I am almost convinced that it's true when they say that a Mongol is born in the saddle. Man, can these people ride...
We have been spending a lot of time wandering Ulan Baatar, with Chris remaining amazed at the changes from when he was here last, in 1989. When he was here last, there was (and I quote) ''No food. Nothing to do. Nothing to buy."
Well that's changed, but in a good way. Not a turbo-charged Coca-Cola fuelled full-on blitz like China, or a completely and utterly materialistic, brand-name-is-all, aggressive way like Russia.
No Buddy Mac's yet, no KFC. Yet. Lots of sexy bars, lots of travellers and bright eyed tourists, with the occasional lost looking tour bus thrown in.
Most people seem to be here to simply say they have been, or to go to the Gobi. And this week, it's all about Nadaam, the national 'homecoming' and festival of the 3 manly sports. More on that later....
I did manage to try all kinds of fermented yogurts and cheeses and tried Mongolian tea and mare's milk but DAMMIT no Airag (the fermented mare's milk that supposedly kicks like a mare does too). I saw it being sold out of great barrels, ladled into a bowl shared by all customers, but I was not quite in the mood for a spit sharing experience with several dozen strangers.
The diet here is completely based on mobile food. The nomad life is still very much a part of the culture here. And that means mutton. Lots and lots of mutton! I think I can safely never eat sheep bits again.
What a vegetarian would survive on in Mongolia is beyond me
It's a 'ger' not a yurt, actually. And here in beautiful Mongolia, you see them every single where....
Made of felt, covered with white cotton canvas, the people use these all over the country. The nomads move them around to follow the herds and live in them all year round. In the city, the people set them up in the yard for extra, cooler bedrooms.
Functional and beautiful and damn are they comfy. We have been staying in them as we travel around. Interestingly, gers can be set up anywhere in the country - the land is all 'the people's'. This really is a country without fences
PS gers are always set up with the doors facing south. Real handy for orienting out in the desert :)
We made it to Ulaan Baatar, capital of Mongolia, and yippee! we can use any internet cafe to get to any website we want! I feel like bathing in binary...Big updates to follow shortly :)
Imagine a life with no brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles. A nation of single children. Now try to imagine China.
From 1979, anyone with more than one child is so heavily taxed and penalized that virtually no one has a (registered) second child.
So everyone has one child. And mom and dad get to lavish all their love and attention on their solo 'little emperors'.
Ads and commercials only depict the happy couple with their happy single child. Cartoons and children's animations only have one child at a time. Cereal boxes have one kid, and i note that toys are solo things - airplanes, hula hoops - and nary a checkers set or Trouble game in sight.
The exception is a rural family, that can have two, with permission or by establishing need (eg. the farmer is chronically ill, the farm is too big, etc.). Or, as seems to happen too, the families just don't register Child No. 2. Who then cannot go to school, the doctor, etc. because s/he is not registered...
And, thanks to some archaic Confucianistic ideology, that child pretty much needs to be a boy. At 119 boys to every 100 girls, China is a genetic time bomb.
This woman is rightly thrilled, as she has twins! Multiple births are not taxed, and sales of illicit fertility treatments to increase the odds of multiple births are reportedly out of control.
Suddenly, I really really really appreciate my big giant family even more.
