Mongolia- Part 6
The language
The Mongolian language is spoken by only about 5 million people, primarily in Mongolia and in Inner Mongolia in China, but it does have links to some other Asian languages like Korean and Japanese and even Turkish, and some even say that there are ancient links to the Finno-Ugric languages of Finland and Hungary—although you’d need to be a linguist to join that debate.
Its written form is not nearly so ancient. In Ghengis Khan’s time in the 1200s there was no written script but the Uighur (pronounced “weeger”) script (very beautiful calligraphy still used in western China) was adapted and was used until the 1940s when the Russian Cyrillic script was foisted on the country as part of Stalin’s “remodelling” of Mongolia.
The Cyrillic script does not work very well to convey the pronunciation of Mongolian and there is some move (not sure how successful that would be) to revert to the Uighur script. I do read the Cyrillic script –the only thing I learned in my one year studying Russian--which was a bit of help to me in deciphering the words and being able to read imported words like “Mini-Market” but just being able to read the letters does not of course enable you to understand the Mongolian words.
Transport—the lovable Furgon
Because of the support that China and Japan have showered on Mongolia (see earlier in this blog for the reasons) you see plenty of imported Japanese and Korean second-hand cars and buses. Mongolia has no domestic car manufacturing facility (although it is now making a few city buses which proudly display the banner “Made in Mongolia”). There are still a fair number of Russian vehicles too.
Because Japan drives on the left like the UK and South Korea drive on the right like the US and Russia –and because the Mongolians regard the rules of the road as a foreign irritation to be ignored whenever possible--you see a mix of left and right-hand drive cars in Mongolia. Out in the country this doesn’t matter since the vehicular traffic is sparse and you can go for hours without seeing another vehicle on the dirt roads. But in Ulan Bator and the towns in the countryside the traffic is chaos.
Out in the countryside and for tourist travel the lovable Russian Furgon still dominates. A beauty it ain’t, but it is a reliable workhorse—our trip was 3300 km and the tourist season was just starting! It is remarkably roomy and has a high wheel base and four-wheel drive. It looks a little like an old Volkswagen van on an elevated chassis which is essential on the rutted dirt roads, across the massive potholes in the asphalt and for fording the many streams and rivers in the northern part of the country. See the pictures.
The Furgons used for tourists like us are owned by their drivers and so often have highly individual features. Our driver Turuu’s Furgon was a palace. Turuu has completely redone the interior configuration to form a sociable seating arrangement with fitted drawers and cupboards to store things.
We all got very attached to our Furgon with its colourful red and yellow fake Louis Vuitton upholstery, its green silk curtains with yellow tassels its shiny blue floor mats covering a yellow and red floral carpet. I understand that the “must-have” fashion is now for the Toyota Landcruiser but give me the Furgon any day.
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| Our beloved Furgon which took us 3300 km in safety and (relative!) comfort |
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| Sorry this is such a mess but I forgot to take a photo when it was empty. This was our home for 3 to 8 hours a day. Check out the "LouisVuitton " seat covers, the padding, the hidden storage drawers, the gold fringed curtains, the elegant carpet. This is all Turuu's cutomising work. It was a palace compared to the other Furgons we saw along the way. |
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| Given the state of the roads every man has to be a handyman able to fix any fault miles from anywhere, with minimal tools and spare parts |
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| ..and so this is a common sight. |
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| And sometimes this is necessary |
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| Someone's two-wheeled pride and joy |
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| A cargo of sheep's wool on this Furgon |
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| If you can figure what this is trying to say you win all the prizes. |
Transport—the roads!
Signage is definitely an alien concept in Mongolia. Roads have no numbers or directional or destination signs, even the shops in the villages and towns are modestly marked—no neon and no billboards.
So without a fantastic driver like our driver (and part owner of Eternal Landscapes) Turuu and a knowledgeable guide like Jessica Brooks you would be completely stuck. When faced with a maze of dirt tracks criss-crossing a wide plain, Turuu seemed to know instinctively which one to take, even if he had not driven the route for years.
