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| John and Doreen in Mongolia |
TRAVELBERGS
Chapter 4
Written by Doreen and John Berg
MONGOLIA
Mongolia is a fascinating and very special country to visit. Historically we’d heard of the Mongols and Genghis Khan and his grandson, Kublai Khan and the havoc they created extending the Mongolian Empire into China and surrounding areas. The Mongol Empire during Kublai Khan’s reign in the 13th century reached from the Pacific Ocean to the Black Sea and from Siberia to Afghanistan. It is such a fascinating history and with the fictional television series, “Marco Polo” featuring Kublai Khan, you can see how very cruel he may have been to gain his wealth and extend Mongolian borders. Since the early 1990s, Mongolia has been an independent country and before that was a socialist state, a satellite of the Soviet Union.
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| Map of Mongolia |
Our eighteen-day visit to Mongolia was part of our Trans-Siberian train trip from Moscow to Beijing. We visited Mongolia in October 2011 using Ulaanbaatar as our base camp. It is difficult to think about the violent history of this country when you visit it now since it is such a peaceful and modest country. It is sparsely populated with only 3.3 million people, a barren land with grassy steppes to the north, the Gobi Desert to the south and bare mountains to the north. Horses are an integral part of this nomadic culture. We have read stories about parents taking their autistic child to Mongolia to ride horses and the positive benefits from that experience. The main means of transportation was by horse, for the nomadic Mongolians, but today dirt bikes are also used. Modern technology using solar panels has also changed the lifestyle of the nomads.
We caught the train from Ulan-Ude to Ulaanbaatar at 13:04 checking our departure time and then waited to see which track the train from Moscow would be arriving on. We waited and soon discovered Track #6 and entered Wagon #8 and compartment #4. We settled in and relaxed as the train rolled along. After a few hours, the train stopped, still in Russia, near the border of Mongolia, where the officials took our passports and were gone for an hour. While we waited we decided to have our supper of salami, bread, cheese and noodle soup. We even had a small jar of pickles and consumed the whole jar. As we waited, dogs came into each room to check for drugs, we presumed, or any other illegal item. We waited three hours before we were on our way into Mongolia, with passports in hand. It was now late in the evening so I donned my pyjamas and got into bed. I had just settled in when the train stopped once again and this time, Mongolian officials entered the train and they, in turn, took our passports. We had to fill in some forms and they soon had them gathered, returned our passports, and we were on our way, once more.
Ulaanbaatar, the Capital of Mongolia
The alarm went off early the next morning which gave us time to have coffee before we arrived in Ulaanbaatar. A beautiful sunrise greeted us as we departed the train where a driver from our hostel met us.
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| Khongar Hostel in UB |
We were booked into Khongar Hostel, a comfortable very basic accommodation. We chose this hostel as we heard they arranged excellent tours of the Gobi Desert which we very much wanted to do. We settled into metal bunk beds with me climbing into the top bunk without a ladder to help! Happily, we noticed a sink in our very small room but very soon we were disappointed when we noticed the drain was missing! We did have a small fridge and television though. After dropping our bags into our tiny room, we went to the reception area where we noticed there were three computers available which was a bonus. During this holiday we did not carry a computer, as we do now, for they weren’t so popular yet. Our room only cost fourteen dollars per night which also included a simple breakfast consisting of bread, jam, instant coffee and jam doughnuts! Those were real bargain prices, even then! There are many hostels and hotels in Ulaanbaatar now but I’m not sure that Khongar Hostel is still operating.
Being a bit hungry we decided to check out the Amsterdam Café down the street and had a coffee and a piece of pie each. We then checked out a tour office a couple of blocks away arriving at the GER-to-GER office. It was housed within a huge orange and blue building that had a sign “Save the Children” on the outside. We talked to the agent about a three-to-four-day trip into the desert. If we could find someone else to go with us the cost was the same, reducing what we had to pay. While inside the GER-to-GER area we took photos of statues of Genghis Khan and Lenin which were in the Arizona Center. The tour company designs tailor-made overland adventures for driving, trekking or horseback riding. We couldn’t find anyone and as it turned out we had our hostel arrange a tour for us which ended up being perfect!
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| John's Birthday |
While out shopping for food later in the day I secretly bought a birthday cake for John and took it to the hostel putting it in the beer fridge. I spoke to everyone in the reception area and asked them to join us later to share John’s cake. It was a fun evening and everyone came to the celebration. As John entered the room we all sang “Happy Birthday” to him. Among the guests were two architects from London, a husband-and-wife team. We always meet such interesting people when we stay in hostels rather than hotels.
The next morning, we talked to Silo, the business manager in our Khongar Hostel, and he arranged a six-night, seven-day trip into the Gobi Desert for us. It cost $80.00 per day with a driver, a guide plus meals and accommodation. Silo arranged to provide two extra sleeping bags for us which we did appreciate as the desert was cold at night.
