After our interesting and painstakingly long border crossing from Russia, we arrived to Ulan-
Baatar the following morning and met our new guide, Tsolmon. Tsolmon has an interesting background...his father was in the Mongolian air force and died in a test flight when he was only 5 years old. His mother eventually re-married an American scientist who spent his summers doing research in Mongolia. At about age 10, Tsolmon moved with his mother to Philadelphia and since then has spent his school years in the USA. He is currently going to Temple University in Philadelphia, but spends his summers and some semesters back in the Mongolian countryside helping his grandparents (his father's parents) with their herds of sheep and horses. He also works as a tour guide and is planning to help his mom open a tour company specializing in bringing American tourists on hiking excursions to Mongolia.
Tsolmon was able to answer most of our questions about life in rural Mongolia, and even offered
to take people out to his family's Ger on a separate trip. He did this for an American reporter this past year - so let us know if you would like an authentic Mongolian experience - riding horses, eating the local cuisine, and living in a Ger for two weeks!
Tsolmon showed us around Ulan-Baatar, which has two main streets that break the city into four quadrants. Just off the main roads, you find crumbling soviet block housing, shanty-type dwellings and even some city gers. However, now that the country is becoming a bit wealthier, there are numerous building projects going on throughout the city so perhaps in several years it won't appear as run down. There isn't much to say about downtown Ulan-Baatar, it's like Tijuana with huge stone complexes and gers mixed in.
We did take some time to visit the huge statues of Genghis Khan in the center of the city and the Mongolian History museum, which proved how much history we had learned from reading our book "In the Land of Genghis Khan" by Stanley Stewart before we arrived to the country (we highly recommend this book if you're interested in Mongolia). The museum did fill in some of the gaps and helped us better understand Mongolia's history and how traditional nomadic life combined with Chinese and Russian influences to make-up modern Mongolian culture.
After a day in Ulan-Baatar we were ready to head out to the countryside (1.5 hrs outside Ulan-Baatar). After a hair-raising minibus ride, which Mariah is still recovering from, we arrived at our tourist Ger camp, which consisted of a main camp that had 3 extra-large gers for the dining hall and about 20-30 smaller gers for guests. Our gers were located about a 5-10 min walk from the main camp - our group shared 4 gers between 14 people. Mariah and I shared with Paul and Caroline, an Australian couple on our tour.
Ok, so how is a Ger constructed? Well from our best reckoning, a Ger has a lattice base of wood and birch wood beams that serve as the ceiling support. After the lattice and beams are in place
, a heavy wool mat is laid around and on top, which is then covered with white plastic to rain proof the structure. There are three poles that stand up in the middle of the Ger to help support the cone shaped top. There is a hole at the center of the roof, similar to a tee pee, where the smoke from the stove is piped out. We all agreed that gers were great to stay in...until it started to rain heavily for 12 hours. We found that our tourist Ger was not so well looked after and it began to spring leaks everywhere. Paul and I were able to effectively seal off the roof after my bed and some of our bags were soaked. After resolving the major leaks, we cranked up the wood stove and turned our little Ger into the best sauna we've had yet. We had a great afternoon reading and chatting while we dried out our stuff.
Also while in the countryside,we visited a local family's Ger to get a taste of home cooking. Home cooking in this instance consisted of:
- Airag: Fermented mare's milk...need I say more, this stuff tasted like bad milk and vinegar mixed and then carbonated. The worst part is that you don't drink it in a cup but instead a bowl. Yes, we did finish it out of courtesy, but no one felt too well afterward.
- Hardened cheese: These looked like little biscuits, so we all thought it was safe...turns out to have been the worst tasting of the dishes
- Pudding with hardened donut things: This is fresh milk that is mixed with flour, boiled and left out overnight so that it becomes a pudding. This pudding was Mariah's favorite and she had several helpings.
Besides the local cuisine, we learned some interesting customs about family Ger life. For example, men are seated at the back and the right side of the Ger, while the women are seated at the left. The door of all gers is supposed to face East to the sunrise and it is considered very bad form (and bad luck) to step directly on the threshold of the Ger. Across Mongolia, a traveler or passerby is welcomed at all gers to stop and rest, have a meal, a chat, and stay the night. Mongolians are some of the most hospitable people you will ever find. Despite many miles across vast distances, Mongolia is like a small community with news and gossip traveling easily across the country.
