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Sat 27^th September 2008

OK, it’s a long time since I wrote anything I know, and I’ve completely failed to write about the Kremlin (which had an amazing collection of carriages in the Armory Museum, and the train journey (which I enjoyed, but everyone else got ill on!) and Ulan Bator which is dusty but has some beautiful Buddhist Monasteries, particularly beautiful during morning prayers when chanting fills the air. However, the others have written bits about all of that, so I will now jump straight to our adventures living wit Nomads!

We caught a very crowded bus from Ulan Bator a week on Friday, out into the middle of a massive mountainous region of Mongolia called Terelj National Park. Due to a tyre bursting on the bus on the way, we arrived fairly late and were met by our first host Chuka, who bundled us onto an Ox cart and set off at a trot before we’d all realized the balance and grip needed to keep us and our stuff on the cart. This resulted in my coat popping out of the top of my bag in the middle of the river! Chuka leapt after it before I had a chance and succeeded in rescuing it, but I felt bad that he was soaked as we trotted through forest and plain in the ever darkening dusk.

We were met at Chuka’s Ger by his wife and invited straight in for Milk tea, a hot salty milky drink which seems to be the staple drink of the Nomadic herders. Everywhere we stopped, it was the first thing we were offered and it was usually insisted that we drank several bowlfuls – meaning we were heartily sick of it by the time we left! The following morning Lavinia and I got to try our hand at milking which we were both terrible at, but we all enjoyed the fresh cream from the top of the previous days’ milk.

We spent our days travelling between five Gers and the middle few travelling to a temple. Travel was divided between horse riding, Ox cart and walking and was through stunningly beautiful rocky mountains, forests and river valleys. I particularly loved the horse riding, and was disappointed to only spend two days travelling by horse, although also fairly sore after those two days. Our first host Chuka was an incredibly enthusiastic rider and wanted to gallop everywhere. Galloping though mountainous Mongolian plains comes pretty high in my best moments travelling so far!

Our second hosts were not regular Ger to Ger hosts but the sister of the normal host because the latter were in Ulan Bator having a baby. The family that did host us had two adorable little boys Dowa and Togi who loved playing in our tents and with our cameras. Ikra, their father was deaf so communicated mostly through sign which we found easier than Mongolian. He was the only man we saw cut homemade noodles and mother the children, and was our guide during our three day trip to the temple.

During our trip to the temple, due to the weather being icily cold, instead of staying at the temple itself, we spent two night staying with our guide’s (Ikra’s) mother in law and her very large family. They were obviously not used to hosting tourists and were much more genuinely interested in us. They were also incredibly welcoming although at moments it was much more awkward than with the usual hosts. The in laws took great joy in feeding Ben as much as he could eat and were impressed by the sheer quantities and very amused and immediately dragged him off to cut fire wood and herd calves once he said he’d had enough to work it off (I think so they could see if they could get him to eat more!). They also amused themselves by giving us cupfuls of vodka to drink and laughing when our eyes watered! There were several young people in their early twenties like us and it was amazing to see how people our age live in Nomadic families. All of them were married and one of the young couples, whose Ger we spent quite a bit of time in had a baby. They were very curious about whether we were married or had children.

Our third host, Tsetsge, showed us how to play one version of ankle bones – a traditional Mongolian game using the ankle bones of herd animals (maybe goats but I’m not sure) and to our immense joy and relief had a spare Ger because her husband and son were away which she let us stay in with a wood burning stove (our water had frozen inside our tents the previous two night and we were starting to wonder whether we too might freeze before we got back to Ulan Bator). The following day she showed us how to use a bow and arrow and we had a go at archery. Ben and James persisted the longest and both eventually hit the target stack of rings.

Our final host, Uranchmeg, was very warm and funny and was very good at getting us to ‘help’ with things such as cooking, even though we were abysmally messy and slow. I almost got the hang of rolling out circles of pastry for traditional Mongolian dumplings, but at about a fifth of the speed she did it! She was a fantastic cook and Lavinia and I got vegetables, a great relief after a week of milky rice and meaty tasting bread and noodles. Our hosts husband was cheerful and kept coming to help us relight our stive when we accidently let it burn out and praised Ben’s strength extensively after he helped carry a better stove into the Ger we were able to stay in (again a relief not to be camping).

This morning we had to be up at 6:30 to catch a bus back to Ulan Bator and are now back and showered and fed. It is good to be able to eat vegetables again, but I personally would have liked to stay longer with the Nomadic herders in their beautiful remote surroundings. We have stayed with people living further from ‘civilisation’ than I have ever been before (or you could even get in the UK) and it is amazing to see the level of self sufficiency and resourcefulness. We saw sewing and ironing done with no electricity, food made and stored without fridges, people living without vegetables (!), and an amazingly strong sense of community. Many of our hosts stopped at Ger after Ger on our journey and apparently no nomad has to carry food when they travel around, they simply stop at Gers along the way and are fed.

I think I’ve rambled enough, but I hope its given you a small glimpse of the Mongolian Nomadic life which we have been living the last week. I’ll try and upload some pictures which might show it better!

Bye for now.

name Alison

Hoped it would be an amazing experience and it sounds as if it was. These memories are going to stay with you for the rest of your life and when you are back in the hustle and bustle of Bradford or Leicester hopefully you will be able to call on the peace and beauty of the Mongolian steppes somewhere in your spirit. Not sure about the cold camping though.....

name nina

love the pics tansy!! glad you are all having such an amazing time! lots of love to everyone xx

name Mel

Aaaah...it's great to finally hear about your mongolian adventures... not sure you saw my other post so cheers for the card, it is absolutely lovely!! Hope you are all well Look forward to hearing about the next adventures lots of love

name Pauline

Thanks Tansy for the pictures as well as the written updates. It is good to see you all looking so well. Next stop China. Lots of love from us all back home.

name Ailia

Great hearing about your far distant travels Tansy - hope to see you at Christmas if you are back.

name Grannie

Vienna was as opulent and decadent as we expected. It was cream cakes and palaces and Great Art all the way. Retirement gets better and better! We've left it too late for Ox-carts and gers. Take care.

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