Our trip to Mongolia

We had an absolutely fabulous time in Mongolia, thanks to our spectacular, stunning guide, Chaagii, our equally awesome driver, Jack, our amiable and hilarious traveling partner, Brad and the tremendous people we met, knowledge we gained and sites we saw. This trip will go down in history, in more ways than one. It was a photographers dream, and we had 2 avid photographers available, snapping pictures of everything.Then, of course, there was me, along for comic relief and documenting the mundane and touristy aspects of the trip. If you click on the link above (Our trip to Mongolia), it will take you to Jeff's link of pictures from the trip. Grab a cold drink, sit back, and enjoy the sites.

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

We have arrived. It’s hot, it’s clear, the wind is blowing softly, Chaagii, our guide is waiting and we’re ready to go! Today was an adventure in Ulaanbataar. Chaagii, a young girl who has just graduated college, and looking forward to traveling abroad herself to continue college, was to be our delightful guide for the next 2 plus weeks. She and Jack, our driver, were our fearless leaders through everything – and what a trip this was.

Food

The first day, and every day, included wonderful meals. As Chaagii told us, we had culture in the desert – always served beautifully and very tasty. Unlike some tours we’ve been on, this one we got to eat with our guide and driver. While Jack doesn’t know very much English yet, Chaagii was a fabulous translator, working to keep all of us in the know of what was going on. We had a tour of the history museum and a walk through one of the plazas. Chinggis Khan, better known to the Western world as Genghis Khan is very famous in Mongolian history as the man who brought Mongolian tribes together. It was fascinating to read and hear about how he changed the lives of his people.

Herds of Goats and Sheep and Camels

Little did we realize that first day how much we should have appreciated the black roads. We spent far too much time marveling over the drivers in the city – they’re all over the road, they don’t stop for pedestrians and the driver sits on either side of the car – there’s no standard so western cars have left hand drive and Japanese cars have right and it makes no difference. It’s a marked difference from the areas outside of the city where people stop to help others all of the time, keep to their side of the road and watch out for everything – stray cows, camels in the road, small lambs getting lost. Even had a baby goat trip in front of the car one day – the mother stood on the side watching which Chaagii got out and picked up the little guy. Fortunately, he was ok and ran off with mom.

On the road

We headed out the 2nd day for the Gobi. Chaagii assured us that we would have black road for part of it and then it would be dirt roads. She did not mention that, with little exception (we crossed a paved road at one point), we would be on dirt roads for the next 2 weeks. We were and then some. In fact, there were times when Jack wanted to switch directions so he just turned and made his own road. Sometimes there’d be one washboard road and when it got too bad, you just started a new one next to it. Absolutely NO road signs anywhere. We asked Jack how he was able to find his way and Jack jokingly point to his head and said "GPS" but after watching how he could navigate his 4-wheel drive across vast expanses of distance without even once looking at a map, I am beginning to realize that he wasn't joking. It was truly amazing.

Life in the Gobi

The Gobi is a land of infinite variety. When I picture a desert, I think of shifting sands. Not so the Gobi. The land varied greatly depending upon where we were. Predominately we saw small plants spread out across the gravel, dusty terrain – as far as the eye could see. Outcrops of rocks appeared periodically but vast, rolling, dry terrain dominated the landscape. That said, there were hundreds of wildflowers nestled low to the ground and an infinite variety of bugs and some small animals. They were smart, remaining in the shade until it cooled off in the late afternoon.

Ger Camps

After traveling in the back of the rolling, bouncing, jolting car for an entire day, we finally arrived at our ger camp. Now, what, you might ask, is a ger.
The ger is the traditional home of the nomads found in Mongolia. It is like a tent, made with a wooden frame and covered with wool felt. The nomads use it because it is easy to collapse and re-assemble. It can also be transported relatively easily, using carts and a yak (or horse or camel). The gers have been in use for hundreds of years though they have been updated-like wooden doors instead of felt and a wood stove instead of an open fire. Check out the link to see more about the construction of a ger if you’re interested (Yert is the Russian word for the same structure. Ger is the Mongolian word.)

Temple Ruins

All throughout the trip we visited various Buddhist temples that had been established throughout the country. Sadly, during the communist regime of Mongolia, all of the temples throughout the country were destroyed. Some of the sites we visited were in stunning locations with towering rocks, rolling hills or fabulous meadows. Fortunately, many of the temples have been able to raise money to begin rebuilding the temples, though they have a very long way to go.

