Sept. 23- After our last day of shopping & one last massage (JB-full body, JJ-feet, etc), we headed off to the airport in the evening for our 3 hr flight to Ulaanbaatar, the capitol of Mongolia. We arrived early, and spent the extra time reading & hanging out at Starbucks listening to the Rolling Stones' greatest hits. A true sign of the cheap labor costs in China was the fact that the 3 employees outnumbered the customers- J3. They worked diligently cleaning up, checking and re-checking merchandise, etc. The Stones were a nice change of pace compared to the typical trio of muzak-playing bands we typically saw in the bars.
<<<Note to overseas traveler- No matter how badly something fits when you try it on in the store/shop, no matter what problem you may have with the item, you are wrong and it fits perfectly....according to the salesperson. It's like they think they have this Jedi mind trick thing going...."It looks perfect...No, not too tight, it stretches...No, it will not shrink when washed, it's preshrunk...Fuscia is the only color I have left, and it looks great on you...it matches your eyes...">>>
We said sanbano (hello) to Mongolia after a reasonably uneventful flight, having read the airline promo magazine telling us how amazingly peaceful & beautiful Mongolia is. Well, they got the beautiful part right. Peaceful, somewhat. According to Suzanne (our host), the locals sometimes get a little...shall we say...aggressive with tourists and expats living here. She told a few stories that had us gripping the wallet a little tighter, and we moved on.
Suzanne and a driver met us at the airport and took us back to her place, where we had tea & caught up on life. Suzanne elaborated on the issues with the foreigners & locals, and it seems the locals just are a bit frisky and aren't very harmful. But still, the image of the "wild west of the 2000's" stuck in our imagination from that point forward.
Sept. 24- The next day we awoke, had some quick brekky, and headed off to the market. Along the way, in our Mongolian version of the Russian gypsy cab (sorry, pre-blog reference) which is a citizen making extra dough giving someone a ride It's very common here, and very cheap. We got our first daytime glimpse of the capital of Mongolia- old, concrete, delapidated buildings, crazy drivers, curious on-lookers (at us), & locals selling drinks/fruit, and even phone service- from their phone- on the sidewalk.
Suzanne gave us more info on Mongolia, and we discussed our plan of attack for finding transport & guide services to the Gobi. We ended up at one of her favorite places, an Irish Pub which serves decent grub. We had our first Mongolian beer and had lunch on their patio in sunny mid-sixty degree weather. Aside from the squashed knat & still-squirming worm we found in the salads, the meal was ok. We would find out soon that eating here is an adventure in itself- ALWAYS.
It was at the pub that we met up with Lufzan, owner of a travel agency specializing in treks around Mongolia. Suzanne had met him on a plane and they soon realized they had a mutual friend. We met and discussed the who's, how's, when's, etc for a Gobi trek. It all sounded great but we told Lufzan we'd think about it and get back to him (just to be sure).
We then went to see some old Buddhist temples in the middle of town. They were interesting albeit a bit delapidated. We visited the tourist shop, which was the first real "ger" we ever entered. A "ger" is a Mongolian teepee (for you yanks) which is round in shape & traditionally made of wood frame & animal skins. We bought some Mongolian goodies and went across the street for coffee. After some java & organizing a time to meet Lufzan later that night, we went to a traditional Mongolian show with Suzanne's friend Tracey and her daughter. We heard music played on traditional instruments from the region, saw shaman & religious folk dressed in amazingly colorful outfits, watched contortionists turn into pretzels a-la Cirque du Soleil (JJ's favorite part), and heard the world famous Mongolian (and southern Russian) throat-singing, or khoomei, where the singer creates 2 to even 4 different tones at the same time. The main tone (lower) stays constant and the higher ones fluctuate to create melodies sounding like a flute.
<< Heads up! Time for a little culture>>
Another similarity between Mongols & the wild west is the love of music & nature. Mongolian music conveys this deep appreciation that Mongolians have for their country, its natural beauty, and the inspiring deep blue sky above the vast Mongolian landscape, and usually their beloved horses as well. Most Mongolians are expected to have at least one song in their back pocket for a special occasion.
Mongolians are an interesting people. Their culture is still very nomadic- many live on the steppes (plains) and move around throughout the year. Others move from their permanent place in the city to the steppes for the summer or winter, depending on which climate they live in. They look like a mix between our Alaskan Eskimos, Native Americans, and Chinese. It's no wonder that scientists believe the Aleutian islands stretching from Alaska to Russia once was a land bridge. Ghingis Khan is definitely the great, great, great, great, great, grandfather of Sitting Bull, if you ask us.
Mongolians are a predominantly Buddhist people on paper (through the centuries the Tibetan Buddhists were part of the Khan dynasty and were a big religious influence), yet they mix a quite bit of Shamanism in as well (worshipping the master of mountains, water, sky and land, multiple gods, a shaman is a medium between the visible world and an invisible spirit world and who practices magic or sorcery for healing, talking to the gods, and control over natural events- again, the Native American similarity).
The favorite sports of Mongolians are a special type of wrestling called Bukh, archery, and horseracing. These all are on display annually at the national celebrations called Naadam & the Bukh champion gets almost all the glory.
After the cultural show, we all went to dinner and Lufzan joined us to finalize the deal, while also introducing us to Bambulai (his cousin & driver) who would drive us to the Gobi for the first few days alone, since Lufzan had a previous engagement to attend. Bambulai seemed like a nice fellow, and J3 were frankly excited to be forced to really learn some Mongolian, since Bambulai knew practically zero English!
Well, off to bed after first packing light for the trek. We leave early tomorrow morning!
<<Traveler's note- According to Suzanne's 2 year old Lonely Planet, there is NO golf course in the entire country of Mongolia.>>
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