I awoke at 5am, from the time difference & also from excitement. I washed my hair, woke Tom at 6.30am & packed 1 bag to share between us.
We met our driver, his name is Jackie & our guide is named Undra both of them seem very happy, approachable & friendly. We hear our vehicle pull up outside from 4 floors up. It's a Russian model 4WD Van & looks reliable, comfortable & very cool!
We were due to leave our Mongolian Guesthouse at 9.30am, before we left our host sprinkled fresh goats milk onto all 4 tyres, the steps & the front of the van. An old superstitious act that wards off bad luck & protects the car & its occupants from harm. We started to drive through the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar stopping off for food & fuel. Our guide explained there is 3.2 million people in Mongolia with half of the population now living in & around Ulaanbaatar. She explained she was born in Zamiin Uud, her family still lives there but she prefers Ulaanbaatar. Ulaanbaatar has showed off with another beautiful, clear & sunny day, initially at 5am it was a crisp temperature of -3, with a top of 16 promised later in the day. As we drive through the town, you can see an assortment of gers (traditional Mongolian houses) & houses constructed from various materials, a lot of second hand, mismatched material. Definitely nothing like the shanty towns I have seen in Asia & Africa, some of these dwellings have garages, fences, chimneys, satellite discs & some are 2 & 3 stories high. We can see the mountains on the outskirts of town and a powerplant burning away. It's also nice to see a large section of land occupied by solar panels. 20 minutes outside of Ulaanbaatar, we see herds of stocky goats, sheep, horses & camels still scruffy with their thick winter coats. We can also see large birds of prey dominating the blue skies. The brown dirt soon gives way to sparse grass as we leave Ulaanbatar behind & head into the Gobi Desert.
Were heading into the central Gobi province to a place called Baga Gazariin Chuluu. It's all amazing open plains & vast untamed wilderness already. Our exhiliration is palpable! While driving we were told about how its a superstitious belief that if you try and say what time you will arrive that something bad will happen. Mongolians have 3 times; morning, afternoon & evening.
Just before lunch the landscape changes again, there wasn't anymore grass, nor did the earth appear dry. The temperature dropped & we could see ice on the side of the road & up the hills. The animals looked skinnier & we started to see dead livestock, victims of the fiercely cold winter.
Our driver put on the radio at this point & selected Akons album from the early 2000's, something we hadn't heard in a long time. At 12.30pm we pulled over in the middle of nowhere & our driver started fiddling with the engine, another tour van also from the same company as ours pulled over & their driver assisted. We speculated it was a problem with a fuel pump or the carberhator. It must be a common problem, he had 4 others of the same spare part & it didn't take too long to fix. Lucky we're on Mongolian time now & it's really hard to be late!
At 1pm we stopped at a Mongolia restaurant for lunch. We had Traditional Mongolian Pasta & Mongolian Mutton soup with a cup of coffee. Both dishes were delicious, especially the pasta which was fresh.
While eating, a Mongolian man walked in wearing the traditional nomad attire, called a dell. A big heavy red coat that went down to his knees & was cinched at the waist with a gold cloth belt. An olive green hat, similar to a bonnet in design though it tied on to itself, instead of under his chin & big black boots. Our guide explained this is ideal for horse riding in Mongolia as it keeps you warm. He looked like the first Nomadic Mongolian we would see. He was very big in stature & had a face full of wrinkles with very dark sun exposed skin. He was impressive & kinda scary. Not for the first time I thought about how terrifying it would have been to fight the Mongols in ancient times.
Shortly after lunch the van turned off the bitumen road & we followed a faint dirt track winding through the hills. The landscape started to change again revealing large collections of granite formation & mountains. We were shown a cave and told a story about conflict in the past between Russia & Mongolia. As a result a lot of remote communities of Mongolians were hunted out & murdered. Some were able to hide & survive in caves that went 17 meters down, such as the one we were shown.
After the cave we drove another few kilometers to be shown a sacred place for Buddhist worship in Mongolia. There are 2 dwellings from the 13th century that still have walls standing, despite only being made of rocks & mud. The 2 monks who built the structures were buried in the area after they died. There was a slightly more recent dwelling from the 17th century also in the area. It has become a sacred area for annual Buddhist worship, lots of blue prayer scarves representing the blue Mongolian skies can be seen tied to trees. The mongolians also pile rocks together to make a tower. They then pick up smaller rocks & make 3 circles with the arm & hand that also contains the rocks, while praying & walking around the rock tower & finally releasing the rocks.
At 1pm we stopped at a Mongolia restaurant for lunch. We had Traditional Mongolian Pasta & Mongolian Mutton soup with a cup of coffee. Both dishes were delicious, especially the pasta which was fresh.
While eating, a Mongolian man walked in wearing the traditional nomad attire, called a dell. A big heavy red coat that went down to his knees & was cinched at the waist with a gold cloth belt. An olive green hat, similar to a bonnet in design though it tied on to itself, instead of under his chin & big black boots. Our guide explained this is ideal for horse riding in Mongolia as it keeps you warm. He looked like the first Nomadic Mongolian we would see. He was very big in stature & had a face full of wrinkles with very dark sun exposed skin. He was impressive & kinda scary. Not for the first time I thought about how terrifying it would have been to fight the Mongols in ancient times.
Shortly after lunch the van turned off the bitumen road & we followed a faint dirt track winding through the hills. The landscape started to change again revealing large collections of granite formation & mountains. We were shown a cave and told a story about conflict in the past between Russia & Mongolia. As a result a lot of remote communities of Mongolians were hunted out & murdered. Some were able to hide & survive in caves that went 17 meters down, such as the one we were shown.
After we saw the holy place we could climb up some rock formations to admire the view & sit in the sun & wind. It was glorious, I felt so free.
Just before the sun set the entire nomadic family emerged & set off in various directions on motorbikes, shortly after there was an abundance of animals around. The baby animals are herded into a sheltered enclosure & fed. This guarantees the adults stay close while also protecting & sheltering the young. The sun set just after 8pm & was a perfect end to a great day in the gobi desert.
- Alli
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