Let me start by saying what anyone who has been to Mongolia would say - "The Mongolian people are probably the nicest and the most hospitable in the world"....One gets to see it everywhere and with anyone one meets. People throw open their doors and welcome anyone who passes by. This niceness and hospitality is not with the intention to
get anything in return or to please - It is genuine. A visit to any family is accompanied by generous offerings of food and Airag (fermented drink from mare's milk), a bit of snuff and of course Vodka......yummmmm....
Well, back to where i left it in my last email (for those who didn't read it - i went for a 8 day tour to the Gobi from Ulaan Baatar). Besides the driver and the Guide (an extremely charming young Mongolian lady - Ogie a.k.a dancing queen a.k.a. eat, eat, eat, eat!!!!!!!), there were 4 of us - a tall Swiss couple (Urs 6'8" a.k.a. duke of kensington and Daniella 6'2" a.k.a First name : I'm still not talking to you and Last name : I'm not talking to these 2 rude English gentleman) and an Irish dude (Niall a.k.a Col. Douglas of the 52nd regiment).
Anyways, all 6 of us fitted in comfortably in an 11-seater Russian minivan along with our backpacks, camping equipment and foodstuff). We drove around 150-200 kms per day right down till the south of Gobi. The weather changed from rainy (when we started) to hot/sunny (when we were in Ongiin Khid) to extremely windy (when we were camping out in the desert near Mandalgov - the place where Col. Douglas almost got his batteries).
The Gobi has an extremely pretty and amazing landscape - first of all there are no trees to be seen (We were only able to spot one tree in Bulgan during the 8 days). The land gradually rises and falls and there are gentle sloping hills in the back ground. These hills would be dotted with ocassional herds of sheep, cows, camels, goat or horses
which completed the picture postcard landscape (every where one looked was a photo-op). We saw lots of other animals - marmots (something between a rabbit and a rat - extremely difficult to photograph), Ibex, wild sheep and Gazelles among others. We saw very few people - Mongolia is an extremely thinly populated country and it doesn't hit
you till you are out in the countryside. The Gobi itself has an extremely low population density (at 0.3 persons per square km) and we sometimes wouldn't see another person for miles and miles together. It made us totally lose perspective of space and time (compounded by the fact that the Sun used to set at 2200 and rise at 0530).
We were on roads when we left UB but after about 20 kms the roads gave way to bumpy dirt tracks (something on which we travelled for the entirety of the journey). The fact that we were not uncomfortable throughout is a testimony to the engineering of the Russian vans and the skill of our Driver Baira ("Mongol Khookan Saakhan"!!!). The only
time honking would be required was when a flock of goat or sheep blocked our road .........ooooops............. dirt track.
During most nights we stayed in Ger Camps run by families. One night we stayed with a family who totally overwhelmed us with their hospitality. Their 2 year old daughter "Injaa" was a total darling. We
thought we were cramped but the smiles and the niceness of the family made us forget that 10 of us were staying in the Ger and that we were sleeping on the floor. One other night we camped out in the desert. It was so windy and noisy that none of us could actually sleep till 5 in the morning. Another reason why we couldn't sleep was that Col.
Douglas had cornered all the 15 sleeping bags (and was himself sweating whereas the rest of us were freezing). That was probably the most memorable of all the nights.
We visited a couple of small towns on the way - Dalanzadgad and Kharkhorin (a.k.a. Karakorum the ancient capital city of Chengis Khan). We also frequented Night clubs / Disco's in these towns. Dancing is done in large circles where everyone joins in - a rather democratic way of dancing. One night I had the embarassing prospect of
dirty dancing with 2 Mongolian girls whom i had never met before (they probably dirty danced with me because they wanted to dirty dance with an Indian and definitely not because of my extremely nimble dancing steps!!!!!!!!!).