Nomadic Families

The nomadic people are absolutely amazing. Just picture this… if a stranger knocked on our door in North America and said “Hi, I’m passing through, and was wondering about your lifestyle and what you do and if I could come in a visit with you for a bit” we’d look at them like they were crazy and tell them to get lost or we’d call the police. Yet in Mongolia, these Nomadic families welcomed us in, shared the food they had, talked, visited, laughed, and treated us like honored guests. We have much to learn about hospitality.
The major source of food for them during the summer months is milk products – and primarily it is mare’s milk they use. Just a short list includes fried curds, a sweet and soft curd dish fried in butter (my favorite), fermented mare’s milk called ayrag (it’s actually quite good and not very strong), and a dried curd dish that is quite crunchy. I could not believe the variety of foods they had created from one source.
The picture is of the first family we visited.

Camels!

One day as we were bouncing along in the back of the car, we came across our first camel herds. We stopped to take pictures (Jack was very good at doing that and many times found things he thought for sure we’d want to snap). This being our first time, we thought we had a fabulous view – little did we realize that from here on out we would see hundreds of camels. At one point, as we drove down the nameless dirt road, a camel took off running after us, much like a dog chasing a car. He must have run after us for about a minute before he finally stopped. Wish we had gotten a picture of that one.

Camel Riding

One afternoon we had our chance to ride on the camels ourselves. They are large beasts, much larger than I had originally thought. They have extremely long necks that allow them to reach back to the rider – poor Brad had him camel continuously tried to wipe its nose on his shirt. Fortunately, the camel driver kept us all tethered together, each of us holding the reins for the camel behind. Unfortunately, that meant that you had your own camel who wanted to wipe his nose on you AND the camel behind who could easily reach your leg for the same thing. To be fair, the flies were pretty bad and I think they just wanted to scratch but it was pretty gooey when they did.
We rode the camels out to the sand dunes and back. It didn’t look like it was all that far but it took well over 2 hours. We did stop and enjoy some berries that grew on a small bush in the lower part of the dunes. We had to fight with the camels to have them though because the camels chewed up everything; bush, stems, leaves AND berries. The camels are much more a plodding animal than I had realized. They also have extremely wide feet, probably why they can navigate the dunes they way they do.
Sadly, the pictures we had of us on the camels didn't come out. There's the one of Brad getting off and that's it.

Singing Sand Dunes

Early, early, early the next morning we were up, watching the sun rise as we headed out for the singing sands dunes in preparation for climbing to the top. It had been up in the 40’s (that’s over 100 degrees) the last few days and we wanted to make the climb in the relative cool of the morning. Oh my gosh! Was it every a climb! Every step dropped back half of what you thought you gained. The slope was STEEP in places. Sometimes you could only take 10 steps before you stopped to catch your breath. And the top – it seemed to move away from you the further you climbed. I honestly thought I’d never get up there but indeed, after an hour of grueling work, we made it. The view was spectacular and, ironically, once you made it to the top the walking was (relatively) easy on the crest. It was well worth the exertion to do it.
Brad was in his element on the dunes. He had been planning the pictures he wanted, the poses he wanted, the angles, everything that goes into a shot. We were his primary human targets, though shifting sand, bugs, insects and plants also had their time in the limelight. The pictures he took were stunning –mine are only the home grown quality things. They’re fun to take but they aren’t going to win any prizes.
Now, you might as why it was called the singing sands dunes. We had wondered on the way up since we heard nothing that would give it that name. Even Chaagii had seemed surprised because the shifting sands failed to make any sounds. However, as we started down the slope, sliding into huge pockets as we quickly traversed down the dune, we heard a hum every time we slid our foot into the sand. It really was cool to listen to it as we slid down the dune.

Dundee Pass

The road led us to Dundee Pass this day. Now, when I think of a pass, I think of traveling to the top of a mountain, cresting it, then coming down the other side. I now have a new definition of what a pass is. Indeed, it was found at the top of a grade, though not a particularly high or steep one. What was high and steep was the sheer rocks we wove our way through – the PASS! It was so narrow I didn’t think the car was going to be able to go through it. Not only did our car make it through, but the vans coming the other way made it through too! The pass went on for about 2 miles as we traveled through the rocks and stream, winding our way to the other side of the mountain and down the other side.

Thunderstorms

Another day on the road, traveling through rolling green hills with puffy white clouds and crisp, deep blue skies – spectacular. It seemed that hourly the scenes changed, small bushes, mostly gravel, rolling hills, rocky outcrops. They have a tiny tree called a saxal that seemed to be dominant in one are, yet you wouldn’t see one again for a hundred miles. You really never knew what you’d find next. The weather was also unpredictable. We’d have sweltering heat up in the 100’s one day and a comfortable 90 the next. Thunderstorms came up unexpectedly, well, I guess when it happens almost every afternoon they stop being unexpected, but they rarely brought rain with them. Then, one night we had a horrendous rainstorm, pelted the tent and soaked everything! (Stovepipes in the gers have an instant opening for allowing water inside, imagine that.)

