Moust soum in Hovd aimag is one of the more isolated locations in Mongolia, a 6 hour drive from Hovd city, which in turn is 1100 kilometres or 3 hr flight from UB. We arrived in the soum in the evening, and Cameron and i wanted some exercise after 7 hours bouncing about in a Russian jeep so we scrambled up the local hill. 

For some reason it is a common practice to place concrete statues of argali on the hilltops, maybe to fool lazy tourists.

Looking down on the other side we saw a small monastery, so we scrambled down, past flurries of snowfinches.

The monastery seemed deserted and the kennel was empty so we went in the compound.

 As I was spinning the prayer wheels a giant dog appeared from nowhere a couple of feet from me barking and growling, fortunately the gods had appreciated my spinning and the lama appeared from the ger, restrained the dog and said welcome, sorry about that in perfect English, albeit with an American accent. Sansarbatr had previously been assistant to the head llama at main monastery in UB, had spent a year in London, and retreated to this monastery for a life of meditation and ritual. In the summer he moves his ger into the hills. He seemed content.

The monastery had been built a few years ago by local who had become a government minister and was beautifully built timber. We returned the next day with our colleagues and he showed us the copies of rare Tibetan Buddhist texts

 and gave us two blessings, - one for purification, the other for longevity and prosperity

.