Mongolian Gallery

For the one month-birthday of our trip, we present you a collective work: the Mongolian Gallery!

To describe our time in Mongolia is difficult. We saw and learned so much and on the same time we ask ourselves what did we learn here. So many different impressions, places hundreds of kilometers away from each other, from staying with a family to sleeping in a tourist camp in the middle of the desert. So many situations full of colors, sounds, senses, emotions and encounters. All of these situations worthy to describe separately in form of pictures: descriptive and digital. 

1. Dumplings

We almost missed our train because we really wanted to buy some food before we got on the train. Some vegetarian food! And that was the challenge. In the end we found a restaurant and via sign language and with lots of patience we finally got a lot (it lasted for two lunch and one dinner) of vegetarian dumplings. We enjoyed it a lot in the train!

 

 2. Transmongolian

Impossible picture of the landscape. These 28 hours of movement and perpetual evolution through our window were absolutely fascinatin.

 

3. Border crossing

In the middle of the night, at the sino-mongolian border: We are outside of the train, sitting on the floor, watching Wonder Woman. But why? The Transmongolian has to stop for a while because it has to be adjusted to the Mongolian railways. Therefore we had the choice: either to stay inside for some hours without bathroom and water or to go outside to the fresh air but without our beds. We chose the second option… but in company of the computer to watch one of the movies Wayne (our Couchsurfer of Beijing) gave us! Four hours later (two hours after the end of the movie), we can finally go into the train again. Sleep is more than needed! 

4. A stain of white

 

A white stain in the streets of Zaison: as soon as Delgeerma goes out with her beautiful white and young dog, all the children of the area run to come to play with it. A moment of pure and deep joy.

5. A surpising encounter

While walking up a hill in Zaison we heard a group of young people singing and playing the guitar. First we thought maybe some traditional music but as Hannah was getting closer she noticed to know the song! The teenagers came to her and shouted: Jesus loves you! And she just said: I know. That surprised them totally and then they asked shyly: Do you believe? Are you Christian? When she said yes they were super happy. They were a kind of missionary group from South Korea and were just signing a couple of worship songs here up the hill towards the sunset. Is there a better place for it?

6. A Mongolian tradition

In Mongolia, if you see a cumulus of stones on your way, wait a minute. Take three stones you find anywhere around you, walk around the small mountain of stones while throwing the three in your hand on the pile - one after another and think very strongly about a wish… It might be realized soon!

7. Finally

In Beijing, we couldn't find any place to put the stickers of our friends. We were quite frustrated! However in Mongolia, we had two nice opportunities: we put Svenja&Aashay's mandala on the window of a typical small shop in Ulaanbaatar, close to the Gandantegchinlen monastery; And we gave Mayank's tree to Poncek, our guide through the desert, so that he can stick it on his car! Thank you guys for your participation! 

8. Overtone moment

We are attending a presentation of the Alliance Française (in French and Mongol) about one kind of traditional music of Mongolia (the overtone singing), while having a conversation in German with a friendly Mongolian guy. Can you believe it? The short concert afterward makes us miss the last bus to come back home but… it was worth it!

9. A picture of a Mongolian bus ride

Sitting in a public bus from Ulaanbaatar to South Gobi is totally different than the train ride to Mongolia. You can hear the Mongolian music-videos playing on the TV in full volume, three kids behind sharing one seat next to their grandmother's and signing and gesturing with the music. They are quite good and have a big repertoire of songs. Specially when some children songs are played about washing their hands – if we got it right – and not only the children behind us but all the children in the bus and some moms and grand-moms start to sing along – quite a picture! When you look to your right side to the small path between the seats you find a handful of people sitting there on camping chairs, chattering with their neighbors. And you can see 1-3 year old children sitting on the their mothers' laps who are sleeping, occupying themselves. Lots of people are sleeping the entire 10 hours and just wake up for the lunch/ dinner break. The landscape passes by through the windows: first greenish and hilly with cows, sheeps, horses and camels next to each other and once in a while a ger (traditional round tent). After a couple of hours then the green faiths out and the yellow/ brownish of the sand gets more and more dominant till it is a desert fully of sand.

