We arrived early in Ulaan Baatar and were taken to our home stay. A Russian teacher named Madame Bala was our host, living in an old Soviet block in an area that felt like the hood. The roads were terrible, most of the sidewalks were dirt and we definitely felt like we’d woken up in another world. Needing food we walked into a ‘Mongolian Fast Food’ restaurant where we immediately became the lunchtime entertainment. The menu was in Mongolian with no pictures so to order Andrew pointed to other people’s food that looked interesting to the amusement of the crowd. Fortunately it was delicious and incredibly cheap.
We walked along the main street, from one end to the other, passing through the centre of town, the main square.
At the end of the street we came to the main Buddhist monastery. I’ve seen plenty of pictures of Asian styled architecture before but never seen it in real life. It was beautiful. We looked around, snuck photos of monks and walked the wrong way around in the temple. (Note to self: you go clockwise)
For dinner we went to a restaurant that advertised in the August brochure a band playing traditional Mongolian Folk music. Unfortunately they weren’t playing as the season was finished but we decided to stay for dinner. On the menu – horse! It was delicious.
One night in Ulaan Baatar and then we were off to a Ger camp for two nights in the countryside. The nomads of Mongolia are basically livestock farmers who have to keep moving around to find pasture due to the general barrenness of the country. So they live in Ger’s, a kind of mobile home made of wood, covered with thick layers of wool for insulation and finished off with canvas for weatherproofing. The whole thing can be assembled in two hours and they’re incredibly comfortable and roomy inside. Most Ger’s also have electricity thanks to a solar panel so they can use lights at night and of course they all have a TV.
We met our guide for the trip, a lady nicknamed Bogi, who was basically our translator and companion for the entire stay. She was incredible. We arrived at our tourist Ger camp in the Terelj National Park, to find that we would be the only tourists staying in the camp. We had the Ger to ourselves, the restaurant to ourselves and the entire countryside just to ourselves. It was awesome. And the weather was perfect, sunny, warm, blue skies – the countryside was stunning.
First up and we headed to the rock that the campsite is named after, Magic Rock. An erect rock that looks like a certain piece of the male anatomy that local barren women tie blue scarves around as a request to the gods of the land to grant them children. Apparently there are many such shaped rocks in Mongolia, and there are many children.
After lunch we decided to head to a mountain peak that we could see in the distance and invited Bogi to come with us. So we set off, passing a horse herdsman on the way and decided to stop and ask if he could take us on a horse ride the next day. His wife was home and she invited us into their Ger, sat us down and gave us salty milk tea and dried yogurt to eat. It was interesting food, they were impressed we took it as most tourists don’t but we were blown away with the incredible hospitality shown to a stranger.
Plans made, we headed off. The mountain was steep, crazy steep and it took us forever to reach the top, mainly because I needed to take breaks all the time. Bogi found a couple of good sticks for me, which made it a lot easier. The view from the top was well worth the effort as we had the entire valley spread out before us. Bogi was impressed and said that most tourists only climb the small hills and never the mountains. She never thought we would make it. The climb down was even harder than the climb up. Twice I slipped and fell, once puncturing my hand with a stick and the other time sliding down on my knee a little. On the way home we stopped in a paddock to see a dzo (yak/cow) and some cashmere goats and we got back just in time for dinner.
The next morning and we were up early to go riding on Mongolian horses; our destination – a large mound of rocks resembling a turtle aptly named Turtle Rock around 1.5-2.5hrs ride away, depending on how fast you are. We met Tomo, the owner of the horses and our guide for the trip and were soon mounted on our trusty steeds and off to see the turtle.
Mongolian horses are small, though we are told they are strong, but they also seemed to be quite lazy. We were taught to say ‘choo choo’ to make them go faster and were given a whip for extra encouragement but they sulkily walked along until Tomo came up behind them and made them move. Then they would trot for half a minute and then frustratingly slow down again as soon as the pressure was off. The entire trip saw Andrew & I going ‘choo, choo, CHOO, CHOO!’ but no matter what we did they wouldn’t move any faster than they had to.
