Mongolia - Land of the Blue Skies

Mongolia. If you asked me 5 years ago if I would travel to Mongolia, I probably would have had a glazed far away look and said, "in my dreams." And here I am, just having spent almost 2 weeks in Mongolia, a place that has always had a sense of mystery and awe to me. How did I end up here? It started with a travel friend (ahhhh, I love travel friends for that reason, always getting good ideas. That's how I ended up in the Sstan's last year!) sending me a link to a Sierra Club trip there. While I was reading about it, my jaw dropped. It dropped further when I saw the price. Ouch. I temporarily gave up the idea, but then it stuck in my head how amazing it would be to go there and there had to be another way. Well, as a Taurus and being stubborn, I don't let go of things easily. I started researching and before I knew it got a response from a local company during the time I would have liked to go and also at a reasonable price. Sold. With a friend of a friend having traveled with this company, Mongola- Expeditions, the rest is history. As mentioned, after last year's more or less sedentary travels, I was eager for a trip with activity and nature. This is about the best I could do, a trekking trip to the vast open mountains of Western Mongolia. The trip involved camping, something that although I have done the last 2 years, still is something I am a bit apprehensive about, but felt the need to get out of my comfort zone. Nonetheless, have some super American friends that happen to be camping guru's and they lent me a whole bunch of useful gear including sleeping bag, sleeping mat and some warm clothes.

Part of Mongolia's emblem that is on their flag is a yin and yang symbol and this is definitely accurate when I talk about Mongolian in general and Ulanbataaar, which homes 40% of the population and 1.4 million of the 3ish million. It is a busy polluted (they say in the winter it literally is the worst in the world from the cole burning in the nearby gers) poorly infrastructured city. Gross! And not what I would think about when I think about Mongolia, a contrast to the yin and the immense and glorious landscape of mountains, desert, plaines and fields. What a difference! But yet they are interconnected and it somehow works. The first thing one notices upon leaving the city and getting in a vehicle is that the wheel is on the right side. Okay, I guess a lot of cars are imported from Japan, right? Then you look at the car next to you and see the wheel is on the left. Hmmm..... Eh, what? As true to Mongolian contrasts, this is another example. Left side, right side. Then you get to the city, modern complexes and high brand names and fashion stores... Then old Russian style delapitated and worn down buildings. Then some gers in the mix of all that. With that you find ultra modern stylish people next to a young punk style dress next to someone in traditional clothing, a deel - the silk robe that is worn with the silk sash (that I learned was used back in the day to hold in organs for long horse rides). Somehow it doesn't seem off or strange all these contrasts, the yin and yang of Ulan and Mongolia.  In a country that has the richest history I think in the world and being surrounding by the most powerful countries in the world, Russia and China, it seems no wonder it is the way it is. It was funny, even arriving at the airport and going to exhange some money, a pushy local came and almost side swept her way in front of me. Although just coming from Korea and being used to the all-too-polite nature, I do have an aggressive side to me with things like that (you have to be like that with travel sometimes), and politely gave a mini shove back to continue my interaction with the teller. I thought, "ahhhh, here comes the pushy Russians and Chinese influence" (no offense). Then later as I got to roam around the city and get more of interactation with more locals, I could see the yin, the peaceful Tibetan Buddhist manner of the people. 

Prior to coming here, I started and then continued to read "Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World" by Jack Weatherford, a brilliant and informative read. Although controversial because it portrayed Genghis Khan not as a barbarian, but an innovator who literally conquered and changed the world. The Mongol army conquered more land in 25 years than 400 years of the Roman Empire, the empire spread from Mongolia to Russia to China to Vietnam to Hungary to Korea to India to even as far as the Balkans - which in today's world would be 30 countries and 3 billion people. Surprisingly, he did this all with an army of no more than 100,000 people with new tactics at the time of speed and surprise on the battlefield and siege warfare that ended an era of walled cities. By the sheer force of personality, charisma and determination, the Mongols liberated themselves from foreign rule, united the people, created an alphabet, wrote a constitution, established universal religious freedom, invented a new system of warefare, and most importantly, opened roads of commerce in a free-trade some that stretched and opened continents to everything from goods to war tactics. Genghis and his descendants basically connected a world that was totally disconnected. Genghis alone created the first international postal system, he openly distributed goods and wealth and didn't hoard them all for himself and made a system that had a law that had everyone be equally accountable, from the ruler to the lowest herder. What was most profound at the time was that with each conquered nation, they spread the skills and innovations and passed them all to each and every civilization. With each nation having their own skillset, he combined them all to make new inventions such as the cannon and other military firearms. They invented paper currency, universal basic education, developed the compass and other navigational tools that future explorers like Marco Polo relied on. Because of the Mongols, every aspect of European life changed - technology, warefare, clothing, commerce, food, art, literature and music. Amazing!!! So yes, although they could be a bit brutal, they were not only bloodthirsty barbarians as most often portrayed. But enough details, I recommend reading the book!!

