After a plan for Tibet fell through due to covid, I went to one of my other options of inner Mongolia.
In Inner Mongolia, the names of several cities end with the word hot. In ancient times, hot referred to settlements of the nomadic peoples. With the process of urbanization, hot has come to mean city now. Hoh in Mongolian means blue.
We flew into Hohhot and rented a car after staying the night at the shangri-la. The hotel was beautiful. I went for a run in the nearby park.
We drove to the Ulanhada volcano cluster and stayed at a nearby yurt. We are in the grasslands which are dotted with herds of sheep and horses, and looked forward to living like a nomad with an overnight stay in a Mongolian yurt.
Volcano crater #3 is the one with stairs to go up. You can go into the crater. We walked the 0.6 km along the top of the rim and down one side you can see where companies came in to take the volcanic rock for building projects. Along that side people dressed in space man costumes to pretend they are from Mars.
#5 volcano crater had much loose rock and steep sides. It was a climb and a scramble getting down. There is a beautiful view all around.
We could see the #4 crater from the top. It has been dug up for building material and in not as good a condition.
Back at the yurt we dressed in Mongolian dress.
Dinner was amazing. Fresh greens from their garden, Mongolian pancake, yak cheese and tofu.