Later we used an Internet Café, which one hardly hears of now, and we talked to our son Bob for a few minutes before the system went down. Bob said he and Mark, our grandson, had flown to Sacramento as Mark was doing his cross-country solo to obtain his pilot’s license. As an aside, he is now a fully-fledged pilot for Air Canada.
That night we were off to Marco Polo Restaurant once again for supper where we ate delicious pasta dishes.
Seven Day Tour of Gobi Desert
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| Preparing for Gobi Desert Tour |
We left Khongar Hostel at 9:00 with Hurlee, our young 25-year-old cook and guide, and our driver Sumiyaa, whom we guessed was in his 50’s. We rode in a 4x4 Toyota with us occupying the back seat and Sumiyaa and Hurlee in the front seat. We loaded the back with a stove, water, sleeping bags, spare gas tank, and our backpacks. We then drove to the Supermarket and Hurlee purchased groceries.
We finally left the traffic jams of Ulaanbaatar after several hours and entered the Middle Gobi stopping for an enjoyable lunch in a little roadside restaurant. While Hurlee ordered the food, John and I walked around for forty minutes to see what we might see while we waited. For lunch, we ate flavoursome stir-fry mutton with rice, potatoes, carrots, onions and cabbage accompanied by salty milk tea. The milk was probably sheep’s milk. We were hungry and it was a tasty meal. After twenty minutes we were on our way again as we drove to our first night’s stop. We passed many herds of sheep, goats, horses and cattle. We were told that Mongolian nomads in the desert eat camel, horse, sheep, goat, yak, beef and wild game meat. Pork is expensive and no chicken meat was available.
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| Driver Sumiyaa and Doreen |
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| Wild Yaks |
We arrived at Erdenedalai, about 300 km from Ulaanbaatar. Hurlee arranged a hotel room for us because the ger was too small to accommodate all of us.
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| John Shaving Outside Hotel |
The hotel staff made a meal of mutton dumplings and a carrot, cabbage salad and again we ate heartily. Later on, Hurlee and Sumiyaa joined us for tea in our room then when they left for their ger we had a couple of games of cribbage before going to bed. We decided to use the outdoor toilet before heading to bed and found it so disgusting that we decided to pee on the ground outside the toilet! They gave us a chamber pot to use in the night, which it turned out we didn’t need, but using it would not have bothered us as we’ve learned over the years to adapt to the country’s traditions and culture.
Hurlee and Sumiyaa arrived for breakfast which Hurlee made in our hotel room. We had dry brown bread, hazelnut spread, jam, butter and coffee. After breakfast, we left before 9:00 and continued our drive in the Middle Gobi going south. We experienced a small sandstorm with strong winds blowing the sand. Hurlee shared a story where they were caught in a sandstorm with tourists and they had to sleep overnight in the van until the next morning with only bread, jam and water for supper. Certainly, an event we would gladly avoid. We continued to drive and arrived at a small village called Mandatovoo and enjoyed lunch.
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| Hurlee and John |
At 16:00 we drove to see the Flaming Cliffs in Bayanzag which mean “rich in saxaul shrubs” and is a region of important fossil finds. Saxaul is a thorny bush about two meters high and is a good source of food for camels. The nickname “Flaming Cliffs” refers to the red or orange colour of the sandstone cliffs, especially at a sunset. Many dinosaur fossils have been found here and dinosaur eggs!
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| Flaming Cliffs |
We climbed to the top of the red cliffs with Hurlee while Sumiyaa stayed in the vehicle. It was very windy at the top of the cliffs but lovely. We took lots of photos with us jumping into the air creating interesting photos. After we descended we drove back to our ger and Hurlee prepared supper of sushi, carrot salad, potatoes and some cold sausage. It was a nice change. We ate supper in our ger and then she gathered up the dishes to wash in the nearby family ger. Later we joined them in the family ger and they served us camel’s milk to try. We both tried it and found it similar to buttermilk but stronger. John said it tasted something like the buttermilk on the farm when he was younger.
After this, we returned to our ger, but before bedtime, we walked the 100 meters to the squat toilets, placing our feet on the two separated planks that covered the hole, to do our business. These dual toilets were back-to-back using the same large hole in the ground. After returning to our ger I put two sleeping bags together and felt very comfortable as I fell asleep. John used his second bag for a pillow as he didn’t need to double them and pillows were not provided in the yurts. We had to get up in the night to pee but we didn’t need to use a flashlight because the moon was so brilliant. We just used the area beside our ger, not walking the 100 meters to the toilet. As I looked into the sky I noticed that stars were only noticeable in the centre of the sky with no stars on the horizon.
