The Wishing Mountain

The first stop in our journey to the religious hot spots at the Khamar Monastery area was the Wish Mountain. After getting off of our overnight train at 1:30 am, our merry band of 10 APIP employees sleepily piled into a grey van (whose many “aromas” we quickly became all too familiar with), and tore through the night into the Gobi desert. We made our first stop several hours later at the foothills of the wish mountain.
















Thus began our ascent.
At the shrine a third of the way up the mountain, we made offerings of candy, lit incense, and wrote our wishes on small pieces of paper to later shred and burn in the shrine. Midway up the mountain the girls stopped climbing. I asked Orta, APIP’s IT specialist, why they were not climbing with us. He said to me, “this is the men’s wishing mountain, there is a mens and a womans, they’ll stay down there until we are done.” He then gave myself and the other two guys on our trip, Davi and Carter, blue scarves to wear around our necks.
We arrived at the summit in time to see the sunrise.

At the summit there was a mound of rocks with blue, white green, red, and yellow scarves wrapped around it, and the remnants of a sacrificial animal and some edibles positioned facing the sunrise.

Orta then gave us each a small bottle of vodka and a cup. Noting the look of incredulity on our faces, he quickly explained that we were not meant to drink the vodka, but instead to poor vodka into our cups, and as we focused on our wishes, to fling three cups of vodka towards the sunrise.
Next I walked around the mound three times, and then tied my blue scarf on one of the ropes on the mound.

On our descent, we were greeted by a shepherd who had brought with him his herd of mountain goats.

Hello there.

This guy really liked the candy.

On the way down the mountain I stopped at the small shrine to tear and burn my list of wishes.

A view from the bottom of the mountain

We returned once again to the van for several hours, bouncing through the Gobi until we arrived at the women’s wishing shrine. The women’s shrine resembles a pair of breasts and represents fertility. Rather than vodka, the women offered milk.

Khamar Monastery Energy Center

This weekend I'm going on a trip with my co-workers to the Khamar Monastery Energy Center, located in the south Gobi. The story behind the energy center, according to Ariuna, is that long ago there was a Buddhist monk who was venturing into the countryside. One day he came upon a large natural circular area with mystical powers. He prayed and meditated there and achieved enlightenment. After this, he discovered another energy center, and he proceeded to build monasteries on both locations. These monasteries expanded rapidly as word of their mystical powers spread throughout the land.
Unfortunately, these monasteries and the towns that grew around them were destroyed during the purge of all things Buddhist and Genghis Khan by the Mongolian communists during the 1900's. The monastery we will be visiting was built after the democratic revolution in 1991.
Despite the original monasteries having been destroyed, people say the energy is still there. Many Mongolians and foreigners alike go to the Monastery several times a year for its renowned wishing mountain that grants wishes to everyone who goes there.
More to follow when I return from my trip!

My Swingin' Pad in UB

My accommodations are a lot nicer than I was expecting. My room has a bed, desk and chair. The apartment is decked out with a spacious living room, a kitchen with an oven and stovetop, and a bathroom. The only downside is that the toilet refuses to flush more than once per day.. I'll leave that disaster up to your imagination.

A Tour of Ulaanbaatar

Today I was taken around on a property tour around Ulaanbaatar by Jess Lampe, the Director of Mongolian Properties (and my tour guide for the day). What a city. We started at the office on Seoul Street at 9:30 and made our first stop in Zaisan at the Zaisan Soviet Monument, which commemorates the friendship between the Soviet Union and Mongolia. The Zaisan Soviet Monument is at the highest point in Ulaanbaatar, up on a hilltop. Even from there all I heard were echoes from the multitude of construction sites in the city. From that point I was able to see Ulaanbaatar in its entirety, and to appreciate its enormous scale.

Residential buildings are springing all over the city, and you come to wonder if there are enough people to fill them with Mongolia's total population at 2.8 million, and Ulaanbaatar's at 1 million. Assuming there are, the next question is if they can afford to live in these new and expensive apartment complexes. 60% of Mongolia's population currently reside in the gerr districts, living in Yurts, and burning coal for heat in the winter. The average income is around $3000 per year. Many of these new apartments start at several tens of thousands of dollars.

This seems at first like a terrible bubble, and it very well could be. However I can guess at two reasons off the top of my head why this situation is not as dire as one might first believe.

1. "the Mongolian government has just given each citizen 538 shares in the Erdenes-Tavan Tolgoi IPO. If the IPO hits its anticipated $10 billion, each Mongolian shares would be worth about $360." (http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Investors-Salivating-Over-Mongolian-Energy-Resources.html) There is a holding period on those shares, however, in which the Mongolians are not allowed to sell their ownership of the Tavan Tolgoi mine.
538 * 360 = $193,680
Right about now, I wish I was Mongolian.

2. The Mongolian mortgage market is starting out, making it possible for families to begin occupying these apartments now.
I'll look into the mortgage rates and write about it in my next post. I feel like the rates would be high.. MBS anyone?

Next we drove through the 3rd and 4th micro-districts area. Jess told me about an acquaintance of his that owns a mid-sized multistory box shaped building which houses a bunch of flea market type stalls and makes $100,000 per month on rent. I'd need to look into real estate prices in that region, but it sounds like one of those situations where if I had some money lying around I'd go buy a nice property on the main street in the bustling 3rd and 4th micro-districs.