Sooo, on to my trekking trip!

                                    

 It's really hard to describe and pictures don't do it justice. Although I have travelled a lot, besides Antarctica, I don't think I have experienced such openness and vastness of landscape and mountainscape. It really was surreal, for all 8 days, saw NO other hikers or tourists, NO power lines, and NO signs of life outside us and a few gers and horsemen (and herds of horses or camels). Nothing. To say peaceful and quiet is an understatement. Just standing or trekking and looking up to see just open vast landscape and smelling the fresh air was so rejuvenating. The trekking itself wasn't super easy nor super hard, a good mix. And my good travel karma continues to hold on, besides one short bout of pelting rain most days were sunny (one day I even got heat stroke!) and a few times it rained at night. The nights could get pretty darn chilly, and it was a drag to get out of my comfy sleeping bag (0 deg C) and step into the cold frigid mountain night to do the call of nature. Saw a few amazing starry nights though! On avg we trekked about 14ish'km/day, most being about 20km. Usually starting around 8:30-9am and sometimes finishing as early as 12:30km and the latest about 4pm. We had to set the pace a bit as we were just getting to the camp waaaaaay to early and then sitting around doing nothing. Well, I did entertain myself reading the Genghis book, then read "Born to Run" by Chris McDougall (excellent book). Twice. Then read "Looptail" (again) by Bruce Boom Tip (CEO of a great travel company called GAdventures), journaled, played suduku, and those are how the afternoon and evenings passed.

Funny enough, in my "group" was just a couple. They were both Spanish speakers, Filipe is French but mother Spanish, his English so-so. Monika is Argentenian and speaks both Spanish (obviously) and French. They use both when they communicate and I was happy to practice my Spanish although was aghast how it has deteriorated, boooo! Traveling can be amusing sometimes. In S. Korea met Sandra and we hung out for the day and are total BFF's. Then I spent almost 2 full weeks with this couple and prob won't hear from them except for some picture sharing. Ha! Super nice and all but didn't have that connection. Which happens and is fine. The one thing that the trip taught me was quiet time. At first when we met and there was a lot of quiet time at meals, I just thought maybe French don't talk that much when they eat? Prob not, right? But the quiet silent time continued for the trekking (which actually was nice) but meals it was a bit awkward for me to look away and be so close to one another and not talking. Didn't want to be "that" American and talking away. We had a few conversations but besides small tidbits of info, they know a little about me and me about them. Which of course is totally fine and a good time for me to just be quiet and reflect and not always talking. I guess would rather have that than incessant talking and not appreciating the surrounding nature and beauty, right? 

The guide "Jay" was young and not as in tune with culture and history, but nice enough. Had to purposely slow him down as to not get to the "camp" so early! We had a Kazakh cook who didn't speak English but made ample good food for us. Then 2 herdsmen, a young boy and elderly man, wow, you can just feel the nomad country life by shaking their hands and feeling their calluses. Taking care of horses and the nomad life is quite difficult! They too didn't speak English, hence the quiet nature of our group. Overall, organized enough and had a bit of "glamping" - glorious camping, as we didn't carry our big nackpacks and they set up our tents. Won't complain about that!!! They let us ride camels and horses, which was cool. Camels a bit more uncomfortable I have to say!!! 

All and all, got enough Vit D to last me awhile and feel soooooo fresh and rejuvenating. Mountains are such a beautiful thing and the air is truly invigorating for the soul.  I had ample time to reflect, recharge and ... Relax! With NO technology, it was wonderful to just wake up when we heard the camels whining when they were gearing them up to hoard our stuff. As we were fairly close to Russia and "white nights," it didn't get dark out to super late, so just went to sleep (with eye mask and melatonin) around 9-9:30pm... Or when felt sleepy (more so, a lack of anything else to do!).  Ha! So am definitely well rested. Decided to do trekking or just being fully in nature is a "must-do" for me. Along with my good travel karma I also have good weather karma because I respect and appreciate Mother Nature, so it is usually fair to me. I hope it continues like that! Especially as our guide said the last trip he did like this it rained 7/9 days. What?! I would die!!!! We had glorious sunny days and it was so so blissful! Really, true bliss to be One with nature in the mountains with the crisp fresh air and amazing and beautiful landscape. Wouldn't trade those moments for any material thing in the world. 

As far as my time in Ulan, besides a welcome arrival of Chenggis beer (and fine, I'll admit, as I am not a big drinker, took a pic of the beer and just had a sip from Filipe's beer to taste!):

                                         

Had basically almost 2 days in Ulan, and I think that was enough (ha!). Sights included Chinggis Khan Square (the morning we were leaving for our trek, it commemorates the 1921 independence from Chinese and then 1990 independence from Russia. 