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| Inside Yurt |
In the centre of our ger was a small wood stove and the pipe went up through the midpoint of the roof. Sumiyaa came into the ger around 7:00 and started the fire in the stove. Employing a blow torch, he had the fire going in a couple of minutes using the small twigs of saxaul bush previously collected off the desert! The stove pipe was soon red hot and Sumiyaa went outside to pull the cover off the top of the ger for ventilation. After he left our ger I got up and dressed for the day. It wasn’t long before both Hurlee and Sumiyaa returned for breakfast of bread, jam, cheese and coffee. After breakfast, we packed up and Hurlee cleaned up from breakfast and packed the food into a banana box to put into the 4x4. Sumiyaa always wished to leave early but once packed he’d stop at the family ger and we’d all visit with the family. It provided us with an opportunity to interact with the local families and observe how they lived. This morning when we joined the family in their ger and they served us “curd”. It looked like a piece of maple sugar fudge but it was as hard as a rock and tasted like strong parmesan cheese, only bitter. It took me all morning to consume the small piece of curd.
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| Mongolian Girls |
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| Mongolian Man |
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| Reserve Diesel Fuel |
The night before, Sumiyaa had siphoned diesel fuel from a large metal gas container stored in the back of the Toyota filling the gas tank. Of course, John wanted to help! I think petrol is not easily available or is very expensive in the desert.
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| Inside Family Ger |
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| Family Cooking Inside Ger |
We drove for four hours from Bayanzag to Khongoryn Els, known as the “singing sands”. This is situated in the extreme south of the Gobi Desert where there are huge dunes.
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| Well Water |
As we drove we took photos of the rocky outcrops on the mountains, some wild goats and some nomads. At one spot we stopped to obtain water at a well and Hurlee lifted the lid off the well and used a provided bucket to obtain water, lowering it into the hole with a pole attached to the bucket and proceeded to fill the water can that Sumiyaa held. The date on this well was stamped 2008! Shortly after we continued our excursion driving on a very bumpy road through the valley and then we saw the dunes from afar. As we approached the dunes I thought it was another mountain of a different colour. The dunes were very high. The views were stunning if you got to the top.
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| Doreen Trekking the Dunes |
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| Windswept John |
After lunch of penne pasta, mutton and peppers, we decided to hike to the top of dunes. It was about a kilometre to the top. We first had to cross flowing water and practised our sports-day long jumping, then went around hillocks until we finally got to the base of the dunes, a daunting view from the base. Once we started up the dunes it often was two steps forward and one step back but we found if we saw some ripple in the sand it was firmer to walk on. I also aimed for some grass outcroppings or little shrubs to help with my progress. After we had advanced about three-quarters of the way up I was pooped and wanted to stop but John continued so I decided I would continue too. We didn’t realize it would be so hot or so difficult and we didn’t have hats or water. As it turned out, that omission was a total mistake! We finally got to the top and enjoyed the spectacular view, rested, and took photos. Then we descended putting our heels in first so we wouldn’t slide too fast coming down the steep slopes. Great fun sliding and leaping to the dune’s base! We were two hours before we returned to our ger and we immediately had to prepare for our Mongolian two-hump camel ride.
Camels are an essential animal in the desert region. I read about the two-humped Bactrian and one-humped dromedary camels and discovered something different again. Kazakhstan, a neighbour of Mongolia, have different camels. The camels come in an array of back shapes- most of them some version of one-and-a-half-humped camels! This is not by accident but is deliberate as they grow their camel herds by mating two-humped and one-humped camels, producing hybrids that are hardy to the cold like Bactrian breeds while producing copious milk like dromedaries.
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| Camel Ride on Bactrian Camels on Gobi Desert |
We rode Bactrian camels which were furry and hairy with great long eyelashes to keep the sand out. When mounting the camel, we had to get on from the left side. It feels very scary while getting on the kneeled camel. As the camel raises itself onto his hind legs you are tipped forward and then when the camel gets onto his front legs you are tipped back into position. You have to hold onto the saddle horn tightly so you are not flung off. I had a lovely tawny coloured camel with firm humps- a good sign. The guide adjusted the straps on the saddle to fit my short legs. Off we went with my horsehair rein from my camel attached to John’s camel. The guide then took John’s rein and off we went south beside the dunes that we had just climbed. The camels had no trouble walking on the soft loose sand. As we rode along I felt safe between the two humps on the camel even though my blanket under the saddle seemed too far forward. During the last 20 minutes of our ride it became very cold as we rode into the wind and John felt extra cold as he only had his jacket on over his shirt but I wore my winter coat as Hurlee had told me to wear something warm. It was great walking on the dunes with the camels, even though it was cold, for they managed the sliding dunes just fine. When we got back to our ger the owners had a wonderfully warm fire going for us using camel dung as fuel. The ger was clean and tidy as were the outdoor toilets with a cardboard box in which to drop your used toilet paper. The toilets had metal lines attached to each corner of the wooden shed and fastened into the ground so they wouldn’t blow over in the wind.
