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I have traveled up the Bürkhiin Gol, which flows into the Kherlen River near Möngönmort in Töv Aimag, several times while on my way to  Khagiin Khar Nuur , a well known resting place in the Khentii Mountains; Asralt Khairkhan Uul , the highest mountain in the Khentii Range; Yestiin Rashaan , a hot springs complex frequented by Zanabazar, the First Bogd Gegeen of Mongolia ; the ruins of the monastery founded by Zanabazar, Saridgiin Khiid , and other places in the Khentii Mountains. Valley of the Bürkhiin Gol Near where the Bürkhin Gol emerges from the mountains out into the valley of the Kherlen Gol I had often taken note of a monument which seemed to indicate that the great revolutionary Sükhebaatar fought a battle here again Baron Ungern-Sternberg’s White Russian army back in 1921.  Monument on the Bürkhiin Gol  I was never, however, able to find out any details about this battle. Now comes word from Dr. S. L. Kuzmin in Moscow, who has already written at length abou...

Took a break and did a nine-day horse trip to the ultra-exclusive (during the high-season you can only get there by horse, which keeps out the hoi-polloi in their Land-Cruisers and Hummers) Onon Hot Springs Resort and Spa on the Upper Onon River. With me on the trip were Töv Aimag herdsman and Gazarchin Zevgee,  his wife Tümen Ölzii, his son Batdorj, and his grandson Puntog.  I have done eleven Previous Horse and Camel Trips   with Zevgee,  including a trip to Asralt Khairkhan , the highest mountain in the Khentii Range, This would make the twelfth trip with him. This was my third trip to the Onon Hot Springs. The first was in 1997, as described in Part 3  of my book Travels in Northern Mongolia . I returned to the Hot Springs in 2003 while doing a Khora around the Sacred Mountain of Burkhan Khaldun . This time we were planning to take three days of treatments in the famously therapeutic waters of the various springs at the complex.   S...