24 Days

So, here's the long version...

On September 2 I made some plans to go on a short canoe trip with a few other travelers. Less than two hours later I ran into the Mancunian from the Beijing-to-UB train and I ended up joining up with him and two Dutch folk for a quickly arranged 24 day jaunt into the Northern, Middle-West and Gobi (Southern) parts of the country. Tour companies, guesthouses and independent drivers all make arrangements for these kinds of trips, which typically last 6-10 days. However, the trip we took takes in most of the major sites enjoyed by tourists (meaning they are withing a few days of Mongolia's capital, Ulaan Baatar, if you travel a direct route.



The day before the trip we stocked up on food and supplies, as we planned to camp most nights. We shopped at an inexpensive market which was housed in an old gutted building and consisted of a couple dozen rows of stalls selling many of the same items. In some areas you could find fruits and vegetables, in others meats, dry goods, beverages, cleaning and cooking items, etc. It was a little bit frustrating having to point to what we wanted and pay for dozens of items sparately. Before the shopping trip we started our trip fund, or the "kitty" and I acted as treasurer (you would expect that, right?).

Our first stop was Amarbayasgalant Khiid (monastary)in the Selenge Aimag (province), and considered to be one of the top three Buddhist institutions in the country (the other two are Gandan Khiid in Ulaan Baatar and the Erdene Zuu monastary in Kharkhorin).



The road started out beautifully- perhaps 200 kilometers of paved glory. But that was more pavement than we would see for the entire 23 days to come... The last few dozen kilometers to the site were rocky, dirty and bumpy. I had been expecting such roads, but was still surprised upon being first treated to them. You can't read, you can't certainly write, and don't try to eat or drink on those roads. I'll be honest, some dirt roads were pretty fantastic, but you are always in for a few dramatic bumps in the road, and of course the metaphorical bumps, but the juicy stuff will be relegated to AIM conversations and email for now.


The monastary was built over a 10 year period in the second quarter of the 18th century, but communists destroyed much of it two hundred years later. Restoration began 30 years ago and it looks pretty great now, despite the headless bodhisattvas behind the stupa out front. The most awesome part is the sheer will of the builders and worshippers- the thing appears by a hillside out of nowhere it seems. Well, so does pretty much everything in Mongolia!




We passed through the Bulgan Aimag and stopped in the small and very Russian city (population 75,000) of Erdenet for lunch on Day the second day and our next main stop was the Selenge Gol (river) (also, predictably, in Selenge), a small but awesome river that starts in Western Mongolia and drifts north, flowing into Siberia's amazing Lake Baikal. So maybe some of my DNA will end up there. Wait, nevermind.

We moved North in the direction of Lake Khovsgol (silent k), and stopped in a tiny town for some Mongolian food. The food is fairly bland, and like the guidebook says, "Almost any Mongolian dish can be created with meat, rice, flour, and potatoes." Mongolian "Nomads" (we'll get to that later, because they aren't nomadic, they are transhumant) subsist almost solely on dairy products some parts of the year. They also eats tons of mutton (sheep). You'd think one or two sources would have consulted an anthropologist before throwing around the term so willy-nilly. I'd like to offer my services as an anthropologist to any and all misusing the term. I'd be happy to explain it.



Since I brought it up... Nomads are associated with band type societies that have uncentralized political systems and shamanistic religions. Being nomadic means that they are constantly moving and that all their material possessions can be carried on their bodies. Some nomads use pack animals, but this is rare, as caring for or having and using animal flesh is a costly business- costly time-wise, costly in the way that most affects these hunter-gatherers. Nomads do not alter their environments, and they move about in order to replenish their food resources automatically.

Mongolians are pastoralists. Their livelihood revolves around herd animals. They do not hunt and they do very little gathering. In fact, gathering of fruits, nuts, and vegetables is very unusual for "suburban" Mongolians, as their resources for these items would deplete far before they moved on. This is the essence of transhumance- seasonal movement, which is exactly what herders do. They move, generally within familiar and fixed areas, in order to keep their herds fed. Pastoralism is labor-intensive (like its cousin agriculture), and though Mongolian groups appear small they have extensive networks set up in their communities.

