10/7/2002
Mongolia
Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia
Exit one poor nation with angry cold people; enter a poorer nation with beautiful happy people. Ulaan Baatar is a post communist city with many similarities to Moscow: Sukhbataar Square just like Red Square, Sukhbataar’s tomb (Sukhbataar lead the revolt from China in the 1920’s with Russia’s help) just like Lenin’s tomb and large monolithic communist era buildings everywhere. However the Chinese and Buddhist influences have left many Chinese-styled pagodas and temples all around town.
From the train we immediately went out to our ger camp in the Terelj National Park, exchanging the dusty concrete city for the rolling green hills and mountains. My words can’t begin to improve the pictures of the countryside, so I’ll just give the link.
We rode horses in the mountains for two days and imagined what it was like to be a real cowboy back in the Wild West. Mongolians are notoriously excellent horsemen, learning to ride at three or four years. Their national festival (The Nadaam Fesitval) features these little tykes (closer to eight years old now) racing over a course of about 20km. Can you imagine an 8yo in America doing that? Though the tiny saddle did get a little uncomfortable after hours of riding, we had an immensely great time.
The city itself wasn’t spectacular but the people were very kind (even though I was nearly pick-pocketed twice by different groups of kids) and eager to practice their meager English. Ulaan Baatar is the staging area for expeditions to the Gobi. I don’t know how many bulletin board postings I saw from people putting together trips and needing an extra person or two to share the costs (like $10/day for everything on a 20-day trip).
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