National Naadam 2015: March of the Nine White Banners

July 11th marked the beginning of the National Naadam celebrations in Ulaanbaatar.

MIAT, the Mongolian national airline, wishes the Mongolian people a happy Naadam.

While I find the National Naadam to be a bit crowded and touristy for my taste, I was fortunate enough this year to escort the nine white banners of the Mongolian state from Parliament to the National Stadium for the opening ceremony.  On a bright Saturday morning, I raced over to Chinggis Square (originally Sukhbaatar Square), where the honor guard carried the nine banners out of their home inside the Government Palace to be marched through the city center to the stadium.

A military band waits in Chinggis Square just south of the Government Palace to provide music for the entrance of the nine white banners

The nine white banners head south from the square, carried by mounted honor guardsmen and mobbed by eager crowds

 The nine banners derive from the time of Chinggis Khan and the Mongol Empire, when hair from the tails of white horses and black horses were used to make the nine white and nine black banners, respectively.  The nine white banners were used for times and missions of peace, whereas the nine black banners were used for war.  During most of the year, the two sets of nine banners are housed inside the Government Palace, and the banners play important roles in state ceremonies for the modern nation-state.

Police and military personnel flank the honor procession as crowds march with the banners through the city

Mongolia Inside & Out 103 - Eating and drinking (mostly beer) in Ulaanbaatar

Welcome back to the Mongolia Inside & Out series!

The 102 post discussed the ger as an important part of Mongolian society and culture, along with a suite of related customs, themes, and ideas that shed a little light on the bigger picture (Mongolia).  This time let's take a peek into food, drink, meals, and dining in Mongolia.  Most of the 102 post will focus on experiences in the capital, which can be treated separately from dining in the rest of Mongolia (with some notable exceptions), as I plan to do a future post on the types and preparations of traditional food once I have better pictures.  For now:

Sustenance and succulence in Ulaanbaatar

Ulaanbaatar has undergone seismic shifts over the last 10 years in terms of the food and beverages available in stores, markets, restaurants, and bars throughout the city.  For these and more practical reasons - hey, you'll need to know where to get a good salad in UB after weeks in the countryside, trust me - I think Ulaanbaatar merits its own post.  Especially in the last 2-3 years, travelers and locals now have a decent variety of good options to choose from when they're out on the town or looking to buy groceries.

The Way Things Were, 2005-2007:

I remember when finding a few tiny green apples at the store was a rare treasure, and all ice cream seemed to be bland, freezer-burned, ice-encrusted, vanilla pre-loaded into wafer cones stored loose and unwrapped in a freezer bin along with unpackaged meat.  Now you can get local greenhouse-grown spinach and cherry tomatoes, corn chips, cocoa powder, imported European cheese, a plentiful variety of fresh-baked breads and pastries, and tofu without breaking a sweat.

I remember when there were a handful of good non-Mongolian dinner options, practically no coffee shops (yes, Millie's served good coffee, but that is not a *coffee place* and they roasted their own beans because where else were they going to get coffee?), and Cafe Amsterdam was pretty much your only choice for breakfast (unless you wanted to break your budget at Kempinski or eat at 11am).  Now you have so many choices that I can barely remember what it was like 10 years ago: sushi, Korean hotpot, vegan, Indian, Turkish, Chinese (and Xinjiang!), French, Mexican (we'll come back to that one), fried chicken, Japanese bakeries (yes, I mean bakerIES, plural), and on and on and on.  I remember being really excited to get real hot chocolate in 2007.

Just recently someone complained on UB Foodies - a whole Facebook community devoted to the city's food scene - about a cappuccino that had too much foam.  Ok, I'll take off my bifocals, put away the Werther's Originals, and get back to the heart of the post.

Because I've seen many a visitor struggle with getting a decent meal or finding a particular food item while in UB, I'm going to spend a significant chunk of this post attempting to rectify that situation.

Naadam 2015 - Arkhust adventure

This year I made it my mission to attend a real countryside Naadam.  While the National Naadam celebrations in Ulaanbaatar draw the tourist crowds through sportsmanship, pomp and spectacle, and celebrities (this year Steven Segal was in attendance), the small Naadam celebrations held at the county- or soum-level have a community atmosphere and amateur appeal that I find charming and accessible that I find lacking from the national celebrations.

Arkhust, about 120km southeast of Ulaanbaatar, is a lovely little county seat not far from the train line running from the capital city to Sainshand, Erlian, and China.  The town is nestled against rocky hills that ring the Nagal National Protected Area, which shield the residents from the bitter north wind and provide a scenic backdrop in contrast to the expansive steppe to the south.  After calling the soum cultural center, I decided that Arkhust would be the ideal balance of proximity, rural countryside feel, local scale (we were the only non-Mongolians there), and hospitality.  The opening day of the Arkhust Naadam was to be held on July 9th, just before the celebrations in Ulaanbaatar.  Armed with some directions and a desire for a real Naadam experience, off we went on Thursday morning!

Drought: June and July are usually the rainy season in Mongolia.  As you can see, the steppe lands are yellow and brown even in early July.  This lack of lush vegetation is already negatively impacting airag production in the area.  (Don't worry - the lovely Naadam organizers in Arkhust gave us some airag anyway)

As we crested a hill on our way to Arkhust, our vehicle startled a herd of tsagaan zeer (Mongolian antelope), which raced away as if pursued by a large predator:

Mongolian antelope are indigenous to the steppe region and supposedly a common sight in the eastern provinces.  Despite 10 years of traveling in the Mongolian countryside, this was the first time I'd ever encountered these animals.

