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Blogs from Mongolia, Asia
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June 15th 2013
After yesterday's events I was feeling apathetic about a camel ride, but it turned out to be a sedate and relaxing experience. The camels are tied in a row with rope and led by a guide, so there is nothing to do but sit and let yourself be taken along. Two-humped camels are comfortable to ride as you sit on a saddle in between the humps and although you are high up the walk is very gentle. The most eventful part of the ride was passing through a stream where the camels noisily guzzled water while a bull looked on. We went to the sand dunes, the Gobi Desert of popular imagination, although in fact they cover a relatively small area in a strip in front of some mountains (most of the desert I have seen ... read more
June 15th 2013
Food is included in our tour, so I don't have to worry about cooking anything, it arrives (literally) on a plate. The meals prepared by our tour guide are loosely based on Western food, but when we stay with nomadic families we eat whatever the family is eating, there is no choice. On arrival at a new family we are always welcomed into the family ger and offered tea and snacks from a bowl, usually sweets or a bread that looks like a doughnut but tastes drier and breadier, or a snack made from dried curds, which tastes of strong, salty cheese. The tea is milk from the family's herd which is heated in a large bowl first thing in the morning, salted and then kept in a Thermos flask for use throughout the day. It ... read more
June 15th 2013
Over the course of the tour we planned to camp out about half the time and stay in gers the rest, but uncertain weather has meant more nights in gers than anticipated. At several places the family has had a spare ger especially for visitors/tourists. This usually means we get to sleep in beds. At others, though, we just sleep in the same ger as the family, in a row on the floor. Most families move their gers at least once a year, having a summer and winter site, and sometimes more frequently (land outside of cities belongs to the state and can be used freely). At one place we stayed, the family had only moved to the summer site the day before, and were still settling in. The gers have wooden frames covered in layers ... read more
June 15th 2013
After a couple of long days of driving we have arrived west of Ulanbaatar, where the scenery has become verdant and lush. However, there has been little rain this year and Orkhon waterfall was dry, although still spectacular. The place where we had lunch, next to a river where a couple of men were fishing in the sun and another in traditional dress rode by on horseback, was one of the most beautiful I have been, despite the atrocious road to get to it. Yesterday we had lunch with a family who live in a house in a small town (by this stage, 9 days without a shower, I do not feel fit to be a guest in anyone's house).. On the television they were showing first American Idol (dubbed into Mongolian, apart from the actual ... read more
June 15th 2013
Now we are back in the north of the country we see wild horses, and we are also staying on a farm where horses are kept. Even the horses that belong to someone, though, retain their wild spirit: yesterday we watched as around 10 people spent around an hour lasso-ing 10 or 15 horses, most of which resisted, including one calf which bolted and bucked dramatically around the makeshift paddock. It seems like a lot of work, but once broken the horses are valuable and used for milk as well as transportation. The horses they gave us to ride were much more biddable, although occasionally even they needed encouragement to move off, and our guide's horse refused to go near to the other horses. We did two short treks, one in the morning to a lovely ... read more
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June 15th 2013
We are heading back to Ulanbaataar now, and on the way stopped at a monastery and museum, the most touristy site I have been to in Mongolia. We had a guided tour of the temples which was good on specific details - the story of the terrifying-looking female protector with her demon baby in her mouth, the offerings made from flour and salt preserved for 50 years, the different Buddhas (the Buddha for longevity had by far the most offerings) - but assumed a knowledge of the principles and context of Buddhism that I don't have, so I couldn't relate it to the wider philosophy, other than learning that there are close ties to Tibetan Buddhism (the politics of Tibet are much on the minds of many Mongolians as they see the countries as comparable - ... read more
June 15th 2013
Last night we stayed in a really beautiful setting with a delightful family on the floor of their ger. It took a while to fall asleep because the light in their ger attracted many moths, and once the light was turned off they began falling onto the floor with a tapping noise, or onto us, which was disconcerting to begin with. Our only goal today was to get back to the city, but we did have time for a final walk through the landscape before setting off, which I really appreciated as I will be in the city for the next few days. They journey was punctuated by van issues - air in the brakes, then a puncture - but we then reached the tarmac-ed road into the city. I didn't notice the pollution especially when ... read more
June 13th 2013
Travelling in Mongolia is not easy. Many hours a day in a van, driving on difficult roads, only a short amount of time our in the open air, and not always a good night's sleep in a tent or ger. I am mostly philosophical about all of this and generally enjoying the adventure, but today was marked by a spectacular falling out between one of our party (the Italian) and our tour guide. The actual row was over (what seems to me) a petty matter and has been brewing over the past couple of days; I think the real reason is the stress of this kind of travel. It was strange and ridiculous, to be watching this heated argument in the middle of nowhere, where neither party has anywhere else to go or hope of escape ... read more
June 13th 2013
Tour started with the usual faff that these things start with - waiting for ages, then suddenly rushed introductions, hurriedly loading the van, and setting off without having a moment to consider. The weather (severe snow and cold in winter, hot summers) and the lack of historical investment means that roads in Mongolia are generally not in a state conducive to long drives. Outside of the capital there is just one tarmac-ed road, which we will not travel on until the end of the tour. All other roads are dirt tracks, regularly punctuated with ditches and holes. I always have to be semi-alert for the frequent occasions when the van lurches violently to one side or suddenly pitches us forwards, so I am unable to sleep when we are on the road, even though we travel ... read more
June 13th 2013
As we travel through the country we often come across along the sides of the roads monuments consisting of piles of stones, usually surrounding some kind of post, with blue scarves, animal bones, and various other ephemera mixed in amidst the rocks. These are believed by Mongolians to bring blessings to travellers, and the tradition is to stop, pick up a stone from the bottom, and throw it up to the top, seemingly part superstition and part prayer, perpetuating the monument. I think the ritual is primarily Buddhist, but to me it feels Shamanism-influenced. We stopped at Pak Atzer ("Land of Stones") today. There used to be a Buddhist monastery situated in the valley, but this was abandoned in Soviet times when the monks were killed (there is almost nothing left of it, only some beautiful ... read more