One one of our nightly visits to the discos we met up with these custom officials who became good friends (though we needed Ogie to translate for us). We shared Vodka (whats new !!!!). Vodka among friends is drunk in rounds i.e. each person is given a neat shot one by one till the bottle gets over. The whole process lasts 10 minutes so one is drunk rather soon. We got worried when a few policeman came to shut down the disco but when they met the customs officials there was much backslapping and the music continued. Our friends wanted to reciprocate the bottle of Vodka we presented to them but we had to leave. Next day they drove 60 kms (yes 60 kms one way !!!!!) just to present us with a bottle of whisky (that is another example of Mongolian niceness). They also let me drive their Russian Jeep for a while. Gave me a good feeling though I had to use both my hands to change gears (those gears were REALLY hard!!!!!!)
The nights were extremely starry (apart from the stars i saw courtesy the vodka) - i have never seen as many stars as i have in the Mongolian sky. Unfortunately, my star map was thoroughly useless and we couldn't make head or tail of the constellations (because there were so many other stars which we normally don't see that spoilt our
orientation).
Now coming to the more difficult things of life - visiting the thunderbox viz. visiting the loo. A pee was rather easy to do for us men (one could do it anywhere - one just had to be careful of the direction of the wind to prevent any unforeseen accidents!!!). The women had to give us a warning "Don't look" or "I am going to the other side, Don't come there" whenever they had to go. Going for the "Big Job" was obviously more difficult. Either one had to go out in the open or had to visit one of those open pits where the smell and the presence of flies was overpowering (despite the extraordinary views - even the RitzCarlton couldn't provide a bigger and more scenic toilet!!!!!).
One day we went climbing on the sanddunes. The height of the place where we climbed must have been only 300 m vertically but it took us about an hour - we kept on slipping and the climb was just a wee bit vertical. But when we reached the top we felt much like Edmund Hillary and the view was spectacular (especially the sunset) and worth every calorie lost and curse uttered during the climb........It took us only 5 minutes to reach down as we slided on the sand-dunes and took large steps (gave us a feeling of weightlessness!!!)
Camel Riding ????? That was a real pain in the ass. Literally!!!!!! We went camel riding one day for around 2 hours. My camel was apparently hungry so he kept stopping every 20 metres to satisfy his hunger so I was separated from the group. Niall provided us with a story to write home about when he decided his camel was a wee bit slow and gave him a gentle (or so he says!) nudge accompanied by a "Tschoo" (camel-speak for "move on big fellow") and fell off the camel in the process (we were all too slow to react to capture this immortal moment on film!).
Since elections were just held two days back, there was much campaigning going on. We visited a "Democratic Party" rally in Khongoryn Els out in the desert. The only party I could see was on the dance floor. It was an open air disco with lots of music and dancing (Disco as well as Waltz) and no sign of the political party's manifesto or speech (we should have such political rallies in India too - might liven things up). It was an experience - dancing under the
open skies to support the mongolian opposition.
We would have meals in the van itself where Ogie would cook up the most delicious meals. Her cooking floored all of us (apart from her dancing skills in the discos!!!) which made it all so memorable.
On the last day in Kharkhorin we visited the oldest monastry in Mongolia (sadly most monastries were destroyed during the Stalinist purge) and also visited something known as the Phallic rock which is shaped like an......er......umm....you know.....The sign on the highway pointing to the location of this phallic rock was extremely
hilarious (difficult to describe - the photo of it will do all the talking when i send it to you!!!). At Kharkhorin, we were also treated to a private music concert - a local musician who played a variety of musical instruments (the Morin Khuur, the yattak...) and also did a bit of throat singing for us.
From Kharkhorin we took a bus to UB as the Swiss couple continued on to the north of Mongolia (something i unfortunately couldn't do due to the paucity of time). We got into the bus and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited. Buses in Mongolia don't move till they are full. People who want to travel by the bus tell the driver that they want to go and the driver will pick them up from their home. So when the bus did actually start we kept on shuttling between houses and the main square (to see if more people had come who wanted to catch the bus).
Unfortunately, the trip to Gobi came to an end and i reached Ulaan Baatar last night. Have 3 days to spend here so might just relax or probably go for a one or two day excursion.
Tonight we did a bit of pub hopping - we met a Mongolian dance instructor who actually tried to pick women up for us in the last Disco we were in.
Sadly, now i see the end of my trip but atleast it means the return to Daal-roti (silver lining in any cloud one has to see).
(July, 2004)
