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Published: July 13th 2010
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Arriving into Mongolia Written by Luke whilst on the train from Mongolia to Beijing. This time we have air-conditioning and there’s not a Mongolian smuggler in sight. Bliss! Here’s a summary of time in Mongolia…
As we crossed the border out of Russia and started rolling through the Outer Mongolian plains my mind was wondering. For so many years I’d bundled this place together with other places such as Timbuktu, Antarctica and Wales. All very far away, other worldly and where strange creatures might lurk. Well, now I’m here I can certainly confirm that Mongolia is indeed very far away, but it is neither other worldly nor a place of strange creatures unless camels or goats count.
Ulanbaatar Our first stop was Ulaanbaatar (or “UB” if you’re down with the locals), the capital of Mongolia. Whilst the city may be run down in places and the roads generally terrible, this is countered by some big new buildings and a lot of the brand names such as Nike, Sony etc that you would normally expect to see in a Western city. The difference in the people was also noticeable, as whilst the Russians were stern at first but
very friendly once you knew them, the Mongolians we’re very friendly and welcoming from the outset. A lot of them also had a very good level of English which was lucky as our grasp of the Mongolian language wasn’t particularly advanced!
During our walking tour of UB we saw all of the main sights, the most impressive being the Grand Monastery which contained a Buddha statue that was 20 metre tall and 90 tons in weight! This is one of the only remaining monastery’s after the Russian’s demolished most of them during their anti-religion purges of the 1930’s. As well as the Monastery we also visited the impressively large state department store and witnessed the crazy driving style of central UB where the horn is king and pedestrians are merely targets! This is the protocol for a pedestrian trying to cross the road…. Walk to zebra crossing, wait, wait a bit more, realise that waiting is pointless, look left, look right, look left, look right, realise that looking for any gap is pointless, oh bugger it, run and hope!
The Ger Camp After our day in Ulaanbaatar we then travelled about 50 very bumpy miles into the
countryside where we would be staying for a couple of nights at a traditional Mongolian Ger camp. A Ger is basically a large tent that the Mongolian nomadic families live in. It’s made of wood and sheep skins and can be erected or taken down in just a couple of hours. Many Mongolians happily live in these all year round, coping with temperatures of up to +40 centigrade in the summer and -30 centigrade in the winter!
One of the highlights of staying at the camp was going to visit an actual nomadic family that were living in their own Ger camp nearby. Whilst they clearly had a way of life that was focussed on survival rather than any luxury, we were surprised to see that they also had a solar panel powering a small flat screen television. The husband told us that this was so he could watch the football world cup! With the help of our guide doing all the translating we were amazed by their nomadic way of life and I think they were similarly amazed by ours. One concept they found very odd was Liz being a vegetarian as they ONLY eat meat and rice
and NEVER have any vegetables at all! The low fertility of the land and harsh climate in Mongolia means they can’t grow anything more than the odd bit of grass so any vegetables need to be imported from China and hence are very expensive. They were also telling us that the next day they were planning on moving their camp to a different place that was nearer a river and would provide some better grazing for their animals. We wished them well with their move and they wished us well with our move. Not too dissimilar in some ways…
Whilst at the camp our guide also taught us how to play a traditional Mongolian game called “Ankle bones”. This is a strange game and we think due to the very long Mongolian winter nights seems to go on forever with no clear ending (a bit like monopoly, but with old bones instead of old Kent road). Basically the game consists of throwing about 40 ankle bones (actual bones from a sheep or goat) onto a mat. Each bone will land with 4 possible faces pointing upwards. You then take turns in flicking bones together that have landed the same
way up. If you hit the bone you’re going for then you get to pick it up and keep it. If you miss it or hit a bone that’s a different way up then it’s the next persons go. The aim seemed to be to win all the bones but with a multitude of rules where you have to give other players some of your bones, pick some up, put some down, throw again etc, it never even gets close to that point!
On the wildlife front, after not seeing a great deal through Russia I was pleased to see some wild eagles flying around near our Ger. These were huge birds (6ft wingspan) and a couple of times were no more than about 30 metres away from our camp. They were hunting for small birds or rodents and would occasionally swoop down to the ground trying to catch something. Very impressive birds and nice to see in the wild.
I also need to mention a strange encounter that Liz and I had whilst out for an evening stroll not far from the camp. Earlier in the day I’d been out for a walk and discovered a great
view from the top of a nearby hill. Later in the evening we decided it’d be nice to take a stroll up there to watch the sunset, so off we went. Just as we got to the top and were settling down to enjoy the view we discovered a severed horse head had been neatly placed there. Iit hadn’t been there earlier in the day! We didn’t know why, or by whom, and decided not to stick around. Liz mumbled something about The Godfather… The romance had gone by that point anyway!
Asking around back at the camp afterwards it sounds like it might have been a race horse that had died (they are all practicing at the moment for a big horse racing festival later in the month). When that happens the owners will often leave the head in a place close to where the horse has died. Either way it was a bit grim!
Onwards to Beijing After leaving the camp we transferred back to a nice 4* hotel in the centre of UB where we had the day to ourselves with not much planned. We just pottered about buying a few souvenirs, doing our
washing and checking the internet. The next day we then boarded our train to Beijing and as we passed through the Gobi desert we were very glad to have the nicest and only air-conditioned train of the trip so far!
In the evening, once we’d done the border crossing formalities into China, we then prepared ourselves for the infamous ‘bogey change’. No, this is not some kind of disgusting medical procedure but where they jack up our train and change the wheels! The tracks in China are 10cm narrower than Russia or Mongolia so the train needs to use a different set of wheels.
It’s now the next day and we are due to arrive into Beijing in about 3 hours time. So far China looks beautiful but it is difficult to say for sure since the fog has set in and we can only see about 100m out of the window.
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Tamsin
non-member comment
Wow!
Hi, Haven't read it yet, but the photos are wow! It must all seem unworldly. Now I will read it... love Tamsinxx