Linda (from Vancouver, Canada), Christian and Stacey (from Oldham, UK), Gabrielle and Flore (from Brussels, Belgium) and I decided to celebrate our last night in Russia with some Absolut Raspberry (Stacey picked the flavour), and to go with it, some cookies, banana cream biscuits, crisps, noodles and mash. This meant that I only had 3 hours sleep before being woken up by the carriage attendant ahead of arriving into Ulaanbaatar.
After a quick tour of the city, i.e. trip to the main square to see the statue of Chinggis Khan (aka Genghis Khan), and some government buildings and theatres, I was taken to a Japanese ‘bathhouse’ in a hotel to freshen up (much needed).
We then set off for the 300km drive to my nomad homestay, most of it offroad through fairly flat green pastures. The roads were terrible, like many in India after the monsoons, and the previous nights antics suddenly didn’t seem a good idea.
Shitere and Enkhtsetseg were my hosts at the ger. They had two sons, Uuganbaatar (4) and Uuganbayr (6 months). All together, four generations lived together.
The ger itself was fascinating, very similar to that I saw in Buryatia, and located 200 metres from the edge of the Gobi Desert. It was surprisingly very comfortable, and certainly cosy when the entire family gathered for dinner or to watch sumo wrestling on their 14” black and white TV.
Most visitors like myself would go out with the herders (any man who could ride a horse) to bring in the horses, cows and goats for milking, go out and collect horse dung for the fire or help milk the animals, but the weather wasn’t great so I couldn’t do any of these things.
There was a storm one night and the wind never let up until the morning I left. Apparently these winds (I would think up to around 40mph) were nothing in comparison to what they see in spring or during the winter months.
My stroll to the Gobi Desert was cut short by a sandstorm, and when I decided to venture back there, this time on a camel, I didn’t fare much better.
One afternoon, we did drive through the countryside of the Ovorkhangai Province to the birthplace of Mongolian civilisation, Karakorum. This was where Chinggis Khan was declared the Great Khan and his quest for domination of the west began. The ancient city was destroyed, but on its site lies the monastery of Erdene Zuu, the first Buddhist centre in Mongolia built in the 16th century. It was only after this that Buddhism became the prominent religion in Mongolia. The Russian militia, under the orders of Stalin, destroyed much of the monastery in 1937, but strangely the three main temples survived.
Otherwise, I spent most of my time in and around the gers, and I loved every minute of it. It also gave me a flavor of what it would be like in winter when most of the day is spent indoors in what compared to back home would be considered a very cramped environment. After all, the ‘kitchen’ ger, where we spent all of our time in other than for sleeping, had a diameter of no more than 3 metres. At one time, I think we had around 15 people watching TV.
The traditional food was very good too, although a little different to what I’m used to, jackal soup for example, but also ‘buuz’ (steamed meat dumplings) and ‘suvan’ (fried slices of dough with meat). During the winter, they would have lots of meat as very little else is available, so during the summer, they would have lots f dairy products (what they call ‘white foods’) to clean their stomachs. This mainly took the form of homemade ‘airag’ (fermented mare’s milk), but also green tea with milk and dried curd. They also sometimes distil the airag to make ‘shiimin arkhi’, a clear spirit. I couldn’t quite believe how much airag each person would drink, I would think around 4 litres a day. There would always be a bucket of it and a bowl to drink it from. You never finish the bowl as it is a sign of greed and wanting more. Everyone would take turns drinking it. By day 2, I was drinking a couple of litres of it myself – it was the only cool drink available! I also brought a bottle of Chinggis Khan vodka for the father of the house – he loved it – not surprising, as the local stuff I had the following day was nasty.
I got lots of exercise playing with Uuganbaatar. He had so much energy. We played football, but he loved the nomad lifestyle. He would try and sit on a goat and ride it, like his father does on a horse. He spent much of his day sitting on my shoulders with a whip in hand asking me to run around as if I was a horse – very tiring!
His father, 28, was very friendly and so hospitable. He wanted me to return in November as this is the month where all four members of the family have their birthdays.
One the final night, he dressed up his son in traditional riding gear and let him ride his horse. I was amazed at how comfortable he was riding it – I guess it’s second nature to them, but nevertheless, he was completely fearless. The father then let me on one of the horses.
I then showed the family all the photos and videos I had taken of my time at their ger. They have very few photos of themselves, especially with their 6 month old son, so I promised to print some and send them via the tour company.
I don’t think I saw any anger or frustration on anyone’s faces for the entire three days. Even the women, who cook, clean, look after the kids and milk the animals, seemed so cheerful.
It very much reminded me of when I would visit my mum’s village in India (Bochasan). The roads were appalling, guests were treated with such hospitality, animals would always need milking, the women did all the work, the entire family lived under one small roof, and there was even a small black and white TV.
Fantastic experience – I could have spent another week there.
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