I left Dariganga in the afternoon to try and get a head start on my drive to Chinggis rather than try to do it all the next day. I made it just past Baruun-urt and then took a random dirt road a couple of miles away from everything and set up camp 6 (N 46.7224413, E 112.7214961). I know all these camp pics look sort of the same, but I promise they’re not.

After passing through Baruun-urt and before camp, though… Wait! What’s this?! The road from Baruun-urt to Chinggis is paved?! What luxury! I have a map highlighting all the paved sections of road in the country, but this isn’t on it.

As you can see above, along the road I keep seeing eagles or hawks or osprey or whatever they are on the side of the road. I’ll just call them raptors. Anyway, they stand at the side of the road while cars whiz past just a few feet from their faces and they don’t even flinch! Crazy! Unless you stop to try to take a picture, then they flee like the wind.

There was also the usual goats and horses and cattle. The pavement doesn’t stop them from doing their thing.

Before heading into town, about five miles west, I stopped at another Turkic grave stone.

Finally, I arrived in Chinggis, named after Mongolias favorite son, Chinggis Khan. I checked into the Khanburged Hotel, took a shower, did some much needed laundry, and stuffed myself with kuushuur (Mongolian hot pockets).

There’s not a whole lot to do in Chinggis, but I thought it was worth a day of exploration in exchange for the break from camping. I started at the Ethnography Museum, which is inside the converted 19th century home of the Tsetseg Khan. He ruled all of eastern Mongolia during the Chinese reign.

There were actually a lot of really cool exhibits inside. All of the signage was in Mongolian, but with the help of the kid that worked there and GoogleTranslate, I got to learn a lot of interesting info about the artifacts. I don’t know if he was bored, passionate, or just super nice, but I was really appreciative to have him help me. There were lots of 17th century weapons including a rifle, some works by Zanabazar, and traditional costumes including a shamans outfit. I wasn’t able to take pictures inside, but outside was the supposedly largest meteor that ever landed on Mongolia at 550kgs! (About 1210lbs.)

This nondescript little monastery, Shandavdarjaliin Khiid, doesn’t look like much today, but the original monastery which was built in 1660 was the first Buddhist philosophy school in Mongolia. It used to be home to over a thousand monks, but now less than a dozen. Thank you Joseph Stalin.

Just down the street is a sort of park with a few monuments. Most of it looked locked up. I got in through a hole in the fence. Trees are overgrown, weeds are sprouting up through the concrete, it’s not well looked after at all. Nevertheless, inside are these supposedly uber famous wrestler statues. If I haven’t mentioned it before, wrestling is HUGE in Mongolia! It’s one of the main events at their annual Nadaam Festival.

Also inside was this very cool albeit severely neglected WWII Memorial.

Wandering kind of aimlessly I finally stumbled upon what I assume is the main town square. There’s basically two government buildings in the corner, another big rusty jumbotron that never got wired up like in Choibalsan and pretty much nothing else.

Just adjacent to the square was a big Chinggis Khan monument. I would’ve been very disappointed if there wasn’t a monument to him in the very city that was named after him. This was probably the best monument in town, even though it looks pretty neglected too.

Sedate may be an understatement in describing Chinggis. There are several 18th century buildings around the center as well as some modern behemoths, all appear abandoned, neglected, and sad. Most of the activity is in the old run down apartment blocks. Shops fill the ground floors while people live in the apartments above.

I really enjoyed the Ethnography Museum and the monastery. I even enjoyed walking around looking at the monuments, but overall Chinggis appears to be a monument to urban decay.

There’s more to come from Mongolia, so stay tuned…