When we got back, went to Gandan Khiid monastery, the largest in Mongolia. It more or less survived the religious purges of the 1930's and it wasn't until independence of the 1990's that doors were open to Buddhism and now it had the largest monk school in Mongolia. Sadly missed to hear them chanting, which can be quite spiritual. 

The National Museum of Mongolia is quite a good museum with all captions in English and a wonderful walk-through of the history of Mongolia. Saw or read about a few things I myself had read about and also learned some new things too. Strangely, Mongolia has this weird thing where they charge triple the ticket price to take pics. What? So not a lot of pics taken some places. 

One of the highlights was "Tumen Ekh," one of the best national song and dance ensembles in Mongolia, by the Mongolian National Song and Dance Ensemble. The throat singing, or "khuumii," blew my mind. From deep husky throat sounds to a high pitch almost flute sounding noise, the throat singer does all of that in a beautiful harmony that is just outstanding, almost gave me goose bumps. They also had traditional musical instruments and dance, including shaman, which was interesting. 

Our final day we had quite a pow-wow day. Started off Zanazabar Museum of Fine Arts. Zanazabar is known as the "Michaelangelo of the Steppes," he was a living Buddha and considered one of the greatest Renasissance artists of Asia. He was went to study Buddhism under the Dalai Lama and is proclaimed to be reincarnated from the Jonangpa line of Tibetan Buddhism and hence the 1st Bogd Gegeen, reincarnated Buddhist leader of Mongolia. Besides sculpting and painting, he invented the "soyombo," national symbol of Mongolia. Unfortunately, no pics, but a worthwhile museum. 

There started a dangerous yet alluring word, "cashmere." Mongolia has one of the finest cashmere collections around, and although not cheap, not as crazy expensive as our world. At the art museum bought a gorgeous silk and cashmere scarf. Then we went to the State Department Store, kinda like a Macy's, and the whole 6th floor is all souvenirs and Mongolian handicrafts. There bought a scarf that I just couldn't turn away from, a different style silk/cashmere design. If that wasn't bad enough, we then went to an actual cashmere factory, I bought yet another pure cashmere scarf, again gorgeous (and 2 sweaters and a hat)! OMG! I actually was a bit pressured because the others had been there and literally were just sitting around while I frantically was trying to decide, "which is more beautiful." Oh well, probably better to not have the luxury of time. 

We were then off to FINALLY a Mongolian dinner as the night before the part-owner wanted to take us out and took us to, "Mexi-Khan," yes, a Mexican restaurant! So random and funny. It was delicious and all but besides the few bits of milk tea, dumplings and mutton we had on the trek, we really hasn't had Mongolian food! So finally we made it to Nomad's, a chain catered towards tourists but still yummy, had soup and then a dumpling dish. 

Off we then went to the Choijim Lama Temple, an ancient temple museum that literally is in the heart on downtown, yet feels you are a world away. It got it's name from brother of Bogd Khan, "Choijin" is an honorary title given to monks. It was built in 1904 and took 4 years to build and closed in 1938 and probably would have been destroyed like all the other religious buildings at the time from communist Russia but was saved to be used as a museum to demonstrate the "feudal" ways of the past. Again, pics not allowed but managed some from the outside. 

Finished up the afternoon/evening with the Winter Palace of the Bogd Khan, where Mongolia's 8th Living Buddha and last king, Jebtzum Damba Hutagt lived for 20 years. It oddly was not destroyed by the Russians, unlike the Summer Palace and has random things like a robe made from 80 foxes (poor things!) and a her made from 150 snow leopards (imagine!!). Some cool sculptures and preserved gifts in there. Too bad I realized I never actually took pictures of the actual palace! It was a bit run down, but they make you so paranoid about pictures, even the below they guy was running at me and told me to stop and delete them. Oopsy, I forgot! :-)

We finished off the evening with a short trip to Zaisan Memorial, to get a view of the hodgepodge city of Ulan. It was built by the Russians to commemorate the unknown soldiers and heroes from different wars. Actually, reminded me of something similar I saw in.... I believe Tajikistan last year (or maybe Uzbekistan? Hmmm). 

So phew, yayyy (I guess) long airport layovers to get this blog in! Overall, from S. Korea to Mongolia, really enjoyed this holiday. Mongolia to me will always be a magical and mystical place. I remember a few times looking up from my foot placement on rocky terrain during the trek or just when standing and taking a break and almost thinking I would see Genghis Khan with his soldiers on horses sweeping through the vast open untouched land. I pray and hope it stays fairly untouched. Part of the magic was NOT seeing any other tourists and really being alone in the mountains. Can't describe the feeling of it, but the memories will stay with me forever!