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

and the troupe taking a bow

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. 

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. 

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.

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

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.

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.

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?

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 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.

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

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……

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.

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.

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

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. 

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!!!!!

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.  

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.

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.

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.

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.

Gandhi Street opened in Ulaanbaatar

Written by Ulaanbaatar correspondent

Thursday, 09 March 2006

The street running behind the Central Stadium in Ulaanbaatar has been named after the famous Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi. Present at the street’s opening ceremony held Tuesday were the UB City Mayor Mr. Ts.Batbayar; the Indian Ambassador to Mongolia, Mr. Gauri Shankar Gupta; the Head of Asian Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. S.Khurelbaatar, and the Head of Mongolian-Indian Freindship Soiety, Ch.Dambajav. The one-kilometer long street, connecting the Olympic Avenue with the Peace Avenue, is located in the ‘’A'’ central zone of Ulaanbaatar. A number of centralized constructions such as Japan Town and Altai Construction Town will be built in the surroundings of the street. The UB City Khural (Assembly) of Citizens’ Representatives made a decision to name the street after Mahatma Gandhi within the scope of the measures planned for the 50th jubilee of the establishment of the diplomatic relations between Mongolia and India. As well, a street in Delhi was named after the Ulaanbaatar City last year. The street’s inauguration ceremony was attended by the Mongolian Minister of Foreign Affairs.

]]> http://photography-fotografia.com/blog/2007/03/07/i-love-google/feed/ http://photography-fotografia.com/blog/2007/03/04/gandhi-in-mongolia/ http://photography-fotografia.com/blog/2007/03/04/gandhi-in-mongolia/#comments Sun, 04 Mar 2007 08:54:49 +0000 Mongolia http://photography-fotografia.com/blog/2007/03/04/gandhi-in-mongolia/ 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!!!

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.

This morning we started clearing walkways and digging out, but David was not sure about all that white stuff.

He climbed right onto the huge pile of gifts - these were all for him

Some assembly required but Dad soon had the bike put together