But travelling overland in Mongolia is not an easy option. Distances are vast—our trip was 3300 km and we only travelled in the central third of the country. Facilities are limited and the roads!! The roads are unbelievably awful. (This is a vast country with a small population and limited spare cash with a mountainous terrain and vicious winters which destroy asphalt in a year or two.) Bridges over streams and rivers are so decrepit as to be lethal and so most of the time Turuu just drove the Furgon straight through the stream.
These terrible roads and lack of signage have a distinct benefit, though, in that it restricts the number of tourists! The country is so attractive that if it were easier to get around I suspect immigrants and tourists would soon overrun the place. And travelling overland is really the only way to actually experience and understand (a little) the country.
It is a firm belief of Jessica Brooks, the tour leader who runs Eternal Landscapes, that flying from place to place for a day or two (as many tour companies promote) gives you no context, no real experience of the country.
And she is right. We did hit all the guide-book high spots for tourists but frankly compared to what we saw and experienced on the road getting to and from them, these tourist must-sees sometimes seemed a bit “flat”.
After being immersed in the Mongolian countryside and lifestyle, we found ourselves feeling irritated when we ran across other tourists. Reverse culture shock I suppose. And we even came to prefer travelling at 15 or 20 kph on the meandering dirt roads to “speeding” at 50 kph on the rare asphalt roads with their axle-breaking potholes.
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| yes we drove through this |
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| ...and this.... |
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| ...and this.... |
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| ...and this... |
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| ....and this... |
Sports
A highlight of the year for Mongolians and for tourists is the Naadam festival held in July. The most famous one is held in Ulan Bator but each regional town will have one too. It features three sports: horse racing, archery and wrestling, but the most well known and keenly followed is the horse racing.
In the spring the most promising horses from the herds will be selected for special training. These are not specially bred horses (at least outside of Ulan Bator) but are selected from the ordinary herds. Men who specialise in training can become quite wealthy.
The training regime for the horses is arduous, consisting of a rigid diet and progressively longer and more arduous gallops. The jockeys are children between 5 and 12 years old, mostly boys but girls too. Their job is just to stay on the horse and make sure it does not veer off the race course, which is run across country not on a purpose built race track.
The main race is 30km long! Think of that! The Grand National is only 7 km. As you drive through the countryside before Nadaam you will sometimes run across a training session for a local Nadaam which gives you a fascinating insight into this sport.
Speaking of sport, the Mongolians are very good. They don’t go in for team sports so much (although we watched some enthusiastic pick-up games of volleyball and basketball). Presumably when your nearest neighbours are miles away and all you have is a horse it is difficult to put together a team, much less organise practices.
Individual sports are their thing. Little Mongolia with its less-than-three million populationa won 5 medals at the 2012 Olympics--boxing, judo and wrestling are their sports.
Interestingly, although it is not a “sport”, the Mongolians excel at solving puzzles. Apparently this is a skill that is part of the “home schooling” of the Mongolian nomad child. They can figure out a Rubik’s cube in no time flat. I suppose solving and inventing puzzles is great way to pass those long winter nights in the ger.
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| Practising for the Nadaam races (see blog) |
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| Because of the importance of Nadaam and because each district holds a local Nadaam festival the local markets stock all the necessary riding tackle and gear |
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| This young lad won hands down in the practice session we saw |
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| More Nadaam gear |
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| UB was staging it marathon when we were there and had cleared the central area of traffic (what a treat!). I can't say I saw any London or New York Marathon contenders there. |
Food
I do not see Mongolia winning any culinary awards anytime soon. It has a meat-based diet and that meat is usually mutton. Not lamb—mutton. Mutton with onions, mutton with peppers, mutton with Kimchee, mutton with rice, mutton with mutton.
