The city of Ulaan Bataar, capital of Mongolia, is a hotchpotch of highrise apartments (Soviet era), ultra modern business buildings and miles of ger camps and basic housing spreading like some giant Glastonbury festival into the surrounding hills. In the countryside dust roads and brown rolling hills stretch for miles – Mongolia is three times the size of France with a population of only 2.7m mostly nomadic people – no fences, walls, hedges…just open grassland – green in summer, brown in autumn and snowy in winter. Big skies. Small herds of sheep, goats, cattle and horses roam the hills and a few gers (yurts) are dotted around, smoke rising from stove pipes.
We stayed in a couple of gers for 5 days/4 nights – way off the beaten track in a river valley only accessible by horse and cart (to cross the rivers). The beds had a bit of old felt for a mattress, the toilet was a hole in the ground with a couple of bits of wood around for privacy, and washing was in water collected in a bucket from the river and heated on the stove. It was just like camping – but in an insulated felt tent with a woodburner! (My type of camping…..except for the loo ….) The people are lovely – very gentle and hospitable. Such simple living. They are firmly in the 21st century however – with no phone lines or roads everyone carries a mobile phone (even the older people) and they love the telly – for those near enough to an electricity line to connect up. The last ger we stayed in had a twintub, two TV’s, a karaoke machine, music system, and freezer all squeezed in around the two beds and some cupboards – but no fridge…..all those milk products in the summer (up to +40C) doesn’t bear thinking about! Their children mostly go to school in UB in the winter and live in the ger in the summer helping their parents and grandparents with the livestock.
Well, we’re off to the Gobi desert tomorrow with our guide, Daka. So much to see and so little time! I could definitely come back to Mongolia if there was ever another chance.
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