Naadam

Back to Ulaan Baator after 5 days in the east of Mongolia where we had the chance to assist to a traditional Naadam. So, we were in a little village called Mongomorit (Silver horse in Mongolian) in the mountain that you can only reach after one afternoon of driving in a dirt road. The way there is not so obvious as you can see it on any maps and to reach the village we have to admit that we got lost at least a couple of times so we decided to ask to every ger (typical mongolian tent) along the track and like this we found a guide!! Indeed one of the man that we asked our way needed a lift to the village for the Naadam as well so he came with us and we arrived straight to Mongomorit... without him we could have got lost easily again! Anyway, after nice talks in the car (speaking mostly by hands) we arrived in the evening and everything was ready for the next day's celebration. We were really happy to have the chance to assist to a real Naadam, a Naadam less touristic that that one in Ulaan Baator very touristy in a crowded stadium. In the morning the excitement was in the air, everybody was coming by horse, some others by car or riding old motorcycles. The small arena (where the opening ceremony and the wrestling take place) was not far from the finishing lane of the horse races and people of every age were rushing from one place to the other to assist to the next event. All their traditional clothes made a great parade of colors (see the pictures to have an idea) and they were all proud to exhibit many different kind of fabrics although most of them are usually made of silk. It is interesting to know that in the country side nobody buys costumes all made up at the shop because they are very expensive. Instead the woman normally make them by themselves. Man also wear a belt made of a long ribbon of very colorful silk, and if you are rich and can afford it then you can wear a big silver and leather belt. The Naadam started with the official ceremony were woman, man and young children perform traditional dances and songs. Later, a small military unit perform some self defense and assault scenes to impress the people and the important people of the village also take part in the parade. It's great to see how they never hesitate to cheer and come to unknown and foreign people (like us) to welcome them to this event. After this ceremony the first horse race arrived. Participants usually run for about 10kms in the field followed by some big and new Land Cruisers speeding in the steppe. At that time everybody runs to the finish lane and start to scream to their favorite. We were impressed to see that only young boys and girls were riding the horses (often without the saddle). Then we discovered that the races are only for kids because the Mongolian horse is a mall species and it cannot be ride by adult for such demanding race. The incredible thing is that the minimum age to participate to these horse races is 4 years old. Well, we did not see anybody with that age participating this time but it is known that they learn to ride a horse before to learn how to speak. After the race all the horses turned around the arena continuously because after running it hurts them to stand still. All around the arena there were several rows of gers where people cook and sell typical Mongolian food. We tried “khuushuur” (fried mutton pancake..really good!) and a tea-based milky drink called “suutei tsai”. We also tried the “airag” or koumiss (a kind of beer made with the fermented mare's milk..a taste quite different from ours we would say!). They drink it all the time as water; even the kids and especially before a race. Finally the day was really great but later on it was time to go and drive a little bit further in the steppe to find our camp site for the night. After a few kilometers we settled in the middle of nowhere in a huge steppic valley, probably close to the land of Temujin and where he became Chinggis Khaan. The next morning as we were looking for the right track to follow, we ask our way to every ger we could find. At one of them we met a man that invited us for some unknown food. Like this we had our first approach to the typical farm summer food: “tsagaan idee”, literally white food that consists in yogurt, milk, fresh cream and dried cheese. It was not bad, but you have to love cheese with texture quite different from what we are normally used. Then the man brought a bowl of meat. During the “feast” he kept on looking for the name of the animal in our little phrasebook. When he found it, it was too late...we already wallowed pieces of it: a marmot! Yes we tried our first marmot and to be honest it was not so bad after all. After this particular experience we hit the dirt road again and as we were crossing relief and valleys we discovered beautiful landscapes, forests, lakes, mountains etc...
We sleep in the nature all the time, far from everything, on front of amazing sunsets and surrounded only by the noise of the grasshoppers.
Now we are back in Ulaan Baator (unfortunately under the rain) where we need to get our transit visa for Russia (in order to enter in Kazakhstan next month) and to repair our back door that suffers from a bad job done by the previous owner of our car to attach the 5th spare wheel. At the Russian embassy we faced the absurdity of the bureaucracy and along losing one more day of traveling we also needed to pay an extra 80US$ for a express visa.
The positive point of this is that this extra time gave us the opportunity to fix the door. With the help of some local people (hired by the guest house where we park our Toyota) we built an extra support that reinforce the structure of the door and the wheel support. Hopefully it's all sturdy now and ready for our next destination: the Gobi desert. We have to be prepared for the Gobi desert because here in the hostel the owner told us that “Gobi is not funny!”, also many people who have a long experience in Africa say that it is a very difficult terrain...we don't have much experience like them but we have to see it for ourselves, we'll just take it easy and slowly. The company of our french friends is not only great for the fun of the trip but with their BJ75 is also comforting in case anything happen with one or the other Land Cruiser. We’ll tell you all about this new part of our journey as soon as we find Internet again after the desert.

PS: For everyone that think they are not able to post comments on this blog we want to say that all your messages are sent to our personal e-mail address and we publish them as soon as we check the emails and we accept them. In this way if there are some private messages we can keep them private or decide to publish them. So do not be worried, all the messages are here...just wait for our answer!

PS2: Arnaud, grand merci pour le Calvados!! Comme promis nous l'avons ouvert à notre arrivée en Mongolie et il était super bon! Salut à toute la famille!!

PS3: JM wins again the latest contest. So it's one matryoshka for Rose and another one for Marius, I guess. Bravo JM! Sorry for Clarissa and Cinzia: the answers were right but JM was faster again this time.

PS4: Congratulation to Patrick for his answer to the question about the Lake Baikal! Patrick, even if you dont really want it i think that the Matryoshka #2 will love to sit beside the little statue that you already have on your desk. So wait until we come back and then you will decide if you really don't want it.
Well done anyway!