10. Mongolian music video

Traditional music-videos always take place in the steppe or desert were one guy or one women is singing about their partner. They are always completely traditional dressed and horses can't be missed, of course! As well as long sequences of the nature are needed to be shown. Totally the opposite are modern Mongolian music-videos. All these start off with a couple falling in love and then fighting. Or starting off with a couple fighting and then always the women leaving. After that you can see the men being left behind and crying, remembering all the good times they had. At some point in the music-videos they all look at pictures of happy moments they had together and in the end – of course, everything is good again.

11. In the middle of nowhere

In the middle of nowhere – Our first evening in the Gurvan Saikhan Conservation Park was fully releasing: we were so happy to have a huge space around us, with a vast horizon, far far far away from the cities. We were dreaming about that since a while! We reached a small camp of gers and as soon as our bags were inside the yurt, we climbed up a green hill to breathe the fresh air and to have an overview of the area while the sun was going down. How small – but peaceful! – we felt! How green and huge the world! It was a deep liberation.

12. Milk and bread. 

“Eat, eat!” Poncek says, pointing a plate of sausages. However, these sausages are not sausages at all… but some kind of bread! We just arrived in a little camp for the night and, inside the ger, people gave us goat milk to drink and this nice small breads you can put inside. It means: you are welcome!

13. Cards

In the Gobi desert, we found shadows… and time. A lot of time. That day, we had to wait til 6pm for going to the sand dune. We were quite bored (it is incredible how lost you feel when suddenly you don't have to run everywhere or to do thousand of things) and we remembered the card game Wayne gave us as a present!

14. Sand dunes

15.  Vegan or not vegan? 

Mongolia is a country of carnivore cuisine. But, in Ulaanbaatar, we found quite a lot of vegan restaurant (fancy places for foreigners, we suppose)… which was not the case at all in the desert! Poncek and his friends killed once one of the goats of the herd. They cut and cooked it very carefully with big enthusiasm. Such an event! 

16. In search of dinosaurs

17. The last morning in the Gurvan Saikhan park. 

We attend the opening ceremony of Naadam, a traditional festival in Mongolia. But we are not alone… Oh no, certainly we are not. And not because of the amount of local people! Indeed, some travel groups of tourists are also there, with cameras. And all of them keep taking pictures and pictures and pictures of Mongolian people and Mongolian children as if we were in a zoo! At that moment, we feel very bad. The only picture which seems ok to be taken to us (and still)… is this one: a small friendly creature which just appeared to say hello! 

18. Tranquility in the wideness!

You can look around you and as far as you can see – and you can see quite far as everything is flat – there is no other human being except the people in the car with you: such a wideness. You can only here the sound of the wind and the car engine, feel the dry air hitting your face and the strong sun on your arms. Pure tranquility!  

19. Flat tire!

Poncek, our driver, is lying under the car, with his red working suit. He is changing the tire. We just got a puncture because of a little metal string on our way. OK: it was not so small but comparing to the immensity of the desert around us, it was! We were quite unlucky. And moreover, our bus to Ulaanbaatar is already leaving in two hours and we are still in the middle of nowhere But Poncek is fast and we help him as much as we can (also not so much): only fifteen minutes later, he is singing again with the Mongolian radio (maybe driving"a little" too fast).

20. Dreamed picture of a pillow. 

We reached Ulaanbaatar at 2am, without anywhere to sleep. We kind of expected the bus to be slower but unfortunately it is perfectly on time! However, luckily the door of the office of the bus terminal opens… a woman let us go inside! She is also waiting there with her kid who is sleeping peacefully on the seats. Half an hour later we are sleeping as well! We charge our batteries for the next hours: we will walk to the center of Ulaanbaatar to find wifi, pick up our passports with our new visas inside and try to buy some food which will not be an easy task due to beginning of the festival! But for now, let's have a short but nice sleep before our zombie-walk to the Transsiberian!

We hope you could get an impression of Mongolia through collectively collected pictures!