Camping in Mongolia

Day 1: 300km West of Ulaanbaatar
We hired a jeep, driver, and guide for our 5-day camping trip in Central Mongolia. We spent most of the first day driving. When we arrived in Mongol Els, we met a nomadic family who offered to take us on a horse trek tomorrow. We pitched our tent, cooked some rice, and went to bed early.

Day 2: Horse Trek
We woke up at 6am to a beautiful morning. The sun was out, the sky was blue and we were ready for our horse trek. Osoho (pronounced 'Sko'), our horse guide, took us through empty steppes and sand dunes. What a way to spend a Saturday morning! The nomadic family we met the day before invited us over for lunch in their ger. Mongolians are known for their unbounded hospitality. Fried noodles with meat. Yum! In the afternoon, we visited the Erdene Zuu monastery, the oldest monastery in Mongolia.

Day 3: Drinking Airag
We spent the morning driving to Lake Orkhon. A nomadic family by the lake invited us in for airag - fermented mare's milk. It tastes kind of like carbonated sour yogurt. The Mongolian custom is to drink three cups. One woman insisted I play a drinking game with her but I polited refused. I didn't want to pass out after the first round! We camped out by Bayannur, a small lake in the middle of sand dunes.

Day 4: Break Down
We had a very Mongolian experience today. Our jeep broke down! The radiator started leaking and the engine overheated. We patched up the hole with rope and scotch tape, poured all the water we had into the radiator, but after a few miles, it broke down again. We walked about 1/2 mile to the nearest ger and asked for some water. The nomads were so generous, they gave us water and even served us tea and arol (dried cheese). We fed our jeep some more water but since the radiator was still leaking, it would break down every few miles. In the end, it took us 8 hours, tons of water, and 5 ger visits to drive 50 miles!

Day 5: Takhi Wild Horses
We woke up at 6am to see the takhi (wild horses) at the Khustain National Park. These horses were believed to have gone extinct in 1969 due to poaching and overgrazing. But a few still existed in zoos outside of Mongolia. However, as the country was under Soviet control at the time, it was impossible for conservationists to bring the takhi back. In the early 1990s, when democracy arrived with the fall of the Soviet Union, the takhi were reintroduced into Mongolia. Today, there are more than 200 takhi at the Khustain National Park.

Sick of mutton!

Cooking with cow dung, cleaning with our tongues

The narrow path to Begz's ger

Our most unique couch surfing experience was with Begz and his family. They live in the ger district of Ulaanbaatar, about 10km north of the city center. When we got off the bus, I thought we were in Mongolia's slum. But as soon as we stepped into Begz's ger and were welcomed by his wife and four smiley children, we felt right at home.

We milked his cows, played games with the kids, cooked hushuur dumplings, helped take down his relative's ger, and even made a stove out of cow dung! Their lives revolve around their cows. Their diet consists of mainly dairy products and they use cow dung for heating. Begz says they choose not to use coal because it pollutes the air. They dry the cow dung for one year before using them.

Manujin and Todo drying cow dung

 

Begz and Yoshi milking a cow

Playing anklebone games with Gaadmaa and Mungulun

Me and Manujin playing outside

Teaching them how to play 'hanafuda' and 'Jamaica'

Todo and Yoshi playing soccer

  

Cooking hushuur dumplings

Taking apart a ger

 

Begz and Yoshi making a stove out of cow dung

 

Eej cooking

It was very interesting to learn about their eating customs. Begz's wife (we all called her 'Eej' (eh-jeh) which means 'mother' in Mongolian) always sat by the stove, even while we ate. If you want seconds, you bring your bowl to Eej and she will serve you. But you can't ask for how much you want. Eej decides for you. As Begz explained, "The mother knows everything about the children -- how much they should eat, how much energy they need." Eej must have thought Yoshi and I needed a lot of energy because she was really generous with the servings!