Our honcho Tsolmon once drove some cattle from his grandparent's Ger camp 400 km to Ulan-Baatar. All along his way, he stayed in local gers or camped when there were none in sight. It took him 3 weeks to complete the journey.
In addition to our family visit and a day spent shielding ourselves from the rain, we were able to take a short horse back ride. This is only worth mentioning because we were in Mongolia - the land of great horsemen. Our tourist horses were lazy, slow and stubborn...refusing to go any faster than a slow walk despite kicking, whipping, hollering. It was also quite comical because Mongolian horses are quite a bit smaller than Western horses so we almost dwarfed the poor things. The locals' horses were quite a lot faster to say the least. I did get a chance to ride a Mongolian wooden saddle, which was actually pretty comfortable, though you have to lean to one side to make it bearable for long distances.
After our Ger expedition, we headed back to Ulan-Baatar for one more night out and a massage. The massage was supposedly a Taiwanese massage (we're not entirely sure). The six in our group who went were all put into the same room along with others and given flannel PJs. The room was lined with comfy chairs and foot stools and filled with the smallest Mongolian women we had seen the whole trip pounding, twisting, kneeing and rubbing backs, necks, hands, legs and feet. The sounds coming out of the room must have made people on the street run because it sounded like they were torturing us. I was literally tearing up as this 80 pound girl dug under my collar bone with her elbow and twisted me to and fro. However, in the end (and after a few beers) we all felt great.
Overall, our time in Mongolia was a blast. And after reading about the nomadic life style and the impact of the Soviet Union on Mongolian society (see book mentioned above), it was amazing to see what life was like in the city and countryside. What was probably most surprising was that even in Ulan-Baatar, many people live in gers - there are gers all along the outskirts of the city, and even in the downtown areas.
Northern Mongolian landscapes are beautiful with sweeping planes and rock outcroppings. It wasn't until we started to cross the Gobi Desert in the South that we found the landscape we were expecting in Siberia - vast "nothingness," brown deserts and grass stretching for miles on end. Lucky for us, we crossed the Gobi mostly at night so weren't too bothered by the heat or dust the train kicked up.
Mongolia can't possibly be captured in words, so please take a look at some of the photos we've posted. If you want to learn more about their way of life, read the book we recommended or watch the Academy Award nominated documentary on Mongolian life in the Gobi Desert called "The Weeping Camel".
Until next time,
Eric
Baatar the following morning and met our new guide, Tsolmon. Tsolmon has an interesting background...his father was in the Mongolian air force and died in a test flight when he was only 5 years old. His mother eventually re-married an American scientist who spent his summers doing research in Mongolia. At about age 10, Tsolmon moved with his mother to Philadelphia and since then has spent his school years in the USA. He is currently going to Temple University in Philadelphia, but spends his summers and some semesters back in the Mongolian countryside helping his grandparents (his father's parents) with their herds of sheep and horses. He also works as a tour guide and is planning to help his mom open a tour company specializing in bringing American tourists on hiking excursions to Mongolia.Tsolmon was able to answer most of our questions about life in rural Mongolia, and even offered
to take people out to his family's Ger on a separate trip. He did this for an American reporter this past year - so let us know if you would like an authentic Mongolian experience - riding horses, eating the local cuisine, and living in a Ger for two weeks!Tsolmon showed us around Ulan-Baatar, which has two main streets that break the city into four quadrants. Just off the main roads, you find crumbling soviet block housing, shanty-type dwellings and even some city gers. However, now that the country is becoming a bit wealthier, there are numerous building projects going on throughout the city so perhaps in several years it won't appear as run down. There isn't much to say about downtown Ulan-Baatar, it's like Tijuana with huge stone complexes and gers mixed in.
We did take some time to visit the huge statues of Genghis Khan in the center of the city and the Mongolian History museum, which proved how much history we had learned from reading our book "In the Land of Genghis Khan" by Stanley Stewart before we arrived to the country (we highly recommend this book if you're interested in Mongolia). The museum did fill in some of the gaps and helped us better understand Mongolia's history and how traditional nomadic life combined with Chinese and Russian influences to make-up modern Mongolian culture.
After a day in Ulan-Baatar we were ready to head out to the countryside (1.5 hrs outside Ulan-Baatar). After a hair-raising minibus ride, which Mariah is still recovering from, we arrived at our tourist Ger camp, which consisted of a main camp that had 3 extra-large gers for the dining hall and about 20-30 smaller gers for guests. Our gers were located about a 5-10 min walk from the main camp - our group shared 4 gers between 14 people. Mariah and I shared with Paul and Caroline, an Australian couple on our tour.