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| Using a Blow Torch to Start the Fire |
For supper that night, Hurlee made spaghetti with mutton and vegetables. After we ate they gave us extra blankets to keep warm during the cold desert night. The fire was lovely and warm and we kept adding dung to it, but once we fell asleep the dung burned quickly and it turned cold. Our lack of hats and water on the dunes caught up with John during the evening as he became ill with a fever from sunstroke and being dehydrated. He was able to continue to travel as he slowly recovered but didn’t have a lot of energy. He also lost weight which took nearly a year to regain. Now we are more conscious of not forgetting our hats or our water bottles!
Making the fire in the morning was a hoot. A family member came into our ger early in the morning before the sun was up and started the fire. They used a blow torch to start the dung burning. No paper or kindling was necessary. It was amazing watching them make a fire and John desperately wanted to start the fire himself but they wouldn’t let him use the blow torch. I think they thought he might burn the yurt down!
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| Shaded Canyon Still With Some Ice |
On the fourth day of our tour, we visited the Yolyn Am Valley with its rocky cliffs and narrow, heavily shaded canyons. Ice remained in the canyon most of the year. We walked with Hurlee into the canyon for a while and then Hurlee turned back but we continued deeper into the canyon. We hiked for nearly two hours and saw patches of last winter’s ice. It’s incredible! This canyon is a popular place in the summer for the nomads because it’s cool and the desert can reach 38 degrees. While hiking in the canyon we saw pikas, small rodents that look somewhat like small rabbits. There were hundreds of little creatures running across our path or beside the canyon walls. They had a high-pitched whistle and were tawny coloured. The deeper we went into the canyon the more shadowy it became and you could only see the sunlight reflected off the very tops of the canyon walls. Blue-veined ice that survived through the summer was still apparent the deeper we went. Cypress shrubs with blueberries grew in the canyon and they sell them to make incense.
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| Pika |
Since local people were selling items from this area, we decided to purchase a small souvenir to remind us of our trip. We had found when buying novelties over the years, that our souvenirs had become smaller for easy packing. Here we bought a small cypress camel and paid 10,000 Tugrik ($8.00). Later in the trip, we bought a small yurt replica which is placed on our buffet to remind us of our glorious Mongolian trip.
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| John Sharing With Mongolian Boy |
After our hike in the canyon, we drove a short distance before returning to our ger. It was much colder in the mountains so we doubled our sleeping bags as we tucked into our single beds placed in a circular line around the inside of the ger. When we had to get up to pee outside at 6:00 it was freezing! We hurried back into our beds until Sumiyaa came to light the fire after 7:00. Before we dressed we hung our clothes as close to the stove as we could to warm them before we put them on. After dressing we rolled up our sleeping bags ready for travelling. Hurlee arrived with breakfast and after eating and then visiting the family next door we were soon off in our 4x4 bouncing across the desert.
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| Mongolian Boys Having Fun |
We were in the province of Omnogovi, the largest province in Mongolia, in the city of Dalanzadgad. There was a new elaborate government building with animal statues on the front steps and the streets were paved, unusual for desert towns. This city is located over 500 km south of Ulaanbaatar. We went to a public bathhouse that provided showers for about $1.60 per person. We showered together as the stalls were large and we were sharing our towel and shampoo. John still wasn’t feeling well due to our dune hike so he had a cooler shower to cool his body down. After we’d finished we hung our wet towel on a bush outside to dry until we were ready to go. We drove to a museum and looked at some dinosaur eggs and models of dinosaurs as this area was famous for dinosaur remains. In a glass case, we saw a beautiful fox fur long coat that belonged to a Buddhist monk who had been killed by the Russians when they controlled Mongolia and purged the country of Buddhist temples and monks. In 1937 there were 700 monasteries destroyed and 27,000 monks and civilians killed.
As Hurlee bought groceries in a local store, John and I went to look for a cap for John to protect him from the sun as his face was very warm. He took some medicines we carried with us which helped him continue our journey; however, the illness lasted for a few weeks, even after we got home. The changing desert temperature didn’t help either with the heat during the day and the cold at night. A costly mistake and one to remember!
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| Hurlee and Sumiyaa at Yurts |
Later when Hurlee had finished shopping we continued on our journey across the desert for another 30 km arriving at our evening’s lodging. It was a wonder to us as our driver bounced across the desert with no apparent roads how he found our destination. There were only three yurts at this new place in the desert, one for us, one for our guide and driver and one for the nomadic family. As we relaxed in our new, very clean ger, we could hear a baby camel cry which sounded like a bleat, squeak and bellow all at once, as it called for its mother coming in from the desert pasture. Out on the desert, a distance from the gers, was the toilet. Two solid boards were placed across a five-foot-deep square hole dug into the sandy ground with three-foot pieces of canvas wrapped around short poles on three sides of the hole. When you used the toilet, you entered from the non-canvas side, away from view and squatted, being careful to get low enough so no one could see you.
