Mongolia is Magnificent! by Susie

I love "alliterations," so when I say Mongolia is Magnificent, I can also say it was Marvelous and Mysterious and Maybe the coolest stop on our trip around the World. It is a Monster of a country with Millions of Miles of Mountains with plains and rivers and desert strewn all throughout. Mongolia seems Maybe reMote and out of this world, but surprisingly, it is More like the planet we lost long ago.
Okay, I can't think of anyMore M words to continue my alliteration obsession, so now I'll just let my words flow and tell you a little bit about what we experienced and learned on our 3 week trek through Mongolia.
You must admit, it IS a cool word to say...MonGoLia It is also a very cool place to travel, especially with our good friends Eddie & Amy Frank, the Tusker Trail (www.tusker.com) guides extraordinaire. We climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro and went on a four week 4WD across Africa Safari with Eddie back in 1998 (yep, 13 years ago, before Noa was born). Les and Eddie hit it off right away, exchanging old Landcruiser stories. So when he and Amy (my adventure sister) told us about their Mongolia trek, I started planning on how to incorporate it into this RTW trip.  All the other stops and continents really floated around these 3 weeks in Mongolia. Plus, I had to do a lot of convincing to Noa and Les. Although they were keen on trekking in Mongolia, they both weren't too sure about riding a mountain pony for 4 hours a day. Must be a "boy thing" with the horn on the saddle and all that bouncing around; it gave them great fear & trepidation. But, I will say right now, in the end, both Les and Noa were riding like Clint Eastwood and galloping confidently across meadows with wind in their hair and huge smiles on their faces. Me? I was practically giddy with glee and giggling every moment I got to be on and around those shaggy little horses. It was so fun.

Susie with all the Mongolian moms & kids

Susie on Gandolf over frozen rivers

Noa cuddling a baby goat in a family Ger

The Mongolian horse is a small 12-hand high, little creature, with a fluffy forlock (bangs) and a long, long thick tail (which I loved to braid; I am a girl BTW). They come in all colors too: mine was a grouchy gray spotted pinto I named "Gandolf the wizard." Les' horse was a lazy chestnut brown with a golden blond mane, he named him "Gimli the dwarf." and Noa's was a spindly young brown & black bay he named "Cody." Apparently, the Mongolian herdsman don't name their horses, so they were amused by us, and also they may eat the ponies that don't pull their own weight...AAArrrgh! This was a devastating fact for me to hear. As I lamented "Don't eat Horses!" Everyone on our trek kept taunting me at mealtimes... "Gandolf is gonna be dinner!" ...very sad indeed, but a fact of life in the tough culture & climate we were experiencing.

Les' fav shot - Our icy snowy camels

The remote Ger tent satellite dish & solar panels

Back to the beginning, as we flew into Ulaan Batar, the capital city, the first thing you notice is the immense expanse of land in every direction, then you notice the colorful rooftops of the homes -red, blue, orange, green. An interior decorator would say, "the color just POPS" out on the tan gray of the arid fields surrounding the city.  Next, you notice all the giant billboards of mega-companies exclaiming their excellent mining prowess at drilling, hauling & grinding up Mongolia's natural resources.  The capitalizing beast has awakened to the potentials of Mongolia's underground gems, oils, coal & metals just waiting for the taking. We can only hope that there is a safe management system in place to curb to corruption and hoarding of the profits, and protect the future of that beautiful land. Sigh... we see a few Hummers and Lamborghini's downtown and know that someone is certainly not sharing the new wealth.
But, this is the world we are finding nowadays, everywhere. I'll let Les elaborate on that later.
We meet up with Amy and the group -John, Jay, Patti, Patrick, Phyllis, Joanne, and Adeline and quickly realize this is going to be one GREAT expedition. Another pre-dawn flight takes us to the more remote city of Ulgii (pronounced "oolgee," not ugly) where we get to sleep inside a round Ger tent, like the Russian "yurts" you may have seen before.

