We rolled along through more stunning scenery - we've been enjoying the travelling part of travelling lately, just as much as getting to the destinations - and arrived in Repkong. We found a hotel and set out to the Rongwo Gonchen Gompa, the main monastery in town, that dates from 1301. On the way we passed lots of shops selling everything needed for living a Buddhist life, and came across a beautiful new golden statue with people prostrating before. We also passed a group of soldiers kitted out with their helmets and batons - and this is a town we've been given access to.
Outside hundreds of prayer wheels surround the monastery spinning at the hands of worshippers, including our personal favourite the playful young monks - although they now lead a serious monks life, it was nice to see them having fun and mucking around together.Getting inside the monastery took us longer than expected when 3 friendly monks invited us in for a sit-down and chat. This was quite fun as only one spoke Chinese, and the conversation was a mix of translated English, Chinese and Tibetan. It's so enjoyable to hear and see the Tibetan language, while people walk in their traditional Tibetan clothes amongst us.
Inside the monastery we were able to wander in the maze of alleyways ourselves, waving and smiling at the many monks that live here. At the main temple a young monk showed us in, and then an older monk took over - smiling in delight when we positively responded to his mention of the Dalai Lama. We were also taken by surprise to see a picture of the Dalai Lama under the main Buddha statue. We lit yak-butter lamps on the request of the monk before continuing our untouristic and free exploration.
This monastery is huge, and we spent a good few hours checking it out, and wandering in and out of whatever chapels were open. We came across one chapel full of chanting monks beating drums, but what caught our attention were the piles of traditional boots resting outside. 
After leaving we made a slow journey back through the old Hui village to check out a tall, thin, Muslim pagoda we'd been seeing around for the last few days before strolling back through the shops and markets. 
As night fell we set out for dinner, ending up at a Tibetan place where we dined on a thick noodle soup. It was great fun communicating with the friendly owner using hand signals and animal sounds to indicate that Liv didn't eat meat. The meal was yet another thing in this town that has brought back memories of Mongolia - as both countries have a lot of similarities due to the spread of Tibetan Buddhism through Mongolia.Adlibing it to a Tibetan town.
At the reserve we forked out for the entrance ticket (it's taking some getting used to these high Chinese entrance fees again), and caught the free electric cart up to the beginning of the walk. 
We then wandered around the lake, finding our own route where the walkway had collapsed, and ran into a couple of foreigners who we exchanged tips and complaints with!
We tried to find a waterfall, which turned out not to exist, before taking the mule trail back down. 
Once in Lanzhou we were shown to the bus by some helpful police officers, and after a couple of bus rides we arrived at the long distance bus station where we attempted to buy onward tickets down south. Liv's conversation with the ticket office went a little like this:
Eventually we headed out of town, turning our heads whenever we saw a police officer，just like adlibing criminals! The bus ride to Xunhua, our revised destination, was brilliant and by the end of it our faith in China had been restored. We made friends with the passengers, gave NZ coins and a lolly to the poor little girl who had broken her arm and had her x-rays for passenger investigation. 
Soon enough though, it was our coins that were making the rounds through the bus! During the trip we made our way over the enormous mountain pass, dodging landslides and avoiding cliffsides as we went, with menacing looking grey-clouded skies following us along the way.
The old Hui (Hui is the name for Muslim Chinese) man sitting across from Adam became our teacher, pointing out animals and crops, and advising us on trip plans. It was great how he actively searched for things to point out and actively engage with us - he even claimed some fruit from another passenger to give us. 
Once in Xunhua, we bid our new friends goodbye, and found a cheap, and awesomely clean hotel to stay in for a few days while we explore the area. We headed out for dinner, and over the meal decided the day had been a success, although we had left Gansu province without seeing any of the sights we wanted to. The people had made up for the shortcomings of the govt, and we were happy and loving travelling through China again. Plus, we'll probably head back into Gansu and head to Xinjiang from the less-politically charged North.
