UlaanBaatar and Naadam Festival

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So it is Paul again.
Our train carriage from Irkutsk to Ulaanbaatar was full or westerners!! A first for us on this trip. And in a way a real treat, nice to have some people who can speak English with us easily.
We met a few crazy Finnish/Swedes who were on the same style trip as us but in three weeks. Lots of French and a few Aussies. Nice to have easy people to share what was our longest border crossing yet.
We arrived at 12 noon at the Russian border control to be told we had 4 hours before they would start to process our passports. Well the weather was fine and there was a park that was over the road for a few ball games so that killed a few hours no problems. Then when we finally reboarded the train we did finish in a little over 2 hours on that side. Then a half hour later we were stopped on the Mongolian side, for the same thing, passports, immigration cards etc but that was all over buy 9pm that night. YES 9 HOURS!!!

We arrived in UlaanBaatar early in the morning, with a bit of info about the election trouble and news of the curfew. Luckily we got an (unexpected) pickup from our hostel which was nice. Loaded unto a 4x4 and given a bucket of fresh milk to hold we made our way to the hostel. The day was spent getting our bearings and snapping pics. Seeing a few temples and getting some food that wasn't noodles.
Then we were off to Terelej national park the next day, for a 3 night stay in a Ger camp which was so nice.
The drop off left us unsure as there was little english spoken there, and we knew which was our Ger and where the toilet was and that was it. But we figured it out and had a blast. We were Nestled in the mountains, with eagles flying overhead all day, wild horses and Yak not far away. Met a cool Scandanavian couple who stayed in Ger near ours and helped us celebrate Michelles' 30th birthday in style. (drinking Mongolian beer and vodka outside a Ger under the stars). Beautiful walks and cold showers kept us going, while the weather was great until our last night. That was when the thunderstorm started. It had passed by morning, but it made the night a long one.

Back in Ulaanbaatar we had a day of temples and museums before the Naadam started. We also got in a cultural night of long song, throat singing, dance and costumes. Michelle even snuck in a foot reflexology visit that day!
The opening ceremony was good. Strange experience. Olypic athletes, Buddist deities, contortionists and the prime minister all helped kick off events. Music from a military band and orchestra kept everyone entertained throughout this.
Then it was straight in with wrestling. Some of the fastest and biggest wrestling i have ever seen in my life!
We enjoyed that for while then went out into the main area just outside the arena to see the nucklebone games and archery. We first caught the womens which was much more interesting as the outfits were all traditional and regional so they all looked so nice. And the target are more like bowling pins than what we are used too. Michelle went mad with photos this day so when we get home the blog and facebook with be fully updated. Lots of stalls with local goods and food were around, so lots to see all day.
Next morning we got taken to the horse racing, about 30kms out of town. Gers set up all over these planes, families offering food and drink, hundreds of kites filled the skies, and horses dominated the place.
The race is about 3.5 hours long so we wandered around waiting for the riders to come back to the finish line. (the jockeys are all kids 4-10yrs old) The race got interesting then, with all the riders coming in, one a clear winner, the 2nd and 3rd a minute behind, then came a cluster of 4 horses, 3 with riders. One had lost his horse but the horse rode on! This pattern continued for the next 10 mins, with another 5 horses coming in with no riders.
Then came the last 20 or so riders, one determined little lad, who came off, was walking his horse to the finish line, a shout came out for a police officer to re-mount the little kid. And off he ran, picking up the rider, he threw him on ( he was a little lad of 5 or so, with no hope of getting on himself) and off he raced again. Biggest grin i have ever seen in my life.

After all the riders came in there was a cultural Naadam area in action with music, dance, costumes and a horse display, we wandered all this for a few hours then returned to UB later in the day.

We now have today in UB, where we changed hostel before we start a 12 day camping trip around Mongolia. So this will be the last blog for 2 weeks, until we reach Beijing.
bye for now!!
Paul

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