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Published: July 31st 2006
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Ankle Boning - Naadam
Ankle Boning - Naadam The highlight of the Mongolian year is the Naadam Festival held anually between the 11-13th July. It consists of the 3 'manly' sports; Archery, Wrestling and Horse racing, although the popular Ankle-Boning has been added to the roster in recent years. Although we had never actually planned to be in Mongolia for this event, it just so happened that we were and what a bit of luck that turned out to be!
Having arrived back from the Gobi the previous evening, I managed about 4 hours sleep before waking up at 05:00 to call home and let everyone know that I was safe and well and up to this point, have not yest decided to jack in my job and become a nomadic herdsman on the Mongolian steppe. We had pre-booked a day-tour from the hostel and the starting time was a very anti-social 07:00am, when we were bussed from the hostel to a local restaurant where a hearty breakfast consisting of bread, meat, cheese, eggs, yoghurt and fruit was served. After eating and drinking a good few cups of tea to try and rouse myself from tiredness, the busses took us to the central stadium, where our first stop
Archery - Naadam
Archery - Naadam was the quarter finals of the ankle Bone tournament. Slightly different to the version we played in the Gobi, this competition consists of groups of men trying to flick an ankle bone to a target about 10 metres away. It is very popular with the masses and cheering is encouraged.This was a great way to get our juices flowing for Naadam and after half an hour of cheering and egging on the ankle-boners, we headed to the small archery stadium to watch the archers warm up for their competition. Unlike archery in the West, Mongolian archers don't aim for a conventional target but instead aim at a small tin can 75metres away. It is hard to see the targets from the stands and as they were only warming up, this seemed to be like a bit of a non-event for me, although seeing the traditional archers costumes (Dels) was very interesting.
Next we headed to the main stadium for the official Naadam opening ceremony. We were packed into the stadium, with arse cheeks squeezed right up against other people's arse cheeks and most people even had someone sitting on their lap. This is the must-see event for Mongolians and
Archery Parade - Naadam
Archery Parade - Naadam is so popular that every year the stadiujm security men end up turning thoiusands of people away. Tickets sold on the black market can reach up to 20 times the original cost also. The ceremony consisted of a speech by the Mongolian president, a chorus of the Mongolian national anthem, numerous dancers and horsemen parading around the stadium and on the grass in the centre, representations of Chingis Khan and his mighty exploits, a brass band and 800 children in bright pink uniforms. The finale was the start of the wrestling competition which, due to the distance from the centre of the stadium and a lack of any kind of giant TV screen was neigh-on impossible to see. The entire ceremony lasted around 2 and a half hours after which we stayed, attempting to watch some of the consecutive wrestling matches as best we could to little avail.
Literally as we exited the stadium, it began to rain and we all headed back to the buses, which were waiting to take us out to the horse racing event. On the way out of town, we stopped at the guesthouse to pick up rain jackets and then drove the 43km
Opening Ceremony - Naadam
Opening Ceremony - Naadam out in the bumper to bumper traffic to the starting line. We had come to see the race of the 3-year-old stallions and unlike most other horse races I have witnessed, this one was very peculiar. For a start, the jockeys are all young boys aged 8-12. The horses (of which around 200 take part) arrive at the starting line, walk towards an army jeep which they circle 3 times before walking 18km in the opposite direction. They are then under starters orders and race back. After watching the jeep-circling we sat and had a picnic lunch prepared by the guesthouse and then Adam and I were both challenged to another bout of wrestling by one of the guides, Tchimba - which we both lost - again! 2 hours after setting off, the first horse finally arrived back, crossing the finishing line just as the rain started up again, forming a beautiful rainbow which began on the finish line.
We headed back to the Golden Gobi by bus, where we were greeted with traditional Mongolian delicacies, Buuz and Yak-milk vodka. After only coming back from the Gobi the previous day and then with waking up at 05:00, I just
Wrestlers warming up - Naadam
Wrestlers warming up - Naadam crashed out at 23:00.
Wednesday was spent doing nothing, recovering from all the excertions of the previous week as was most of thursday. In the evening however, we dragged ourself out of the guesthouse and up the road to Dave's Place for our second attempt at the pub quiz. This time, we took a massive following of about 20 people from the guesthouse but despite having a number of different nationalities including a couple of Mongolians on our team, we still only managed joint second - it must be a fix! Uugi, our genial hostess at the guesthouse somehow blagged us a free bottle of vodka from Dave, which was finished off in the finest Mongolian tradition before we all headed down to local trance and hip-hop club - Medusa. On the way, we got talking to one of the other guests, Debbie, a Californian with Korean ancestory who was looking for partners to head up to Khovsgul lake (our next destination) with. In a slightly drunken state and without any kind of vetting, we agreed to let her join us. We got to Medusa, had a few more drinks, partied hard and danced the night away. Although it
Wrestlers warming up - Naadam
Wrestlers warming up - Naadam wasn't my taste in music, the vibe and atmosphere was spot on and everyone had a great night. I think I got back to the hostel at 05:00am.
The following morning was spent recuperating from a banging hangover and somehow I managed to draw the short straw and was elected to go to the shop, but some bacon and eggs and cook up some greasy sandwiches. I ended up cooking for Uugi and her manager Soko, as well as for Adam and myself, but the grease worked well and by mid-afternoon I was ready to head out into town with Soko and help her run some errands. I have to say that all the staff at the Golden Gobi, but particularly Uugi and Soko have been particularly welcoming and both Adam and I have struck up a real rapport with them. Hence I don't mind spending what would otherwise be a wasted afternoon helping Soko out while she tells me about the political and financial state of Mongolia. In the evening, I was invited out with Uugi and Soko for dinner at a Mongolian restaurant. I chose the traditional Mongolian barbequeue - mutton, potatoes adn other vegetables cooked in
Horse Racing - Naadam
Horse Racing - Naadam a pot with hot rocks and served with rice. Very tasty but just a touch on the spicy side. We had a great time and the girls picked my brain about other countries I had visited and hostels I had stayed in whilst I picked theirs about Mongolian culinary etiquette.
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