5 Days of July: Day 4 - Nostalgia

[All photos courtesy of Kenny L. and Reade L. - thank you again!]

The morning of our fourth day began rather abruptly.  If you will recall the post on Day 3 of 5 Days in July, you will remember that the night before we camped just over the hill from Kharkhorin soum center, hoping to get away from the boisterous danshig crowds at Erdene Zuu monastery.  Alas, we were not the only ones with this bright idea, meaning that throughout the night headlights would blaze through our tents, vehicles would rumble by, and small parties of celebrating Mongolians would set up their tents a bit too close to us for comfort.

Everything's peaceful by this point but check out all those tents in the background.  For rural Mongolia, this is unprecedented!

I was awakened that morning by shouting: our driver, Nandia, and the voices of several Mongolian men.  Bleary and startled at the same time, I couldn't decide whether to leap out of my tent to assess the situation or to feign ignorance/sleep (I decided on the latter for about 10 minutes).  I soon realized that, as annoying as all the early-morning shouting was, a group of Mongolians had gotten one of their vehicles stuck in the mud and were attempting to persuade Nandia to tow them out with his furgong.  Given the struggles his furgong had already gone through, Nandia was reluctant, and demonstrated that his furgong wasn't up to the job by ostentatiously taking out all of his tools and meticulously tuning up the vehicle.

Nandia opened up the engine bloc of his furgong to make some repairs and to let our visitors know that he has more important things to do that pull them out of the mud

But our human alarm clocks were a friendly bunch, chatting with me and Kenny about our group, one short and stout man asking for a photo of himself with the tall and slender Ty, and sharing their boodog from last night as I made American gambir, which we shared with them.  They miraculously pushed their vehicle out of the mud and took their leave, undoubtedly heading for the danshig Naadam grounds outside of Kharkhorin for the day's festivities.

Our visitors eventually managed to free their massive truck and trundle off over the hill.

After a leisurely breakfast surrounded by other campers, we headed off to the Naadam part of the danshig naadam about 10km east of Kharkhorin.

5 Days of July: Day 3 - from lus along the Orkhon to a tsam dance at Erdene Zuu

Well, well, I'm still posting about stuff in July and it's already the first week of October - oops!  Now, back to those 5 days of July...

[All photos courtesy of Reade L. and Kenny L. - thank you!]

A brief flashback to our second night: Kenny noticed an unusual-looking ovoo near our campsite.  This ovoo consisted of a base of larger dark stones piled with small light-colored stones near a tipi-like stack of wood and a small circle of white stones.

5 Days of July - Day 2: Yak attack!

The second morning of my 5 Days in July began with a calm, rosy sunrise over the rolling hills west of Khujirt.  (All photos courtesy of Reade L. and Kenny L.)

Good morning, Uvurkhangai!

Following on last summer's traditions, I made American gambir (no eggs, no milk pancakes) for breakfast on one of the propane cook stoves.

Making American gambir for breakfast out of the back of the furgong

But the morning was rushed in order to get to the yak festival for the opening ceremony, which supposedly began at 11am.  We had hours over very rough roads between us and our destination.  Luckily we traveled through some of the most scenic countryside in Mongolia, the Orkhon National Park:

Overlook at the entrance of the Orkhon National Park

5 Days of July: Day 1 - Camels and Kittens

2015 has been a busy summer largely spent in Ulaanbaatar.  To break up my urban routine, I organized a 5-day vacation out to the 2015 yak festival in Bat-Ulzii, the danshig in honor of the 380th anniversary of Undur Geegen Zanabazar, and the site of my first archaeological expedition to Mongolia, Tamiryn Ulaan Khoshuu.  I thank Kenny L. and Reade L. in advance for their gorgeous photos in this and subsequent 5 Days of July posts!

Day 1 was focused on getting out of Ulaanbaatar (about 2 hours behind schedule, but who's counting) and covering as much terrain as possible.  It was a sweltering July day on the long road west.  Our furgong - decommissioned Soviet army van - was like a sauna on wheels.

The sweaty drive from UB to points west

About 4 or 5 hours from UB, we broke up our journey with some camel riding in the sand dunes of Elsen Tasarkhai on the border of Bulgan and Uvurkhangai provinces.

View of the Elsen Tasarkhai sand dunes and the mountains of the Khungun Tarna Protected Area in the distance

We arranged to ride with Bilge, the good-natured patriarch of a camel herding family that lives near the sand dunes in summer.  When we rolled up to their encampment, no one was home.  A few minutes later, a parade of camels and riders loped along the flat towards us:

A Bactrian camel with a summertime coat and carpet saddle.  Temee is 'camel' in Mongolian.

Mongolia Inside & Out 104 - Alcohol

Last time in Mongolia Inside & Out, readers were treated to an info-dump of tips for dining in Ulaanbaatar along with some general comments on Mongolian cuisine.  In the 103 post, I alluded to alcohol, particularly with recommendations for good beer in the capital.  But alcohol in Mongolia merits an entire post of its own.

Chinggis: world-conqueror and premium-quality vodka

A few words on drinking alcohol in Mongolia:

Every country has its own drinking culture, or numerous drinking subcultures.  Mongolia is no exception.  The production, exchange, and consumption of several kinds of alcohol are significant components of Mongolian society.  Official visits to someone's home, religious celebrations, national holidays, graduations, weddings, and office parties all involve vodka or some sort of alcoholic beverage (often airag, fermented mare's milk produced primarily at the household level).

What to drink:
But it's not all bad news: drinking culture in Mongolia includes a lot of merry-making, singing, jokes, and bonding.  But what do you drink when you're in Mongolia?  The primary alcoholic beverages you will encounter in Mongolia are the Big Three: vodka, fermented mare's milk, and beer.

Vodka  (arikh)

This photo is appropriate for my Mongolian vodka consumption experience on several levels

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.