This past October holiday Aya and I decided to venture north to Mongolia. We had been planning this for some time, but thought we should jump on this before the weather got too cold and I think we timed it just right. The temperatures did get below freezing at night, but were pleasant during the day, reaching about 20C on some days.
Our first day we stayed in central Ulan Bator and, with not much time before the sun was setting, decided to go to the National History Museum located just off of Chinggis square. The square itself was pretty impressive, with huge statues of Damdin Suhkbataar in the center of the square and statues of Chinggis Khen on the north end by the parliamentary building flanked by statues of... his sons? I think? After we danced around the square a bit (square dancing?) we headed on to the museum. Considering that we new Mongolia was not a highly development country economically, we were pleasantly surprised by the museum. It has multiple floors and rooms with a good amount of historical artifacts. Unfortunately, you had to pay to take pictures inside and, I guess unfortunately, I'm a bit of a scrooge so we decided to just view the displays instead of paying to take pictures. The most surprising thing for me, which I guess I kind of knew, was that many of the tribes that had inhabited Mongolia had moved east and settled in central Asia and western Europe. Some of these were part of Ghenghis Khan's Golden Horde, but the rest were just nomads who for one reason or another moved. In any case, the museum was great and we really enjoyed it, but we had a tour to catch early the next morning so headed back to our hotel for an early night.
The next morning we were picked up by Danista Nomad tours. They were great the whole way through. Very polite, on time, good service overall and a decent price. We ended up opting to share the journey with another couple and that turned out to be a good decision as then focus wasn't always on us. It was also nice to have another couple of people to share our thoughts with and to ask questions to. We had a guide/translator who did a great job, and also a driver who I must say was pretty good at driving though did scare us a few times. The roads in Mongolia are not too bad, but there are parts that get wild. We crossed rivers in the van, took roads rutted enough to bang our head on the (padded) ceiling, and spent long hours on endless straight highway across the Mongolian plain. It was great.
On Day one we headed west out of town, first stopping at Zaisan, a soviet era memorial to the victory over the Japan and the partnership between the Soviets and Mongolians. The monument was pretty cool. One thing that we all noticed was the power plants on the east side of the city, pumping out smoke from the coal fired power. This was something we noticed on the way into town too. We were really surprised by how close to the city the power plant was. As I'm told, the city has expanded a lot in the past couple of decades so even though it was build outside of the city the city was now gotten closer to it. I could see that as a possibility, but even compared to the center of the city, the power plant was only a couple of kilometers away, too close. On top of that, we were later to learn, there were a few more plants that were just a bit further from town to the east. Any day the winds were coming from the east Ulan Bator was guaranteed to be covered in smog, which seemed to happen regularly each night we were in town.
After Ziasan memorial we jumped back in the van to head out to the huge Ghenghis Khan Equestrian Statue. It was a pretty cool site. In the lower levels there was a museum with some of the artifacts found in the area. The funny thing was, there was a mock up of a ger with a tea set in it. While we were looking around there was a Chinese tour group there who grabbed the other guy we were with, an Englishman, and started taking pictures with him. Then, the pulled him into the mock up and took pictures of serving him tea. It was a bit funny. After that walked up a set of stairs going to the top of the statue where you can come out and view the surrounding area. There seem to be plans of creating a type of park and hotel structure there in the future and expanding the museum to a few other nearby sites. One of the kitschy things there was that there were these giant birds which appeared to be hawks, but our guide told us were buzzards. We were to see them again both at tourist sites for people to pose with, but also gliding around the countryside.
Our next stop was Turtle Rock. Pretty obvious, right? We got out of the van for a bit and had a walk around, the climbed up the back side to get a good view. It was indeed pretty nice, but we didn't stay for long. The sun was getting low and we had to get back into the van to make it to our camp for the night.
After an hour or so more on a paved road we made it to a small town, then drove across (through actually) a river and then a rutted road and a few more small streams. As the gers along the way became fewer and fewer we kept thinking, is this it? Is this it? Eventually there was nothing else in sight. We charged the van up a steep hill and as we crested we saw a three ger ranch at the bottom of the valley. That is where we would stay for the night. When we arrived we entered the family ger to make greetings, which we would come to know meant having some milk tea(cow's) and some fried dough snacks. Once we had a bit of a snack and talked for a little bit we went to our own ger for a short rest. We then got mounted up on horseback and went for a ride around the surrounding valleys. It was beautiful in the cold and still of the evening. On the way back to the ranch we rounded up the cattle that were out in the valley and then shortly after returning we had a nice dinner with our fellow travelers. Each place we stayed the tour company had set up in advance so gers, beds, meals, etc. were all ready to go. I would also add that each place we stayed was in a ger, but the three nights we were traveling around were all different in the food that we ate, the families that were there, and the environment surrounding the gers. Each ger was relatively the same with a wood fire stove int he center, the chimney going through a somewhat open hole in the roof and the surrounding rounds walls of the ger having 4-5 beds to sleep on with possibly a middle table for meals. That night as we went to to bed, we stoked the fire one last time and hoped we wouldn't freeze in the night.
