Three Camel Lodge

After breakfast we hopped back into the Landcruisers for our drive back to Three Camel Lodge.  For those looking for the Four Seasons of The Gobi, this is as close as it gets.  The luxury gers have an attached bathroom with large showers. I think everyone was excited at the possibility of not trekking across camp with clothes in tow.

We stopped to visit a nomadic family to see exactly how they live.  This family has two gers, one for cooking and one for sleeping/living.  We were offered the grandfather's snuff bottle as a form of welcome.  We were also offered cheese they had made from yak milk. After greeting us, he resumed his work on his main mode of transportation, a motorcycle.  It was a very interesting peek into their lives.

We had a little time after lunch to gather our pictures before the afternoon event.  Several local competitors were brought in to demonstrate the events held during the annual Naadam festival.  There are three different contests these athletes compete in during the July festivities : horsemanship, archery and wrestling.

First up were the wrestlers.  As you can see in the picture, the wrestlers wear blue briefs and a small open jacket when competing.  The jacket is the result of a female sneaking into the competition and winning several years ago.  Now, there is no doubt about the sex of the competitor.  The Mongolians are quite proud of their wrestling heritage and are very competitive in international competitions like the Olympics.  The wrestlers with us today hold jobs such as airport security, plumbers and hotel workers to support their wrestling .  Before each competition they all do the Eagle Dance, paying homage to the great hunter.  

We moved on to the Archery competition .  We had two people demonstrating their skills.  The woman is a champion and was fun to watch.  She took several steps to prepare for her shot, the last of which was pointing the arrow into the sky.

Finally we watched the horsemen first capture then ride horses from their herd.  Mongolians have a horse centered culture with children learning to ride not long after they walk.  A family's wealth is measured in the horses they own.  They never actually tell you the number of their herd but tell you the number of stallions they own.  

Motorcycles are now used to help herd the horses.  Once the herd was gathered near us, they chose horses to lasso as part of the demo.  Next, the riders passed by us and scrapped up the long pole they used to capture the horses.  The next challenge was to  grab a whip left on the ground. In their final and most difficult challenge the riders scooped up small sheep bones from the ground.  The number of bones they are able to grab indicated their skill level.  These riders are amazing.

After dinner, we gathered outside one of the gers to take shots of the stars and the Milky Way.  The sky is so dark that it was easy to spot the Milky Way and get great photos.  Since this was our first night shoot, there was a learning curve we had to get past.  However, I think everyone eventually got great shots.

Tomorrow: First day of School.

To the Gobi We Go

An early morning flight on Hunna Air(think really small commuter airline with planes we retired years ago) we found ourselves in the Gobi Desert.  This desolated area makes up about 1/3 of Mongolia and is the 4th largest desert in the world.  Most of it is made up of grasslands with only a small sliver of it containing actual sand dunes, which was our destination for the evening.

We split our small group into 6 Toyota Landcruisers for our drive.  We soon appreciated the beefed up suspension and four-wheel drive capabilities since the dirt roads in this part of the country are rough with frequent dips when you least expected them.  Our drivers didn’t speak English but seemed to know the roads well, zigzagging across the flat, barren landscape.  Often there were several lanes crisscrossing which helped us avoid the dust from the car in front of us.  Occasionally they would leave the road entirely to avoid a particularly big dip.

We stopped for a late breakfast at Three Camel Lodge which we would return to after our night by the dunes.  We had a couple of hour drive to the dunes basically seeing nothing but nomadic herders and their herds of cattle, goats, sheep and their prized horses.  I'm sure this dirt road system is written down somewhere, but if you flew in from the USA and were expecting road signs you are out of luck.

At the camp, we were assigned our gers and had a little time to settle in before getting back in our cars for the short drive to our next mode of transportation: camels.  Mongolia has the two humped variety better known as Bactrian.  They appear to be a little shorter and stouter than the Dromedary and also furrier.  Once they knelt down we were assigned our camel, mounted up and started out for the sand dunes in the distance.  Groups of 4 or 5 camels were lead by a guide that walked in front of us. The trek took about an hour and I think we were all ready to leave our slightly uncomfortable transport behind.