Ok, so how is a Ger constructed? Well from our best reckoning, a Ger has a lattice base of wood and birch wood beams that serve as the ceiling support. After the lattice and beams are in place
, a heavy wool mat is laid around and on top, which is then covered with white plastic to rain proof the structure. There are three poles that stand up in the middle of the Ger to help support the cone shaped top. There is a hole at the center of the roof, similar to a tee pee, where the smoke from the stove is piped out. We all agreed that gers were great to stay in...until it started to rain heavily for 12 hours. We found that our tourist Ger was not so well looked after and it began to spring leaks everywhere. Paul and I were able to effectively seal off the roof after my bed and some of our bags were soaked. After resolving the major leaks, we cranked up the wood stove and turned our little Ger into the best sauna we've had yet. We had a great afternoon reading and chatting while we dried out our stuff.Also while in the countryside,we visited a local family's Ger to get a taste of home cooking. Home cooking in this instance consisted of:
- Airag: Fermented mare's milk...need I say more, this stuff tasted like bad milk and vinegar mixed and then carbonated. The worst part is that you don't drink it in a cup but instead a bowl. Yes, we did finish it out of courtesy, but no one felt too well afterward.
- Hardened cheese: These looked like little biscuits, so we all thought it was safe...turns out to have been the worst tasting of the dishes
- Pudding with hardened donut things: This is fresh milk that is mixed with flour, boiled and left out overnight so that it becomes a pudding. This pudding was Mariah's favorite and she had several helpings.
Besides the local cuisine, we learned some interesting customs about family Ger life. For example, men are seated at the back and the right side of the Ger, while the women are seated at the left. The door of all gers is supposed to face East to the sunrise and it is considered very bad form (and bad luck) to step directly on the threshold of the Ger. Across Mongolia, a traveler or passerby is welcomed at all gers to stop and rest, have a meal, a chat, and stay the night. Mongolians are some of the most hospitable people you will ever find. Despite many miles across vast distances, Mongolia is like a small community with news and gossip traveling easily across the country.Our honcho Tsolmon once drove some cattle from his grandparent's Ger camp 400 km to Ulan-Baatar. All along his way, he stayed in local gers or camped when there were none in sight. It took him 3 weeks to complete the journey.
In addition to our family visit and a day spent shielding ourselves from the rain, we were able to take a short horse back ride. This is only worth mentioning because we were in Mongolia - the land of great horsemen. Our tourist horses were lazy, slow and stubborn...refusing to go any faster than a slow walk despite kicking, whipping, hollering. It was also quite comical because Mongolian horses are quite a bit smaller than Western horses so we almost dwarfed the poor things. The locals' horses were quite a lot faster to say the least. I did get a chance to ride a Mongolian wooden saddle, which was actually pretty comfortable, though you have to lean to one side to make it bearable for long distances.
After our Ger expedition, we headed back to Ulan-Baatar for one more night out and a massage. The massage was supposedly a Taiwanese massage (we're not entirely sure). The six in our group who went were all put into the same room along with others and given flannel PJs. The room was lined with comfy chairs and foot stools and filled with the smallest Mongolian women we had seen the whole trip pounding, twisting, kneeing and rubbing backs, necks, hands, legs and feet. The sounds coming out of the room must have made people on the street run because it sounded like they were torturing us. I was literally tearing up as this 80 pound girl dug under my collar bone with her elbow and twisted me to and fro. However, in the end (and after a few beers) we all felt great.
Overall, our time in Mongolia was a blast. And after reading about the nomadic life style and the impact of the Soviet Union on Mongolian society (see book mentioned above), it was amazing to see what life was like in the city and countryside. What was probably most surprising was that even in Ulan-Baatar, many people live in gers - there are gers all along the outskirts of the city, and even in the downtown areas.
Northern Mongolian landscapes are beautiful with sweeping planes and rock outcroppings. It wasn't until we started to cross the Gobi Desert in the South that we found the landscape we were expecting in Siberia - vast "nothingness," brown deserts and grass stretching for miles on end. Lucky for us, we crossed the Gobi mostly at night so weren't too bothered by the heat or dust the train kicked up.
Mongolia can't possibly be captured in words, so please take a look at some of the photos we've posted. If you want to learn more about their way of life, read the book we recommended or watch the Academy Award nominated documentary on Mongolian life in the Gobi Desert called "The Weeping Camel".
Until next time,
Eric
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