Sarah's Mongolia Adventure

Thanks Sarah. Your descriptions and the pictures are wonderful. I was surprised to see the statue of the Buddha, as I thought the people were primarily Muslims. Wrong! I see in a State Dept article that over 90% are followers of "Tibetan Buddhist Lamaism".

Mongolia (02/08)

Very interesting history, both the early period of world domination and to me especially their role against Japan around WW2 and in Sino-Soviet relations. One tough bunch! I am glad Don survived wrestling them- seems like they could likely defeat a Siberian tiger hand to hand. :)

BTW, no idea why the State Dept link got tranformed to cool guy smiley.:confused:

Ha
 
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Very adventurous. Great pictures. Thanks for sharing.
 
haha said:
Thanks Sarah. Your descriptions and the pictures are wonderful. I was surprised to see the statue of the Buddha, as I thought the people were primarily Muslims. Wrong! I see in a Sate Dept article that over 90% are followers of "Tibetan Buddhist Lamaism".

Mongolia (02/08)

Very interesting history, both the early period of world domination and to me especially their role against Japan around WW2 and in Sino-Soviet relations. One tough bunch! I am glad Don survived wrestling them- seems like they could likely defeat a Siberian tiger hand to hand. :)

BTW, no idea why the State Dept link got tranformed to cool guy smiley.:confused:

Ha
Click to expand...

"8" followed by ")" no spaces creates cool guy. Leave a space between the 8 and the ).
 
Sarah,

Thank-you for the info on costs. I will PM for more details. What other trips have you and your adventurous husband taken?

A sidenote regarding Mongolian wrestlers. Last month I attended the Grand Sumo tournament in Los Angeles with a Japanese friend. The program featured the top forty sumo wrestlers from the Japanese Sumo Federation, and was the first time such a tournament had been held in America since 1981. Probably six or seven of these top wrestlers were Mongolian, and the crowd included many Mandarin speakers, and probably Mongolian as well, although I wouldn't have recognized it as such. The tournament was won by a Mongolian.
 
Sarah,

Your photos and descriptions are simply wonderful! I will be dreaming about Mongolia tonight. It is a magical place.
 
They are way tough hombres! I read somewhere that the Mongol army would run out of provisions, so they would keep going and just cut their horses necks open, drink some of the blood, and soldier on.

Can you imagine that Chingghis' army made it all the way to Vienna? And if it hadn't been for the death of the existing Khan that caused them all to turn around and go back home, I suspect they would have sacked all of Europe, and not just Russia, the Middle East, and the rest of Asia in the 15th century!

Ha, only 5% are muslim, the Kazakh in the West. Our guide and our driver were both Buddhist. Under the Russians, of course, all religion was outlawed, so the resurgence of Buddhism is pretty cool.
 
Great shots! I'm happy to visit Mongolia through your camera lens. As for the upcoming music fest in Va, I'm there. Just stow me in a storage bin; I don't [-]drink[/-] [-]smoke[/-] eat much... :cool:
 
Thanks for sharing. Very interesting trip. A bit more than $10K for a unique experience, which really isn't bad, considering a couple trading in their cars every 2-3 years spend easily that much per year.

But I've got to admit it is not for me. I like, or rather need creature comfort, and have to spend the nights at something at least like a Motel 6.
 
More like Motel 1! When the fire goes out at 1am, you have to restart it or risk waking up freezing! This is our ger at Lake Huvsgol.
 
Sarah like you I've always wanted to go to Outer Mongolia. A couple years ago I judged a college business plan competition, and by far my favorite were two Mongolian students who want to set a tour business for their country.

Thanks so much for posting your pictures and telling us about the trip, that looked like a great adventure. I am going to get there soon.

P.S. tell your boss you sound smart on the forum also, so maybe NPR isn't a fluke :)
 
Sarah in SC said:
More like Motel 1! When the fire goes out at 1am, you have to restart it or risk waking up freezing! This is our ger at Lake Huvsgol.
Click to expand...

Hey, that doesn't look bad. I can handle that. But the bathroom facility??
 
Looks great - be sure and post more pictures when you get back!

heh heh heh - :cool:
 
An Internet Star is born! :) Good work. I don't know, you sounded very smart in the Interview. I would have said, "Hey, when did Mongolia become its own country? Because on the propaganda maps that they gave us in school, they still showed Mongolia as part of China."
 
Thanks for sharing, Sarah--fascinating pictures!

I look forward to reading your travelogue and listening to your NPR interview this weekend, when I can leisurely enjoy them with a nice cup of hot coffee...
 
