Okay, okay, it’s here! This is what you’ve all been waiting for; photos and stories from Mongolia! And they won’t disappoint. Out of Russia, Mongolia and China, this country is the one I get asked about the most and understandably so. It is majorly different from anything else we Westerners know and has the most interesting nomad lifestyle.
As part of my latest blog series with images from my Transiberian trip, this is part 3 (check out part 1 and part 2 here). The photos you’re about to see of course include some shots you’ll see from anyone who’s been to Mongolia and some others possibly not. Standard ones in my attempt to understand daily life in the country.
So let’s cut to the chase. Here’s what my lens captured in Mongolia.
Not how you thought I’d start off eh? Hehe, I know but I love doing ordinary activities when I’m abroad so I always try to use public transport to see how the system works and how people interact with it. Visiting the supermarket is another way to get a glimpse of daily life. Before visiting Mongolia, I had no idea what the local cuisine was like. This supermarket had all sorts of stuff, from cucumbers and lettuce to kimchi, Special K and Lipton tea.
Two thoughts came to mind whilst there:
1) Globalisation
2) That we’re all pretty similar in the end, even when it comes down the cereal we eat.
In Mongolia I visited a Buddhist temple for the first time, observed people take off their shoes before entering, praying by standing and kneeling on the ground repeatedly and quietly, admired the colourful interior and passed my fingers through the prayer wheels you see above.
This milky tea is something you’ll definitely come across in Mongolia. We were served it as a welcome drink when we reached the nomad family that was hosting us and then every day and all day long. There’s certainly a lot of dairy and meat going around in Mongolia. If you’re dairy-free or a vegetarian it might be challenging but if you let your tour guide know, they might arrange something else for you.
I stopped drinking cow’s milk years ago but certainly indulged in this as I wanted to savour something so dear to the locals. After 3 days of yoghurt biscuits, creammy cheese and milk tea my bowels were on a sprint run and the bathroom wasn’t the best option. If you followed my Instagram stories, you’ll know something about that :p
Mongolian kids are cute AF! Look at those cute cheeks and beautiful skin. These girls were super friendly and though we couldn’t really communicate I understood they were playful and wanted to spend time with us. Some of them lived in the ger (Mongolian for yurts) community nearby and came to us as we asked them a sing a Happy Birthday song for my mum in a little video I was preparing for her. As a treat we gave them bread and condensed milk, which they loved!
She was the oldest of the group and spoke a bit of English. She also taught me that there’s such a thing as UNO poker. Yup, you read that right. After a game of UNO she took off her blue bracelet and put it on the table looking at me smiling as in saying ‘okay, now your turn’.
I laughed but went for it. I took of a bracelet placed it in between the cards. Another girl put in a pen and that’s what we were playing for. Winner takes it all. I ended up winning but gave her my bracelet anyway :)
Bimba was the women we were staying with. With her and her family. As matriarchal society, she was the head of the family, the cook, the babysitter, the wood-chopper, the milk producer and everything in between.
Fun story: One day I got confused and called her Bambi haha!
I spent three days at the ger, lost in translation but by then (after sharing a train cabin with lovely Russians for a couple of days), I was getting better and better at communicating without words but with the eyes, hands and body. The scenery was so vast, so green and rich that I spent a good amount of the day staring out. The hill sides seemed almost a velvety green and the whole landscape reminded me of renaissance paintings.
But Mongolia isn’t just about ger and galloping horses, as I found out. There’s much more to it and if I’m given the chance to ever go back, Gobi dessert is where I’ll be heading. If you want to know what I’m talking about, then read this article I wrote for The Travelettes with 9+1 cool facts you probably don’t know about Mongolia.
That’s all for now!
Next and final stop: Beijing, China. Stay tuned.