The vista was stunning. Mountains and hills covered in short grass and dotted with trees accompanied by the bluest of blue skies. We saw little wildlife though were absolutely delighted when an eagle flew past quite close. We also saw a ground squirrel pop up out of a hole, which freaked out when it saw my horse and quickly raced to the next hole. My horse freaked out too and stopped trotting, of course.
We arrived at the rock an hour and a half later, got off the horses and climbed up as high as we could go. The rock itself was very cool, definitely looked like a turtle and the view was beautiful.
On the way home the horses were a little more active. I think the prospect of getting home and getting these pesky tourists off their backs was the motivation. So we got to trot and even canter a little which was so nice, though all the time I had that longing to just gallop across the countryside. Another good thing about riding in Mongolia – you don’t have to wear a helmet. I know, OH&S, but there is something about riding fast with the wind in your hair. But the lazy buggers just refused to run.
When we returned we were taken inside the Ger again and given coffee & biscuits. The TV was on and there was a game show with a bunch of questions that Tomo answered correctly, which he was very proud of. It was so adorable.
After lunch and a sleep we decided to go walking again. There was a smaller hill that most of the tourists head too as on the top are some flat rocks, but Andrew wanted to go up another mountain that from our camp looked around the same height. So I agreed, we grabbed Bogi and away we went. It was painful. After the climb from the day before and the horse riding in the morning I was in so much pain climbing up the trivial slope that when I looked up and saw the steep incline we were heading towards I stopped. I was moments away from turning back, about to make my argument to Andrew as to why I go no further, when Bogi appeared with a walking stick for me and I had no choice but to go on. The stick was like magic, it helped me incredibly, and eventually I got a nice rhythm going. The gradient was just as steep as the day before but there was more space so I could snake my way up, following the animal tracks and by sunset we were at the top. Again the view was spectacular, and when Bogi pointed out the hill with the flat rocks in the distant valley I could not believe we had climbed so high.
But all too soon we had to get down as darkness comes quickly in Mongolia. It was so tough climbing down; the ground was very slippery and the incline steep so we half slid, half walked down the mountain. It took half an hour to get down the steepest part and by then it was nearly dark. We walked the rest of the way incredibly quickly, by the end only with the light of the full moon guiding us. It was beautiful.
During dinner the weather changed. The wind started howling through the camp and by the time we got to bed we couldn’t sleep because of the noise and the flapping of the Ger cover. It was a horrid night, trying to sleep, and it was so cold that at one point, even though I was busting, I just couldn’t bring myself to get up and go to the bathroom. Eventually though, I had no choice. I dressed as fast as I could and ran outside, only there was no way I was going to make it in time, so I did the unthinkable and went outside the Ger. As I was finishing the ferocious killer attack guard dogs caught my scent and came racing toward me, barking at the top of their lungs. I was so scared I ran back to the Ger, my white bottom shining in the moonlight, and closed the door just as they arrived. I cleaned up, woke Andrew and lay crying in his arms as the dogs prowled outside barking for the next 15 minutes. Eventually they left and I went back to bed and finally got some sleep.
When we woke up the next morning, absolutely wrecked, we found with the opening of the door that the nights suffering was not in vain; the countryside was white with snow. SNOW!!! For once I don’t have words, it was breathtaking and not just because it was so freaking cold.
So we regrettably packed up, left the camp and headed back to Ulaan Baatar for a day of shopping and checking out the National Museum of Mongolia, which was an incredibly informative and well organised museum. They had a massive model of the ancient city of Kharkhorum, the capital city of Mongolia when it was the largest empire the world has ever known and the actual letter, including the hollowed out whip handle used to smuggle it, that was sent to the Russian Bolsheviks asking for aid against the Chinese, starting the revolutions.
And so the sun set on our time in Ulaan Baatar.
We had an early night, finally got a good sleep and woke early in the morning to catch the train to Beijing. Our final leg in the TransSiberian journey saw us traveling through the Gobi desert. There is something absolutely mesmerising about the barrenness of the desert. I could, and did, stand at the window gazing out at the empty space for hours.
We crossed the border a lot quicker than last time, were given free meal vouchers on the train, saw a section of the Great Wall of China and arrived in Beijing 30hrs after we had left, the final destination in the second section of our great journey and the beginning of the final leg; Asia.
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