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Published: August 17th 2005
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Hi again,
The drive brought us back to the grasslands of Mongolia, and the family of our driver's wife lived nearby. They are nomads, like the majority of the population of the country. Except for UB, other towns in Mongolia are very small and they are shrinking as people are leaving them since they can't make a living in them. More and more people return to the nomadic way of life that Mongolia had known for more than 800 years. Some laws in the country are based on the laws made by Genghis Khan in the 13th century. An example is the fact that it is not allowed to hurt the land in any way, because it belongs to everybody. That means that there is almost no agriculture in Mongolia (all is imported) and no fenced areas - because doing so will take away a part of the land from the rest of the nomads... That gives Mongolia the special look of endless open spaces, from one horizon to another.
The driver tried to find his relatives for almost four hours. He asked around the gers if anybody knows where they have been going lately. After a long while he finally
found them. We sat with them, brought them some vodka (this is something that the Soviet dominance gave the local culture - the vodka), drank it with them, and played with their kids - teaching them how to juggle with three tennis balls. They gave us the usual bread and dry cheese, and added to that some fresh hot home made yogurt.
I helped them a little with the sheep shearing, and then they took one sheep and slaughtered it for dinner. Apparently the visit of a family member is a big celebration. The killing of the sheep was by making a small cut in its chest, and then the man just pushed his hand in it, broke the aorta, and let it bleed to death. Then he skinned it, and started to cut it open.
They made all the internal parts for dinner - liver, heart, stomach, blood sausages, etc. They just boiled it all in a big soup, which made it all tasteless, like the Mongolians like it. The other parts were left for drying.
We camped near their ger, and in the morning they invited us for breakfast as well. They made some dumplings with the meat
of the sheep, and stuffed us with some yogurt with it. I couldn't finish all of it, I was just too full. Don't think I ever met people who wanted me to eat so much.
Before we left we took some family pictures. They put on their traditional cloths, with the silver belts and buttons, their hats, etc. We wanted to take their picture in front of the ger, but they insisted to have their truck in the picture. Another thing about Mongolians is that they love their cars, and this is their source of pride. Later they let us to dress up in their cloths and take pictures as well.
We drove back to civilization, to the city of Khakhorin. This used to be the capital of the Mongolian Empire 800 years ago, and today it's a dusty little town. They are going to make it the capital of Mongolia in a few years, as a part of the celebrations that mark 800 years since they had their empire.
The city itself has nothing interesting except for some remains of a big monastery, Erdene Zuu Khiid. The Mongolian main religion is Tibetan Buddhism. This might sound strange, but the
reason for it is the huge empire they used to have. Genghis Khan had a court of advisers from all the religions in his empire. In the internal struggle for power, a couple of hundred years later, the monk of the Yellow Hat section of the Tibetan Buddhism became the strongest in that court, and from there the way was short before the Khan itself became Buddhist and made this the official religion.
So in the middle of Mongolia there are Tibetan style monasteries. The complex was very big, surrounded with a wall with 108 stupas. Today all that is left after the Soviet period are only three temples in the complex. I have visited this place twice, also in my second trip, and the story and the pictures combine both visits.
Around the monetary there are big stone turtles that used to guard the ancient city here. We visited them as well, and the ovoos near them.
Another funny thing is the phallic rock that points to a valley called "vaginal slope". It is said that this rock has been placed here as an attempt to stop monks from being filled with lust when they are looking at the
erotic valley. I don't know about that...
The original plan was to sleep in town and I was supposed to take a bus the next morning back to UB while the Swiss continue on their trip. For some reason they decided that they don't want to stay there, and they wanted to move on that same evening. It was five P.M. and the driver found a bus leaving at six, supposed to arrive to UB at midnight. I was quite angry that I have to take such a late bus, but they didn't mind, and just left me there.
I took the bus, more like a van, and at six the driver started to drive around the town and pick up people and many other things from different places in the city. The van was full with milk containers, meat, ger parts, and people, and it wasn't before 20:30 that we left.
When it became dark we drove with no lights on. It was scary. It became darker and darker, and eventually at around 23:00 me and another Australian tourist started to ask the driver about it. He knew a little English and told us that everything is OK. Luckily,
just before it became completely dark, he stopped near a restaurant and tried to fix his lights. He didn't really know what he was doing, and after working for two hours he decided that we stop for the night. He found us a place in the corner of the restaurant, and we went to sleep there. At 5:00 he woke us up. The sky was still dark except for a little pink strip in the east, but he decided it's enough for driving. We drove for five more hours, while the driver is trying hard not to fall asleep. It was a very scary experience. Eventually we reached UB safely, just in time for the Nadaam.
Tell you about it later,
R.
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