Mongolia - Land without Fences

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Hello,

We have just returned back from our trip to the Gobi - well we actually didn't quite get to the Gobi, but I'll tell you about that later,

We arrived in Ulanbaator last week Wednesday 20th August on a very rainy day. In Ulanbaator it is either dry & dusty or wet & muddy. It stopped raining late in the afternoon, but it took another day of dry weather for most of the pools to evaporate.

We spent Thursday doing shopping for our trip and exploring town. Ulanbaator reminds me a lot of the Russian cities I visited in the 1990s. Being here has one advantage, even though I can't understand most of it, at the very least I can read the Mongolian language.

We left early morning on Friday 22nd August for our trip. As we headed out of town towards Kharkorin, it became quickly apparent the road hadn't been finished yet and we had to travel the mud roads. The rules of the mud roads are: drive on the right side of the road as you pass oncoming traffic, otherwise all rules are out. For lunch we stopped at a rest-stop with restaurant and toilet. The food was good - we had Goulash - the toilets, well: I'll leave that to your imagination.
Luckily the rest-stop also meant the end of the mud-roads and back on to tarmac. We got to Kharkorin just before closing time. Kharkorin is a buddist monastery - unfortunately the monastery got caught up in the Russian cleansing excercises and there is not much of its former glory left. Three of the temples were still standing and the place is slowly being restored, however, the monks still leave elsewhere.

We spent the night in a Ger in a tourist Ger camp, this means there is usually Western bathroon and toilet present on site and there is often also entertainment laid on. The entertainment was a Mongol singer who played various traditional instruments and sang us some songs. Two little girls giggled there way through a contortionist routine - great fun! The Ger though was not heated, our driver brought us some blankets which was a good thing because I don't think I've ever been this cold.

Saturday morning we spent near the Monastery visiting other buddist monuments and admiring the landscape. In the afternoon we headed to our next overnight location. The 80 km ride back towards UB brought us to another Ger camp, but this time we were to camp next to a nomad family. The family live near the Mongal El - picture this as a bit of Gobi dessert in amongst green rolling hills and massive mountain ranges. The boys of the family made us tea as we arrived - the Ger we were to stay had the look and feel of a Ger which has actually been lived in. We then went for a camel ride in the sanddunes. Usually this task falls to the younger of the family and who was in charge here was apparent quite soon. Our camels were hungry and the boys could not always stop them from charging off towards a yummy looking bush.
Whilst waiting for dinner we went for a walk towards the horizon - the landscape here is absolutely fabulous. The animals are left to roam free and seem to head off towards home when it's time for milking. Montains everywhere you look, and just as you think there is no-one about you spot a Ger or two in the distance. I had my doubts going on this trip but I wouldn't have wanted to miss this for the world.

Back in our Ger it was soon too dark to read and we resorted to playing card games - one of the sons alerted us to dinner and he was looking suspiciously upbeat as he spotted the cards. Our driver came in and rescued us from another cold night and got the boys to light us a fire. They came in a bit later to ask if the food was good and we sent them off with a few of our apples. They must have been trying to find the guts for something with all these visits ... they came in to thank us for the apples gave us a sweet. They tropped off again and came back a bit later to ask if we wanted to play cards. I still don't understand what the rules of the game were but we did have fun.

Today we spent driving back to Ulanbaator - stopping off at the same rest-stop restaurant and stopping a few times on the way. As we entered Ulanbaator today olympic fever had struck - I think the mongolians are planning a party to celebrate their haul of golds and silvers.

I am hoping to be back on-line from Irkutsk in a few days time.

Speak soon, Titia

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Comments

[Sharon]

Hello from GB!
Hi Titia and Vicky, Thanks for the blog - great to hear about what you are up to! Sounds like you are having an amazing time. We miss you! Have lots of fun on the rest of your trip, look forward to hearing more of your adventures! Sharon xx