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| Gobi Desert Toilet |
From inside, you could look around at the surrounding land but hopefully, no one could see you below the three-foot cloth. Sandhills were built upon the three sides which probably helped to keep the canvas secure when the wind blew. In the morning John was greeted by a yak on top of the sandhill and then the yak proceeded to the front of the toilet to say “Hello”, pushing its head into John’s lap! Embarrassing but funny!
That night after a large, delicious meal of beef stew, carrots, potatoes and rice we played two games of cribbage then tucked into our sleeping bags with an extra quilt and socks on our feet to keep warm. The very cold Gobi Desert was due to its elevation and proximity to the Himalayan Mountains. It also has rapidly changing temperatures with strong winds from the north. The constant changes in temperature were a reminder to be prepared for extreme changes and to dress appropriately.
The next morning, we had a nice change of diet with fruit salad and yoghurt for breakfast along with hot coffee and hazelnut spread on bread. Before we left we gave Canadian pencils to our hosts. We usually carry small items to pass along during our journey, sometimes Canadian pins or sometimes balloons which the kids love. On our way to the next town, we stopped at Tsagaan Suvarga Canyons to view 30-meter-high cliffs of varying colours of limestone formations. We walked down into the canyon for a short distance to admire the vibrant cliffs and took photos of the violet lines in the limestone. It looked very pretty but when I was standing on the top rim I was nervous as it reminded me of the fins we encountered while hiking in The Arches National Park in Utah, USA. Shortly after we drove on to Mandalgovi, the capital of Dundgovi. This small town began with 40 gers in 1942 and had now expanded to over 10,000 inhabitants. We ate lunch in a nice local restaurant ordering stew or dumplings with milk tea.
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| Granite Rock Formation - Gobi Desert |
We then drove to Baga Gazriin Chuluu, a picturesque granite rock mountain with formations of towers, ridges, and columns uniquely arranged by Mother Nature that stretched into the sky precariously. To me, the large, rounded humps looked like giant cow pies. Nearby were remains of a monastery that was destroyed in the 1930s by the Russian religious purge. Hurlee told us that many monks were held prisoners here and then killed. The Rock Temple in Baga Gazriin Chuluu has underground springs that nurture the temple’s surrounding trees. Sites for the temples were chosen for water availability and were situated at the base of a mountain for protection from the north wind. As we walked around this site we avoided water pools as it had rained which was somewhat unusual in this very dry climate. It only rains about 19 cm a year as the Gobi sits in the shadow of the Himalayan Mountains.
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| Finding Roads on the Desert |
We arrived at our ger accommodation after we drove over more bumpy tracks. I have to call them tracks because they weren’t roads! We had a lovely six-bed ger with a warm fire. After a delicious supper of vegetable soup, we enjoyed relaxing as we kept the fire stoked with horse dung. Earlier in the day, out in the desert, we noticed Mongolian people gathering dung from the desert floor with a spiked pole and lifting it into an open backpack on their backs while they rode horses or walked. With the heat of the day, it didn’t take long for the dung to dry and could usually be collected the same day it was dropped and stored nearby just like our woodsheds. Fortunately, there was no obnoxious odour when it burnt.
During most of the night, it stormed with lightning and rain pelting on the yurt roof, making a louder noise on the plastic covering in the centre. The rain leaked through onto John’s cot, but not too seriously. In the morning, Hurlee soon had breakfast ready for us and it wasn’t long before we were packed and ready for another day in the desert, but first stopping to visit the family and having a cup of tea and a brief chat.
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| 16-Meter Buddha |
Our driver, Sumiyaa, had put brake fluid into our vehicle the night before ready for our daily journey. As we drove, the rain continued to threaten but not much. We had to detour in one area as the road was washed out from the night’s rain. Sumiyaa just found another path in the desert. It was amazing to observe Sumiyaa changing the direction of the drive, sometimes going at right angles. Before we knew it, we were in Ulaanbaatar for a lunch of beef meatballs, rice, salad and milk tea. Sumiyaa then drove us to Memorial Hill, seven km north of the city. There were over 624 steps to reach the top of the hill as I counted each one on my way up! John didn’t make it to the top as his strength was still depleted from the effects of the sunstroke. The memorial was built by Russians to commemorate unknown soldiers and heroes from various wars. There was a large tank at the bottom of the hill left by the Mongolian People’s Tank Brigade where they had seen action against the Nazis during WWII. There was also a large 16-meter Buddha in a park nearby. It was a worthwhile hike to the top, presenting an excellent view of the capital and an appreciation of all the memorable statues.
Return to Ulaanbaatar
All too soon our tour ended. Before we settled into Khongar Hostel we offered our hosts a well-earned tip and small Canadian souvenirs and thanked them for a marvellous tour. We were so happy with our guide and driver that we would book a second tour with the same driver, Sumiyaa, and the same guide, Hurlee! It was a couple of days before a tour could be arranged allowing us to visit the capital.
