Went to a national park around 80 kms N.E. of UB (Terelj National Park). The road was much like that of the main road of Chennai (viz full of pot holes). i was really surprised that how soon we were out of UB (in 5 minutes) and into the country side. As soon as one reaches the countryside one is hit by the fact that there are no people and how open everything is. One sees only cows grazing on the vast lush green open meadows along with an occassional herd of horses or even yaks (yes thats true!). the man to livestock ratio in mongolia is 1:10
and Mongolia is physically half the size of india and the population is only (hold your breath) 2.8 million (thats one-third the population of delhi or mumbai!). Because of this lack of people and construction, the landscape never ceases to amaze........
The overnight stay in the Park was in a Ger (a tentlike structure used by all Mongolians as home. Ger....Ghar...see the connection ?). This is a large circular tent made of felt with a fireplace in the middle. Since Mongolians are nomadic by disposition, the Ger is dismantlable in about an hours time. It can be set up in a couple of hours time. Though it was quite cold outside, the fire kept the ger warm from inside. What made it impossible to sleep was the constant disturbances
from all sides - there was a make shift bar near the Ger. This bar started at 11:00 at night and went on till around 6:00 in the morning. Which brings me to the national pastime of the Mongolians......Vodka !!!!
They can drink. They start drinking at 6 in the evening (vodka only please - the Russian influence) and continue till they pass out (which means a good 10-12 hours later as they have an extremely good capacity of handling drinks). If anyone of you ever visit mongolia, don't make the mistake of challenging a mongolian to a session of drinks. you'll pass out long before he even starts getting
warmed up. And its not only the men, the women drink too (an ideal situation for some - good looking women who drink!!!!!!!!!!!!). In fact next to the Ger, there was a group of 5 women who had decided to take time off from their husbands and visit the country side. They kept on drinking and talking and talking (about their mother in laws I guess -the mongolian version of "kyonki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi").
Met this irish guy today for lunch and we went for a beer. for the pedantically inclined, mongolian beer is (like almost every thing else) called Chingiss beer. of course, our talk solely comprised of
how good looking and smart mongolian women are. If the mothers are so beautiful, can
the babies be far behind !!!!!!! The kiddos here are total heartbreakers. they are so round and so cute :)))
Everything seems so expensive here. the currency is Togrog and is a bit like the Italian Lire (1USD = approx. 1170 Togrog). A beer in a bar costs around 2000 T (my version of the Big Mac Index!!!!!!!!!) which after a couple of beers seems totally exorbitant.
Anyways, back in UB today and have finalised my program for the next few days. have fixed up a 8 day trip to the Gobi desert (so no more updates from me for the next few days. and after that also if I decide to not come back....an extremely tempting proposition). The tour guide with whom i fixed the trip has actually met with julia roberts. I didn't leave her hand (so today i shook hands with someone who has shaken hands with Ms. Roberts.....sigh).
p.s. - I think the mongolians are far more enterprising than Indians. They have mobile PCOs. they use those large WLL handsets and walk around with them and look around for customers who want to make calls (Why didn't we think of that one!!!!!!)
(July, 2004)
