Taylors Travels continue……………

Since we got back almost 3 weeks ago its been work, work, work and hardly any play.  One of our few outings was to the State Circus, our North Korean Engineers invited us to watch a fantastic performance by the visiting acrobatic troupe.  I have uploaded some of the video to YouTube.

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This young lady had at least 6 hoops spinning at one time.

and the troupe taking a bow

We have been enjoying lovely sunny warm (for february) weather for the last nine days, this is the fabulous view we enjoy driving from home to Blaine where our boat is moored.

Alas, just as spring is showing its face we have to say goodbye once again.  Our suitcases are packed and we will be making our final trip back to cold Mongolia later this week. 

This afternoon we watched a controlled burn of a house in our neighbourhood.  Rather than demolish the house, the owners gave it to the local fire department to use for training exercises with the final burn taking place today. 

The first image was taken at 1.25pm, a few minutes after the firefighters had torched the centre of the house, the second shot, just ten minutes later shows how quickly our wooden tinder box houses can become totally engulfed.  Tomorrow we will be checking all our smoke alarms and fire extinguishers!

This morning I did a double take as I pulled in to the parking lot of our local supermarket, and saw this splendid car - a 1931 model A Ford - that I had seen and photographed in Mongolia last year during the Peking to Paris Rally.  The car finished 39th overall, from a field of 134 starters, and looked none the worse for wear after the grueling rally. 

Another month has gone by since I updated the blog, this time my excuse was a last minute trip to the Yucatan in Mexico, where we spent almost 3 weeks.  Grant, Brenda and David arrived a few days after us so it was a family holiday.  Our base was a condo right on the beach near Progreso and from there we made lots of day trips - to the beautiful colonial city of Merida, the Mayan ruins at Uxmal which were truly incredible, the “yellow city” at Izamal and a 3 day trip to Cancun where we stayed at an all-inclusive resort.  Here are a few pictures from the trip and if I ever find a few free hours from my very busy life I will post a web gallery. 

The Grand Plaza in Merida - a great place for people watching

One of the new modern wonders of the World - Chichen-Itza

Ray and David just hanging out in Cancun.  Note the incredible pale blue water of the ocean in the background.

Enjoying the warm blue waters of the Caribbean.

The Convent in the yellow city of Izamal.  Most of the buildings in the city centre are painted in the same ochre colour.

Rose flamingoes at the Merida Zoo.  There are huge flocks of these colourful birds in the wetlands close to where we stayed.

We got back last night from a great trip to the Oregon Dunes.  Rather than post pictures from the trip, here is the link to son Sean’s blog, where he has already posted some of his great images.

http://sdbphoto.com/blog/

I can’t believe its almost a month since I visited my blog and Christmas 2007 is now history.  We got to see lots of family and friends over Christmas and are enjoying having Sean home from Hong Kong.  Tonight we are heading off with Grant and Sean in the motorhome to Florence, Oregon for a few days, where the boys can play with their toys (sand buggys) in the dunes.  I have packed a good book and some warm clothes and hope to have a few days of doing very little.

Best wishes to everyone for 2008 - hope the New Year brings you good health, wealth and happiness.

We woke up this morning to a light covering of snow and now, 7 hours later, we have over 2 inches and it hasn’t stopped yet.  Ray decided to shovel it off the driveway and had a very willing helper.

We’ve been very busy since we got back, spending time with our family and taking advantage of some of the great pre-Christmas deals.  Yesterday was Ray’s birthday which we celebrated at home with a lovely traditional English style roast dinner.  Here he is with our new TV, which was delivered just in time for his birthday.

Yeserday we arrived back in Beijing from 10 wonderful days in Thailand and we fly back to Canada later today.  I’ll post some pictures from our trip as soon as I get a few free minutes.

I just got these pictures from home, they are so cute. 

Here he is, getting dressed up as a big fierce tiger, whiskers and all.

Grant decorated the golf cart and they drove around the neighborhood trick or treating.  Looks like they were all having lots of fun.

Yesterday our North Korean engineers invited us to join them supporting their national soccer team playing Mongolia in their first round qualifier match.

The Koreans had lots of support from migrant workers here in Mongolia and we sat with them in the bleachers.  Before the game their cheer leader (lady in pink cap at bottom right of picture) had them singing and waving red flags.

Security was tight with men in riot gear standing along the sidelines, closely watching the crowd and glaring at the Koreans whenever they cheered their side, which was often as they dominated the game. 