What you literally see is a mound of dirt, but when you consider the age and harsh desert environment what you are gazing upon are the closest Chinese equivalent to the Egyptian Pyramids. Though we think these structures were initially built as pagodas, not as pyramids.
Getting there was a bit of a challenge given that there were no directions to a path on how to get there. In the end we just decided to take the most direct route through the desert-like terrain and apart from a spider-scare and a lot of thorns we eventually stumbled out by the tombs. Here we got a better view of the Helan Mountain range which are supposed to be visible from the city, but we could hardly make them out here, some 30km closer!
We had lunch without anyone interrupting us, and then got a close up view of the tombs, including of the wooden bracings we saw in the museum. 
On the way back to the entrance we almost got caught in the rain - though finding the path made our return trip a bit easier!! Back at the carpark we tried to get a taxi, but the driver was asking twice what we paid to get there so we thought we'd try our luck on the street. Once the rain arrived, and after nearly being run over by trucks zooming past, we headed back with our tails between our legs for a ride. However we were invited into a taxi with a family, and although we paid for them, we got it for the price we paid in the first place.
Later on we went to check out the Mosque, which was unfortunately under renovation, so we passed the day away in a bustling market and finally purchased Adam some new sunglasses!
We sheltered with other temple-goers under the protection of the Migjed Janraisig temple, before it opened and revealed a gigantic golden Buddha.
We spent a few hours wandering through the complex, in and out of the many small temples stopping to listen to the ceremonies and young monks practising chanting.
Today we spent far too long on the internet, trying to catch up on 2 weeks of blogging and photos - that aside we also managed to make it out to the Black Market on the edge of town. Here you can buy anything you need - and though lots of things were clearly Chinese, it was interesting when we made it to the Mongolian part of the market. Here you can buy horse saddles, reins, bridles, gers, carpets and all the other necessities for nomadic life.
After 2 decent rides on horses in the countryside, Adam decided there was nothing more Mongolian (that would fit in his bag) than a leather hide horse whip - which he bought as a souvenir.
The museum was pretty good and we learnt a lot about Mongolia and the countryside we had been travelling through over the last few weeks. A particular highlight was the dinosaur fossils found in the Gobi Desert. There was also a cool exhibition about Mongolian Wild horses, of which only 200 live in Mongolia - brought back from the edge of extinction.
After lunch we checked out the temple, which was built to honour a lama called Lubsanhaidub - the last Mongolian King.
On our way home we stopped off to look at prices for a traditional music / dance show, and ended up buying tickets for tonight. The show was really enjoyable, with a mixture of traditional costumes, dancing and music.
During the show 3 young contortionists performed, and we got to listen to state-honoured musicians and singers, but the highlight was when the Mongolian National Orchestra and 3 amazing throat singers (an ancient music form) performed. 
This mountain had once been home to a lamasery and provided great views of horses drinking from muddy lakes and gers nestled into the mountainside. 
But unfortunately today was not a day for hanging around outside the van as we had many many hours of driving ahead of us. We hailed over a horserider for directions and were soon on our way. 
So we sat back, bumped along, and enjoyed the scenery as it whizzed past, and we're suddenly snapped back to reality when out of the blue a concrete road appeared and guided us the last 35km into Ulaan Baatar. As we entered the city we were reminded that often with progress comes pollution - Mongolia's saving grace is their low population - and hopefully they can learn from countries like China. We tried to explain to our guide and driver the importance of carrying out what you carry in instead of throwing it out the window.
As we drove into the city we saw families playing and swimming at the river / beach of UB, and hopped they would learn about pollution quickly as this is something that would be almost deadly in China!!!
When we got back to 
Before we left we watch the mother of the ger smashing wool for the insulation of the ger, but we couldn't wait long as we had another long drive ahead of us - surprise, surprise. This time we were headed towards Baga Gazriin Chuluu, huge rock formations, that resembled layered pancakes. 
