Day 2: New driver, new van, more kilometers driven



 My future van? A Russian UAZ-452, which is everywhere in the Mongolian countryside. I am told it is tough but also not made for a comfortable ride. I need to give one a test drive on the way to Burghangai.Gray is the dominant color.


Erdene Zuu




Stupa inside Erdene Zuu


The communists(both Mongolian and Russian/Soviet) destroyed almost all of the monasteries in Mongolia and murdered about 10,000 monks before Stalin urged some restraint as to present a better picture for foreign visitors, or so I have read.



The first of many grasshoppers, afield full of them flying around makes a similar sound to a rattle snake. It takes some time to grow accustomed to that sound for a South carolina boy.


The three manly sports in Mongolia are horse racing(long distance), archery and wrestling but Mr Naismith's game of basketball has caught on aas well. I saw many hoops in city and countryside.




Enkhii on a yak.He got the Mongolian price.









                                        Donkey brothers riding.



         


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Everything I Have Is Yours

Image
   Well today is my birthday and we should celebrate all things me. I agree. Let us celebrate Louis M Cook. But that is not me. I am Louis M. Cook, Jr. That is a fact I made sure my teachers knew and acknowledged as a young and probably bothersome youngster. My Dad is Louis M. Cook. He can put a Senior behind his name or not. As the first one, he has that option.    I do not want to forget my Mom but she has told me that giving birth to me was not a tough ordeal. The next few decades were much more trying for her. I wanted to write this last night but I laid down with my wife and son and told them a few stories about my Dad. The sad fact is that my sons and soon daughter do not and will not know the Dad who raised me. His mind has been attacked by a heinous disease known as Primary Progressive Aphasia. I write this and other stories and tell tales to my kids so that through me they might know and remember him.   He made a living and a unique life through words. He was a sewing mach
Read more

Are you useful? Are you willing to be used?

Image
   As a parent I find myself rhetorically asking my son how many times he needs to be told to do something. The answer should be once but that is not the reality. I am working on stopping that question because every time it comes out I am reminded by the Holy Spirit that I am guilty of needing repeated warnings, reminders and training in my life.   I watched and listened to a sermon by David Platt given at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary recently. Three Questions from Luke    I had to listen to it three times and I know I will go back to it again. Platt is a fine preacher of the Word but I think his greatest strength is his passion for the Lord. It is palpable. It draws you in and makes you examine God's word and how it applies to you. That is a powerful gift and he uses it well. His message or better yet God's message clearly stated in Luke is a call to serve Him unconditionally and to love your neighbor as yourself . I am guilty of making legal contracts fu
Read more

Wanna make God laugh?

Image
You might know the punchline to the saying, "How do you make God laugh?" It is, "Tell Him your plans." It is true. It hit me again today and tonight about the wondrous love he has for us and me and that he has plans for me. Growing up, and I am still growing, I had plans upon plans of what I wanted to do. What I planned to do. I can tell you that not one of them had me living in California for over a decade. None of them had me marry a Mongolian woman. Now they all had me naming my first son after myself but that is about the only one that has happened as I planned. Yet it only occurred after I had decided that my lot was to be a lifelong bachelor. Again God laughed at me.    If you asked if me back home in South Carolina about the chances of me ever meeting a Mongolian much less marrying one and taking our baby boy to celebrate Nadaam in Golden Gate Park, well I would have laughed at you and asked that you lay off the Humboldt County herb.    Yet here I am
Read more