The horse champion and his wife

Our next hosts were an older couple and their 19 year old son. They were horse people and owned a whole posse. Bold was a champion rider and trainer in his time and very much a man about the steppes, alpha through and through. His wife was lovely and tried very hard with her english. For the third time in two days I was served milk and boiled white rice as a meal. I had to stop myself from a) gagging b) weeping. I don't eat either of these products. But, as a veggo, they seem to think this was a good option. On top of this, you get a bowl of milk tea (diluted milk, really) every time you enter the ger. Urgh. There are lots of do's and don'ts when it comes to being in a ger, engaging with the locals and we were briefed on them before we left. But. Still managed to transgress now and then.

Here's what the inside of a ger is typically like.

After a spot of archery and a very tense game of ankle bone horse racing, we turned in. The second family was quite prosperous and had a spare ger for us to sleep in. It was substantially warmer then our nights in the tent and a good nights rest was had by all.


The next day we joined in the seasonal ger moving. We were visiting the family in their winter pasture. Summer had ticked over and the ger had to be moved to the summer pastures. Handy having an extra 6 pairs of hands at such a time, eh?

So we helped dismantle it and load up the ox cart and then were transported to the new place ourselves. Putting up a ger is actually quite complicated- the tension of the central structure and the surrounding poles that make up the roof had to be just right. We were more of a hindrance then a help on this front so spent alot of time hanging about in the sun, getting burnt and dehydrated. The nomads use the river as a water source, but, not being nomads ourselves, we could only drink this if it had been boiled. At one point three of us were sent inside the ger to fix up some aesthetics. Finished, we sat down to enjoy the shade. At some point Bold remembered us and with a "hey hey!" flung open the door to find us sitting in a row, immobile. He had great fun recounting our laziness to his wife later that evening.

On a smoko break, Bold uncovered a wrestlers outfit (small "underpants" and vest) and decided one of the guys should try it on. No, not over your clothes. He practically undressed a somewhat distressed young englishman, slapping on the wrestlers garb, tucking in underwear here and there. It is hard to say no to this man. He took great pleasure in demonstrating to the guys that his wrists were the same size as their ankles.

Job done, we returned to winter pastures and had a brilliant feed (no milk!) that ma had prepared for us whilst we were erm, hard at work. A little rest for us and the oxcart was loaded and some horses saddled for our return journey to the Terelj bus stop, where we would catch a crowded ride to Ulan Bataar.

Heading further into the vastness

We didn't have alot of Mongolian, they didn't have alot of English, so the next day we were able to decipher that we were going on a trip, 10km away in truck. Why was a bit ambiguous. There was cutting involved and the number five and grandma. Were we going to shear sheep? No. Someone's turning 5. Is grandma shearing sheep? Everyone got into there Sunday best and we piled into the back of a big blue truck - 13 adults and 5 children. More blue skies, blaring sun and vastness.

Lots of dust...... and a flat tyre.

We arrived at another few white dots in the landscape and a celebration. It transpires, a little guy had just turned five and as was tradition, his mane had to be chopped off. We sat about inside the ger with an assortment of friends and family. He wept uncontrollably at the indignanty, eyes firmly fixed on the roof of the ger, too proud to look at anyone. The scissors were passed around, he was moved along and each individual chopped a piece of his hair which was then placed in a bag around his neck. In exchange, he received gifts and money. As he went along, these proved to be of interest and the wailing lessened. There was food and fermented milk, which strangely tasted like wine and then we whitey's decided to make room for the steady stream of newcomers and left the ger. Did I mention the sun? We desperately found some shade - in the pitiful shadow of a ger.

We also went for a walk up the hill
And found that birthday boy was a likely direct descendant of Chingis Khan. The terror had no problems hitting with a stick, kicking and battering anything in sight. Including us... The other kids were still cute and surprisingly did more disciplining of him then any of the adults.

When our hosts were done, we piled back into the back of the truck for the journey home. Along the way we stopped so that a lamb could be singled out and captured from within a herd of sheep, as well as to pick up a motorcycle. Somehow we all fit.

It was mental. But, you just had to roll with it. And reapply the sunscreen. On returning, we were told to clean ourselves up as we neededto be taken to our next family. Down to the river for a wash!

Mongolia and the nomads

Joining a gang with similar interests, a trip was booked in the nearby countryside with view to getting into it ASAP and experiencing nomadic life. This was done through a group called Ger-to-Ger (who are a bunch of %*@*$!) and the next 5 days proved to be a roller coaster of disappointment, frustration and wonderful experiences.

We took a public bus to Terelj National Park and had a very 'snug' journey- wedged between bags and locals. One elderly fellow was using me as a standing post and I had to firmly anchor myself to keep both of us upright. No, it's not that he's losing his balance with the ageing process - he was able to communicate through mime that vodka had been consumed. Not a selfish character, he did also pull out the bottle and shot glass, attempting to share with the rest of the bus. On arriving at the last bus stop we came across a local and let him know that we wanted to camp. He was kind enough to walk us to a beautiful spot.

Waking bright and early and excited at the prospect of meeting the first nomadic family we were going to stay with. We then waited 6 hours in the dust and sun, waiting to get picked up. We didn't get picked up. We couldn't figure out why. Back we went to our spot and camp was set up again. We were despondent and running out of food and water. Maybe we would just have to free camp on our own.....