By half-time the score was 3-0 in favour of North Korea.  Although the Mongolians did manage to score one goal in the second half they were no match for the visitors, and the final score was 4.1. 

The game ended without incident but this old fire truck was standing by, presumably this was the water cannon for riot control.

Last Saturday we had our first snowfall, but Sunday was a beautiful sunny day and we headed out into the countryside again.  We stopped for a picnic lunch near this huge Ovoo.

This is Wikipedia’s explanation of an ovoo……………

An ovoo (Mongolian: овоо, heap) is a type of shamanistic rock cairn found in Mongolia. Ovoos are often found at the top of mountains and high places and at borders and cross-roads. They serve as both navigational aids in a country with few roads and fewer signs, and religious sites, used in worship of the mountains and the sky as well as in Buddhist ceremonies.

Travelers in Mongolia should not pass by an ovoo without stopping. They are expected to stop and circle the ovoo three times in a clockwise direction. They should pick up a rock from the ground and add it to the pile before leaving. Also, travelers may leave offerings in the form of money, milk, or vodka.

Ovoos are also used in mountain- and sky-worshipping ceremonies that typically take place at the end of summer. Worshippers place a tree branch or stick in the ovoo and tie a blue khadag, a ceremonial silk scarf symbolic of the open sky, to the branch.^[1] (Khadags should not be removed.)^[2] They then light a fire and make food offerings, followed by a ceremonial dance and prayers (worshippers sitting at the northwest side of the ovoo), and a feast with the food left over from the offering.

During Mongolia’s Communist period, ovoo worship was officially prohibited along with other forms of religion, but people still worshipped clandestinely.

After lunch we continued on to have a look at another derelict hotel complex from the Russian era - could this be our next project?

Yesterday we went off to the countryside again with Chinbat and Naran, this time to watch the filming of a new movie about Gengis Khan.  It was a beautiful (although long) drive and the weather was perfect, a sunny 18C day which is very unusual for the end of September. 

the 13th century settlement, about to be attacked…..

Take two…….

what the actors do when not on the set,

and watching some of the takes in the editing room.

We just got back from a trip with our boss Chinbat to his farm at Tsagaanuur which is in the very north of Mongolia, running along the Mongolian/Russian (Siberia) border.  The scenery was spectacular with the fall colours making the landscape look like an oil painting. 

We drove right up to the Russian border and managed to take a couple of shots before the guards spotted us with our cameras and shooed us away. Not wanting to experience their hospitality, we complied. 

The following morning we went on a tour of the farm to check the wheat and potato crops, unexpected late rains were hampering the harvest. This image was taken from a hill on the farm and cannot do the view justice, we could see for miles in all directions with the distant mountains and Selenge River snaking its way through his land. Mongolia - land of blue sky - is a beautiful country.

We went for a walk into the local village of Terelj at lunchtime, it was a busy day at the Grocery Store, with customers “parking” their horses outside.

Most of the outside lighting has been installed and we tested it a couple of nights ago.  I think its pretty spectacular.

We spent the last few days at Terelj and I took a batch of progress photos, then dug through my archives and found some taken back in 2004 when the project was just getting started. 

Looking through the new front pedestrian gate

It’s been a lot of hard work to get to this stage but these ‘before and after’ shots tell the story.

Front entrance August 2004

and August 2007

Main staircase, August 2004

and now……

Wow, I just looked at my blog and see its almost 3 weeks since I got back, and nothing new posted.  I had hardly unpacked when we were off on another trip - back to Beijing last weekend for a quick 3 day business/shopping trip for Ray. 

One afternoon I went for a walk to Tian’anmen Square but the air pollution was so bad I didn’t take many pictures.  This was the first day of a pollution reduction test in which only odd numbered cars could use the roads on odd numbered days, even numbers on even days.  The experiment lasted for 4 days and having a million less vehicles on the road certainly made getting around much easier, but it didn’t do much to reduce the smog.  These pictures were taken around 4pm and the sun had already disappeared into the dirty haze.

Chang’an Avenue approaching Tian’anmn Square

Tian’anmen Square

There is a beautiful park behind the wall running parallel to the main road and walking through this on my return to the hotel was a far nicer experience.

Pretty stream, weeping willows and traditional wooden bridge

Traditional brick and tile house.  Sadly most of the “hutongs” with these old buildings are being torn down to make way for huge multi storey buildings.

Maybe if more people went back to riding bicycles the air would be cleaner, but cars = progress.

i arrived back late last night after a long but uneventful trip.  As soon as I get over my jet lag I’ll get on to putting some new stuff on the blog.

