Agustín of Paoay, it is one of four churches built by the Spanish in the late 16th century that was placed on the Unesco World Heritage list in 1993 for its unusual style of architecture. A fusion of Oriental, Gothic and Baroque influences created unique structures characterized by a separate bell-tower and strong buttresses able to withstand repeated earthquakes.

As described on the UNESCO site:

The Church of San Agustín at Paoay is the most outstanding example in the Philippines of 'Earthquake Baroque'. Fourteen buttresses are ranged along the lines of a giant volute supporting a smaller one and surmounted by pyramidal finials. A pair of buttresses at the midpoint of each nave wall have stairways for access to the roof. The lower part of the apse and most of the walls are constructed of coral stone blocks, the upper levels being finished in brick, but this order is reversed on the facade. The massive coral stone bell tower, which was added half a century after the church was completed, stands at some distance from the church, again as a protection against damage during earthquakes.

 

Construction of the church started in 1704 and was completed in 1894 by the Augustinian friars. The bell tower next to the church dates to 1793 and served as an observation point of the Katipuneros during the Philippine Revolution in 1896 and later by the guerrillas during the Japanese occupation.

It’s no wonder Paoay Church was also declared a national treasure.

As you can see from the photos, we arrived at the church after the sun was down, and while our party explored the grounds, the lights were turned on and the tables were set up for us. It was just a few days after Christmas, so the tree was still standing.

This post is linked with ABC Wednesday where the letter of the week is C. Go check out how other interesting C posts.

H is for Humayun

Preface June 11, 2012: This post is now linked to the community at Taphophile Tragics. If you have a fascination for tombs, graves, burial gounds and the histories of the humans who were "put to rest" in them, check out this meme.

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I introduced Humayun's tomb two days ago, but there is more to show and tell, and since the letter for Alphabe-Thursday this week is H, it felt fitting to continue.

Humayun was the second emperor of the Mughal era in India that began in the early sixteenth century. He was the favorite son of Babur, the first monarch, who could trace his ancestry directly to Tamerlane and Genghis Khan, two great Asian conquerors. Humayun ruled for 26 years and left an empire of nearly one million square kilometers.

Quoting from wiki - notes in brackets mine:

He is best remembered today for his great tomb, built by his widow after his death between 1562 and 1571. The ultimate model for Humayun's tomb is the Gur-e Amir in Samarkand (Tamerlane's tomb in Uzbekistan), and it is best-known as a precursor to the Taj Mahal in style. However, in its striking composition of dome and iwan (vaulted hall), and its imaginative use of local materials (including the red sandstone), it is one of the finest Mughal monuments in India in its own right.

Here are a few more of my images of this splendid piece of architecture and cultural heritage site. Photos enlarge when clicked. 

 

 

 

 

 

 Delhi, 2010

Humayun's tomb was listed a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1993.