The Singing Dunes are named because of the noise they make when winds pass over their ridges.  We were just as happy we didn't get an opportunity to attend a performance since blowing sand would not have been kind on our equipment.  One of the camel drivers took several of the camels up and down over the ridges so we could take pictures.  After several passes he also poised for a portrait.  He put on his traditional clothing to make it look more authentic although the others were wearing western style clothing.  It was a fun and very different experience.

Our drivers picked us back up and took us to our camp.  Our ger was equipped with a bed that was covered with a very thin mattress and two very small pillows.  The facilities were located up by the dining hall and reminded me of college dormitory bathrooms with communal showers.  Beggars can't be choosers, so we all slipped on our shower shoes and walked up the hill.  It was fortunate that we were all very tired because even sleeping on boards couldn't keep us awake.

Tomorrow: Back to Three Camel Lodge 

Ulaanbatar

After a good nights sleep and a nice breakfast , we struck out to explore the largest city in Mongolia on foot.  At slightly over a million people, this is not like tackling NYC or even Dallas.

Our first stop was to take care of gifts for loved ones back home. Spoiler alert: if you normally get a present from me between now and Christmas, I hope you like cashmere.  Much better than a key chain, the cashmere made from the Mongolian goats (it can also be made from yak and camel) is beautiful and soft and probably will be a favorite of our families.  

After a leisurely lunch of Italian which seems to be a universal food, we went to the State Department Store.  Think of a multistory Macy's and you'll have a pretty good picture of our shopping experience. School starts on September 1st so it was packed with back to school shoppers. The store had everything you might need from clothes to camping gear, books to groceries.

On our stroll back we went into the Zanabazar Museum which houses historical art mainly from the Buddhist period.  It was all very zen with bronze Buddhas and temple rubbings with a few weapons thrown in for good measure.

Crossing the Chenggis Khaan square, the main square of the city, we saw people enjoying their final days of summer.  Children rode power wheel cars while parents filmed them on their phones.  Others roller skated and skate boarded in the wide open space.  Some just sat holding hands as the sun set, not unlike a scene we might find at our local park.

Our second day in the city found a little rainier weather so  we visited the Temple Museum.  This former Buddhist Temple has been converted to a museum where you can wonder around the former temple to get an idea what it was like before the communist rule ended Buddhism in Mongolia.  You can tell that at one time it was quite a beautiful complex.  It still is quite interesting.

The rain brought the umbrellas out in Chinggas Khaan square.  Gone were the children from yesterday, replaced by business people hurrying to their jobs.

Tonight we met up with the rest of the group.  Everyone's a little tired from travel, but it seems like a group we'll enjoy.

Tomorrow: Out to the Gobi Desert

Land of the Nomad

Since catching the photography bug, life has taken me to some pretty interesting places (Morocco, Istanbul, Myanmar) but this one may take the cake.  Mongolia, tucked between China and Russia, has a population of 3 million people which makes it the one of the most sparsely populated, fully sovereign countries in the world.  The capital of Ulaanbatar has about 45% of the population of the whole country!

This is the land of the nomad living with harsh conditions in the winter and trying to make up for it in the summer.  Many live in gers which you might better know has  yurts.  These structures are easy to move as the sparse grass is grazed by their herds of horses, sheep, yak and goats.  I'm sure I'll have some great pictures later on to show exactly what I'm referring to.

The country is mainly Buddhist, which has come back into favor after the fall of communism in 1991.  Thousands of monks were killed and temples destroyed during the communist rule.  Russia had a great deal of influence over the government at the time and we all know how the communists felt about religion.

Mining is the number one industry in the country, with deposits of copper, coal, tungsten, tin and gold making up a majority of the mining activities.  Herding (thus the nomads) is number two and the activity we will most likely come in contact with during the trip.

Enough about things you can find on Wikipedia.  Your real questions is probably why would we find ourselves heading to Mongolia.  We have a joke around our house that we're leaving our vacation planning to our photography friends, Liza and Ira.  These should be familiar names from previous blogs.  They do a great job of finding interesting spots with the type of planning an accountant feels comfortable with.

The other question I've been asked is how will we get there and how long does it take. We'll leave early Friday morning for a flight out of Dallas to Seoul.  From there we take Mongolian Air into Ulaanbatar.  Pretty simple routing (I've seen worse trying to get to locales in the US).  What's not so great is the 24 or so hours it will take to get there.  I see lots of movies and naps in my future.

So, I invite you to tag along with us as we explore Mongolia.

Next: Ulannbatar