Wow, what an adventure! Some of the pictures of the landscape seemed surreal. I love how you got to intermingle with the locals. And I'm sure riding on the camel was an interesting experience!

The accommodations ("roughing it") only makes it all the more interesting.

Overall, how safe did you feel traveling there?
 
When I first saw the title to your thread, I thought it was going to be about a recipe....:duh:

Seriously, thank you so much for sharing your trip info and pics with us. :)
 
simple girl said:
Overall, how safe did you feel traveling there?
Click to expand...

Amazingly so. The only place there is any danger at all of pickpockets is in Ulaanbaatar, and even there we never saw any sort of sketchy people. Otherwise it is really a very safe place, we didn't even see any car accidents--which is surprising considering how scary driving is in the city! Reminded us of Kingston, Jamaica!

Another point for you animal lovers like me: in every developing country we've ever visited, animals (from cats and dogs to farm livestock) have been in mostly poor condition due to the simple economics of living. In Mongolia, where the per capita income is quite low, the animals ruled. We saw many dogs crossing the street, and many people crossing the street--the cars would invariably stop for the dogs but not the people! All the dogs we saw were healthy and sound, and did not bother the livestock at all (if they are well fed, there is no need). We saw a big tough Mongolian driver at a ger restaurant reach down and pet a cat gentlythat came strolling by. We saw three little boys (their families were on vacation from the city), say 8-12 years old, gingerly carrying around an adorable kitten at the Huvsgol camp, asking if it belonged to any of the tourists there. It turned out to be the camp cat, and those boys spent hours playing with her.

I don't know if it is the Buddhist influence, but life has a significant value to Mongolians and they seem to treat all animals as they do humans, with kindness and respect. This is a relief to tender folks like us, who are often disturbed by the careless callousness that sometimes accompanies poverty in other countries we have visited.
 
Sarah in SC said:
Amazingly so. The only place there is any danger at all of pickpockets is in Ulaanbaatar, and even there we never saw any sort of sketchy people. Otherwise it is really a very safe place, we didn't even see any car accidents--which is surprising considering how scary driving is in the city! Reminded us of Kingston, Jamaica!

Another point for you animal lovers like me: in every developing country we've ever visited, animals (from cats and dogs to farm livestock) have been in mostly poor condition due to the simple economics of living. In Mongolia, where the per capita income is quite low, the animals ruled. We saw many dogs crossing the street, and many people crossing the street--the cars would invariably stop for the dogs but not the people! All the dogs we saw were healthy and sound, and did not bother the livestock at all (if they are well fed, there is no need). We saw a big tough Mongolian driver at a ger restaurant reach down and pet a cat gentlythat came strolling by. We saw three little boys (their families were on vacation from the city), say 8-12 years old, gingerly carrying around an adorable kitten at the Huvsgol camp, asking if it belonged to any of the tourists there. It turned out to be the camp cat, and those boys spent hours playing with her.

I don't know if it is the Buddhist influence, but life has a significant value to Mongolians and they seem to treat all animals as they do humans, with kindness and respect. This is a relief to tender folks like us, who are often disturbed by the careless callousness that sometimes accompanies poverty in other countries we have visited.
Click to expand...

That is so cool. Really sounds like such an interesting place to visit!

I'm not so sure the way they treat animals has to do with the Buddhist influence, though, since when we were in Thailand there were many stray dogs and cats that did not appear in great condition. However, I never saw direct mistreatment at all - just seemed more a fact of economics, like you said, I think. So perhaps it is just something more ingrained in their culture itself? Interesting.

Oh, one more question - what was the temperature/weather like there?
 
Temp/weather varies by time of year--I definitely don't want to be there in the winter, it is -40C in UB!
Summer is really nice, the desert was in the 80s most days, as we moved further north it got colder but still quite dry. We had a couple of days with afternoon rain, typical for rainy season, but not much humidity. Closer to the Siberian border it was downright cold for us. From about the middle of the country north, it was cold enough for a fire in the ger at night, and fleeces during the day. I think the season for visitors runs from about June (when you can go to the Yak Festival in Khongor-Tsaaten Tsaagen National Park) to about mid-September.

I think it really is more cultural, they show the same fondness for animals as they do children, and older folks are revered for their wisdom. The matriarch of families has a tremendous influence in the community and women have many more opportunities for education and jobs than I expected.
 
Amazing! how wonderful and inspiring - i hope to travel like that some day! Thanks for sharing...i can live vicariously in the mean time....
 
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