From Irkutsk we had to cross the border into Mongolia. Border crossings on the transsiberian are extremely long taking up to 7 hours sometimes. We stopped at a tiny no name russian town. (It did have a name but to emphasise it's smallness and remoteness I'm not going to bother looking it up.) The town had a few supermarkets selling principally dried meat, vodka and snickers bars, this trip has taught me that everywhere sells snickers bars. We were looking for fresh fruit or vegetables and were out of luck.
We then walked to the far end of the town, this did not take long and photographed some of the desolation around and the animals roaming through the town. Back at the train we had a few more hours to wait before getting our passports back and the train leaving.
We arrived in Mongolia at 5am or some other ungodly hour. We were driven directly to a ger camp in the countryside around ulaanbaatar. They had hot showers followed by hot breakfasts so we were all in a great, but tired moods.
I'd like to say that we were in an authentic ger camp in a sea of Mongolian steppe, however there were a very large number of very similar ger camps dotted all along the valley. That's not to say it wasn't nice though it was just clearly very touristy.
The landscape was awesome, lightly grassed semi desert with massive rock formations punching through the valley's ridges. I did what i usually do in such situations and set about climbing as many as possible.
We then visited a rock formation that looked like a turtle, and climbed it. Inside a crack in the formation was a table shaped rock covered with money which i assumed was a good luck or wishing thing. There was a tight crack that i could just about ferret my way through to get the other side of the rock.
We then visited a Mongolian woman living in a ger and sampled traditional foods. The food was almost entirely comprised of various combinations of cheese, butter and oil deep fried. Mostly quite bland but one type the ruled out cheese was extremely strong. We also tried airag which is fermented mares' milk, tastes like alcoholic yogurt drink and was quite nice. We also tried milk vodka which wasn't as strong as real bodka but wasn't bad. The woman's ger had a refrigerator, television and old fashioned dressing table which was a bit jarring in a ger.
Our next activities were archery and dressing up in traditional mongolian clothes. The bow was like the kind of thing english heritage sell in their gift shops, genghis khan would not have conquered greatest land empire ever using it. The traditional clothes were good though.
Our final activity for the day was horse riding. Similarly genghis khan would not have used these horses in battle but that was probably a good thing for us.
We learned to play knuckles after dinner which involves doing sheep knuckles on a table at which point they can land in four different ways. You then flick knuckles that have landed in a similar way into each other with your right hand. If you have managed to hit the one into the other without touching any others you then pick one of them up with your left hand and get to keep it. Sounds simple, but it is pretty fun but takes a very long time with 15 players, we have up after a few hours.
The next day we visited a 40m high stainless steel statue of Genghis khan which kind of speaks for itself. There was a museum under his horse showcasing arrowheads, swords and stirrups which you can only see so much of. The real fun is climbing up inside his horse where you can stand on his horse's head and take Genghis khan selfies.
Then we left to ulaanbaatar.
Our hotel looked nice but they had obviously scrimped on the final touches with banisters that rocked madly when touched lightly, cracked wash basins, no hand soap and no hot water. But they did have wifi and signs exorting us not to flood the bathroom floor.
We visited a buddhist temple which seemed kind of unassuming from the outside but had a massive golden buddha inside it which was overwhelming. At the temple they had rotating drums containing religious texts that you spin as you walk around which i hadnt seen before.
We then went to a mongolian culture show with some cool instruments, singing and gross contortionism which was entertaining.
Then home to bed annnnd back on the train bright and early.
No comments:
Post a Comment