Nearly to Lake Khovsgol, we stopped in a small city called Moron for a surprising lunch of Yak Schnitzel (not a Mongolian specialty).



Moo-run is very like other Aimag capitals, run-down, dusty, crawling with ruthless drivers who hated sharing their roads, and definitely a place to get out of quickly.

After camping the first 3 nights we stayed two nights at a guesthouse in the town at the South end of the lake, Khatgal.



It is a small town that revolves around its tourist industry. Moments after our arrival we witnessed the first mobile shops common to tourist areas. Shop is used loosely: 4 women were delivered by motorbikes to the dirt parking area of the guesthouse and set up shop by laying out various wool, camel and goat hair goods, keychains and the like. I bought a small game made from animal bones for a bit more than 2000 togrog (tugrug), about $1.75 USD. The highlight of the guesthouse may have been the "shower," a huge blue water container with a tube coming out of the opening at the top that attached to a contraption of tubes, foot pedals, and a shower head at the end. Yes, I foot-pumped my way semi-clean. That was to be my best shower in 24 days.



Anyway, we made it up to the lake itself after a brief respite from driving. We camped for a night:



We also did some horsebackriding and stayed with the guide's family for a night. The second day I spent a long time with these interesting children.



One of them wouldn't stop socking me in the groin, and I learned a lot about child rearing by watching the half-naked one being cared for by his mother.There really are animals everywhere. I think we saw some wild horses but all the other animals: goats, sheep, camels and a few pigs, undoubtedly belonged to herders. It is hard to imagine how they keep tabs on their animals. Near the end of the trip we saw a guy herding his camels by motorbike in the Gobi.



This next photo is out driver "Oot-zi." He was soft-spoken and kind, until about half-way through the trip when he got smashed on vodka and tried to take the stove apart in the ger (traditional mongolian dwelling) we were staying in. The following day he acted very strangely, but we soon realized he was *still* drunk. He tried to drink vodka shots with lunch but we protested heavily and even grabbed the bottle from his hand. I was very upset and left the canteen, but he followed me outside and in his broken English he said to me: "Ry Maya, ry? It Mongolian custom? Maya, ry? Ry? These friend, ry Maya. Please." and so forth. I was very angry but after a good nights sleep everything was almost back to normal.



We had another long day's drive, passing through Moron again and camping outside of Jargalant. Many of the cities seem like sad places, a few cars rustle through the dirst or over broken pavement, tiny shops litter the wide streets and children with dark blue suits or bright white bows skip up dust around their ankles. Still, I wouldn't mind doing some fieldwork in Jargalant or elsewhere...



At one point we took a detour to a Bronze Age site, Uushigiin Uver, where we saw some deerstones and sacrificial altars. Most of the detail was washed from the stones, but what remained was fantastic.



Terkhiin Tsagaan Nuur (known in English as the Great White Lake) was our next major stop. The freshwater lake is surrounded by volcanic craters and was formed by lava flows from an eruption thousands of years ago. It is relatively undevelopedand the lake is still a beautiful place to camp.



We hiked up a small volcano, Khorgo Uul and got a good look inside the cone. The best part however, was looking out back towards the lake, as the land between them consists of a few trees and millions of pieces and chunks and boulders of black volcanic rock. Pieces of it look like some strange set of a sci-fi picture from the 1960s.



Our spot by the lake was great, we were on a flat plain some woody and dry trees, with perfect views of the lake, surrounding mountain range, and of course the sunrises and sunsets.



We passed through the town of Tsetserleg and spent the night at a "hotel," and when we woke up it had snowed! This is probably where I was when the freeze hit Mongolia and so many people died.



No Mongolian trip is complete without a visit to Kharkorin (karakorum), the location of Chinggis Khaan's (Genghis Khan) ancient capital. There isn't much left of the ancient city, but the new one is built close to the Erdene Zuu (Hundred Treasures) monastary. It took 300 years for them to complete the monastary, the first one in Mongolia.