At the Arkhust Naadam, community members were decked out in gorgeous deel - the Mongolian national outfit - in all kinds of patterns and colors, accented with belts and hats:

There were almost as many attendees on horseback as on foot.  While many if not most of the kids on horseback were jockeys, some were just here to enjoy the festivities, like this young boy:

Mongolia Inside & Out 102: Introducing the ger

Welcome back to the Mongolia Inside & Out series!  Last time I shared the 23 things I think everyone should know about coming to Mongolia.  At the end of the inaugural post, I made a grandiose claim about this post: that it would be dedicated to introducing Mongolian culture and customs.  My hubris knew no bounds!

Pictured: no bounds within which to contain all my hubris

As I struggled to draft a comprehensive yet introductory post on the topic, I found myself returning to the Mongolian ger each time I considered almost every relevant subject.  A full essay on Mongolian culture would invariably come up short; although it's tempting (and I was sorely tempted) to cram everything one knows into a single piece of writing, the end result always suffers.

As an alternative, let me introduce a number of key aspects of Mongolian culture through one of its defining features: the ger.

A typical Mongolian ger

The traditional dwelling of mobile or nomadic Mongolians is the ger (pronounced "gair'), called yurt elsewhere.  Ger refers both to this specific kind of dwelling and to the concept of "home" in general.  A UB urbanite will speak of his/her ger and mean an apartment or townhouse.  A traveler will see the classic white mushroom-like ger almost everywhere in Mongolia, although some ethnic minorities dwell in other abodes (a topic for another post).  There is a ger inside the Parliament house in which the most sacred ceremonies and high-level meetings of the Mongolian state take place.  Luxury tourist resorts have opulent ger outfitted with snow leopard pelts and embroidered wall hangings.  Most ger in the countryside have solar panels to power TVs, radios, charge cell phones, and even power the odd refrigerator.  In Ulaanbaatar, the eponymous ger districts are crowded with once-mobile dwellings permanently nestled together on the dusty slopes around the city center, cheek-by-jowl with solid buildings and winding dirt tracks.

Mongolia Inside & Out 101 - Welcome to Mongolia!

Welcome to the first post in the Mongolia Inside & Out series!  I hope you'll find this and subsequent posts interesting and useful for your future travels to the Land of Eternal Blue Heaven.  Let's start with the basics of coming to Mongolia for the very first time.  I'd say that there are 23 preliminary points to cover.  Let's begin!

Before you leave for Mongolia:

1.  VISAS: Know the visa requirements for a) your citizenship and b) the purpose of your visit (study vs. tourism vs. business).  If you're an American citizen entering without prior arrangements, you'll automatically receive a 30-day tourist visa. 

Wow, that is a terrible and blurry picture of my old tourist visas!  I mean, I intentionally blurred this image to prevent passport fraud.

PRO-TIP: extend your visa to 90 days by visiting Mongolian Immigration within 7 days of your arrival.  This only costs a few bucks (official form you fill out on site, a passport photo) and a tenuous connection to Mongolia (name and address of your guesthouse and/or travel agency in Mongolia).  Do not wait more than 7 days or you will be fined!  The fines vary depending on who's working that day - I am not joking, this is how "official fines" often work in Mongolia - and you will need to pay in cash (Mongolian tugrik, or MNT).  Mongolian Immigration is currently located just east of the airport along the main road into Ulaanbaatar before the space age-looking red and gray stadium.

Registration form at Mongolian Immigration: helpfully written in both English and Mongolian

2. BOOK ONE NIGHT: If you make no other plans before setting foot in Mongolia, plan ahead to spend your first night in the country in a guesthouse or hotel.  Unless you plan to go straight from the airport to rural Mongolia or you are joining an expedition team, you'll be glad you made a few arrangements in advance so that your arrival is as smooth as possible.

3.  JOIN A TEAM, EXPEDITION, OR PROJECT.  I find most people who've had extremely positive experiences in Mongolia come as part of a field program, a research expedition, a volunteer expedition - something that requires them to work as part of a team on a shared goal in the Mongolian countryside alongside international and local volunteers or staff.

Team work from the very beginning: 2005 expedition photo in Kharkhorin, Arkhangai Province

A few months before you leave for Mongolia, do a little research online into your options.  Each summer there are usually a few archaeological or conservation biology expeditions that take paying volunteers or students, the National University of Mongolia offers summer educational programs for international students, and some NGOs offer volunteer opportunities (such as Lotus Guesthouse's programs with Mongolian orphans and street kids).  Keep an eye on the Center for the Study of Eurasian Nomads' website (csen.org) for 2016 and future field programs; CSEN has programs specifically for students and adventurers from a variety of backgrounds and with different interests.

10-year anniversary: inaugurating the Mongolia Inside & Out series

This summer marks my 10-year anniversary with Mongolia.

2005: looking out over the Tamir River in Arkhangai Province, I can see my future rolling inexorably towards me through the lavender sunset and rain clouds

In the summer of 2005, having recently graduated and now looking for some adventure, I joined the Silk Road Foundation's expedition to the Xiongnu cemetery at Tamiryn Ulaan Khoshuu.  Little did I know that those four weeks would put into motion a chain of events that would shape my professional trajectory and personal decisions for the next decade.  In fact, the consequences of those beautiful summer days on the bluffs overlooking the Tamir River are still unfolding.

2005: who's that girl in the neon-pink shirt excavating a Xiongnu/Khunnu burial at Tamiryn Ulaan Khoshuu?

This summer heralds another anniversary: exactly five years ago I organized and led my first field research expedition here in Mongolia.

2010: back for more archaeology in the same neon-pink T-shirt (Bulgan Province)