Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Sain bainu from Mongolia!
We saved the best 'till last... the past three weeks have been one of the biggest adventures of our lives with each day bringing a new experience, a change of weather and more meat than we could ever imagine. The short flight from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar gave us a birds eye view of the terrain we would experience on our journey: simply huge green remote steppe with mountains stretching into the distance. We spotted ger camps and small communities as well as thousands of animals roaming about in herds, and for the first time ever Carly managed to look out of the plane window!
Despite Ulaanbaatar airport holding international status , it is exactly what you'd expect from a country with 3 million people and 33 million horses... very quiet. We were greeted by our guide 'Batman' (his full name is Battsengel, but he prefers the monicker Batman) and he's just returned to Mongolia after living in London for 10 years - we've never met anybody more patriotic about the UK than this man... and we quickly realised he was a legend. He made us laugh every day and has become a friend.
There aren't enough superlatives to describe Mongolia. We decided it's a place where heaven and earth fuse into one part - it surely must be the last place on earth where people and animals are truly free. The majority of the countryside isn't owned, and is there for everybody to enjoy, use and live off. It's bizarre and wonderful to see cows, horses, sheep, goats, yaks and people all living together with no fences, walls, sign posts etc in the vastness of the countryside under the bluest sky imaginable.
Our trip saw us leave the capital and head south towards the fringes of the Gobi desert, then West to the mountainous region known as the Gov-Altai, on through the green lushness of Zavkhan before heading back to the capital through central Mongolia. To prevent this post from taking days to read, we'll stick to the highest highlights of the trip - but rest assured we'll try and bend your ears off about this part of the trip for months, if not years to come.
- Carly unneccessarily falling off a Gobi Bactrian Camel whilst trying to 'save' Al from his 'out of control' camel - which was actually just rooted to the spot as it didn't want to walk anymore. This will need a short re-enactment to make sense fully but it was very funny and there were no injuries.
- Hand feeding huge, wild Steppe Eagles by throwing meaty treats into the air for them to grab and seeing Black Vultures tearing apart carcasses at the side of the road. The vultures are literally the size of small man/large child... a man child.
- It's difficult to do justice to Ger's (known as yurts in Russia) with words - you really need to be in one to soak up just how colourful, warm, characterful and unique they are. This also goes for the people who live in them too - we loved visiting nomadic herdsman and drinking all manner of milk (yak/camel/horse/goat/cow) and salty milk tea which we were dreading but turned out to be lovely.
- The feeling of being on another planet as a result of the other worldly scenery, we've never felt so isolated and remote!
- Learning about the many Mongolian traditions; blessing a journey by flicking milk in the air (white symbolises purity), doing everything in a clockwise direction (represents the cycle of life and moving forward), taking and giving things with your right hand (a sign of respect), kids learning to ride horses bareback (they're not allowed saddles until they're 16), never pointing the sole of your feet at someone, and how the head is regarded as the most sacred part of you so you must never touch anybody elses hat or step over it etc.
- Seeing horses EVERYWHERE, just living wild and literally being worshipped by the people. Mongols have a saying that a Mongolian without a horse is like a bird without wings. Al found a new love of horses after spending two days galloping around the open steppe on an ex-racing beast... he was the Ferrari of horses and Carly's so happy she now has a mutual horse fan.
- Staying with a nomadic horse herding family for 4 days in the Gov-Altai. We milked cows, goats and horses, herded the animals on horses, lassooed horse, helped with the branding of the foals and drank a lot of fermented mare's milk - Airag. Airag is bloody lovely... milky and fizzy and slowly gets you a happy kind of drunk.
- Attending a childs hair cutting ceremony which was the craziest party we've ever been to. There was hundreds of bottles of vodka, a dead sheep on the table, singing battles, copious amounts of food, lots of questions and a lot of smiling and noddiing through the language barrier. One translator turned out to be not enough for this party! We also had to sing a song to a Ger full of Mongols - which was terryfying. Under extreme pressure, we could only mutter a few words of song we learnt in Fiji about a woman who sells coconuts. They were as confused as you are.
- Against all odds, and after a lot of conversation about how lucky it is to see a wolf in Mongolia... we actually saw two wolves running together whilst driving through the snow in the mountains of Zavkhan. This is a very rare sight and the driver, chef and guide were all shocked and happy that we were lucky enough to see them... For Mongols, they believe you're in for a stroke of good luck after seeing a wolf (we saw two = somebody buy us a lottery ticket)
- Carly achieving one of her life dreams to see the only truly wild horse in the world, the Mongolian Takhi (otherwise known as Przewalski's Horse). These guys have two more chromosomes (66) than the average horse, and are the stars of one of conservation's best success stories. They went extinct in the wild during the 1960's but due to a huge effort to breed the last few in captivity in zoo's, there are now over 250 who are back in the wild with a vengence.