At its height there were close to 100 temples and 300 gers set up inside, with 1000 monks residing. It was abandoned and later invaded by Chinese, so those things are gone and the monastery is a shell of stupas and a few temples. Communists allowed some restoration but no religious services or practices. However, the collapse of communism in 1990 changed that, so there are a few monks in residence. They are likely to wear sneakers with their robes, though.





Outside the city and monastary walls are turtle rocks, four of which once marked the boundaries on the ancient city. Turtles are considered symbols of eternity.



We stayed at a local homestay guesthouse (ended up camping 16 nights and staying in guesthouses 7 nights) where we were treated to a small throat singing performance by a former air traffic controller named B Baasandorj. He played a few different instruments, including a stick with he rapped against his knuckles, head, teeth and hip. In the photo below he is playing a horse head fiddle, one of the national instruments, and is tuned by fourth and fifth harmony. Many traditional melodies emulate the sounds animals make: sheep, cow and calf, and the craw. I was surprised and pleased to learn that the traditional instruments and music remain popular with the young and old. I used my italk attached to my ipod to record many of his songs. I'll play them for you sometime, or at least forward an mp3 if you're interested.



On the way out of the city we stopped briefly at a 'vaginal slope' and 'phallic rock.' The slope pictured is clearly huge, as there is a car and a person in the photo. My guidebook says "Legend has it that the rock was placed there in attempt to stop frisky monks, filled with lust by the shapely slope, from fraternizing with the local women."




We enjoyed a stop at the ruins of Ovgon Khiid before campng nearby. It was a great place to camp, but I was startng to feel the ravages of so many days in swirling winds and dust, along with too much sun.




More ruins a couple days later... This collection of former monasteries is known as Ongiin Khiid, and the monk pictured below opened up the temples for us and then followed me around. I felt like I was the only one there, an archaeologist exploring remains of hearths, ceremonial rooms and bedrooms.



Camels! I drank vodka made from fermented and distilled camel milk later in the trip.


Next we visited the famous "Flaming Cliffs" of Roy Chapman Andrews, the site of a terrific dinosaur egg find in the 1920s by Roy Chapman Andrews. His work led to some really strange discoveries later in the century, including an 80 million year-old fossil of a Protoceratops and a Velociraptor locked in mortal combat. Andrews is supposedly the figure that Indiana Jones was based on.

We then headed for the some of the largest sand dunes in Mongolia, the Khongoryn Els, which have heights up to 300 meters, widths of up to 12km and a length of 100km! Some call them the duut mankhan (singing dunes) because they rumble below you, a sound not unlike a throat singer or a camel.



Camel rides are all the rage, but I would not recommend more than two hours. Also, Mongolian saddles aren't appropriate when your camel gallops. I couldn't sit properly for at least two days.



This really is too long. Here you see Yolyn Am (Vultures Mouth), an unusual rock formation in the Gobi that has tons of ice almost all year! Guess when there was no ice... I did see some interesting cows.



Sunset near a place that looked so much like Mars I wanted to look for the rover.



Some of my best moments on the trip were spent with this girl. She was a neighbor of our driver's brother in the North Gobi. I watched her family set up their ger, and I have an entry in the works which is about how gers are constructed and what is inside them. She started calling me Enn-nyah after a couple hours and when I asked Ootzi he said it means sister. It was a wonderful day.



The Sum Khokh Burd, built in the 10th century, was a temple and later a palace. The ruins were quite beautiful. I especially loved the way the stones were stacked.




The granite rock formation Baga Gazrin Chuluu had some of the best views at sunset, and a walk in these ruins was a perfect goodbye to rural Mongolia.



Also, here is a decent site with information about many of the sites I visited.

In a few days I head back to China after about 5 weeks here. I will slowly upload all of the pictures and post links to the sets in a new sidebar feature sometime soon. Ger entry coming soon!!