Pick of the day:
Mongolia – Anywhere
Ok, so all seems to have escalated rather rapidly on the
toilet front. Two posts ago it was the best smelling loo ever, last was a long
drop and now…. Well its anywhere, provided you aren’t near a stream. As it is
still -10oC, running water isn’t a problem though.
Style: Rural
Atmosphere: Agoraphobic
Extras: Curious
livestock, frost nipped bum hole.
11/03/13 to 28/03/13 –
Mongolia; Ulaanbaatar, Kharkhorin, Khustain Mountain National Park and Khogno
Khan Uul
Well we have been in Mongolia for roughly 2.5 weeks and it
has been a fantastic experience. We have shelled out a little more than we
would have liked in order to get out of Ulaanbaatar (UB) and into the
countryside, but then it has most definitely been worth it and who knows if we
will be here again anytime soon.
Our stay here entailed 3 days in UB, followed by a 3 day
trip to Kharkhorin and Khustain Mountain National Park, then a day in UB, followed
by 6 days with nomadic families around the mountain/steppe of Khogno Khan Uul,
and a final 4 days in UB.
Ulaanbaatar or “UB” to those with the lingo, is an odd city.
Dominated by soviet era apartment blocks and half-finished skyscrapers, it has
a little of that Shangri-La type atmosphere that you get in cities like
Kathmandu. There is an overwhelming expat community here, from western to
chinese and Korean, with most restaurants and cafes names and menus in English.
We have had some good food here from a very cheap vegetarian café to American and
Italian. Mongolian food is… challenging, but more on that later.
During our first UB stay we saw a few of the sights with an English
couple, Mark and Ruth, who are doing a similar trip but with the end point of
working in New Zealand. Sights are rather thin on the ground in the concrete
sprawl of UB, with much of the city’s main attractions off the main drag of
Peace Avenue which runs east-west passing the main square, Sükhbaatar square.
This has a number of Genghis (Chingghis here)Khan statues and the Imperial
styled parliament building but notable
would be our morning visit to the Gandantegchinlen monastery, where we got
involved with some Buddhist worship. We hadn’t a clue what was going on, but
somehow ended up in some sort of procession.
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| The Beatles monument. Not sure why they have it. The Mongolians aren't too sure either. |
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| Why would you enter?! |
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| Big feet. Important to Buddhism. Perhaps. |
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| It looks warm and dusty, but its just dry and bloody cold. |
Our first trip into the countryside was organised by our
hostel and we had a driver and a guide all to ourselves. First of all we drove
a few hours out of the city to visit the Khustain Mountain National Park where
we got to have a close up view of the herd of wild (also known as Przewalski’s
horses) which was pretty cool. They had died out in the wild in the 1960’s but
had been re-introduced to Mongolia from zoo stock and now number around 350
animals.
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| A Przewalski horse, about to poo. Kinda jealous now. |
We then carried on driving down some pretty horrendous roads
(occasionally bypassing the road entirely and just driving cross country) with
a lunch time pit stop of boiled mutton, potatoes and kimchee to make it to Kharkhorin
in the evening which is the ancient Mongolian capital from Chinggis Khan’s
time. There we stayed in a guest ger in a tourist ger camp which meant that we
only had to share with our guide rather than an entire nomadic family. Dinner
was fried mutton dumplings which were pretty good but we should have realised
then just how much mutton was going to feature in our diets. That evening we
were treated to a mini-concert by a local musician who played the traditional Mongolian
musical instruments of the horse hair fiddle and some sort of harp as well as
doing Mongolian ‘throat singing’ (pretty damn weird). All in all pretty
exciting!
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| Skulls. More common than you think on the steppe |
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| Soaking up the warmth |
The next day we visited the still functioning monastery in
the town which had been all but razed to the ground by the soviets when they
came through but a few temples still remain. We also got to see ‘turtle rock’
which is a massive rock carved into the shape of a turtle dating from Chinggis
Khan’s time. Both were pretty interesting, particularly the temples as they
were beautifully carved and we got to learn quite a lot about Buddhism. We also visited the fertility rock which is
carved in the shape of a massive penis which apparently women who wish to get
pregnant have to sit astride to pray. Ben and I stayed well clear.
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| Shrine to the willy god |
We then carried on to a family ger camp which was in a
lovely warm spot near some rocks. It was the family’s spring camp and they were
quite a well off family with 2 gers, a big herd of sheep and goats and a few
horses and camels. That afternoon we
went for a camel ride which turned out to be pretty eventful. Ben and I had a Bactrian
(2 humped) camel each which are actually super comfy, like giant teddy bears.
We were led by one of the sons of the family on a bull camel. Not far from the
ger camp the bull camel suddenly lost the plot, tried to bite ben, successfully
bit my camel on the neck, my camel screamed and tried to run away and we all
had to go back to camp. We went back out on our trek with the lead man on a
horse this time. Sadly it really wasn’t my camel’s day and although we made it
out for the full trip this time the horse also took a dislike to my camel and
bit its face. We spent the rest of the day playing with the kid goats and lambs
which were kept in a pen as it was too cold for them to go out with their mums.
We also learnt to play a game involving sheep’s ankle bones which is a little
hard to get the hang of but fun when you know how.
That evening was pretty surreal as after dinner the family
sat watching TV (powered by solar panels) in one corner of the ger while two
calves were tethered to the other side and a few kid goats wandered around to
keep warm against the -15 chill outside.