After this, we settled into our comfortable #8 room once again and immediately had showers and gathered all our dirty clothes to be washed at the public laundry in the State Department Store. When we dropped off our laundry we shopped for new underwear for John and other necessities then went to the ATM to obtain money to pay for our tour. We shopped for a few groceries, not needing much for supper after our whopping lunch.
Back at the hostel we checked our emails and were excited to receive three emails from family members. We settled into our beds early and content as we reminisced about our glorious Gobi Desert trip.
The next morning was another stormy day so we didn’t do much but lazed around. John was still recovering from his illness but he was a real trouper. It seemed others were coughing with the impending cold season. By noon we decided to visit the National Museum. We spent about two hours there gleaning more understanding of the Mongolian culture. Genghis Khan was well featured with explanations of how he increased the Mongolian borders from sea to sea during the 12th and 13th centuries. A book called “Genghis Khan and The Making of the Modern World” by Jack Weatherford, 2003 would be a good read.
Here are some worthwhile quotes taken from the Law of Genghis Khan.
Excerpts from the Great Yasa:
1. Do not wash clothes until they are completely worn out.
2. Don’t behave as high as a mountain. Though a mountain is high it will be climbed by animals.
3. All religions are to be respected and no preference is to be shown to any of them.
Other quotes:
1 Our goal will be realized when the whole world from sunrise to sunset shall become united under the power of the blue sky.
2 Who will keep his words has a strong mind.
3 If my body dies let my body die but do not let my country die.
4 If you wish to have friends allow them to feel their importance.
5 Teach your children not to forget their roots.
A few other notable facts we gathered from our journey:
1. Double names: yurt or ger
2. Nomads are called “felt dwellers” as their gers are made of felt. The yurts are warm, easy to build and readily taken down.
3. Khuhuur-leather Bag: a skin bag for mare’s milk (airag) which is made from cowhide and smoked to protect from deterioration.
After we visited the National Museum, we walked the street and saw art paintings for sale. We nearly bought one but thought it was too expensive and when we changed our minds and went back, the street was empty of artwork. An opportunity missed. We went back to the hostel and talked to the owners about Tibet train tickets but we couldn’t get any. Not sure what the problem was but I left John to handle it and went to the room. We were planning to travel to Tibet but no access to train tickets so we had to let the Tibetan company know by email that we had no plans yet. As it turned out we did not get to Tibet and we haven’t yet seen that country - still on our bucket list!
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| Portrait Painter Stephen |
The next morning, we enjoyed a coffee while John read about the Vancouver Canucks on the internet! We went to the reception area for breakfast provided by the hostel which usually consisted of bread, jam, yoghurt, cheese and meal. As we arrived we noticed another couple at the only table in this area other than the coffee table in front of the couch. John said, “Let’s join them”, and I was reluctant as they would need to move over. Fortunately, that’s exactly what we did! I say fortunately because a very interesting encounter took place. I’ll take you back to our beginning planning days at home. We wanted to take a tour of the Gobi Desert, as you will recall, but it was expensive so we thought we’d get on the internet to see if anyone else was travelling in that area and would like to partner with us to share tour costs. A couple from the states were interested and their names were Stephen, a portrait painter, and his partner Amanda. After several emails, it was decided they couldn’t join us because we wanted more days in the desert than they could take. We thanked them and that was that, but not quite. John told them what hostel we were going to be staying at and why we chose this particular hostel because they had a reputation for providing quality tours of the Gobi Desert. So, Stephen and Amanda took up the suggestion and booked into the same hostel, unbeknownst to us. While we were enjoying our breakfast and chatting to the couple at the table, I asked the fellow what he did for a living and he said, “I’m a portrait painter.” Our mouths dropped open and I said, “You’re not Stephen?” and he said, “Yes”. I told him who we were and turned to the girl and said, “You’re Amanda”. We couldn’t believe we were sitting at the same table in Mongolia, by chance. We gave each other hugs, like long lost friends! We were fortunate to have met as they were flying back to the states that very day. Stephen paints indigenous people’s portraits and that is why he was in Mongolia, to paint the local people. He gave us a postcard with a picture of one of the indigenous peoples of Africa he had painted. It’s a small world.
We said our “goodbyes” and then got our coats and walked up the street to the Art Museum at the end of the block past the State Department Store, then we went to the market but didn’t find anything of interest. Returned to the hostel for a lunch of soup and bread and then hiked out again to the Natural Museum which displayed many birds, and animals including some reptiles and dinosaurs. We only spent an hour here as they closed at 16:30 and then we went to Café 40K on Peace Avenue to enjoy a coffee before dinner.
On arrival at our hostel, Silo, the hostel manager, had purchased our train tickets for Beijing for October 20thwhich meant we had more time in Mongolia- great! After supper, we started booking for China, now that we knew when we’d be there. John booked the Jade Hostel in Beijing, China for five nights and we’d hoped to do some tours while there. Beijing would be the end of our Trans-Siberian train trip.
