Story: Going East with Andy
Trip Start
Mar 04, 2006
1
20
32
Trip End
Nov 04, 2006
Ulan Baator,
Mongolia
Thursday, August 3, 2006
Well a little bit later and no really in chronological order, but here's my story going East in June ) WITH PHOTOS
My 9-day trip to East Mongolia into the countryside was about attending the Naadam festival in Choybalsan and meeting the Shamans. In between it was a lot of driving, very flat landscape, very bumpy roads and very nice people and camping spots! Yes I use the word 'very' a lot, but that's just because it is all so true.
When I went to see Bolod, this nice Mongol man organizing the tour, I ran into Andy, English backpacker on his Shamanic trip in Mongolia. Lucky for me he decided to join this tour as well
01_Camping out
. As it was only us and the driver, you could call this a private tour! We were going to tour around in this very comfortable Japanese van. As one sat in the front next to the driver, the other had the backseat (whole bench) all to him/herself, very luxurious! Gerle, our driver, speaks pretty good English as well and turned out to be a really funny guy!As we took off on 20th of june (had to check my diary for that!) we were going to drive to Dornod Aimag, capital Choybalsan, to attend the Naadam festival on the 23rd of June. Always camping out in between, unless we were offered sleeping place in a ger. Before leaving UB we went to this local supermarket and spend 3 hours in there!!! to buy food and drinks! Porridge, honey, lots of rice and a 'I-hope-this-taste-ok-sausage' were few of the things put in our basket. Funny to notice the cultural differences already. We acted like husband and wife in there!! I already had the feeling that this trip was going to be great.
The days towards Cholbansan were indeed a lot of driving, which Gerle did very well. We stopped at lots of Chinggis ancient sites, which were not to impressive. On our first night of camping, we found out my tent didn't have pegs and Andy's tent was a small puzzle to put together: Again a British guy made me laugh so hard I wet my pants literally!!
02_flat steppe
! Trousers to be washed in the nearby river. Anthony, you found your match in Andy Along the way we saw lots of Eagles (they are huge!), my first sight of camels, funny marmots,zillions of ground squirrels and small birds. On the third day we also found out how fast antelopes can run! Beautiful sight!
When we arrived in Choybalsan, after hours of flat land, the 'city' looked very depression to us. Hardly any people, very old worn-down soviet buildings and no sight of any Naadam going to be on the next day....uhhhmmmm
After camping out at the river and enjoying a great sunset we arrived at the Naadam festival location and it was buzzing !!! with people. Lots of locals dressed in their traditional dels (long Mongolian 'jackets') and beautiful dresses. The opening ceremony was impressive (not the scale of the one in UB, but it went on for a few hours anyway). Because of my large camera I was able to pretend to be a news photographer and put myself right next to the parade, perfect photo shoot place! After the ceremony the 3 traditional mongolian sport events took place: Archery, Wrestling and Horse racing. The first day we enjoyed watching the archery: 2 groups of 4 people competing against each other by shooting their arrows about 200m away to hit these little cans
03_Camels also used as transport
. Definitely not an easy thing to do! The bows are beautiful, all handmade. After the wrestling: 2 men dressed in tight shorts, a 'top' and large boots wrestle with each other by getting hold of arms, legs or shorts trying to throw the other person on his back on the ground. This event starts with the eagle dance to impress the opponent and finishes with a victory dance! My favorite (read: most handsome) wrestler even won of his much bigger and taller opponent! When I screamed (ahum) I was luckily not the only one The next morning time to watch the horseracing. This event is different from any English horseracing. The horses are ridden by 6 -8 year old boys over a 25 km track!!! Gerle and I got there early (Andy had a lye-in) so I also watched all the people arriving. 3 groups: the people, the people in and on top of their cars and the horsemen on their horses. Funny sight! I choose a reasonable place near the finish line. Then I recognized a guy AT the finish line, so walked up to him, said Sain Bainuu? (how are you?) and was allowed to stay there as well. Again a great photo shoot location!
After Naadam we continued north towards the Russian border. Our next stop: a Shamanic center, where people (some still very young) were learning how to become a shaman
04_Chinggis Khaan (monument)
. Shamanism is a very old 'religion', originated in Mongolia and still practiced actively. During soviet time it was suppressed but now people are openly doing ceremonies again. At this center the most important shaman of (East) Mongolia is buried nearby. His son and (as turned out) money-greedy sister now run the center. At first it looked very touristy and therefore not very authentic. But Andy and I were the only tourists there and really got to know the shamans present. Joining them in their sitting area, invited to their sacred temple and taking part in the spiritual washing ceremony. The first night 2 shamams were initiated into shamanism by doing their first ritual: After a lengthy (hours) session to call on the ancestors the to-be-shaman will dance in a trance on barefooted on broken glass, climb up this 4m high tower and without warning fall of it. As the others do not know when and where he will fall of, 2 groups of 4 people carry this carpet and 'try' to catch him. The first to-be-shaman was caught, so he had to be carried 3 times around this group of trees to get back into contact with our earth. The second one was not caught, and therefore in direct contact with the present earth straightaway! In order to understand this all we were very lucky that Batdorj was there, who could explain us a lot in English. His brother is one of the initiated shamans and his mother is a good shaman as well. You cannot decide if you want or not want to be a shaman, you are chosen by the ancestors. Calling on the ancestors is a special ceremony in itself; The learning shaman is singing hours in a row, always guarded by these 3 children, who are not to leave his/her side. Lots and lots of Vodka is offered and drank. Andy and I had (to take) our share of vodka as well of course ;-oThe last day or our stay we did not see the big ritual by this woman shamam and the money-greedy sister tried to rip us off by charging more money than agreed upon for sleeping in the gers, but all in all it was very special to be part of and witness the shamams on their learning journey
05_Horses taking a bath
. In total it takes 7 ceremonies (most of the time, one each year, so 7 years) to become a Shamam. The rituals being:- walking on glass
- walking on swords
- jumping in fire
- washing with (boiling) hot water
- lying on spikes
- being hit by burning wood
- being hit by stingy bushes
Andy and any people who study shamanism or are shamans, I hope I told the story correctly. If not please let me know, so I can set it straight.
After these intense shamanic days and the setback of the money-fight that followed Andy and I were a bit disappointed in the views and things happening in the days after. My personal problem being: I had talked to Bolod about this trip 3 times already and because of his animating stories I set my expectations too high. After 2 days we snapped out of it and had a great last camp spot (away from any touristic sight) and good laughs. Gerle told us about his hunting trips in the winter and we learned an important lesson: If something is of bad quality, it must be Chinese!!!
Andy and I felt the same about one thing: Experience Mongolia with own transport is the way to do it! That's where our motorcycle story began...