The next day we rang the *@#&*!! and, I won't bore you with details, but we eventually found ourselves on the back of an ox cart, crossing vast open spaces "little house on the prairies" style.

Eighteen kms and I don't know how many hours in the blaring sun, we found ourselves with our first family. The man of the ger was 31, his wife 28 and they had two kids. Grandma was in another ger up the hill and friend's with kids were also about. We set up our tents and were sat down to a traditional Mongolian craft lesson. Whilst ma then cooked up dinner, we hung out with and corrupted the kids. It all seemed pretty innocent, kicking a ball around, teaching ring-a-rosie, hand clapping games and a bit of picking them up and spinning them about. All good until they picked up by the hands their 1 year old little brother and spun him about violently in an unrestrained manner. What brilliant fun we had shown them! We all jumped in with a no! put him down! and managed to wrestle him off them. The poor fella looked bewildered and dazed and on placing him on his feet, found that he was unable to stand. We then had to lay him down on his back and all peered down at him in concern - a spinning mass of white faces, no doubt.

The Train Journey begins!

An early start and a bit of effort found me on the train. My friends in second class, me feeling slightly guilty in first class - slightly - AND I had the cabin all to myself!

Much sleep, knitting and reading was had in the 36 hours to Ulan Bataar.

And much gazing out the window.....

There was a bit of desert, alot of vast green steppe and the obligatory middle of the night customs/border patrol processes. Hate them, hate them. In the middle of the night! It's 2:30-3:00 before you can sleep. Plus they changed the "wheels".

And then finally - Ulan Bataar

THE wall

What can I tell you about the wall that you don't already know? No, it can't be seen from the moon. There is no 'single' wall and it was not built all at once, but is instead a number of sections across the country, many intersecting, built using different materials and methods by different dynasties. And it is a pain in the arse for the Chinese to maintain.


The section I visited was found between Simatai and Jinshangling - 110km NE of the city. It took about 3 hours to get there and is a 10km walk within this section. Much of it is unreconstructed and it took the group 2-3 hours to cross. Many parts are extremely steep, the wall taking a path between the steepest points of the range and the steps often ridiculously spaced. Often we were scrambling up with hands and feet. The views were amazing, unfortunately, I don't think photo's do it justice.
Dead tired by the end of the day and another early start for the next day. Thirty six hour train journey to Monglia.... I'll sleep on the train.

Beijing

Beijing is just huge. I know it's well known, but really! About 15 million inhabitants and the size of Luxembourg. It is a nightmare to cross above ground. I caught a bus back from the summer palace just to check things out and found it to be a long and painful journey. There are some roads which are about 6-8 lanes across (difficult to tell, as no one stays in lanes and things get very messy). The subway, however, is a thing of beauty. I keep stopping to question why China has such great public transport and I can't get it in Melbourne. An express train to the station at least!

Anyway, in the end I only had 2 days in Beijing (you need 7, I'm told). One day was to see the wall, so only one other precious day was available. Forbidden city? Sounds like a bit of a bore. Tiannemen Square? It's just there. An expanse of concrete where the state slaughtered their own and hosed away the blood. Little appeal. So the summer palace it was.

The summer palace sits around a lake on the outskirts of central Beijing. The emperors of various dynasties would hang out there, you guessed it, in the summer. It has been destroyed and restored (you want details and historic facts, you've got wikipedia) and is now where locals and domestic tourist flock to on a weekend. I was there on a weekend and a 31 degree day. I wasn't handling the hoards very well. Domestic tourists can be loud and push, use umbrellas for sun shade and don't mind poking you in the head with them.








It's pretty amazing and I'm glad I visited, but was also very glad to leave.






Not wanting to waste any of my precious time, I signed up for an acrobat show in the evenings and was not disappointed. Highlights included a girl working on a suspended hoop - extremely moving and graceful performance, and a metal sphere with motorcycles riding around within it simultaneously, at ridiculous speeds - a gut wrenching, mental performance.

Brown Skies and warriors - Xia'an

A quick zip in a plane and I landed in the north of China. Xia'an. Home to the famed terracotta warriors. With only 2 weeks in China and not having 36 hours on a bus to spare, I opted for air travel. Xia'an was depressing on first impressions - a particularly bad day of air quality, everything appearing brown. It prompted me to gloomily ponder the price of "economic progress".

I settled into the hostel, hooked up with other travellers and decided on a self run tour to see the warriors. Still feeling a bit under the weather, I made it out to the large complex to check out the workings of a child's imagination.

On returning to central Xia'an, me and a French traveller decided to explore the Muslim quarter and were rewarded with entry into the peaceful gardens of a Chinese mosque.

Most fascinating was the Chinese architecture, being so used to Arabic representations of Islamic structures. Outside the walls fo the mosque was a different story. Crowded streets, souvenir and food stalls, meat meat meat -grilled or even lying around in chunks on concrete.

We tried some street foods and sampled all manner of desserts.



Sated and extra extra tired, we headed back to home base and were treated to the bell tower lit up at night.
I really, really have to get some rest. But Beijing tomorrow and I need to see the wall!