I haven’t been posting much to the blog as we have been enjoying our ’summer’ holiday here on the Wet Coast of Canada.  Weather records have been broken with the longest stretch of rainy days in any July on record which made it a soggy time, but the end is in sight and the sunshine is forecast to return tomorrow.  The week before the deluge started we took David to the zoo and spent another fun day at the beach in White Rock.

He loved his ride on the choo-choo.

and an ice cream afterwards.

busy on the beach

and helping Grandpa assemble our new garden bench.

As always holidays are over too quickly and Ray is now on his way back to Mongolia.  I will join him in a couple of weeks.

Today Sean had his best ever day on Alamy, with 3 sales totalling over $1000. Well done Sean.

I also sold another of my Mongolian horse pictures, this one for a Japanese tourism brochure.

You can see Sean’s (and my few) stock photos at Alamy.com

Yesterday was Canada Day so what did we do, we went across the border to the USA to visit the boat.  Here’s David checking things out, he loves to drive and was delighted with having a wheel this big.

We have had lovely sunny warm weather for the last few days and yesterday afternoon Brenda, David, Ellie (their 5 month old Irish Wolfhound) and I went to White Rock beach where they were able to do what kids and puppies do - run around and let off some steam.  We ended the evening with fish and chips. Good fun. 

No pictures this time, I arrived back in Canada a few days ago and have been too busy spending time with my cute little grandson David and his Mom and Dad, calling friends and family and generally settling back in.  I’ll be back with some new pictures in a few days.

Hurrah - I’ve made a sale, this image has just sold for the princely sum of $75.00 

Country: Worldwide
Usage: Editorial
Media: Book- Academic/Educational
Industry: Retail books/magazines/newspapers
Sub-Industry: Education and Test Guides
Print run: up to 5,000
Placement: Inside
Image Size: 1/4 page
Start: 01 March 2008
End: 01 March

It gives me a great feeling of satisfaction to actually sell an image, now Ray can give up his job and I can support him in retirement by selling my work!!!!!

The photo below of the hotel under construction was not last month as stated in the article, but two years ago when we started work on the project.  

Voted Number One of all the luxury hotel brands in the world!  

Sam Sallam, (V.P. Operations and General Manager) and Ray Taylor (Project Manager) for Terelj Hotel and Spa, Mongolia’s first and only seven star hospitality experience, are holding the membership plaque for SLH (Small luxury hotels of the world). They were voted number one of all the luxury hotel brands in the world. SLH operates 400 hotels and resorts in 65 countries. Please visit www.slh.com and tereljhotel.com, coming soon.  

One of the Pioneer Class cars, a 1903 Mercedes starting the next leg of the rally in Ulaanbaatar. This image begged to be given some special effects, so I sepia toned it in Photoshop.

Click here to link to more pictures, some taken on the Rest Day, which was really a repair day, and lots from the start yesterday.

Yesterday the competitors in the 100 year re-enactment of the Peking to Paris Rally arrived in UB, after encountering many hardships crossing the Gobi Desert.  Ray saw these 2 cars refuelling and stopped to have a look.  The red car is a 1924 Itala 51B, the burgundy one is a 1928 Chevrolet AB Roadster.  Today is a rest day for the rally and we will be going to have a look at the cars, and tomorrow morning we hope to watch the start of the next leg. For further information on the rally check out the web site at: http://www.pekingparis.com/index.html

After a long dreary brown winter, the countryside is finally turning green, wild flowers are shooting up and many of the mares have given birth to their foals.  This shot was taken near Turtle Rock in Terelj National Park, on our way to the hotel.

We returned last night from a 4 day break to Beijing where we met up with son Sean and old friends from our Delhi days - Lorne and Nora Cain.  On Saturday night we attended the 20th Canadian Charity Ball, a grand affair featuring Canadian food, beer and wine and which raised a healthy sum for one of the many orphanages in China.

Old pals, Ray and Lorne

On Sunday Ray, Sean and I took a trip to the Great Wall of China at Mutianyu.  The weather was dull and overcast, not the best day for photography,  but the rain held off during our visit.  This part of the wall has been well restored and features a very steep section, seen here. We took a gondola up to the wall, then walked/climbed along the wall to the watchtowers and came back down on the tobogan, which was lots of fun. 

Happy family snappy

The tobogan ride down

On Monday Ray went off to play golf with the guys, and Sean and I played tourist - visiting the Temple of Heaven.  I snapped this guy in the Rose Garden getting a real close up of the flowers.