Seasoning is hardly used at all, despite the fact that wonderful wild herbs grow in the meadows and scent the air. Despite its long period of domination by the Chinese, Mongolia does not seem to have adopted any of the wonderfully varied Chinese culinary traditions.
There is a traditional hierarchy of foods. White foods (dairy products) are regarded as the highest and so as a guest in a ger you will be offered cheeses and yoghurt. This is all very healthy but dairy products are by their nature bland in taste.
Another favourite is the “fat tail” of the Mongolian sheep. These are a special breed of sheep which have, literally, a fat tail, weighing up to ten pounds of solid fat. This is much sought after for cooking and most dishes will include chunks of fat since it is considered a delicacy. Of course when you think of it in a climate like Mongolia’s eating fat provides the fuel to see you through the harsh winter. And for the sheep itself—those that have not been eaten by the humans—the fat tail provides a source of energy to sustain the sheep through the long harsh winter.
In the food market you can buy goat or mutton and maybe beef cut into big slabs and layed out on the counter –none of your namby pamby refrigerated units and plastic gloved white-coated staff. There are rolls of processed meat, salami style, which look unappealing but are surprisingly good and wholesome. (see the nest part of this blog for pictures of the food markets)
Vegetables are mostly of the root variety—beetroot, carrots, potatoes, onions. Very flavourful because they have not been grown for “looks” as so many of our western vegetables are. Cucumbers and cabbage are the main green vegetables. Some mushrooms. There are small sweet tomatoes (probably imported from China). Fruit is a bit of a luxury—apples are reasonably plentiful, bananas from time to time and in summer watermelon.
A curious thing that I was never able to figure out was what happens to the chickens. Eggs are quite plentiful and good, but you never see a chicken for sale in the markets. So which came first, the chicken or the......
But the thing you notice most in the markets and in the “supermarkets” (all shops seem to be called that) are the candies and cookies. The Mongolians have a very very sweet tooth! I’d estimate that about 40 to 50% of the stock in any small shop will be an array of sweets and biscuits that would gladden the eye of any small child. So if you can resist the sweets you will eat healthily but not particularly excitingly.
You can get some good food in restaurants in Ulan Bator of course since it aspires to be a cosmopolitan city. In one restaurant we watched a party of young Mongolian women having an after-work feast of pizza after pizza after pizza. (At the next table a group of Mongolian men downed bottle after bottle of vodka!) But food in the restaurants in the small towns is also quite limited, although the mutton pancakes are quite nice and there is a reasonably palatable noodle dish which is on most menus.
Outside of the towns you are limited to the guanz. Guanzes are makeshift cafes in the front rooms of local people’s houses. Often these are also the local shop with a small selection of necessaries like salt and sugar. These guanzes are not a full time operation and if the lady of the house has no food available to prepare then you are out of luck.
So the first thing you ask when you go to the door is “do you have any food?” We did have an excellent mutton and rice stew in one guanz (having been turned away at two others) which the lady cooked from scratch while we waited. Another interesting experience, but I wouldn’t recommend travelling in Mongolia depending on the guanzes for your meals! In fact if you can stay away from the sweets Mongolia is quite a good place for a westerner to lose weight.
But the undisputable culinary highlight of Mongolia is the khorhog. This is the real “Mongolian barbeque” not the foreign invention that you may have heard about which bears not the slightest resemblance to the khorhog—just like chop suey is not a Chinese dish.
Khorhog is a party meal, to prepare and eat with friends and to be accompanied by much beer, vodka, laughter and jokes. Pieces of goat meat and bones (seasoned with salt and pepper) are put into a covered “Dutch oven” sort of cooking pan. Specially selected mooth volcanic rocks that have been heated in the fire to a high temperature are placed amongst the pieces of meat. The layer of meat and hot rocks is topped with potatoes and carrots and a little boiling water. The lid is put on and the whole thing cooked on top of the ger stove for an hour.
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