Our first day we stayed in central Ulan Bator and, with not much time before the sun was setting, decided to go to the National History Museum located just off of Chinggis square. The square itself was pretty impressive, with huge statues of Damdin Suhkbataar in the center of the square and statues of Chinggis Khen on the north end by the parliamentary building flanked by statues of... his sons? I think? After we danced around the square a bit (square dancing?) we headed on to the museum. Considering that we new Mongolia was not a highly development country economically, we were pleasantly surprised by the museum. It has multiple floors and rooms with a good amount of historical artifacts. Unfortunately, you had to pay to take pictures inside and, I guess unfortunately, I'm a bit of a scrooge so we decided to just view the displays instead of paying to take pictures. The most surprising thing for me, which I guess I kind of knew, was that many of the tribes that had inhabited Mongolia had moved east and settled in central Asia and western Europe. Some of these were part of Ghenghis Khan's Golden Horde, but the rest were just nomads who for one reason or another moved. In any case, the museum was great and we really enjoyed it, but we had a tour to catch early the next morning so headed back to our hotel for an early night.
The next morning we were picked up by Danista Nomad tours. They were great the whole way through. Very polite, on time, good service overall and a decent price. We ended up opting to share the journey with another couple and that turned out to be a good decision as then focus wasn't always on us. It was also nice to have another couple of people to share our thoughts with and to ask questions to. We had a guide/translator who did a great job, and also a driver who I must say was pretty good at driving though did scare us a few times. The roads in Mongolia are not too bad, but there are parts that get wild. We crossed rivers in the van, took roads rutted enough to bang our head on the (padded) ceiling, and spent long hours on endless straight highway across the Mongolian plain. It was great.
On Day one we headed west out of town, first stopping at Zaisan, a soviet era memorial to the victory over the Japan and the partnership between the Soviets and Mongolians. The monument was pretty cool. One thing that we all noticed was the power plants on the east side of the city, pumping out smoke from the coal fired power. This was something we noticed on the way into town too. We were really surprised by how close to the city the power plant was. As I'm told, the city has expanded a lot in the past couple of decades so even though it was build outside of the city the city was now gotten closer to it. I could see that as a possibility, but even compared to the center of the city, the power plant was only a couple of kilometers away, too close. On top of that, we were later to learn, there were a few more plants that were just a bit further from town to the east. Any day the winds were coming from the east Ulan Bator was guaranteed to be covered in smog, which seemed to happen regularly each night we were in town.
After Ziasan memorial we jumped back in the van to head out to the huge Ghenghis Khan Equestrian Statue. It was a pretty cool site. In the lower levels there was a museum with some of the artifacts found in the area. The funny thing was, there was a mock up of a ger with a tea set in it. While we were looking around there was a Chinese tour group there who grabbed the other guy we were with, an Englishman, and started taking pictures with him. Then, the pulled him into the mock up and took pictures of serving him tea. It was a bit funny. After that walked up a set of stairs going to the top of the statue where you can come out and view the surrounding area. There seem to be plans of creating a type of park and hotel structure there in the future and expanding the museum to a few other nearby sites. One of the kitschy things there was that there were these giant birds which appeared to be hawks, but our guide told us were buzzards. We were to see them again both at tourist sites for people to pose with, but also gliding around the countryside.
Our next stop was Turtle Rock. Pretty obvious, right? We got out of the van for a bit and had a walk around, the climbed up the back side to get a good view. It was indeed pretty nice, but we didn't stay for long. The sun was getting low and we had to get back into the van to make it to our camp for the night.
After an hour or so more on a paved road we made it to a small town, then drove across (through actually) a river and then a rutted road and a few more small streams. As the gers along the way became fewer and fewer we kept thinking, is this it? Is this it? Eventually there was nothing else in sight. We charged the van up a steep hill and as we crested we saw a three ger ranch at the bottom of the valley. That is where we would stay for the night. When we arrived we entered the family ger to make greetings, which we would come to know meant having some milk tea(cow's) and some fried dough snacks. Once we had a bit of a snack and talked for a little bit we went to our own ger for a short rest. We then got mounted up on horseback and went for a ride around the surrounding valleys. It was beautiful in the cold and still of the evening. On the way back to the ranch we rounded up the cattle that were out in the valley and then shortly after returning we had a nice dinner with our fellow travelers. Each place we stayed the tour company had set up in advance so gers, beds, meals, etc. were all ready to go. I would also add that each place we stayed was in a ger, but the three nights we were traveling around were all different in the food that we ate, the families that were there, and the environment surrounding the gers. Each ger was relatively the same with a wood fire stove int he center, the chimney going through a somewhat open hole in the roof and the surrounding rounds walls of the ger having 4-5 beds to sleep on with possibly a middle table for meals. That night as we went to to bed, we stoked the fire one last time and hoped we wouldn't freeze in the night.
2 comments:
Love the soviet style of the memorial with the dramatic poses, sharp lines and bright colors. Sounds like it isn't only a tourist thing to live in gers. What do those people do for livelihood? What is life like for them? Why don't they move to a place with plumbing, electricity, and a stove?
Good question. The people we ran into were mostly relying on the tourism, it seems, but the first place we stayed was a cattle ranch. I assume this family sells it for meat, basically raising cows. Their cost of living is pretty low since they have few possessions (easy to move with seasons), a car, a couple gers, and a few horses on top of their cattle. Life seems to be hard, but people generally seemed pretty happy. Most gers did have some sort of electricity, like solar panels for a tv or mini fridge, not much for an actual stove or plumbing though. I think a lot of people have moved into the capital, but land is open and, mostly, free. We asked about it and we were told that every Mongolian citizen can make claim to something like 2 acres of land and really the country is so big that I don't think people really make a fuss about who owns what when they move around and camp.
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