баярлалаа

Walking it off

Despite the jet lag which was beating me up severely and was not allowing me almost any sleep during the night, the list for the second day in Ulaanbaatar was full of action and incredibly up-until-then distant content, so the only thing I could do is to go with the flow, immerse myself entirely, ignore the exhaustion and – just start walking.

My main goal in Mongolia was to walk. To avoid any public transport in the city and focus on exploration by foot. The bus fare prices are so low that no one with a sane mind would even consider walking, especially with such planned distances along such a large city, but:

1. Sanity and I have nothing left in common anymore, it departed a long time ago
2. I love to walk and I walk a lot on a daily/weekly/monthly basis
3. There is something incredibly relaxing for me in going by foot and I will use every opportunity to do exactly that, in copious amounts
4. During the bus rides, you don’t get to see all you’d want to – by foot I will approach all that piques my curiosity, even if it appears every 5 meters, as I want to take my time and truly explore everything
5. The leg which now has a lot of metal parts installed does not mind a lot of walking – on the contrary, it LOVES movement and loathes the passive state in terms of stiffness and consequential pain
6. I was genuinely curious about how much in total could I walk after such demanding post-fracture rehabilitation period and thought to myself – I shall walk, and I shall see

During the night it was raining and it was the only rain that I saw during my stay in Ulaanbaatar. I didn’t even see the rain itself, I just stumbled upon some massive puddles on the road, but during the day the weather cleared up entirely and the Sun shone until I flew back to Norway.

Narantuul market

My first stop was Narantuul (mong. black market). Every single list of “what to see in UB” has it, as it is incredibly unavoidable.

The distance between the Khongor hostel and Narantuul is one hour by foot, so I packed my gear, fortified the backpack with a tech jacket ready for eventual rain, and just went out. I was on my way when the rush hour was blocking the large and wide avenues. I took time to observe the buildings, try to figure out the meanings on their facades, and their purpose.

The market is a colorful ocean of stuff and seems to be very popular with the locals. I was aiming at finding a pair of high leather boots, a modernized version of traditional mongolian boots, but in the end could not find something I’d actually wear.

I saw, expectedly, a lot of cashmere products in dreamlike earthy tones, traditional clothes and horseback riding stuff like saddles etc.

Cirilica, “bre”

I would like to use this moment to mention how thankful I am to be able to read cyrillic alphabet. Being a war child which spent several years living in the basement and consequently growing up in the post-war period when everything serbian was deemed to be counter-constitutional and with a genocidal tone, and being the part of the last generation of pupils who learned cyrillic letters in school, I am in a way happy because there is still a pragmatic and utilitarian dimension in learning it as it allowed me to read confidently the street names, stores, products, whatnots in Russia and Mongolia. I am unable to speak mongolian and cannot understand anything beyond “bayarlalaa” but at least I can navigate through the city, read the maps, and easily figure out which is the direction I am going.

You can always hear from those around you (and maybe even ask yourself while being in school, losing your mind over a “useless” subject) when will they have the use for a certain seemingly obscure school subject. The answer is – you don’t fucking know and cannot even assume. And that’s the beauty of this.

Bogd Khan – the world’s oldest national park

On the way from Khongor to Narantuul along Niislel khuree avenue the national park Bogd Khan can be seen. The entire area has the status of the world’s oldest national park, with special protection since 1783, even though already in the 13th century Tooril Khan forbade hunting and logging in Bogd Khan while claiming it’s sacred.

Its name in english means “the mountain of a saint khan”, and the highest peak, Tsetsee Gun, measures 2261 m. On the northern side lies a large evergreen forest, and the southern side of Bogd Khan’s surface is covered with stones.

Here you can see the portion of the northern section which overlooks the city.

I left visiting such a special and unusual place for the days on which I would be staying in the city, and if some of the other plans dissipate. Unfortunately, the days were so packed with action that in the end I had nothing to cut off in order to do this hike. Well, just another reason to book the flight to Ulaanbaatar (at least once more in my life) again.

Gandantegchinlen monastery

This monastery is the center of buddhism in Mongolia and seems to be on every possible “to see” list. Due to its tremendous importance within the lamaism, I assumed that it would be swarmed by believers, but I was alone the entire time (which I do adore, especially when it happens like this, spontaneous) and had the full liberty and freedom of exploring it, taking photos and absorbing the vibe.

Museum of natural history

Due to the facts that Gobi and Mongolia are one of the largest dinosaur graveyards on the planet, and my child ADORES dinosaurs, visiting this museum was of utmost importance for me.

It is located near Gandantegchinlen monastery and I came an hour before it was closed, primarily to take photos of skeletons which my child would love to see. The photos were shared directly from the museum, with me feeling extremely proud of a kiddo who found such interesting topic to keep herself busy.

The stores and their offer

When I enter new cities or countries, soon after I go to the stores which sell regular dagular stuff. Not so much because I want to see the price differences between the home country and the one I just came to, I kind of like to see what the locals use and what seems to be popular; also, what will be on my disposal to eat during my stay, and how different the assortment looks compared to the european ones. There are a lot of european products (even found Pergale chocolates on a special shelf, wow) and many of them are of russian origin, and expectedly korean, japanese and chinese.

The choice of Buldak / Samyang / Paldo ramyuns which were marinated in Satan’s bunghole and then packed in small bags is probably 500x better than those in Norway, so I picked up as much as I could fill up my suitcase before I left Mongolia.

Ice cream

During my stay in Mongolia I nailed down at least one ice cream each day. The market is full of Korean and Russian ice cream and similar products, and I just have to say that I adored them all.

I prefer the fruity ones instead of chocolate/nutty/whatnot ones, and boy did I find what I need.

Bactrian camels

Due to the tradition and history, and nomadic life which was being established along the vast mongolian steppe, the importance of camels is tremendous. Mongolian camels – bactrian camels – have two humps, are very comfortable to ride (more on that later) and have an incredibly docile nature. I dare to say that I have never been in direct contact with any sentient being who is calmer than them. Along the cities I visited I have found several series of camel cavalcades and they look spectacular in reality.

Airag

Mongolians have an incredibly strong historical and cultural connection with milk and dairy products, especially mare and ewe milk. When you live in a middle of nowhere and there is not much you can rely on around you, it’s no wonder that something like milk had such importance.

One of my primary goals was to find a bottle of airag, mare milk, and nail it down. The idea had to be crossed due to the fact that it has a seasonal nature and the earliest I could find airag would be in june, when the foals arrive.

There are countless “strange” and to a european palate very unusual dairy products available in the stores and it looks like a task for itself to do the research what they are, what are they made of, and how are they supposed to be enjoyed in a proper manner.

50k

Ended the day with almost 50 000 steps without even perceiving it as a challenge. The excitement of even just being there and my obsessive propensity for clearing up the “must see” list made me even forget about the walk itself; the surroundings were so otherworldly interesting that the sole idea of me walking on mongolian soil was more than enough.