A Nomadic Experience

Sitting here chillin' in our ger tent a the Elstei tourist camp. Through our door facing south (as they all do), I can see one of the many grassy rolling hills that we have been treated to over the last 4-5 days. *sigh*, so peaceful. After a somewhat gentle horse ride this morning to see an obscenely massive silver statue of Ghengis Khan a few hills away, I'm feeling a little sore and very much looking forward to a massage in about 20 minutes.

Ever since Timon returned from his experiences on the Train Siberian Railway many years ago and raved about Mongolia, I have been eager to see it for myself. I can honestly say it hasn't disappointed. The train ride from Ulan Ude to Ulaan Baatar took about 24 hour, but included 10 hours just crossing the border. The train arrived at the Russian Boarder post and it appeared that nothing happened for the first 5 hours. Finally customs and passport control came through and completed their checks over the space of 2 hours. Then there was another 3 hours of almost exactly the same formalities at the Mongolian border post. Passengers were heard to say "it had to be the most boring day of my life!". This train leg was a little different in that pretty much all of the passengers in our carriage were foreigners, ie. not Russian. For the first time, we had English speakers in our Cabin! Between the two border posts, I think we lost a large number of carriages with Russian locals and gained ones with Mongolians to add to our two carriages of tourists.

What is so great about Mongolia, for me, is how unspoilt it is. It has a population of about 3 million people, of which just over 1 million live in the capital city, Ulaan Baatar. As you approach Ulaan Baatar it is as if you can see where the city starts and ends. The city has just started to spread into the hills around it. In the city centre there is a massive square that looks brand new and gives the city the feeling of space. Around it, the buildings seem more spaced out than your average capital city, and there is a lot of development going on. Mongolia's second language is English, so already we felt more welcomed.

We were driven out to the Bayangobi desert by our driver and our personal guide who would be with us for the next 6 days. The trip took about 7 hours along some tarmacked road and lot of off road bumpiness in a crazy minivan. Along the way I was constantly amazed by the vastness and beauty of the scenery. Kilometres of grass, beautiful hills, rock formations and the frequent sightings of herds of cows, horses, goats or sheep. We would be spending three nights as the guests of a family of nomadic herdsmen (depending on the quality of the pasture, they only move twice a year with the change of season).

This was the type of homestay that really makes travel a special experience. We were staying with a young couple and their 3 year old. The family lived in two gers (circular tents), one was the kitchen, the other larger one, their bedroom. We would be taking up residence in their bedroom ger and the family would be living in the smaller kitchen ger. We felt bad, but that was what had been organised.

There was no running water or electricity. Heat and cooking was provided by a stove fired by wood and dung in the centre of the gers. The toilet was almost anywhere you like, although there was a designated hole due north west of the gers, "sheltered" (?!?) by a couple of sheets of material. Some of the nearby gers had an electric light powered by a car battery when needed, but otherwise candles were used. Another nearby ger, belonging to other members of the same family had a TV, I think it was either powered by solar panel or car battery.

On the first night we were there, we were treated to a proper Mongolian BBQ. I was later told they only do these about once a year and it was probably because there was a relatively large number of tourists and their guides and drives around in the nearby area. *Warning: potentially offensive material for Vegetarians*. Two goats had been killed, their heads cut off and their insides removed through the neck. Rocks, heated on a fire, were put into the goat skin through the neck hole and the goat meat mixed with onions were put back into the goat skin. The neck hole was tied up and then the "goat" was heated with a blow torch type contraption (not sure that this was the traditional method) and as it was charred, the goat hair was scraped away. Gideon was particularly interested in the process as it involved meat and fire! To be honest, the result was only ok. Perhaps it was the piece of meat I got. It was tasty, but it was a bit rough (I swear I was still pulling pieces of meat out of my teeth a few days later), it was a bit gritty from the stones and the fire, and I think I found what was a human finger nail in my helping!

The next day we had a day trip to Karakorum, supposedly the Capital City of Mongolia during the rule of Chinngis Khan (Ghengis) although most likely Ghengis would have been nomadic too. There we visited the Erdenezuu Monastery. By now Gideon was in the "not another monastery/church" state of mind. I was still interested, but could empathise. Near the monastery there was a statue of a tortoise said to be the last physical remnant of Ghengis Khan's presence in the area. There was also a large stone penis. It is said that if an infertile woman sits on the stone penis, it would make them fertile. Each woman for whom this had worked then returned and tied a blue piece of cloth around a stone pillar near the penis. It was covered in blue

On the way back to the Nomad's camp we were told that Mongolia would be competing for two gold medals in the boxing that afternoon, the first fight being at 1.30pm. As a result, half way back the drivers pulled over at the first random house/ger with a satellite dish to see the fight. I am not sure what the family thought of this group of 2 drivers, 2 guides and 4 foreigners barging into their home, but they were very welcoming, offering us sweets and allowing us and the rest of their relatives to crowd around a very small B&W TV. In the end the Mongolian forfeited in the second round losing to the Chinese competitor (which country didn't this Olympics?) due to a pre-existing shoulder injury. Still it was a good rsult for Mongolia overall. This year they won 2 gold and 2 silver, their first gold medals ever! That night we also had some fun making our own dumplings for dinner.

After having fantastic luck with the weather all trip, we experienced our first really crap day the next day. We had wondered whether it was to be a wasted day because we had nothing much planned, and now that the weather was bad we were certain. We awoke quite early, pretty much at dawn, in time to see the sun rising in the crisp morning air and the cows being milked. Then it started to rain and didn’t stop much until late in the afternoon. Trapped in our ger we were somewhat bored and cold. At one stage our host family and guide cam in and played cards and knucklebones with us, which ended up making the day very special for us. If it hadn’t been for the bad weather, we probably wouldn’t have interacted very much the family at all.

Gideon managed to make himself useful chopping up wood to keep both gers warm (the dung burns too quickly). When there was a break in the rain we managed to get out to collect a couple more dead trees (not many choose from given our proximity to the desert), then we went on a very touristy camel ride. Just imagine us (or see the photos!) rugged up in jumpers and raincoats sitting on somewhat soggy camels, being led over wet sand dunes by a local boy. At one stage the boy stopped and drew a picture in the sand and then pointed at some distant hills. After a couple of minutes of Gideon and I arguing whether the picture was a snowflake or a compass, the kid write the word “snow” in the sand. It was that cold a day!

The next day we made the 8 hour bumpy trip to the Elstei Tourist Camp. After three days of being in the middle of nowhere with no facilities it was a welcome change to use a flushing toilet and have a hot shower! Makes you appreciate the simple things, doesn’t it? Elstei is not really the full Mongolian experience. The cook is Indian and there are rows of gers. Still, it was a relaxing day we had there with time to socialize with other tourists, horse ride, massage, practice archery and above all enjoy the peaceful surrounds and beautiful Mongolia!