Murun, the last outpost of civilisation in the northern provinces of Mongolia

The weather was nice, and after a walk through this small village I had a breakfast with glass noodles and sheep meat. After that I was searching for a transport to the north, to a city with the name Khatgal (Хатгал) . This is a very very small village at the Lake Khovsgol (Ховзгол Нуур ) and at the border of the lake. After asking 50 people I went back to the bus station. One of the bus drivers showed to me the right departure place behind one of the markets in Murun. Then I tried to call some numbers on business cards from the UB guesthouse. No success, all numbers were busy or not working. But in Mongolia a traveller doesn't get lost, and after walking through the streets a car stopped and a taxi driver asked me if she could help me. I told her my problem, and she knew the people in my destination, the MS guesthouse. The owner was married to her sister, and so I could arrange a bed for me and a man from Ukraine who had the same destination.

Unfortunately we could not speak very much, because his english and my russian were very basic. To pass by the time I went to the market and purchased a shawl and a cap made from goat wool, which is better known as Cashmere wool. The nights in this region are known to be very cold, and now I was prepared. Before we startet, the driver went to a welder and got the steering wheel fixed. But he didn't fix the nearly broken window of the car. And also the passengers accepted that I took the seat at the front, but the window didn't crash at this day.

After three hours and 100 km on some dusty tracks we finally arrived at Khatgal and the MS guesthouse. But I had some bad luck and overbended my thumb while closing the door, which caused some pain the next days. After a day of rest I decided to make a walk to the border of the lake, which is more than 20 kms away from Khatgal. Victor came with me, and we found very pretty places to take photos of the scenery. On our way we met two horsemen. The first stopped for taking a photo, but disappeared without any words. The second horseman was more communicative, and I spoke with him. After some pictures with him and his horse, me on his horse and the horse withoud horseman we continued our walk.

Finally, with burning feet we arrived at this beautiful place:

You may wonder why the rest of the lake looks grey - it was still frozen. But the cold weather has an advantage to a visit in the late summer: we had absolutely no mosquitos there, and they can be very boring.

The horseman, having doubts about the ice on the lake

And so much places for taking photos....

Viktor was also a photographer, so the trip was suitable for him, too. When we came back it was already late and he prepared to take some pictures from the moon. But at this night there wasn't any part of the moon visible because it was the new moon period. So I took some pictures of the great nighty sky. At one or two o'clock the sky become cloudy, and that lasted to the next morning.

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