Flaming Cliffs

The sunsets in Mongolia were spectacular. We took a ride over to an area that I believe was called the Flaming Cliffs. The ragged rocks here, created by wind erosion, offer a fabulous setting to view the evening sun, contributing to the name “flaming cliffs”. The rocks themselves are reddish in color, adding to the illusion. We hit it on a gorgeous night with just enough cloud cover to give us a fabulous display. This is also the valley where Roy Chapman Andrews found the firs dinosaur eggs. Complete skeletons of different species of dinosaurs were found as well as evidence of later day stone-age settles. Sadly, we were unsuccessful in contributing to the discoveries, though we did get to see many things in the various museums we visited.

White Stupas

Further on we had a chance to see another spectacular cliff called the “white stupas”. The upper cliffs, again formed by wind erosion, were a lighter color, hence the white name (though there were so many colors showing, white is really not accurate), but down below the cliff face, small rolling hills of red sand dotted the landscape. It was possible to climb down from the tip to the rolling terrain, Jeff and Jack did it, but the rest of us were content to stay on top, taking pictures and then riding in the car to view the red hills up close.

Karakorum

We visited the city of Karakorum, the capital city of Chinggis Khan’s vast empire. The city is nestled between verdant fields in a huge natural valley and offers a gorgeous view of the area. It is home of the Erdenezuu monastery with its massive square wall with 108 stupas and 17 temples. The monastery has been re-built, showing some of its past glory and housing many priceless religious objects and gorgeous Mongolian arts. Outside the monastery the legendary turtle rock sculptures still remain, ancient markers of the original boundaries of the city.

Nomad Steppes

One of the ger camps, the Nomad Steppes camp, was located in a small protected area of Mongolia. Mongolia has set aside many different places to preserve the natural flora and fauna, restricting use of the area to save it from being loved to death. This particular area was centered around a very shallow but long, narrow river. We spent one day rafting down the river. Initially we thought we were crazy; the wind was blowing, cold and bitter, the water was freezing, the raft was hard to inflate, the wind caught everything and tried to take it down the river ahead of us. For some reason we persevered and finally set out down the river. Amazingly, once we set out, the wind died, the day warmed up and we had a delightful time. It was a slow and easy ride and shallow enough that when we got in trouble, all it required was stepping out of the raft to move it back out of the shallows and into the stream.
We also had a chance here to ride the Mongolian horses through the meadow and into the bird sanctuary. Both Jeff and Brad tried to capture pictures of the birds that nested there but they were watchful of people and tended to fly off before anyone got very close. Jeff did manage to get some good shots of a swan family but only because they had young babies who couldn’t fly. We also got a good shot of a herd of goats, though they were faster than we were.

Raft across the river

We took off for northern Mongolia, traveling through the lands where Chinggis Khan grew up. As we tried to follow the trail, we ended up at a river crossing. This river crossing is like none you have ever seen before. Most rivers you simply ford but this one was a bit too deep, meaning you needed either a raft or a bridge. Lacking a bridge, the raft was going to have to do.
The raft…it was not very large…it was powered by hand. Quite literally – you grabbed hold of the cable and pulled and if one couldn’t do it, someone else added their hand, and someone else and someone else until you finally were on your way across the river. Doesn’t sound too bad, after all , it wasn’t a very big raft, maybe 12’ by 14’ give or take a foot. It held all of us just fine. The only issue was the car. Yes, the car was going to cross on the same raft. Three boards, ¾ in boards, were place from the dirt road to the raft in front of each tire (boy did Jack make sure they were lined up right). Jack drove the car onto the raft – it fit but you couldn’t put 2 cars on it. Then we pulled, and pulled and pulled and finally the raft moved towards the other side. But now, we had to get the car off. The sawhorse in the water did not look all that stable and while the boards on it were hefty lumber, it was a steep angle that he had to go down. With much moving and grunting and lining up, Jack was finally satisfied and he slowly took off down the ramp. Let me tell you, my breath was held the whole time. Whew! He made it. The good news…we had to do it again when we returned from our drive.
Check out the next entry for pictures of the car getting off.

Raft Continued...

You’ve got to understand something about Jack and this car. The driver does not go out with us when we take off on a hike or camel ride or whatever. Their job is to, well, drive – and boy was he an excellent driver! We couldn’t help but notice that he spent the time cleaning the car. Here we are, driving on dirt roads. Everyone is driving on dirt roads so the air is quite full of dirt at times. Each time we stopped to see something, Jack got out the cleaning rags and began working on the car. By the time we got back, the car would be shining - inside and out! He just babied this thing. He is also a master mechanic. We had one of the shocks break so he had to spend the day driving relatively slowly to be able to continue driving without bouncing the back end, and us, to death. We were VERY lucky we weren’t in the states. At home a broken shock would require an appointment, leaving the car for the entire day, the purchase of a new shock and a huge bill to install it. In Mongolia, Jack drove up to a car repair shop and went in to talk to the people. We poured out of the car (hot in the sun) and sought out the shade, figuring we were in for a long wait. He came out, jacked up the car, took off the shock and the broken piece, went inside, they welded it, he put it back on the car and we were leaving in less than an hour. We were stunned!