Four Day Southwest Gobi Desert
Now, back to our further plans for Mongolia. We were so happy with our first tour of the Gobi Desert that we practically begged Hurlee and Sumiyaa to take us on another one, which they worked out for us as they both had not had time off for a while. We left the next morning after breakfast.
We were off in the 4x4 shortly after 9:00 heading southwest. We passed mountains, wheat fields, semi-desert plains and grass steppes. We stopped for lunch at a roadside restaurant with inside toilets! A group of international folks from Mercy Corps were just leaving as we entered the restaurant. Had a good-sized lunch and by 14:30 we were at our ger outside Kharkhorin, a town of about 15,000 inhabitants. The owners gave us their ger as the second one wasn’t ready yet. We helped them prepare the other ger. John and I shovelled dirt against the sides of the ger which helped insulate it. We watched as they put an oilcloth over the straw floor and attached pipes to the stove. They continued to work on the ger in the afternoon while we toured the area. We drove to see the remains of two monasteries near the base of the mountain. Upon our return, Hurlee made brown rice with beef and vegetables for supper. After a couple of games of cribbage, we got into bed. Sumiyaa and Hurlee slept in our ger too. This was the first time we shared our ger with any other persons.
The next day was brisk and sunny. There were both sheep and goats in the space between our ger and the metal toilet, an obstacle to be carefully navigated. We soon realized this toilet, a four-foot square hole dug about six feet deep had recently been made as the family had only been at this location for a week.
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| Milking Goats |
Just after breakfast, we were fortunate to observe Mongolian women milking the goats nearby. This was fascinating to watch since all the goats were connected by ropes around their horns in two long lines facing one another. The women, on two sides of the goats, moved their milking stools from one goat to the next while they milked over fifty goats with the goats unable to move until the milking was finished. I thought this was ingenious.
These nomadic Mongolians had only been here a week and this would be their winter location. The family ger we were given to stay in was well established with cupboards at each end of the three beds and smaller storage areas too. They had five little towels hanging above a new gas-fired combination washer and dryer which I’d not seen in gers before. A small bucket above the cupboard held toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes. The two boys of the family were 13 years and 10 years old and full of mischief with twinkles in their eyes. The family kept coming in to acquire their necessary forgotten items. The boys left soon with their parents to go into the town, where the boys would stay in a dormitory for the week, but the parents would return to their winter ger.
We drove to Kharkhorin in north-central Mongolia, the first capital of Mongolia established by Genghis Khan and his son Ogedei. This capital lasted for 40 years until it was moved to Beijing but with the collapse of the Mongol empire the city of Kharkhorin was destroyed and only ruins remain of the original town on the upper Orhon River. Hurlee told us that they preserved a Buddhist temple in Ulaanbaatar (UB) and three temples here to show the president of the USA that Buddhism was preserved, but Hurlee said that it wasn’t so! We visited the temples on the hill and Erdene Zuu is the earliest surviving Buddhist monastery. As we entered a prayer temple we heard Buddhist monks chanting prayers in the Tibetan language. Hurlee told us that the people do not understand the Tibetan language but they trust the monks.
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| Mongolian Musician |
So, after our return to our ger, a musician we had booked earlier, arrived. The musician played four different instruments for us, making it a personal concert. He played the horse fiddle, with four horsehair strings, a harp which was rectangular with 13 strings and a larger one with 30 strings, a small violin, and he concluded with “Santa Lucia” on a flute. This musician was self-taught and he could use his voice in several ways especially doing throat singing. It is practised by some indigenous cultures and the Tuvans in Mongolia practice it imitating sounds of their natural surroundings – animals, mountains, streams, and the harsh winds of the steppe. After the concert, we bought one of his discs. Shortly after our concert, Hurlee served us a delicious supper of fried dumplings, similar to empanadas we ate in Columbia, South America. After our busy day, we enjoyed a comfortable sleep.
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| Riding Mongolian Horses |
The next day we were travelling in our 4x4 once more and by noon had arrived at our ger for the night, just west of Lun, a small village with a population of 2,500 people. There were two autumn gers here and the family would soon be moving them toward the mountain for winter. We went horseback riding in the late afternoon. The horses had wooden saddles and John felt uncomfortable as his saddle was too far forward. I had a different roping saddle and easier to ride. The horses were nervous so we had to be careful, no extra movement like picture taking as they were skittish. We rode to the top of the hill and back with the guide holding both our reins as he rode along on his horse. My horse, a pretty tawny colour, kept baulking but with patience, it moved along for me. To ride the Mongolian horses was another enjoyable experience.
