Mongolia
Trip Start
May 03, 2007
1
4
65
Trip End
??? ??, 2008
Ulaan Bataar,
Mongolia
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Mongolians are traditionally nomadic. Although many of them have now 'settled' a considerable proportion still maintain a nomadic lifestyle.
Their homes are called Gers. A Ger looks like a round tent and is made from wooden inner and is covered with a thick layer of felt. Inside there is a wood burner in the centre for heating and cooking. The whole affair packs down small enough to be transported on a cart to the family's next location. They normally have a herd of animals; goats, cows, horses or a mixture of all three. They live on a diet of milk, meat (mainly mutton) and rice. Vegetables are scarce.
01) Mongolian 'roads'
Ulaan Bataar is the captial city. Its a place where you're likely to see a real mixture of lifestyles side by side. Men in tradtional clothing, on horses riding along to all the cars and busses. Gers are put up next to concrete buildings.
We spent most of our time in a minivan driving across the country to reach remote areas.
Once outside the city sealed roads turn to tracks in the dirt. It is not a place you would attempt to navigate without a guide. There are no signposts. We had a great driver, called Nema, who knew the roads like the back of his hand - even in the thick of a sand storm he knew when to turn onto another track.
We drove to the South and vistied the Gobi desert. We stayed in Gers each night after a 6-8hr drive from one place to the next.
We'd normally stop along the way to watch the wildlife. We saw Eagles (one flew right at our wiondscreen as we came over a hill), vultures (huge things), wild horses and funny little scampery things that I don't know the name of but I think they're part of the meercat family
02) A Ger
. We cooked lunch in the van on a single gas burner. Much of the time it was way to windy to cook outside. We spent 7 days in the Gobi.
After a couple of days rest back in UB we set off on an 11 day tour of Central and Northern Mongolia. Altogether different from the plains of the Gobi. The central region is so lush and green and hilly. We did a 5 day horse trek at Lake Khovsgol in the North. We camped for 4 (freezing) nights. The days adventures made the cold nights all worth while.
Chin got thrown off his horse when it got spooked. He's fine though, just got a huge bruise to show for it.