Chinggis Khaan (Ghengis Khan)

As I said before, Chinggis Khaan is quite a hero in Mongolia. We saw two places that both claimed he was born and raised in their valleys and no one knows where he was finally buried. There are numerous museums and small information places that honor or tell you about famous battle Chinggis Khan fought or somehow was involved with. One of the most spectacular places is not too far outside of Ulaanbaatar, well, maybe an hour away. It is the most awesome statue of Chinggis Khaan on his horse, looking towards the East, out across the plains of Mongolia. The lower area is a museum and there’s a stairway the winds up through the body of the horse so that you can look out over the valley yourself. Sadly, we were there on August 1st and the museum was schedule to open the following week. It looks like it will be absolutely stunning – a very good reason to return to Mongolia at some future time.

Mongolian Culture

While we were there we had the opportunity to experience some of Mongolia’s traditional arts, from singing and playing some unique instruments to dances that included gorgeous costumes. The music is almost a blend of asian and western sounds, not quite belonging totally to either tradition. The instruments included a horsehair fiddle –only two strings made up entirely of hair from a horse’s tail. Even the bow is made from it. The sound is similar to the two stringed Chinese instrument but it’s a little deeper sounding with the heavier strings. Another instrument they played is one that is similar in form to the kota in Japan and also found in Vietnam and China. It’s a long stringed instrument where the pitch can be changed with triangles placed strategically under the strings. It is plucked, either with picks or by hand. The Mongolian version rests on the player’s legs with the opposite end resting on the floor.
They have an extremely unique singing style called throat singing. The man uses the mouth and nasal cavity to force air out, changing the shape of the mouth, tongue and force of air to change the sounds. One of the men we heard was very talented, able to range from a high pitch to a very low pitch. It’s like nothing I’ve ever heard before.

We were nothing short of astounded when we had the opportunity to watch young Mongolian contortionists. These girls, and sometimes boys, begin at the age of 5 or so to train their bodies to bend in every way possible. The Mongolian style is very slow and ballet like, with the contortionist showing perfect control as they bend their bodies into pretzel like poses. Usually the girls who put on the show are between the ages of about 12 to 25 and they are well paid for their skills (higher paid than most jobs available for girls in Mongolia). Watching one is amazing but we also got to see a group of three working together. The skills they displayed were phenomenal!

Saying goodbye

It was very sad to say good bye to Jack and Chaagii. They had become very good friends over the course of our trip. We enjoyed sharing stories, wishes and dreams: Chaagii is hoping to go overseas to college this coming school year, to study journalism – as well as superstitions: snakes in a ger means the woman is going to get pregnant. Jack, meanwhile, is going to be heading for Washington State where he’s going to be learning English. We all hope that we’ll hear from them periodically, just so we know how our old friends are doing.

Changing wheels - on a train!!

Somewhere along the line, when trains were built and tracks were laid, a perfect example of the best laid plans came into being... The Trans- Siberian line, runs across Asia from Russia all the way to Bejing. OK…here’s the rub. The Russian and Mongolian railway line is a different gauge from the China railway line!! That means that when you get to the border, at 11:00 at night, you sit there for 2.5 hours to change the wheels. Yep, you got it, they actually take the train to a garage, separate each car, jack it up, slide out the narrow wheels, put in the wider ones, and set the car back down on the new wheels. We stayed on the train (you’re not allowed off) and you really didn’t notice the car was being raised. It was really fascinating.
The orange poles on the side are huge jacks that they put under the car in the front and rear to jack up the train. The other picture shows a different car jacked up with the new wheels underneath.

Trans-Mongolian train stops

The landscape was stunning, though sadly it was hard to take pictures from the moving train. We were, however able to people watch at the stations and get some pictures that actually came out. The cart in one of the pictures was where people sold drinks and foods to the passengers. Unlike the trains in Japan where one must be instantly ready to jump off at the stop, here the trains stopped for 20 or 30 minutes and you could get out and walk around or grab some food. The conductors always lined up waiting for their people to return (you couldn’t get on the wrong car, they wouldn’t let you). The people on the platforms were fun to watch too – boredom, excitement, tired – you name it, it was there.

Views from the train

Of course while we were waiting and watching people - others were watching us.