Ger-reat

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If you've got this far then well done... following this blog has been hard even for me, it's (apparent) architect. I am weeks and weeks behind. In fact me and my noble companion have been in Mongolia now for six days and I haven’t written a single word. However, I would like in defense of my negligence to point out that this country is not exactly hot-wired: internet servers here or slow and antiquated by modern standards and expectations. So my laissez-faire attitude to coherent narratives has been willfully exacerbated by the Mongolian states laissez-faire attitude to modern technology. And nobody really seems to mind.

The reason for this is that most Mongolians live in ‘gers’- small, circular, marquee-style habitations, lined with sheeps wool, formed around a central stove and without electricity or running water. It has a population of around 2.6million and, being has it is a very big country, the lowest population density in the world. In it’s capital, Ulan Baatar where roughly one million people live, there are numerous ‘ger’ settlements as well as a large number of individual ‘ger’s interspersed among house, shops and office buildings. The city has all the mod cons that a traveler might require- restaurants, banks, supermarkets and a handful of hotels and guest houses- as well as a number of modern (low) high rises and a couple of communal public squares. It also has traffic that grip it’s two or three main streets in a relative calamity of horns, honks and revs. But by and large it is dusty and cracked and the air is dry. Though they appear weathered and tough-jawed, Mongolians are friendly and the guest house that we’re staying in is very accommodating. Coming from Beijing, one might make the mistake of thinking that the place is dirty- but it isn’t that, it’s just rough round the edges. In the banks there are clocks on the walls which are supposed to tell the time in Tokyo, London, New York and Moscow. But the only one which tells the right time is the Ulan Baatar clock (the New york one isn’t even there!), and the impression I have is that the only time frame that this country wants to abide by is it’s own: it doesn’t really mind what goes one elsewhere. This I think is the case, past, present or future. Can any one think of any famous Mongols? Correct. Chingis (not Gengis) is everywhere, even on the modern bank notes!

So it’s been relaxed. We went out on an organized trip to the country last week and had the good fortune to experience a sand storm and a thunder storm in a ‘ger’. It was great. We went horseriding and spent two nights in a relative wilderness. There was little interaction with the locals, but it was great to be somewhere so hard, dusty and remote, relatively speaking.

Today is a final day in Asia and I’ll be the first to admit, my blog is a joke. I’m yet to start on Vietnam or China (which I could write about for the rest of my life). Sorry guys. I’ll tell you all about it when I get back, I promise.

To Russia: eta four days time.

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Photos

My Ger...
Talking bout my ger... my ger.