Mongolia......FINALLY

It's bloody cold here: was our first impression as we quickly marched out of the airport. Our hasty exit was caused by the immigration prick, who was making his presence strongly known while we were passing through customs. We both decided to wear different clothing on this trip in an attempt to de-size ourselves. We looked something like this:
MUPPETS!

In a sea of Chinese and Mongolians all dressed in black and grey, we really could not have stood out more as tourist attempting to enter Mongolia, again. Our cunning plan worked however, as we got through.
It was an early start the following day to begin our 3 day 2 night Ger to Ger tour. It began with a 3 hour bus trip to Bulgan region, north west of UB. Mongolian public transport is ummm interesting. Firstly, the bus is packed to the rafters, the driver doesn't always have to drive on the right side of the road or even on the road and cheesy Mongolian comedy shows blasted from the TV while the inside of the windows completely ice over.
 
                                           


Mr and Mrs Byambatogtoh and eight year old son, Batgerei were our first nomadic host family. Most Mongolians outside of UB speak very little English and our Mongolian was non-existent. We were going to spend the next 3 days learning Mongolian quickly or doing lots of sign language.

Nomad-ism is a male orientated society that has many social and cultural rules. Nick is always the first to enter the Ger, as he is old and male. On entering the ger you must head in the western (as in direction not culture) or visitors side of the ger. Never point your feet in the direction of the alter (which is always north) and never receive any food with your left hand.

Nomads are herders with sheep being the most common livestock. Mr Byambatogtoh had 80 sheep, 5 camels and 1 horse. The wives roles are to look after the family ger. Which basically means keeping the stove going, cooking and constantly cleaning the snow and mud off the floor.
Batgerei was a laugh. He could speak a good amount of English, with his favorite saying being 'come on and play a mean game of chess’.

Part of the Ger to Ger experience was to take part in Nomadic life. I helped Mrs Byambatogtoh prepare Bansh, a boiled meat dumpling, while Nick collected dung. Instead of firewood, camel, sheep and horse dung is used to fuel the stove.

We were constantly blown away by the beautiful vast surrounding landscape.

Day 2 involved a 2 hour camel ride to Mr Idertsogt ger, our second host family via the local worshipped site of Khadagt.

 

We tried so hard to learn and remember everyone’s names, but come on, they didn't make it easy for us. I was happy to find out that 'buggy' was going to show us Swan Lake and the Sand Dunes in a blizzard! The 21km round trip was by horseback. 5 km into the journey our backsides were hurting. 10km in, we were wishing the -10c temp would numb the pain. Mongolian saddles are not like any other in the world. They are small and made of wood. Poor Nick even had a metal bar to add to comfort. I saw his butt, ugly! His riding sores were not pretty either. P.S The lake was frozen and there was no F'n swans.
[photos 8 and 9 please]

We returned to the ger tired, sore and hungry. Our sleep was restless as Mr Idertogt snored like a dieing chainsaw. This forced Nick into my undersized single bed in an attempt to distance himself from the racket. Impossible in a ger. I was happy for the extra warmth as the fire had gone out and the temp inside the ger was -20c.
We were expecting to see the nomadic Mongols living as they have done for centuries with no running water, oil lambs and dung fueled stoves. So it was a bit of a shock to see a satellite dish and solar panels outside each ger. Overall, we loved the Mongolian experience. We would have liked to stay longer but both agreed that next time it might be better in the summer.