The central and north eastern parts of Mongolia has fair vegetation and the countryside becomes wetter as one travels further north from the Gobi desert. With this one finds a greater concentration of nomads and their animals. The increased wetness also led to our first experience of the Mongolian bog, basically swamp located in the valley bottoms. Fortunately our blunders occurred where help was at hand. We were following well worn tracks through a wet valley, and unfortunately, the track we were on ended with us axel deep in the bog. Not a big worry because this was a great opportunity to try out some of our recovery kit that we had been carrying with us for so many thousands of kilometres. We however only got to use our towrope because a local soon came by and towed us out.
Early one evening we had our first of several, and very pleasurable, experience of being entertained by locals in their ger (tented home). We camped up a valley, which we thought was totally uninhabited. Soon however, a nomad appeared on his motor bike and from voice and hand signals, it was clear that we needed to pack up and follow him. He led us to his ger, and soon we were in his very cosy (it was freezing outside) and spacious home. The ger, about 6m to 8m in diameter, was well laid out with the general stuff that one finds in a normal home….kitchen area, sleeping/ seating and storage. Everything was very clean and tidy. They had a solar power-battery system to run lights and TV. Our hosts seemed overjoyed to have us visit and in no time several other nomads arrived and joined the party. They gave us yak milk tea, which despite my initial flash of a nightmare, tasted good. The language barrier was a slight problem, however we managed reasonably well with our phrasebook and smart phone translator. We had them in stitches of laughter when we showed them photos on our laptop, which Barbara had taken earlier that day further down the valley. They recognized some of the people we had photographed and found much to laugh about. One of the photos was of a man transporting a yak on the back of his motorbike. This, to most people, would be an amazing thing to see, however it hardly caused a smile from our hosts. We guessed that they must have been thinking… how else would one transport a yak. Next morning, work starts early for the family, about 5am, milking yaks. We were sad to leave.
They confirmed the directions to our next destination, a lake set in a beautiful valley. The route was over the mountain crest at the head of the valley. We parked up half way up the mountain for breakfast. Our nomad friend must have been watching our progress from their ger and noticed us not moving. Soon he pulled up on his bike to find out what the problem was. It did not take much convincing to have him tuck into breakfast with us.
The nomads and their way of life are a treat and are all very friendly and likeable. We slept several nights in the gers and always enjoyed our stay very much…highly recommended. They usually have the stove going, which makes the ger toasty warm. The nomads run large herds of sheep, horses, goats and yaks (or cows, depending on the climate of the region). Most nomads use a motorbike as the main form of transport, however in areas that are very rocky, horses are the main mode of getting about. Horses that are used for riding are “parked” outside the ger tied to a line strung between two posts. The nomads seem to move down to the wetter valleys, which has good grass cover, during the spring and summer months. They seem to spend the winter months on the higher ground. The ger is the perfect design for nomadic people and comprises a wooden foldable lattice frame over which an insulating felt covering is placed. A ger can be erected in about two hours. Many of the nomads now have small trucks, which they use to move their belongings.
Most locals could direct us to our planned destination. The trick was to write down the name of the destination in Cyrillic script, text that practically all Mongolians can read. Cyrillic script was introduced across Mongolia decades ago by the Russians and is used all across Central Asia.
Naiman Nuur (lake), is a series of nine lakes located along a remote valley formed by volcanic action a few thousand years ago. Our plan, with a big measure of optimism, was to follow this valley to a waterfall further downstream. The trip into the valley was interesting, to say the least. Extremely steep and rough. It took us about an hour to cover two kilometres. Little did we know that this off-road experience would turn out to be training for a far more adventurous trip into a remote valley in Kazakhstan. There was no way out of the valley, and we had to retrace our steps. The valley was however spectacular and a great place to camp for the night.
Further north, we stopped off at Tsenkher hot springs. The water from the spring is extremely hot, more than 80 degrees C. The nights during early summer are still coldish and a morning dip in a pool filled with hot spring water, is just what is needed to get the day going. The lodges at the springs, have to deal with a catch 22 situation. During the bitter cold (- 20 to – 40 degrees C) winter, there are no tourists and the place is closed down. During summer however, temperatures are deep into the +30’s and way too hot to lie in a hot spring pool.
On the way to Ulaanbaatar, the capital, we visited Kharkhorin. This was originally a supply base established by Genghis Khaan in the 1200’s, and later, his son established his capital at this location. The splendour of the capital only lasted a few decades until it was overrun. The remains were used to construct a huge monastery in the late 1500’s, most of which was in turn however destroyed during the Russian purges. The outer walls and three of the temples were left standing and can be viewed today. North of this site, are the ruins of the original city built by the Uighur empire in the 700’s. The remains of the outer walls of the city are visible, which were originally constructed of rammed earth. There is not much to see at this site, however it is amazing to stand at the site and imagine the life of the people that ruled Mongolia for about 100 years such a long time ago. There is a very informative museum at Kharkhorin, which describes and presents the history of peoples in Mongolia from stone age to current times.
Ulaanbaatar, the capital, has a population of about 1.3 million people. It seems people migrated to the city in great numbers and is bursting at its seams. Vehicle ownership has increased rapidly, thanks to cheap imports from Japan, and as a result, traffic in every street crawls at about walking pace. It is very frustrating to get anything done in the city, and we therefore moved on quite quickly. The city does however have great restaurants with delicious food. The city also has one of the largest markets one can find, where you can buy anything from a pin to a ger, motorbike, or whatever springs to mind.
Some 50km west of Ulaanbaatar, a private concern constructed a mammoth stainless steel statue of Genghis Khaan on his horse. The statue is absolutely huge. One takes a lift to reach about his waist level and from there one can walk up the inside of the horse’s neck to reach a viewing area basically on the horse’s head. The grandeur of the statue is befitting of the achievements of Genghis Khaan. He is the hero of Mongolia and his presence is everywhere. History however seems to suggest that he and his followers were rather heavy handed. We however admire that the Khaan influence stretched across most of the known world at that time. We cant wait to look for his footsteps in other countries further west that we intend to visit.
Central Mongolia has large cultivated fields. This may have been something that the Russians introduced. Many of the small towns that we passed through had large grain silos. Interestingly, a kind of “strip” cultivation is being practiced on many of the properties. Alternate strips seemed to be left fallow, and presumably the cultivation strip would be switched in the next season and the fallow strips cultivated.
Archery is one of the main national sports of Mongolia, and we learned that the teams were keenly practicing for the annual games (Naadam Festival) held during July each year. It did not take long to find the training area in one of the small towns where we spent the night. The sport is practiced by young and old, male and female. The youngest archer that we saw seemed to be about 8 years old. The Mongolian fighting spirit is alive and well judging by the fact that all the archers seemed to hit, or near hit, the mark. The target is actually set on the ground and it looks similar to a few beer cans set in a row. We also visited one of the few bow makers in the country. The bows are made of strips of cow horn glued and spliced and then sanded down to form the bow, according to the original age old design. The design makes sense because there does not seem to be suitable wood in Mongolia from which a bow can be made.
We headed northwards towards Siberia – Russia, our next country. We are sad to leave because we have enjoyed Mongolia (people, food, scenery, travel friendly) very much and could happily have spent another month in the country.
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