Out of Mongolia - And how much Tricia sucks.

First off, my apologies to those that had been waiting patiently for an update, I know it wasn't because you're interested, but merely looking for a way to waste some work time. My last post was brief, but we didn't have much time at all in UB with Nadaam going on. The festival was supposed to be the tour highlight but ended up being a pretty big cluster....but more on that later.

As for an overview, I guess it's pretty hard to figure out where to start now. I guess with the group, who once again for a GAP tour were a great bunch of traveling companions. Everyone was very well traveled as Mongolia isn't your typical first stop outside your home country. Altogether we had 15 people on the tour, one GAP guide, a local guide, two cooks and a driver for each of our vans. Most everyone was awesome and the local people were outstanding to get to know and see Mongolia with. We had a range of nationalities, from the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia and Belgium. We also had a wide range of ages, from
to 63.

Our first full day had us leaving UB for the Amarbaysgalant Monastery about 250 Km north. Unfortunately we got to enjoy one of those wonderful breakdowns we'd heard happen frequently in Mongolia and that left two of our vans sitting on the roadside for nearly 6 hours while our drivers tried to find the part to fix it. We were pretty bored, but passed the time drinking, singing and taking stupid pictures. By the time we got in it was nearly 2AM and we saw the monastery the next morning. It was interesting as I don't know anything really about Buddhism.

After that tour, we headed off to the Lake Khovsgol region. It was a really long way away on some of the roughest roads I've ever traveled on. Pavement seems to be something of a luxury in Mongolia and most roads were just two tracks in the grass that we managed maybe 35 km/hour if we were lucky. We spent two days driving and had to camp both nights along the way before reaching the lake.

It was worth it though as we were about 100 km from the Russian border. The lake was surrounded by mountains and we were pretty excited to stay in a ger camp, rather than camp. A ger is a traditional Mongolian home for the nomadic people. About half of the country still lives a nomadic lifestyle and gers are easily transported as they move to allow their herds to graze. Think of their version of a teepee, except that they're about 12 feet in diameter.

For our full day at the lake we had some options of things to visit. Most of the group visited a group of reindeer herders that practice Shamanism. It's a pretty rare culture in Mongolia, but I didn't join them. Instead, I grabbed my backpack and hiked up into the mountaints surrounding the lake. It was fun, but really rough off-trail hiking. After that, most of us took about an hour horseback ride around the lake.

From there we headed down toward another national park and lake called the Great White Lake. It wasn't white, nor great, but made for a fun couple of days after another night of camping in between. One of the tour highlights happened on that night of camping though, as we camped next to a couple of Mongolian families. We asked to do that to be able to meet a nomadic family and we just picked a good spot and pulled up to ask if we could camp there. The families didn't mind and were probably pretty happy that we did.

One of the things we got to experience there was a traditional Mongolian barbecue. It's absolutely nothing like the restaurant chain in the US, and I'm not sure where they got the idea to call it Mongolian barbecue.

What we got was a fresh sheep we bought from the family. One of our drivers killed it by a pretty unusual method, he cut a slit in its stomach below the rib cage and reached in and pulled the heart out. Apparently it's their traditional way of killing sheep for slaughter, to minimize the blood. Another driver butchered it and we took the meat and gave the organs and the skin to the family we bought it from.

To cook it, they loaned us a steel pot that we loaded with the meat, some carrots and potatoes, seasonings, water and hot rocks. While it was it was cooking in the pot next to the fire, the family invited us into their ger. It was really interesting and they passed around some homemade yogurt and cheese. We're not sure what milk it was made from, but it was either sheep, goat or yak. We had the opportunity to ask questions about their lifestyle and they seemed happy to share the info. After that we invited them over for dinner and some singing around the fire. It was an awesome night and one of the most fun I've had traveling.

From there we headed to the lake for two days to stay in another ger camp and enjoy the lake and the sorrounding volcanic terrain. I did get a laugh that day as one of our drivers caught a fish, which since none of them knew how to do it, I had to fillet. I joked with them that they can take a pocket knife and kill and butcher a sheep, but can't fillet a damn northern pike. They thought that was funny and cooked up the fish for us after I was done with it.

After that it was off to an area of sand dunes called Bayangobi. We were lead to believe it was the actual Gobi, but it wasn't. It was fairly disappointing, but we did have fun taking a camel ride out into the bush.

The day wasn't a total loss though as it was my 30th birthday. I know a lot of you back in Atlanta celebrated without me, but you missed one fun night in Mongolia. Our guide had asked if anyone had a birthday on the trip and mine was the only one. So without my knowledge, they bought a cake during one of our grocery stops and everyone pitched in for a bag of goodies for my birthday. It was really unexpected and made for one of the best birthdays I've ever had. I can't thank the group enough for what they did.

The one downer for the night was that it was the last with our Mongolian guides. I can't tell you enough how great they were and it really touched all of us when the drivers pitched in and bought some local beer to share with all of us. Nobody that had ever done a trip like this could remember when the local guides bought a treat for the tour group. From what our tour leader translated for us, they really enjoyed the 12 days they spent with us. I know we had a great time with them.

After that we had a rough ride back to UB for what was supposed to be the highlight of the tour, Nadaam. We had been roughing it for a longtime and were due for some comfort. When I mentioned how I'd never felt so remote, I meant it. And to start picking on Tricia, the Namibia trip last year was remote, but felt like a drive through the suburbs at times compared to this trip. We didn't have a lot in the way of amenities, but it made it more fun looking back on it.

Nadaam is the event of the year in Mongolia as they celebrate their "manly" games of archery, wrestling and horseback riding. We had tickets to the opening ceremony and watched some of the first wrestling matches. Things kind of fell apart after that and we only go to watch about 20 minutes of archery before we had to head out of town for the horse races. We were late getting there and didn't get to see anything.

Yesterday morning some of us skipped out on wrestling to watch horse racing later on, but due to some road closures and traffic jams most of us didn't get to see a single event all day. We did have a fun dinner though and I flew out for Seoul at midnight and I'm back to Atlanta this afternoon.

All in all, it's been a great time. I apologize again for not posting more, except to Tricia, but I'm sure you'll all get to hear plenty about it in the weeks to come. Pictures will be coming as soon as I can get them and I even have a couple of funny videos to post for you as well.

I hope everyone is well back home and I will talk with you soon.