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| Mongolian Woman with Hurlee and Sumiyaa |
There was no toilet at these gers so we simply used a nearby gully as our toilet. Sumiyaa slept in our ger that night since we had three beds and Hurlee slept in the family ger. About three in the morning, Sumiyaa lit the fire as it was extremely cold. We were thankful for the comfort. Then at 6:00, he put the fire on once more and the yurt became toasty warm very quickly. I went out to pee and a silly dog wanted to follow me and help me. I think it was just a pup and wanted to play, but I was having none of it. It finally wandered off to entertain someone else.
At 9:00 we were off once more after thanking our hosts and giving them Canadian pencils before we left. We drove to Khustain National Park, also called Hustai National Park, about 1 ½ hours from the ger. We watched a video about wild horses in Mongolia. They are called Przewalski or Takhi horses and are a rare and endangered horse originally native to the steppes of Central Asia. It is good that they have this park, 100 km southwest of Ulaanbaatar, which was only established in 1993.
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| Beautiful Przewalski Mongolian Wild Horses |
The park has 50,000 hectares where these endangered wild horses are now protected living among the wolves, deer, yaks, steppe gazelle, lynx, boar, and plentiful birdlife. After watching the video and looking through a small museum, an older guide went with us in our 4x4 Toyota to find the Takhi. We were not disappointed. We shortly saw three Asiatic red deer on a bluff. Not long after we crested a hill there was great excitement as our guide spotted horses. We all walked from the vehicle down the slope to see them. We took many photos being so excited to find them and so many beautiful wild horses! We also saw a large herd of yaks, but we were more interested in the Przewalski horses. Our guide pointed out deer across the gully- John counted 27 of them! Within a very short time, we spotted another group of takhis. John and I watched for a long while basking in the beauty and opportunity we were experiencing as we watched these horses up close. When we tried to get closer for better photos they moved away from us as we were too close to them! On our drive back we spotted more horses right beside the road. It was an amazing adventure. The horses had come to a watering hole and John was now able to get close up photos of them. It was a successful, glorious day! We were very fortunate to have had an opportunity to see these wild Takhi horses. Our guide informed us that this was unusual to not only view the horses but to see so many!
Return to Ulaanbaatar After Second Tour
We dropped our park guide off and headed for UB stopping at a restaurant for lunch. The traffic was heavy as we approached Ulaanbaatar so didn’t arrive at our Khongar Hostel until 16:30. We were given a double bedroom this time with lots of space. We immediately had showers and afterwards took our dirty clothes to the laundromat in the State Department Store. While our clothes were being washed we took the escalators to the fifth floor to look for souvenirs. We spent about 1 ½ hours here buying a few items until John felt ill from the heat so we returned to the first floor which was much cooler. We took our purchased items back to our hostel then shortly left for supper, deciding to eat at California Restaurant, a very popular and busy restaurant with both tourists and Mongolians. Returning to our room it wasn’t long before we were fast asleep.
Our last day in Mongolia found us at Café 40 K for a pizza lunch and then we walked to the main square to buy a canvas picture for 15,000 Tugrik (MNT) which we could roll up to pack in our backpack. Later on, we ventured to another museum called Victims of Political Persecution Memorial Museum near the Choijin Lama Temple Museum. This museum displayed many victims’ faces of the communist purges of the 1930s. There were two floors of displays and two young Mongolian schoolgirls were taking notes as they moved about the museum. I can’t remember the price we paid to see this museum but presently on the Lonely Planet site on the internet they have quoted very high US prices from $70.00 to $89.00, and I can assure you we didn’t pay those prices. John rested while I checked the emails, sending some to family members. We also mailed postcards to our young grandchildren. It’s funny how the travel practice of sending postcards has almost disappeared with the coming of technology.
We went for supper to the California Red Bull Restaurant with Nikki, a young girl we met at the hostel from Ladner, BC. We all had delicious meals of lamb, schnitzel and Asian chicken thighs. Later we picked up our laundry and bought David, our 11-year-old grandson, a tee shirt and we picked up some new playing cards too but John didn’t have enough money to cover the cost so we were putting the cards back when a friendly lady, who knew someone from Vancouver, offered to help us. She said she would use some of her points to purchase the cards – a very sweet gesture. We thanked her for her kindness.
In Conclusion:
Our Mongolian trip continually had wonderful surprises and joyous moments. We appreciated the unique culture of the nomads, the families’ generous offers to share their gers, the throat singer, the wonderful opportunity to view the wild horses and the excellent service of our guide/cook, Hurlee and our driver, Sumiyaa. There is nothing I could write about Mongolia that would be negative as every aspect of our holiday was filled with excitement as to what we would see next and thankful for the hospitality of the Mongolian people. Even with the extreme changing weather patterns, we were not discouraged as it’s all part of the climate of the Gobi Desert and what one should expect travelling this unique land. In conclusion, we highly recommend Mongolia for the intrepid traveller to visit and enjoy.
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| Enjoying a Delicious Mongolian Meal with Hurlee & Sumiyaa |
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