Work has been keeping us so busy the last few weeks that I haven’t had time to update the blog.  

Last Sunday evening the hotel owners and top level operational staff were treated to a “Degustation” Dinner put on by the hotel chefs who recently arrived here.  They produced a delicious five course meal, accompanied by some fine wines and it was without doubt the finest meal we have had here in Mongolia.  Pictured below is the main course - Lamb Naran and Australian beef tenderloin served on Dauphinoise potatoes - yummy.   We’re looking forward to testing some more of their culinary creations.

The Trans Mongolian/Siberian Railway line runs right through Ulaanbaatar and we look out on it from our office windows.  Every day we see 3 or 4 trains like this one, loaded with lumber coming from Russia and heading to China to feed the rapidly growing economy. The trains are so long that it takes 4 locomotives to pull them.  We can only hope that who ever is cutting such huge forests is doing so in a sustainable manner.

We arrived back in Mongolia late last night after a week long business trip to Beijing, 37 hours late - for a 2 hour flight.  This is not the first time we have been delayed by Air China, but it by far the worst.  We were waiting at the departure gate on Friday morning when they posted a sign saying flight delayed due to bad weather, and were all taken to a low grade hotel where we were fed meals that looked and tasted like dog food, not told what was going on and not allowed to leave the hotel.  This treatment by Air China is inexcusable, especially when we know that MIAT (the other airline which flies from Beiijing to Mongolia) was operating as normal.  We will never fly with this airline again unless it is a dire emergency and will be writing a strong letter of complaint.

This weekend the 5th Annual Camel Polo Tournemant took place in UB, with twenty 6 man teams from Inner and Outer Mongolia competing for a prize of Tg 4 Million (about $3500) plus a motorcycle for each member of the winning team.  The event had the feel of a winter fair and the mild weather brought people out in droves to watch. 

Yesterday I braved the cold long enough to take a few photos before my fingers froze.

This is the State Protocol Palace built to commemorate the 800th Anniversary of the founding of Chinggis Khan’s empire and now nearing completion.  In the centre there is a HUGE statue of the great warrior, there are two statues of mounted warriors on either side of the steps and two more large statues of the Khans under the glass domes at the sides.

Did I say winter was almost over - that was wishful thinking.  Over the last few days we have had more snow and the mercury plummetted to -33 Celsius last night with the forecast for continued cold all week.  Today was a beautiful sunny day so we bundled up and went for a short walk.   

The street we live on is called Mahatma Gandhi Avenue and this statue of the great man was erected last summer.  We have no idea if there is any meaningful connection between Gandhi and Mongolia - does anyone know?  One thing is for sure, if he was ever here during the winter he would not have been walking around in that flimsy outfit.

I arrived back in Mongolia last Saturday and was pleasantly surprised to see the mercury nudging its way to 0 Celsius - a temperature we haven’t seen here since early November. 

This fantastic ice carving of Chinggis Khan and his warriors was done before Christmas but is now starting to melt.  Pretty soon only the big bronze statue next to it will be left.

Today while I was searching through some boxes of old documents and stuff I came across some photos from our past.  This was one of the most memorable sails during all our time in Mexico.  We were sailing into Bahia Conception in Sea of Cortez, Baja with our good friends Jim and Gail on PRIORITY when the wind came up and we decided to “pop the chute”.  Sundancer II was just flying, doing an easy 6+ knots but eventually we had to douse the sail as we started to run into shallow water.

The spectacular Baja scenery - Sundancer II (3rd from left) anchored at Isla San Francisco.

Many times when we were sailing we would throw a line over the side.  Here’s a shot of Ray with the catch of the day.

and after he was done cleaning the fish, I prepared a delicious lunch of fresh sushi. 

It doesn’t get much better than that - now I have to ask myself what are we doing living in Mongolia!!!

A couple of weeks ago the weatherman predicted a sunny weekend so we packed up the trailer and headed south to Deception Pass where we spent a great weekend camping. 

The bridge at Deception Pass.

During November and December the area was hit by some ferocious winter storms, with many trees fallen.

David enjoying the beach.

and exploring with his Mum and Dad.

Bald eagle eying us from his lofty perch.

Even in the depth of winter these camels are “saddled up” and waiting by the roadside in Terelj National park most days, the owners hoping some crazy tourists will come along and pay a few hundred Tugrugs for a ride or photo op.

Back on this side of the Pacific the snow finally stopped and the sun came out so we donned snow boots and toques and ventured into the yard, here’s David getting to know Freya, our ”ney”bours horse.