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| Good to have a little scramble |
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| Prayer flags adorn the more accessible trees |
We had one day of rest and recuperation in UB before heading
out on our second trip to the countryside, this time a 6 day expedition
organised by a company called ger to ger.
We had to get the bus for 3 hours out to the countryside
before being picked up and taken to the first family. The bus was a bit of an
experience as it had I giant TV at the front playing videos of monglian pop
ballads at full volume. Almost every one featured horses. Horses running,
dancing, being ridden etc etc. I like horses, but not that much. Ben likened it
to the Americans using rock music to break Islamic extremists.
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| Family one. The little boy was a terror. |
The first family we stayed with for two days were a young
family (our sort of age) with two kids aged 5 and 3. It soon became apparent
that our jobs were basically to keep the children entertained and out of
trouble and help with the livestock. The sheep and goats were out on the hill
all day long but with the temperatures outside any kids or lambs wouldn’t last
more than a couple of hours outside so we checked the flock regularly and
brought any new ones back to be warmed up inside the family ger and then put in
their own little ger to protect them from the elements. The flock were brought
back a couple of times a day so the kids and lambs could get fed and we had to
match up baby with mum which mostly involved making it cry and seeing which
sheep/goat came running. Lastly the flock were all penned up last thing at
night so that the dogs could keep an eye on them and fight off the wolves. Any little
ones who had the misfortune of being born in the middle of the night generally
froze to death.
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| Getting our farm hands on |
We were pretty convinced that we were gonna get ill early on
as we watched the mum of the family put dried turds on the stove (only source
of fuel on the step), handle baby goats covered in placenta, wipe her kids
runny bums and then make dinner, all without washing her hands once. By some miracle,
we didn’t. The family managed to get through less water in a day than we use
just flushing the toilet out of necessity as all the water they use has to
either be collected from a well miles away or made from melting snow. We stayed
in one single bed together and the full family of 4 shared the other single bed
in the ger, the kids (goats) and lambs got the floor.
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| Vi loves goats. Its a bit weird truth be told. |
We went for a little ride out on horse and camel back the
next day to a viewing point and checking on the herd where we both experienced
the joy of Mongolian wooden saddles which I’m sure are actually a form of
torture.
The following day we rode our horses and camel (switching
places as the bruises from the wooden saddle became too much to handle) to the
next family we stayed with. This family thankfully had invested in western style
saddles (although Ben’s still had a massive metal ring on the back which caused
a fair bit of discomfort) and the two of us and the head of the family rode out
to visit some local sand dunes and ‘swan lake’. The main man at first didn’t trust
ben and I to handle our own horses and had us both on lead rope beside his
horse. Unfortunately the Mongolian way of riding is to whip the horse more than
using your heels and since the man was not terribly accurate with his whip I
think I got hit as much as the horse did. Thankfully I managed to get control
of my own horse pretty early on. Mongolians also prefer to ride at a speed
which I would describe as a very fast trot. Fast enough in fact that since I
was on a slightly smaller horse I comfortably cantered along behind. Ben,
however, had to go from having ridden a horse about twice in his life to having
to handle the most uncomfortable horse riding speed I can possibly think of in
no time at all. He managed impressively well, never falling off or complaining.
His bum got the raw end of the deal. The swan lake and sand dunes were
beautiful- a little oasis in the middle of the steppe.
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| The dunes (Erg) and Swan lake beyond |
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| The geographical centre of mongolia and two punters on horse back |
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| A monastery which had been destroyed in the 17th century. |
We spent the next couple of days either helping out with the
livestock or riding around on our horses visiting local sites such as the local
monastery up in the hills which was pretty cool. By this point we had realised
that the Mongolian diet comprises of 3 dishes: boiled mutton and rice, boiled
mutton and noodles, mutton steamed dumplings. They occasionally have a weird
mixture of rice and goat curds and drink a hell of a lot of salty goats milk
tea. They never, ever eat any form of fruit or vegetable. The result was that
Ben and I didn’t go to the toilet for a very long time and neither of us wants
to see boiled mutton again for as long as we live.
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| Ger building |
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| Silver birch gets everywhere. Deforestation is a serious problem in Mongolia leading it some intense desertification |
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| No light pollution out this way |
By day 6 and staying with the third family we smelt pretty
bad, having not washed since we left UB. We were also not feeling terribly
healthy from the diet and from the lack of sleep as neither of us got used to
sharing a tiny bed and sharing a bedroom with a whole family and several
livestock. All in all although we had an
amazing time sharing the lives of nomadic herders for a week and learning how
to manhandle sheep, goats, cows and horses (calves that won’t move and have to
be carried are heavy little f**kers) as well as invent many a game to entertain
small children with no toys, we were glad to head back to civilisation.
(Note- Mongolian children are little monsters- they
generally never get told no and we actually saw a 5 year old girl slap her
grandfather hard across the face for changing the TV channel).
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| Hatchbacks, for the modern nomad. Can't fit a Ger in though. |
On our return to UB we gorged on crisps, beer and pasta and
were promptly very ill for several days. Added on to the mutton induced constipation, we are currently wolfing down dried fruit and coffee in an effort to get things moving.
On our final UB stint we ticked off the infamous ‘Black’
market and the natural history museum. The former isn’t quite the AK-47/tank
selling place you would expect, but instead a huge sprawling open and closed market
where you can buy everything from a wooden saddle and ger to fake north face
and apple branded boots (wtf?). The Natural history museum contained the
standard assortment of stuffed animals and due to the Gobi deserts rich
dinosaur fossil beds, a rather impressive and geekily exciting fossil collection.
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| Bye bye mongolia! |
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