Blogs from Mongolia, Asia - page 78

Asia » Mongolia » Ulaanbaatar August 19th 2005

We arrived in UB yesterday, amidst quite some confusion about what the time was and how long our flight was meant to take. Gareth said 4 and a half hours, so we were quite concerned when they announced that the flight would take 2 hours. Glad that they hadn't just dropped us in the middle of the Gobi desert, we very much enjoyed the doughnuts we did coming in over the capital. The mountains are fabulous, the skies as blue as they say, and the scenery just like the postcards. The city is quite a dustbowl...very lively, but with perilous holes every few metres in the footpaths(?). Quite an obstacle course, and sure to catch Mel out at some stage. We were met at the airport by our director and colleague, who showed us to our ... read more

Khovsgul Lake, Mongolia

Asia » Mongolia July 28th 2005

A view of the lake

R Eldar

Hi, We arrived to Khatgal, a small village on a river, just a few km from lake Khovsgul, and said goodbye to our driver. We started to arrange a horse trekking trip for the following day. Somehow instead of splitting and enjoying the lake separately, we added two more people to our group, and hit the road with 9 riders, 3 guides, and 3 pack horses for all the bags, tents, food, etc. In the morning we bought some more food, loaded the horses, and then mounted our horses. When they gave us the horses the guide said that he needs a good rider for one of the horses, because "this horse likes to gallop". Of course I took it immediately. I felt it almost immediately. He just wanted to run all the time. I had ... read more

Central Mongolia

Asia » Mongolia July 21st 2005

Another Mongolian couple

R Eldar

Hi all, After the Nadaam I wanted to go and see a little more of Mongolia. This time I found six more people who speak my language, and we hired a van (another Russian metal box) for seven days. The plan was to drive west to central Mongolia, and then North to a nice and big lake, and then to release the car and the driver and stay there for a while. The first day was short, and we drove most of the way back to Kharkhorin. On the way we stopped for a while in a ger and they gave us their local drink - Airag, which is fermented mare's milk, and tastes like sour milk. They drink it all the time, and even though the amount of alcohol there is minimal - it makes ... read more

Steppe Nomads camp

Asia » Mongolia July 14th 2005

Gun Galuut nature reserve

hauteboy

Hotel: Steppe Nomads Camp (Mongolia) Our guide took us out in the reserve this morning to search for more wildlife; swans and other birds which were usually found in some nearby lakes. The scenery was surreal; still no trees anywhere to be seen. Only 3% of the country is forested, mainly in the northern and western areas. We returned to camp for lunch, and our guide showed us how to play games with sheep anklebones. There are 4 different sides to each bone, labled camel, sheep, goat and horse. There was no end of games you could play, one was similar to jacks, another was a race around a track, etc. Baggy also taught us Mongolian animal onomatopoeia; sheep say maa, roosters say cockerycoo, cows say mboo. Baggy and I then practiced archery for awhile, I ... read more

Ulaan Baatar and the Nadaam Festival, Mongolia

Asia » Mongolia July 14th 2005

The opening ceremony

R Eldar

Hi I have been in UB several times, and since there isn't too much to see and to tell, I'll just tell it all at once. The biggest event in Mongolia is the Nadaam Festival. This festival is taking place since the times of the old empire, and is mainly a celebration and a sport event. There are three "manly sports" - horse racing, archery, and wrestling. People from all over Mongolia are coming to compete in the main event in UB, while every little town has its own celebration and competition. I chose to see the big event in UB, which might have been a mistake... The opening ceremony begins in the main square, where the flags are delivered to the guards and they take it to the big stadium. It's a funny semi-military ceremony, ... read more

Steppe Nomads camp

Asia » Mongolia July 13th 2005

Ger camp

hauteboy

Hotel: Steppe Nomads Camp (Mongolia) Our new guide greeted us this morning. His name was Baggy and would be our guide for the next few days, it would just be my wife and I so we ended up with a private tour! We would be going out to one of the tourist ger camps for a few days to get the feel of traditional Mongolian life. On the way out of town we stopped at Gandan Monastery, one of the few to remain open during the communist era. This is still a functioning monastery with yellow and red-robed monks chanting prayers. The camp was a few hours drive east of the capital. The roads were in excellent condition (newly paved by the Japanese), and once we left town the barren landscape of treeless grassy hills continued ... read more

Naadam festival

Asia » Mongolia » Ulaanbaatar July 12th 2005

Mongolian family

hauteboy

Hotel: Mika Hotel (UlaanBaatar, Mongolia) I was totally wiped out this morning, but we had to have an early start to go see the Nadaam ceremonies. We had a simple breakfast of toast, jam, yogurt and tea at the hotel before our guide arrived. Several other tourists were joining us today in the minibus for the 2nd day of ceremonies. Naadam is a combination Olympics/national holiday in Mongolia, always starting on July 11th. Mainly an excuse to party down, the games demonstrate the three 'manly' sports of wrestling, horce racing and archery. I had missed the horse racing yesterday afternoon, but the archery and wrestling competitions were continuing, in the Naadam stadium on the south side of town. This was my first time to see the city by daylight; it surprised me being a lot more ... read more

The return from the Gobi, Mongolia

Asia » Mongolia July 10th 2005

Typical Mongolia

R Eldar

Hi again, The drive brought us back to the grasslands of Mongolia, and the family of our driver's wife lived nearby. They are nomads, like the majority of the population of the country. Except for UB, other towns in Mongolia are very small and they are shrinking as people are leaving them since they can't make a living in them. More and more people return to the nomadic way of life that Mongolia had known for more than 800 years. Some laws in the country are based on the laws made by Genghis Khan in the 13th century. An example is the fact that it is not allowed to hurt the land in any way, because it belongs to everybody. That means that there is almost no agriculture in Mongolia (all is imported) and no fenced ... read more

On the Trans-Mongolian

Asia » Mongolia » Gobi Desert July 9th 2005

I love trains

degrubs

Early morning start for Benedict and I. He is kind enough to drop me at the station. My train leaves at 08:10 precisely (as advertised on the ticket, with "precisely" underlined and in bold). Benedict is going to try to change his ticket to leave Ulan-Bataar earlier then he planned, so that he may join me in Beijing for Tibet. As I get on the train, my cabin is yet again filled with bags. Thankfully, this time it is not cigarettes but the bags of three English guys, named Ben, Jack and Jamie. Ben and Jamie are going round the world on bikes. They cycled from London to Moscow and will cycle from Beijing to Singapore and then around Australia, then from Southern Chili to Canada etc... Great guys, having taken 3 years of their lives ... read more

Sadly back to UB

Asia » Mongolia » Gobi Desert July 8th 2005

Bored Camel

degrubs

Our last day in the wild Mongolian Steppes has started. The usual breakfast of bread and jam follows a slow awakening. For the tenth time on this journey, I swear to myself that never again shall I touch a drop of vodka. I am looking forward to being in China again, where I will have to deal with the Mao-Tai on a daily basis and can leave vodka behind. I wonder what they drunk before the Russians arrived and imported vodka and their drunken habits. They probably got drunk on Airag. After breakfast, our things were quickly packed away and loaded in the car. We all sat down with a strong sense of anticipation: shall we run for the bus or does the hammer trick really work ??? We start the engine once, it dies, we ... read more

Brief history of Mongolia

The Mongols gained fame in the 13th century when under Chinggis KHAN they conquered a huge Eurasian empire. After his death the empire was divided into several powerful Mongol states, but these broke apart in the 14th century. The Mongols eventually ...more history

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