Into Mongolia

Monday 7 August

After passport checks at the border and only a few hours rest, we’re up and on our travels again. We have arrived in Mongolia!! How can the country change so quickly by just crossing a border. Now there are lots of animals - horses, cows, yaks and goats - all with people tending them in the fields. From the many small settlements of gers, men are traveling by horse or ox cart to places along the track where they barter for petrol, flour, sugar and tea, with milk, meat and pelts,

Gers indigenous to this region. They are round tents, covered either with felt as in the olden days, or more usually now with a waterproof material. Inside they are highly decorated in red, yellow and blue designs that have been passed down through the centuries. They have a central chimney from the cooking stove which also helps to keep the tent warm in winter (remember the temperatures here drop to -30degrees C). Whole families live together, with very strict traditions of where the furniture is placed, and who sits where – the father nearest the “altar” so he can oversee the family, the mother near the stove and the kitchen implements so she is handy for cooking, and the children near her to the outside so they can keep an eye on the animals. The door must be on the east side with the “altar” on the opposite side. The people living in the gers are country folk who by nature are nomadic. They move from place to place according to the quality of the pasture, and the time of year. They may move on as a large community of say twenty gers, or they move in small groups. In the autumn they find a “winter spot” which will be sheltered from the worst of the weather and build barns and gather hay for the animals. In spring and summer they move to where the pasture is good. It is a very hard life in rural Mongolia, but the people are so friendly. In this country there is no discrimination between men and women, they are all treated the same. They do not have a lot by western standards, but they appear to be stress free and happy.

The scenery in Mongolia is stunning – rather like Scotland but with more space in the low lands between the mountains. Once outside the cities (and there are only about eight large towns or cities in Mongolia) it just goes on for miles and miles – in the afternoon we drove about 50 miles to a huge National Park area, through fields and mountains. The whole area was so peaceful and serene. There were ger camps in the park where Mongols and visitors come for their summer breaks, some specifically catering for well-being and meditation, others for golf, horse riding or trekking. Some even had basketball and football pitches. But because of the space, they were never too close to each other – maybe you could see the next camp on the horizon, maybe not.

We stopped at a camp for dinner and then a new experience for me – horse riding!!! I have never been on a horse before, but this trip is full of new experiences, so why not give it a try? Mongolian horses are very slim and the saddles quite small. Having managed to haul myself up on to the animal, getting him to go the right way was more of a challenge – saying “Horsey you’re going the wrong way” did not seem to have much effect!!. The locals took pity on me then and led the horse on a rein. Going down a steep hill is not the way to be introduced to horse-riding. Hanging on for grim death, trying desperately to keep my balance, the descent was very scary, but once we reached the bottom and the terrain flattened out, it was a little easier. There were only five of us taking part, plus four local villagers. The other members of our party had all ridden before, and Millie is a very experienced rider so she was galloping off, up and down the hills on her charger. Walking and trotting were all I managed, and that made my thighs and knees ache. We were supposed to be out for half an hour and arranged to meet the coach a little further up the road. But guess what – we saw the coach leave the ger camp and drive off round a bend into the distance. When we rounded the bend (after going up and down a few hills or were they mountains?!) no coach. We rode on, and on and on, still no coach. When we had been riding for almost an hour, our guide (who luckily had her mobile phone with her) contacted the driver and he apparently was still speeding back to Ulan Bataar! Very reluctantly, I am told, he agreed to turn round and come back and collect us. This was a long introduction to riding, but I quite enjoyed it – trotting along with the evening sun at your back, surrounded by mountains and green pasture, was very appealing (though horses are a bit of an attraction for flies) and when the opportunity comes to ride again in South America, I am sure I will have another go!

In the morning we had toured Ulan Bataar, the capital of Mongolia. As the countryside is peaceful, the city is manic. Accommodation here is in high rise blocks of flats, mainly of the old flat syle, but there is some new modern development taking place, and the first five star hotel has just opened in the capital. There are hundreds of cars, none of which will give way to anyone or anything. Cars and lorries turn out in front of each other, so there is much squeeling of brakes and honking of horns, and a traffic jam was caused by a tram driver having to get up on the roof of his vehicle and change the connecting arms to another set of overhead cables, in order to continue his route!! Pedestrians take their life in their hands trying to cross the road. After lunch we had the choice – a cultural visit to an art gallery, or shopping. We chose shopping – to buy postcards, although Millie and Jim purchased a local form of stringed instrument, a cross between a guitar and a cello, but with only two strings. (Its being shipped home!) We only managed to cross the roads – at zebra crossings – by tagging on to locals, who stepped bravely (or was it madly) in front of fast moving vehicles and luckily for us they slowed sufficiently for us to get half way. Help!! you’re in the middle of six lanes of traffic, going as fast as they can both ways – and you wait for another tiny gap in the traffic before stepping out to complete the crossing. A very dangerous experience – a bit like trying to cross the M25 in the rush hour.

Many of the shops had signs in English – and it is easy to use credit cards and US$ here. They are desperate for tourism to increase and are making countless changes to encourage visitors. There are lots of new buildings and statues being erected around the large main square, the first private bank has just opened and there is an American-style shopping mall.

During the morning we visited the local history museum, which was very interesting – lots of displays and information about the struggles between the many tribes for supremacy in this area, until Chenggis Khan (we call him Genkis!) who managed to unite all the tribes into one nation and fought to keep out other invaders, particularly the Turks. In 1925 the Russians helped the Mongolians to expel the Chinese and it appears to have been peaceful since. The people here do not have the euphoria of the Russians having escaped repression and gained a new culture. The city people recognize they must keep up with the new and modern ideas of the western world if they are to progress and are doing all they can to achieve this.

Lunch was in ger restaurant – in the middle of the city – where we were entertained to a local folk show – music, singing and dancing. The Mongolians have a special way of singing – its making two notes simultaneously in your throat – sounds a bit like melodic gargling – but it’s very effective and entertaining. The dancing is a cross between Indian and Chinese actions, with very supple movements of all parts of the body.

We have had another hectic day here in Mongolia, but it is definitely a place we would like to visit again – I am not sure how – definitely not a city break – and is living in a ger for us? – but we would like to see more. Perhaps when we conquer horse-riding . . . . . . . .

Tonight we face another border crossing back into Russia, starting about 05.30. We are still recovering from yesterday’s sleepless night, and several passengers are not feeling at their best. But then it’s a couple of days on the train – time to relax and review all that we have seen and experienced on this great train journey.

WEATHER REPORT: Very hot in the city – over 30 degrees C. Slightly more equable in the hills – perfect in fact.

PS: I have six blogs to post now, but we haven’t been able to get connected on the internet. We have kept trying, but Siberia is obviously an outpost for communications (although the mobiles have a signal). We will keep trying, and I am talking to the angel . . .