Ulan Bator & Tsetserleg: Chanting Monks as well as Haunted hotels

It felt so great to shower after getting back from our Gobi Desert trip! As soon as the 6 of us walked into our hostel the owner told us all of us stunk like camels as well as goats. After washing away our stench, all of us hung-out, unwinded as well as swapped pictures before going to bed, completely exhausted.

Nick as well as I never stay in dorm rooms, however we had no option in Ulan Bator…and this was really quite good
The next day in Ulan Bator, Nick as well as I were up early to go to the most significant monastery in the city, the Gandan Khiid. Buddhism is a extremely essential part of the Mongolian culture, with 80% of the people right here believing in Mahayana Buddhism. We had heard that the local monks carry out an captivating ceremony around 8:30am as well as we didn’t want to miss it. When we shown up there were 2 monks banging a big bell to commence the ceremony. We rapidly took our seats inside the monastery as well as delighted in the trance-like specify we were in while listening to the monks chant in unison. Bells were ringing, cymbals were being clinked together, snuff was being sniffed, money was being provided in exchange for a blessing, as well as rice as well as milk were showed the monks.

A prayer wheel outside of the monastery, when you spin it, your prayer is multiplied by the number of turns
After about an hour of chanting, the monks pulled out a long colourful scarf as well as to the noise of bells as well as harmonic chanting, they began to produce a circle, while engulfing as numerous people as possible inside of it. people were scrambling as well as pushing their method into the colourful enclosure, while Nick as well as I just stood back as well as watched. Unfortunately, cameras weren’t enabled in the monastery, so you’ll have to utilize your creativity on this one.

Outside of the Gandan Khiid Monastery, Ulan Bator
Once the ceremony was over, we were back to running our tasks for the day. We wished to go to the village of Tsetserleg the complying with morning as well as needed to get to the bus station to purchase a ticket. We had so numerous problems trying to purchase this bus ticket! The station was a mess, with people swarming around trying to get us to fill up their minivan to “such-and-such” a town. We kept stating “Tsetserleg” as well as nobody understood what we were speaking about. We tried phoning some guesthouses in our guidebook to figure out why nobody was comprehending us, as well as wouldn’t offer us any type of bus tickets. nobody was responded to as well as the numbers were obviously all wrong.

We lastly got ahold of somebody as well as it turned out the name of the town had been altered to Erdenebulgan as well as the area code had altered as well! After great deals of frustration, we were lastly able to purchase tickets to the appropriate destination. Our 3-year-old guidebook told us the trip would be over 12 hours on a extremely bumpy road, so we were expecting the worst. When our shiny red bus pulled into the station as well as we sat in our comfy seat, we understood that the book must be outdated! We drove along on a incredibly paved road for about 9 hours before showing up in Tsetserleg.

Our shiny red bus that would take us from Ulan Bator to Tsetserleg
We lucked out as well as shown up on day 3 of the 3 day Naadam Festival! The only drawback to this was the truth that all of the lodging was booked up. We contemplated setting up our camping tent somewhere just outside the city however were recommended against it – this celebration is a time for drinking fermented mare’s milk as well as vodka as well as obviously numerous of the Mongolian guy can get a bit rowdy around this time. Being out in the middle of nowhere in a camping tent didn’t seem like a excellent idea.

So, we inspected into the only offered space in the village, Sundur Hotel. From the outside, the hotel looked haunted. From the inside, it didn’t look any type of better. It was up there on our listing of truly poor hotels, like the one we stayed at in Beirut, Lebanon.

The outside of our haunted hotel in Tsetserleg (Erdenebulgan)
It was old, run down as well as the door to the space was quickly opened by moving a credit rating card down the side of it. There were no working lights in the space so Nick made his method around to some other spaces as well as stole their lightbulbs. The toilet was horrendous, there were dead spiders on the floor as well as the bathtub was rusty as well as dirty. Plus, the water wouldn’t stop running! It wasn’t just dribbling out of the tap, it was pouring out, all night.

Check out the quick video of this gross hotel:Not only did the location look haunted, however a lady at a cafe earlier had told us that the regional people believe that the location is really haunted as well as that a lady felt herself being pulled from her bed one night! Needless to say, I didn’t sleep a wink that night.

The complying with morning we got up as well as left as rapidly as we could. We inspected into the fantastic Fairfield Guesthouse, a non-haunted, clean, fantastic location run by an Australian couple. We got settled in, had a marvelous hot shower as well as prepared to inspect out the Naadam Festival!

For much more info on travelling to Mongolia, inspect out our Backpacking guide to Mongolia.

What’s the worst hotel you’ve ever stayed at? Was it haunted?!

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