Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
As the pine covered mountains and snowy taiga gave way to rocky outcrops and gentle rolling hills, we knew we were leaving Siberia behind us to cross through Buryatia to the Mongolian border. The border crossing itself however, did its best to dull our excitement. Aside from a small market selling cigarettes and completely genuine Calvin Klein boxer shorts, there was little to do but wait out the ten hours or so it took the officials to take our passports, search the train, and then do the whole thing again on the mongolian side.
We arrived into Ulaanbaatar at 5am and immediately went to the hotel and caught a nap. When we awoke again we found ourselves in the heart of the city. Ulaanbaatar is a bizarre and fascinating city, which has now swapped its horses for Toyota land cruisers, and k-pop jostles for earspace with the horsehead violin and throat singing. We went to a performance of the latter, which alongside the spinetingling vocal display and sweeping harmonies of the ensemble featured modern dance and a traditional Buddhist mask dance. It also featured a contortionist; a truly mesmerizing experience.
As I alluded to above, Ulaanbaatar is in a state of great transition. Go to Sukhbaatar Square in the centure and you are surrounded by tall, elegant buildings; the Mongolian Stock Exchange, the Natural History Museum, the Blue Sky Tower (tallest building in Mongolia!) and the Mongolian parliament building, replete with a mighty seated Chinggis Khan at the top of its steps. However, take a trip to the Memorial Hill - the monument commemorating the friendship between Mongolia and the Soviet Union during the Second World War - and you can see the city as a whole. The elegant Blue Sky tower is lost among innumerable highrises, in various states of completion, and the city is canopied by a fog of smoke from the coal fires of the thousands of gers that still make up the primary form of accomodation for most Monglians. Although Mongolia has a population of less than 3.5 million people, the city is growing fast.
Head out of the city however, and it's a very different story. The roads were not well kept within the city limits (those Toyota Land Cruisers made sense when you got on the road) but beyond was another level. We rattled along a road which varied between mere dirt and horrendous rubble. As we reached Terelj National Park, our driver stopped to make a quick prayer at an ovoo (a Mongolian cairn bedecked with coloured scarves and offerings of vodka) and we could see why. We finally reached our ger camp to find ourselves settled at the edge of a wide valley, in the shelter of some of the dramatic rocky outcrops that the park is known for.
A ger is round felt walled tent, a design which improved on the Siberian yurt, or so our guide told us. In the centre, a coal stove has replaced the open fire, and keeps the ger toasty warm. The brightly painted spokes which support the ceiling give the interior a homely feel, and it was not hard to see why so many Mongolians still preferred this way of life. We later paid a visit to a local nomad lady who showed us around her home and some traditional clothes she had made herself. The "dell" is a long quilted tunic tied with a belt and featuring a handy pocket at chest level, perfect, she remarked, for her mobile phone. Although she herself recieved electricty from the local campsite, many Mongolians live without power, although many have solar panels to charge their mobiles, a newly welcomed addition to any self respecting nomads toolkit.
Unfortunately during our stay Philippa was unwell, and spent most of our time confined to our ger. Therefore, I had to have the experiences for her! I rode a horse across the valley, tried my hand at archery and sampled Monglian hotpot. The food in Mongolia was fantastic. As well as the delicious hotpot in the camp, we also visited a Mongolian barbecue restaurant in the city, an absolute must for any traveller. Similar to teppanyaki, you choose meat, vegetables and noodles as you like, and sauce and spices, then give thse to a chef who cooks them on a large circular grill with sword-like spatulas. It was, needless to say, delicious.
Overall, Ulaanbaatar still feels under construction, but in years to come could find itself a backpackers paradise and even a legitimate Asian capital. As for Mongolia itself, despite the population moving into the cities en masse, it is clear that there is a desire to hold onto the old ways. Looking out from ones ger onto the vast open steppe under a clear night sky with the warmth of the stove at your back, it's not hard to see why.
- comments
Matt But did you try your hand at archery while riding a horse across the valley?