Mongolia - The Wild East!

After boarding the train to Mongolia in Irkutsk, we bumped into a tour group; some of whom were Irish guys who were on a tour crossing Russia, Mongolia and China. We were all in the same train carriage along with some other people from the hostel we had just stayed in. We ended up sharing our cabin with a Russian woman who had no English and an American guy called Stephen. He was en-route to China for job interviews and was going via Russia and Mongolia for some distraction. Needless to say the atmosphere on this train was very different from that of the previous journey. Everyone was drinking and partying on both nights; and so we too joined in. Luckily Stephen was fluent in Chinese and had been to many parts of China before. He gave us the tips to speed us up on our journey for when we got there! For now we were heading for Mongolia and the train journey passed rather quickly with everyone chatting, as well as getting off at the station stops along the way for a look about.

The exit from Russia was cumbersome as you can imagine. The train actually stopped at the Russian/Mongolian border for 5-6 hours before the police boarded. There were more forms to fill in as the police searched our cabin and checked our passports thoroughly. The Mongolian border entry was nearly on-par, what with a stop for a few hours and a wander about the station. The first indication of life we got from this part of the world was observing that the local shop teller didn’t have a cash register.... but rather an abacus! - I remember seeing one of these as a child, but had never seen anyone actually use one before!

Once we crossed the Mongolian border; we were home free, so to speak, and we were in the capital Ulan Bator (UB as the locals call it) within about 8-9 hours. We got off at the main train station about 6:15am and the Gobi Desert hostel I had booked with picked us up. They brought us to the Hostel where we were treated to bread & jam for breakfast along as frequent refills of coffee. The hostel was hectic with people coming and going every few minutes, as well as all the staff trying to sort out a multitude of problems such as rooms, train tickets, treks into the countryside and local visas. All this activity taking place in one small living room. In the midst of all this we managed to get our room sorted, as well as book a tour for the following day heading out into the Mongolian countryside to spend time with a Mongolian Nomadic family to see how the live.

Ulan Bator was, well I suppose somewhat along the lines of what we expected. You’re dealing with a very poor country here. The local currency has devalued a lot against the Euro so a lot of stuff is very very cheap by western standards. Two people could easily eat out here and get excellent food for $10 (which is widely accepted as hard currency). Funnily though in contrast they seem more advanced in other ways. The local police use Segway transporters to get around!

Mongolia is a vast country about the size of western Europe, with quite a low population of around 3 million people, and 1 million of those live in UB. In general, people in the countryside don’t live in houses; they live in what are known as "Ger’s" - Nomadic tents. Many people are Nomads and move around from place to place. There is no concept in general of land ownership in vast areas of the country, and it appears, you can pretty much move to where you want. Ditches and land borders also don’t exist in the countryside. When we got here the temperature was perhaps 30’ but it goes down to -30' in winter and the whole land is covered in snow!

The countryside

After spending an evening in Ulan Bator we headed out the following morning into the countryside. Three other people joined us on the tour; a Swedish couple and a Dutch teacher who was visiting Mongolia to see her sister, who was working here. This countryside was an eye opener. The concept of a ‘road’ is used loosely around here; and after a while we realised there were not many roads in the countryside at all. We had to just go via country terrain. Cars seemed infrequent and you can see camels and wild Mongolian horses all around....not to mention the numerous Yaks!

We did some camel riding; I did some Mongolian archery, we visited many remote areas in the early morning and then had lunch in a Ger tent, which consisted of warm Yaks milk, rice with cows yogurt, as well as some Mongolian dumplings. Afterward we headed off horse riding into the hills and visited a fabulous Buddhist temple high up in the mountains, where monks spend their time praying and meditating, both in the temple and in the caves in the hills behind the temple. The scenery in Mongolia is just breathtaking and unbelievably picturesque. Words don’t do it justice. Afterwards we went to see the newly built and proudly shown off by the guide - Genghis Khan monument - a 40 meter statue of the man himself, made from steel and installed to tower over the land. A propaganda video was also shown with constant statements like “thanks to our great government for its support" and "our great nation" - Some spin here me thinks! - Everyone has to look good as they say.

That night we went about 30km off road, originally via rough terrain, then via fields into no-mans land, where we were to stay with a Nomadic family. They provided us with their local food and a Ger for two nights. We spent time eating raw Mongolian food and learning about life within the family unit. The following day they slaughtered a sheep in front of us and cooked the liver and stomach a few minutes later on a fire stove in the field.... we (not Nicola!) ate some, but its hard eating something that was just slaughtered some minutes earlier. They have no cold storage and seem to store some stuff underground to keep it cold. We also helped them get water from the well nearby. Their family was very kind and were used to having people visit to see their way of life. Funnily though, they did have a small TV where they received local stations and a portable DVD player, both of which worked via a tiny solar panel they purchased. This was not a sign of wealth though, but a sign of the how much these media devices have become commoditised throughout the world.

Even though they received many tourists in the summer months, I did not feel that this was a show-and-tell for tourists. I found life here raw and on the cold front; nearly wilderness like. The people live off their animals; milk their cows by hand, and are not disturbed unless they choose to be. The Ger we stayed in had no heat, and so when the sun went down and it was time for bed, it got very cold rather quickly. We slept in some clothes and used several layers of blankets to keep warm. We spent two full days here hiking to the top of the surrounding peaks, which hide breath taking scenery; observing and eating… The nomadic diet seems to consist of mostly meat, milk, rice and bread. A high-carb diet by western standards. Only 1% of the land is arable in Mongolia, so not much vegetation grows, therefore fresh fruit and vegetables appeared scarce. We played basketball (the ground was so hard you could bounce a basketball) - the tourists versus the Mongolians - we won 14 - 6!! Then we played a complex game called "ankle bones" where you try and collect the most ankle bones from your opponents.....the ankle bones of REAL sheep and cows!! Basically the Mongolian form of Monopoly!!

On the third day we went horse ridding into the Mongolian mountains for about 4 hours. Horse riding is such an integral part of Mongolian life (we had earlier seen a child as young as 5 or 6 riding a horse rapidly though the fields with his father). During our ride we visited a heritage museum and then the obligatory Buddhist temple visit. Allowing complete novices do what we did (i.e. trekking with these semi-wild Mongolian horses in rough mountain terrain) just wouldn’t go down well with most first world countries. The safety standards were questionable, bordering on outright dangerous! Not a horse riding helmet in sight! Basically the attitude was "get on the horse and follow me" which was the impression I got from our guide who couldn't speak English. There was no training or introduction of the techniques of horse riding here!!! We loved it though, as it is something you wouldn’t get to do normally. Nicola was a pro though and took to horse riding with ease. Must have been all those lessons she had as a child!!.... That’s my theory anyway . On the other hand, the Dutch girl got thrown from her horse (OUCH!!) when she lost control, but she was OK, left with just some slight elbow cuts. I had to change horses a couple of times; one of the horses wouldn't settle and as we crossed the main road he started kicking his back legs to throw me. That was enough for me to put up my hand and shout HELP!! I learned quickly though.... either you control the horse or the horse will control you…

That evening we got back to the city and stayed in the same hostel. There was an issue with the train tickets which I had organised to be collected, meaning there was a frantic dash about the city late in the evening to try and get this sorted for the morning. Luckily the guys in the hostel helped us to get sorted, otherwise we’d have been snookered. We were tired after the three days out in the clean country air, so we got some food and went to bed about midnight. Looking back, if we had known what Mongolia was like we would have spent more time here. No time for procrastination though; we have to look forward… Next stop Beijing, china. The Train is leaving tomorrow morning at 8am for 30 hrs and we’re going to be on it….

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