Mongolian countryside

Trip Start May 12, 2007
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Trip End Aug 09, 2007


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Flag of Mongolia  ,
Sunday, June 10, 2007

Yesterday I returned from the Hustai National Park, a park about 2 hours outside of Ulaanbaatar, that was established in 1998. My favorite part of the park by far were the wild horses that live there. About 200 completely wild, free horses that are only endemic to that area of Mongolia, live there. If you are lucky, you get to see these beautiful animals roaming around the rolling hills of Mongolia. I was fortunate enough to have spotted an entire family of these horses. Interestingly, they are much smaller than regular horses--they almost look more like ponies than horses, and as it turns out, they are actually a completely different species than the horses we are used to in America.

While there, we stayed in a ger camp, so that there were about 3 or 4 people to one ger. It's funny because looking at pictures of Mongolian gers and reading about them, I never expected them to be so sturdy, spacious, and strong. To my surprise, the ger is actually extremely strong, and even when the strong Mongolian winds blow or rain falls, the ger remains perfectly intact, without so much as a mark on it. And the inside actually has alot of space in it--definitely enough room for about 6 people if necessary, as well as a stove, a table, and some necessary supplies. It's really quite amazing that the nomadic people came up with such an efficient and strong structure that is able to be taken down and put back up, within only a few hours. Gers are strong enough to withstand the extremly harsh and cold winters that Mongolia experiences, and roomy enough to hold entire families..truly a remarkable piece of work.

The area of the countryside where my group resided was so incredibly peaceful and quiet. It's hard to imagine a place in the world that is literally completely without sound, but if you hike out far enough into the hills and small mountains of the Mongolian countryside, you suddenly find yourself listening to silence, in a place where the sound of a car motor or chattering on a cell phone has never been heard. It is no wonder that the nomadic lifestyle is so relaxed and laid back; I feel as though it would be difficult to experience much stress when everything is so beautifully simple and quiet. Needless to say, I can't wait to start my my week in the countryside for my research.

Today I officially begin my intensive Mongolian language classes, so hopefully I should be a bit more proficient in Mongolian, something that will definitely prove useful for my excursions to the countrsyide. This week will mostly consist of classes, followed by a weekend out to Hahoren, the old capital of Mongolia, where we will once again be staying at a ger camp and visiting some famous archeological sites in Mongolia...I'll update again when I return!
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