Ulaan Baatar and Gobi Desert
Trip Start
Oct 07, 2007
1
6
42
Trip End
??? ??, 2008
Ulaan Baatar,
Mongolia
Monday, November 5, 2007
For all its ugliness it is impossible not to like Ulaan Baatar (or UB as we lazy foreigners call it). The food is good, the Mongolians are very friendly and there is a whole country to explore waiting on your doorstep. And explore we did.
...too much fermented mares milk
We set off on a 7 day tour to the Gobi desert - Jonathan, I, our driver Jacka, and a Russian jeep. It's hard to describe such a trip - you spend endless hours driving till your ass is numb - sometimes seeing nothing but arid brown earth, other times seeing some of the most spectacular scenery imaginable. We saw mountains, lakes, sand dunes, camels, gazelles, eagles, vultures and ocassionally people. On single days we'd drive through snow and through desert landscapes.
Each night we stayed with nomadic families in gers (traditional tents made from felt and wood). This is no B&B set up with private rooms - the gers have just one room which everyone shares. On one night 9 of us slept in the ger and we were grateful for it because with so many bodies inside we stayed warm from the freezing weather outside. Many mornings we awoke to find everything left in the jeep had frozen - tomatoes make suprprisingly good ice pops!
Our first experience of nomadic families was not a particularly good one. The family we had planned to stay with were gone to the city so we were forced to impose ourselves on a neighbouring family who were clearly reluctant to have us there. Once we entered the ger a tin bowl was placed in front of us, containing what looked like dog biscuits
At site of monastery destroyed by communists
. These were a Mongolian cheese snack - a speciality we spent the rest of the week trying to avoid by smuggling them out of the ger in our pockets. Thankfully, this was not, as we had first feared, dinner and we were afterwards well fed and after recieving a gift of cigarettes, sweets and vodka the family mellowed considerably and were quite amicable.The next morning we visited the family we were originally meant to be staying with and were treated to a bottle of vodka at 9 in the morning! We continued on our way pleasantly inebriated and convinced Mongolia was the best country ever. A long day driving however took its toll and we were glad to finally arrive at the 'city' where we were to spend the night. In most of mongolia the cities are just large collections of gers, with a few larger buildings made from brick and this one was no exception despite being the capital of South Gobi. This was the most luxurious stay of the trip - we had a ger to ourselves and it even had a TV.
The third day of our trip was full of things to see and do. our first stop was Eagle Valley, which unlike its namesake in Cork, actually had some eagles to boast of! It's a big tourist spot in Mongolia but as we were travelling in off-peak season we had the place to ourselves save for a lone souvenir seller
Camel ride in the Snow!
. Later that day we stopped at some sand dunes and as the sun was setting we made our final stop of the day at the spectacular Flaming Cliffs.Our lodgings for the third night was a rather soulless tourist ger. The big advantage of staying here was that the next day we got to go for a camel ride. It was great fun - I kept giggling when the camel went fast and i was nearly bouncing of the thing - both Jonathan and the guide found this hilarious. Jonathan wasn't smiling so much afterwards though cos he had a big blister on his backside from hitting against the camels back hump.
The same day we visited a big monastry which had been destroyed by the Communists and afterwards headed to the nearby ger where we were to spend 2 night as our driver (who had hijacked our trip somewhat) wanted time to kill a horse to bring back to UB. The family itself consisted of the parents and three boys . However, the ger also seemed to be the local pub and there were always people stopping in to drink the fermented mare's milk, smoke and eat.
As soon as we arrived we got drawn into a drinking game involving this fermented mares milk (taskes as bit like cider) Thankfully, I was quite good at the game and avoided drinking too much but Jonathan was fairly useless and drank enough to ensure he had an unpleasant dose of diarohea the next day! Unfortunately the drinking game soon turned into a singing session and we were forced to perform. All we had in our repetoi8re was Fields of Athenry and I'll Tell me Ma - renditions of these were enough to ensure we were not asked again!
Chilly Lunch Break
I was disgusted when later in the evening i got invited out into the freezing cold to help milk the goats and came back to discover the men had polished off the bottle of vodka - mongolian women have a tough time of it! The next day was fairly uneventful - spent the morning playing cards and strolling in the sand dunes. The kids were all fascinated by the camera and took plenty pictures. For lunch we had some very very fresh meat with homemade noodles - absolutely delicious. We went for a long walk in the evening and when we returned were greeted by the sight of a skinned horse, legs in the air, ready for butchering. We left them to it!
The next day there wasn't much in the way of sights apart from one monastry, which was actually closed. The family we stayed with that evening had two little boys and I tried to entertain them by building a house of cards but was rather mortified when the shiny new cards proved impossible to stack. Instead we took to playing a game of snap with somewhat arbritrary rules. Later we played a Mongolian card game with the parents and since by now Jonathan and I had figured out the rules did pretty well.
Next morning I was woken by a kid landing on my head
Desert Rocks
. All the adults were a bit worse for wear but the kids wanted entertaining. We had a good game going with a half-full bottle of water till the driver spoiled it by drinking it all in one go. After a breakfast of deep fried bread (champion hangover food) and a few quick photos we hit the road back to UB.We were shatteredd when we got back and planned to spend the next day recovering before getting the train to Beijing. That plan didn't work out too well though cos Niall, an Irish guy living in UB with his Mongolian wife and kid, got wind of our presence and arrived arount to the guesthouse armed with two bottles of wine. Needless to say we couldn't refuse company to an Irishman lonely for a taste of home!