- Here's another Google image moment - type 'silver Chinngis Khaan statue Mongolia'... this is a 40 metre high, $10 million statue of the father of Mongolia. Seeing IS believing.
We have a lot of memories of our trip, not all fall into the highlights category... but here's a few which you will appreciate:
- Despite repeatedly correcting our team of Mongols, they continued to call us Alam and Karla for the whole trip. Crazy Mongols
- Experiencing a classic Mongolian dinner staple, and the one we were most dreading, which is simply known as 'Makh' (meat) which consisted of boiled sheep entrails. First was the 'soup' which was the juice of all the bits 'n' pieces, then came the choicest parts of the heart, stomach, lungs, liver, kidney and anything else they pulled out of the inside of the sheep - everything apart from any actual flesh of the sheep which is kept to be dried out for the winter. As you can imagine for a vegetarian and a guy who only eats fillets, this was a challenge and required extreme mental strength not to offend our hosts. It was a big deal for them to share food with us, so everything they put in our bowls had to be eaten - nothing is wasted. This attitude towards food is something to be admired, the Mongols have a big connection with their animals and its out of the question to waste any part. Al also saw the unique way the sheep is 'taken' (Mongolians never say killed as they're not killers) - the sheep is turned upside down to look at the bright blue sky which means its time has come, a small cut is made on the stomach and then an arm is inserted into the sheep and a finger is used to snap the main artery to the heart. Now this sounds like a pretty gruesome way to go, but it was actually over very quickly and the sheep didn't make a sound. We've never seen the whole process from field to plate before, especially where there was so much respect for the animal involved.
- There's nearly 55,000 kilometers of highway yet only 2,800 kilometers of sealed roads in the country i.e. very beeping bumpy. Almost an attraction in itself are the dust tracks which qualify as roads, the lack of road signs and complete absence of any safety measures. If you break down in the middle of nowhere it's game over. Our Russian truck was not made for comfort, but it got us round and we learnt to love it - it became affectionately known as 'the tank'.
- To all western style toilets and showers out there... we just want to thank you and say that we'll never take you for granted again. Something which can only be described as a low point was Carly standing in human poo... somebody didn't get the memo about digging a hole/covering the mound... 3 weeks of squatting outdoors (terrifying at night when there are wolves/wild dogs on the prowl) and taking only two showers in 3 weeks have made us very 'appreciatable' (a Batman favourite). The public bath houses comprised a small changing room, a flickering light bulb with exposed wiring, mildew, rusty pipes, dripping shower head and a plug hole choked full of hair - an experience!
- Braving unexpected winter temperatures while camping, we thankfully got through a -16 degree night. This was by no means easy, and sleep was impossible - we even woke up with ice on the sleeping bags. Bbbrrrr
- The hordes of drunk men and countless empty bottles of vodka which litter the land. You could travel for days in any direction and be sure to find a handful of discarded 'Chinggis Khaan Gold Vodka' bottles.
- Al being unwillingly volunteered for wrestling matches with any new child/boy/man we met. Mongols are freakishly strong and love to wrestle at every opportunity - Al is now quite a big deal in the wrestling scene in the country, not necessarily for the right reasons.
Mongolia is a facinating place for so many reasons - it has a lot of mineral treasure (copper, gold, coal) beneath the ground, so there's lots of interest in 'Mingolia' from other countries who are looking to make big money out of mining it. The goverment is having to think very carefully about how to progress with the industrial offers, but it's likely the landscape will change over the coming years. We also learnt from the older generation of Mongols that they believe the cultures of the country are slowly changing and being lost. Nomadic culture is being lost as the kids prefer motorbikes to horses and people are moving to the capital instead of herding animals in the country side and living in Gers.
We feel lucky that we got to see Mongolia while its still raw and wild, and have decided it's the first of many trips out there. We implore you to join us as there's so much more to see - the Eagle festival and Kazakh hunters, Naadaam festival, the reindeer herders in the north and we're also intrigued about what a Mongolian winter would be like with -40 degree temperatures.
We're back in the luxury of the Hilton Hotel in Beijing now (it's mental) and we fly back to the UK tomorrow for 4 days before going to Thailand. Its going to feel so strange for us to be in the UK again but we're excited too. Don't worry, we've got a couple more blogs in us about Thailand so until then, much love.
Bayartai
xx
- comments
payal Just read this as I've been away. You have come home and are now in Thailand. I am pleased you have been able to extend your trip and have a further adventure volunteering. Mongolia sounds insane-im not sure i would survive out there for long though! Cant wait to see all pics and Alam and Karla in the flesh. Love you lots and enjoy xxx