The way they clean their bowls is otherworldly. When we finished our food, Begz said, "Okay, now lick your bowls." I thought he was joking, but when he started to lick his bowl, my mouth dropped. And with a big smile on his face, he explained, "We clean our bowls with our tongue. It's the traditional way. We save water and it's good exercise for the tongue! Also, we do this to show our thanks to Eej for cooking this wonderful meal." "I see..." I said, but seeing Begz lick his plate made me realize how much I was conditioned not to do this. It felt completely inappropriate. I didn't care so much about exercising my tongue, but I wanted to show Eej my thanks so I cleaned my bowl the Mongolian way! On our last day, Eej told us we were the best lickers they've had. They've hosted over 100 couchsurfers so I guess it's a compliment! I should include that as one of my new talents: plate licking.

Spending three nights with Begz's family opened my eyes to the ger lifestyle. In the round ger, everything circulates. There are no walls; everything is connected. The family is one. What I learned from this experience is that a simple life is a happy life. So, why is it so difficult to be simple?

interesting traffic lights

"Mongolian Wrestling" and "Horse Race" traffic lights in Ulaanbaatar.

 

Would you dare?

 ... get your hair cut at this salon???

Naadam Festival Day 2

On Day 2, we went to see the horse race in Khui Doloon Khutag, just outside of Ulaanbaatar. Stuart, an Australian guy we met at the guest house, offered us a ride with him and his guide. We were lucky we didn't have to bother with public transportation but Stuart's driver was a crazy driver! He was driving into on-coming traffic and through the grasslands. It was quite a ride!

Mongolian horse race takes place on open grasslands with no set tracks. The horses are aged 2-5 and the jockeys, believe it or not, are children aged 5-12. Seeing these young boys race their horses through the grasslands was incredible.

The locals believe that putting the racehorse's sweat on your forehead brings good luck, so they chase after the horses.

Naadam Festival Day 1

The biggest festival in Mongolia, the Naadam Festival, is held annually on July 11-12th. The entire nation is in festive mood and the streets are filled with locals wearing traditional costumes. 'Naadam' means 'games' in Mongolian. Four games are competed during the festival: Mongolian wrestling, archery, horse racing, and anklebone throwing.

Japanese sumo and Mongolian wrestling have some similarities, but one big difference is that Japanese sumo is competed on a dohyo or ring, while Mongolian wrestling has no ring. In recent years, many Mongolian wrestlers have come to Japan to compete in Japanese sumo. The current and previous yokozuna (highest ranked sumo wrestler) are both Mongolian.

The opening ceremony was held in the morning on July 11th. Two full hours of dance and music performances. It was like watching the opening ceremony for the Olympics!

 

5 hours at the border crossing

So far, we've crossed seven borders. Entering Russia was no problem. Immigration check was done on the train from Helsinki, it only took 10 minutes, and there was no hassle. The border crossing from Russia to Mongolia, however, was another story.

Our train from Irkutsk to Ulaanbaator departed at 4:50AM. 8 hours later, at around 1:30PM, we arrived at the Russian border, the town of Naushki. The immigration officer entered our cabin, said "I take passport" and disappeared with our passports. He didn't return for three hours! And after a not-so-thorough cabin check, we finally got our passports back. Phew! Border crossings can be so stressful.

The next stop was the Monglian border. It took about 45 minutes to actually cross the border. When we reached the Mongolian border, the town of Sukhbaator, we had our passports taken again and our cabin checked. While we waited, we ate our dinner (instant noodles and bread) and chatted with our Mongolian cabinmates, Tegshee and his father. The language barrier made it difficult but they were very very friendly.

Tegshee and Yoshi

The first difference we noticed between Mongolians and Russians is that Mongolians smile. Russians don't smile much and even the children have stern looks on their faces. We asked a Russian guy we met in Tomsk about this and he warned us, "If you smile at a Russian, they'll think you're laughing at them and get angry. Don't smile at them."

View from train: Northern Mongolia