CRTP founder Mark Hintzke, center, with Mongolian wrestling champion Bat-Erdene, left, and Baldan Baraivan Monastery abbot, Lama Guree, in front of the destroyed temple.

"What was so special about this particular project is that you are able to really immerse yourself in a completely new culture."

Sophie Van Houtte traveled from her home in Tiburon to Mongolia, riding eight hours by truck into the countryside to spend ten-hour days restoring the infrastructure of a destroyed Buddhist monastery. Van Houtte helped to construct a composting toilet and a stone "ger," the traditional round dwelling used by Mongolian villagers.

"It was a great vacation," Van Houtte says. "I'd go again in a heartbeat."

Van Houtte traveled with the Cultural Restoration Tourism Project (CRTP) in San Francisco, now in its third year of taking groups of travelers to the Mongolian countryside to work at restoring Baldan Baraivan, an 18th century Buddhist monastery destroyed by the communist regime in the 1930s. Van Houtte worked alongside seven other vacationing Westerners and six Mongolian artisans and workers hired by CTRP.

Tourism, soon to be the world's largest industry, usually ignores the poorer segments of a country's population. According to the World Tourism Organization, less than 10 percent of all tourist dollars end up in the hands of host communities.

Nonprofit organizations like CRTP offer travel packages that ensure local communities benefit from tourism that is conducted in their areas. These "volunteer vacations" provide the tourist with a first-hand learning experience, plus a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment that is often missing in the usual vacation. Volunteers/tourists aren't required to have any previous experience -- just a willingness to get involved.

"What was so special about this particular project is that you are able to really immerse yourself in a completely new culture," Van Houtte said.

Villagers prepared a special dinner for the visitors upon their arrival and invited them to participate in morning prayers at a tiny temple on the site.

Munkhbat, a local man who has been working on the monastery project for two years, expressed his pleasure with the program. "It is greatly appreciated that foreigners come to help. Not just with money, but if they lay even one stone it will be a great help for Mongolia."

At the end of her visit, Van Houtte traveled to Mongolia's capital of Ulaan Battaar for the Nadaam Festival, a three-day event held to celebrate Mongolia's national holiday. "The city was overflowing with European tourists who had come for the festival," Van Houtte says. "It was a lot of fun, but the city gets a little busy, especially after spending time in the very relaxed and beautiful countryside."

Volunteers for 2001 are currently working in Mongolia.

For more information, contact Sara Armstrong at
sara@crtp.net or (415) 563-7221.