Typical round Mongolian Ger (yurt) house

Totally portable like a Native American teepee, it's a frame of bent wooden poles covered in layers of yak fur felt & canvas with a little 3 foot tall door. Once inside, you see the bright colors again, that POP, decorating the ceiling and walls are the most beautiful hand-embroidered tapestries. Every ger we visited on our trek had hot pinks, lime greens, reds, yellows, and blues swirling around inside. Three or four twin-size beds line the round walls, with a kitchenette shelf and a big rawhide bag & paddle for churning the yak/goat milk into yogurt & cheese. Then there's a simple wood-burning (sometimes dung-burning) stove in the center of the ger with a chimney pipe to get the smoke out the roof.  It was very comfy, clean and cozy.  One to two whole families would live in this 15 foot diameter space, 4+ children just slept on the floor between. That's a lesson in positive family communication and support- no griping and complaining allowed! The best part about the gers, especially as we got more remote in the wilderness, was the contradiction of ancient living styles (as I just described) and modern amenities. With the addition of a satellite dish & solar panel outside then they had a TV and DVD player inside! It was awesome...here we are sitting inside a ger, a thousand miles from the city, with this tough cute little family, drinking salty yak-milk tea (which tastes like hot Gatorade btw) and holding a fuzzy baby goat in our arms, and they have Will Smith's movie "Hancock" playing on their TV! Noa was chuckling at it all. It was great!
So what next? Well, our group, led by Amy & local expert Dosjan, jumped in three different Landcruisers and made tracks (literally) for 6 hours to the National Park to meet up with Eddie and our horses. It was off-road bouncy and totally fun. We felt like we were in the Baja 3000 race, as each driver tried to beat the other guy to the turn and stay ahead of the dust clouds. Eddie was waiting next to an incredible lake with all our yellow tents set up, a herd of camels and horses at the ready, and big plate of "Eddie Spaghetti" made by the awesome camp cook Alex. He and Noa became fast friends, as Noa often went straight to the source with his high metabolism and hunger pains. Amy made sure to surprise Noa also with pockets of Fruit by the Foot & Gushers. What a treat! He hadn't tasted any of those for 2 months, a favorite familiar food. (You notice that I still throw in a few more of my alliterations for you?)
I told you about our horses already, Gandolf, Gimli & Cody, but did I tell you that we rode in these super soft Australian style saddles? I highly recommend them for long rides. And, did I mention that we are now quite adept at crossing rivers? Wild, rushing rivers of white glacier melt up to your knees! It was awesome! A few times we took off our boots and pulled our knees high to keep our feet dry. There's a reason to do more pilates and yoga -keep those core stomach muscles strong...river crossings on horseback.
Noa really earned his stripes in Mongolia. He became a master tent putter-upper, a speedy horse racer (he borrowed a whip from Karbai-the horse master), and even learned how to surf on top of a camel (he sure missed the waves)! I have to say that never once did Noa complain about the cold weather or strange foods. He carried on long conversations with all the adults and helped out whenever he could. He met the Mongolian local kids with a smile and handed out over 50 little airplane kits to each one as an ambassador of travel. Even when his spindly little horse, Cody, tried to lay down on him when he was still in the saddle 3 times, he just leapt off quick and grinned, a little frustrated, but game for another go. He also became quite the photographer. Watching Phyllis, he took amazing close-up shots of tiny purple flower blossoms in the high mountain meadows, good enough for National Geographic I think. I think we'll keep Noa for a few years more, he's a really good kid.
So, again, what else did we do in Mongolia? The weather was warm 70 degrees, t-shirt time, in the beginning. But as we traveled further north, to the borders of Russia and China, it got colder and wetter. Afternoon rains and snowfall on the mountain pass made us layer up with all our down vests, fleece jackets, sweaters, wet gear and gloves. We were glad to have our zero degree, down sleeping bags at night, but also surprised at how narrow our "mummy" shaped bags seemed to have become since we last used them 10 years ago. It's hard to sleep with your legs zipped tight!

Noa crossing a glacier river on "Cody"

As we camped next to a glacier, sipping hot cocoa, and looking at the snow-capped peaks of Russia on one side, China on another, and Mongolia all around, it just makes life slow down. We were unplugged from technology, wifi, cell phones, blogs, anyone else in the world...and it was okay! It was better than okay. It was really how life is supposed to be lived. IN THE MOMENT and appreciating the beauty of nature and the love in our family. Don't get me wrong, we mostly farted and burped a lot in our tents and shoved stinky socks in the other guy's pillow, but WOW! What an awesome, truly awesome, FAMILY experience and adventure.

Les and the hooded hunting falcon

I highly recommend Mongolia, especially with Tusker, if you have the inclination and the need to unplug for awhile.