These provided a great playground to roam around, climb upon, and stare into the horizon from. 
We lay back on the warm rocks, enjoyed the sunshine, and tried to take in as much of the green mountains that surround the rocks. 
Missing a vital element of the team, we found ourselves separated, and spent half an hour sending echoes throughout the rocks in search of our guide and Marco. We needn't have bothered though, as the whole time they were waiting for us in the van!
We had a stop in Dalanzadgad for shopping, and Chana treated us to an early lunch at a traditional cafe - which provided a welcome break from the monotonous potato, carrot, cabbage, and mutton soup we'd been eating for the last 2 weeks!
We drove until our van was too hot to continue and stopped to watch goldminers in action. There had been a major find in the area and we got a peek at a woman's findings for the day - $10 worth that had taken most part of the day of hard rock smashing and digging. We questioned the effectiveness of the collection process and the machines in use - but they're the rock miners, not us!!
Around 4pm we arrived at Tsagaan Suvraga where huge white and red (and everything in between) limestone cliffs spread out into the desert.
We spent a lot of time walking around and up and down the cliffs, which gave us amazing views and also a sense of mortality, as the cliffs were crumbling underneath our feet and we knew that in the distant future these cliffs would be an undistinguishable bump in the desert. We tried as much as possible to walk along the established pathways, so that we didn't speed up the natural process.
The lengthy process of filling the water container was then repeated and beers lowered into the well to cool for the night.
Adlibing the crumbling cliffs.
Yoliin Am is a protected National Park in the middle of the Gobi Desert, originally created to protect birdife, but most people come to see the ice gorge, which has ice during most of the year, even now in the middle of summer!! 
We wandered along side a river with little gerbil-like creatures popping out of the ground at every step. While most of us enjoyed seeing the little critters, Franco was absolutey petrified as they resembled mice a little too much! 
The walk was wonderful - we made our way underneath tall cliffs, with birds flying above, over and under ice (though not much was left at this stage of summer) and through freezing cold water. 
As the group made their way back to the car Adam cleaned off in a waterhole for another Mongolian naked swim! 
Back in the van for another few hours drive, before making it to Dalanzadgad a major town in Mongolia where Syvlie is leaving to fly back to Ulaan Baatar tomorrow morning. As it was very important Sylvie made the flight on time, we decided it was best we find the airport tonight (and even buy her ticket if possible). After a lot of driving around, we finally came across a dilapidated building with broken windows and an airport sign - Chana, our now very tired guide, was willing to accept this was the airport, but we convinced her otherwise. We soon came across the real airport, where a cleaner told us the flight left at 8am in the morning - not the 10am we had been told!
After a relaxed start to the day we set off around 10am to a cold water spring nearby, that is the lifeline for this part of the desert. 
Here is was cool to see water, lush green grass with horses grazing, and huge white sand dunes in the background. The spring was freezing cold, that it was too hard to resist lapping it up like the other animals! 
Back at camp we prepared for our camel ride, but Liv ended up staying behind and playing with the cute little kitten resident in our ger. The camel riders came back earlier than planned, as no one particularly enjoyed the ride on the stinky, unresponsive, wobbly animals - though it was cool to walk over some sand on a camel! 
After lunch we located a drunken Bimba to drive us to the highest sand dune (about 300m high) - it turns out he can drive just as drunk as he can sober - luckily there are not too many cars around in the desert! 
We spent the rest of the afternoon labouring our way up the sand - for each 2 steps you took, you slided back one! But our efforts were well and truly rewarded when we hit the summit and got the 360 degree view of the Gobi Desert. Amazing.
We spent hours playing like kids at the top - doing flips and jumps, and rolling our way down. At one stage we thought we could hear jet planes, but the noise was actually the thundering sound of millions of sand particles racing down the dunes. 
By the time we made it to the bottom again, we were covered in sand - it had found its way into our hair, eyes, noses, ears, underwear - you name it!
