Mongolia 2018 Part 4

Day 8 (October 7th)

We flew back to Ulaanbaatar and went from the airport to the Winter Palace, the only of four palaces of the Bogd Khan that survived the Russian purge of Buddhists from Mongolia (according to Putin, the other palaces were torn down to make room for low income housing).  It also seems to have been called the Green Palace, or perhaps the architecturally-chinese temples and the blocky European palace have different names. It is one of the three temples that have large free standing walls with dragons on them for reasons Ganzo told us but didn’t stick. The Bogd Khan was the last emperor of Mongolia during a short period of time after two Russian factions (the red army and the white army) fought to occupy Ugla (now Ulaanbaatar); prior to that, he was the Bogh Gengeen, which means the he was the Jebtsundamba Khutuktu, which means something from a Buddhist hierarchy standpoint, from the 1870s until 1919 when the Chinese invaded Mongolia and stripped him of his title… or something like that. His Queen was known as the White Tara, which means she’s one of the fifteen female Buddas.  Or maybe it was a nickname.  The history is a bit of a mishmash of small placards in the palace and snippets of information from Ganzo and it’s as confusing as the Tibetan pantheon, and really, it would be fascinating to actually have the time to untangle the wickedly complicated political and religious machinations that were going on at the time.  It makes U.S. history at the time seem likes childs play; other than “remember the Alamo” and the Spanish-American war, not much was going on our side of the world at the time.

But the Palace was the best exhibit of Mongolian history we saw while we were there, with a collection of garments, thrones, beds, Buddhist art, the Bogd Khan’s childhood toys, his taxidermy collection, and a highly fashionable leopard skin ger (not snow leopards, which are sacred, just regular old leopards, which don’t live in Mongolia anyway). 

Inner grounds (the winter palace is outside the walls of the main temple complex)

Scale model Ger made from 150 leopard skins.  It's good to be king Seats for high ranked Lamas

Day 9 (October 8th) We drove to Hustai National Park, also known as Khustain Nuruu National Park (there were competing banners at the entrance), home of the wild Przewalski's horse, considered to be the only non-domesticated horses left in existence (other “wild” horses, like the ones we saw in France, are escaped domestic horses that have gone feral).  There’s huge variety of wildlife in the park besides the horese, and according to a short video we watched, it rivalled the Serengeti for a chance to see wild animals up close and personal. The reality wasn’t quite as exciting.  We did see some Przewalski’s horses from a half a mile away.  A bunch of other tourists that were caravanning in front of us had abandoned their vehicles and were running after the horses trying to get a picture, giving us a good idea of why that doesn’t work very well.  The horses are much faster.  We say a large herd of Mongolian antelope (we would call them an Elk), recognizable with powerful binoculars.  And a few marmots, which we’d call gophers.  And a lizard.  One lizard.  Oh, wait, that was in the Gobi desert. The tourists in front of us chasing the Przewalski's horses away A Marmot A herd of Mongolia Antelope The loser antelope off by themselves Finally, wild horses up close!  Oh, wait, those are domestic horses, damn it All in all, this was probably the least exciting day we had on the trip.

Day 10-12 (October 9th- 11th)

We were up again at 4am for a 6:10 flight to Gurvan Saikhan airport, entry point to the national park of the same name, more colloquially known as the Gobi desert.  For this trip, we’d be staying in (I’m sure this is going to be a surprise) gers.  But unlike our prior glamping expeditions, these were part of the Three Camel Lodge, owned by (surprise two) Jalsa Urubshurow.   The Three Camel Lodge is an ecologically sensitive five star resort just over the border of the national park.  Having said five, you have to put it in context; this is a resort in the middle of empty desert, without any infrastructure to speak of, with staff that are recruited from nomadic herders that have never owned a refrigerator.  So they were gers, but built to be permanent.  There were two gers per couple, actually, connected were a wall section should be, one the bedroom ger and the other the bathroom ger.  There were hot showers and western toilets.  Heating was still via the wood stove, and still done in the evening and morning.  There was a central building with the communal restaurant, a small movie room, and a bar. If you were expecting a high end western hotel, it would be a disappointment.  If you took into account what it took to build and staff the place it was magnificent.  Add to that the nightly entertainment, which was modernized Mongolian… that is, traditional Mongolian instruments and dance with a lot of more contemporary beat to it.  One performance was by a local music school that recruited from the town’s boarding school (which is how all Mongolian children outside the city are educated, since the herder’s gers are spread miles apart in back country).  A music school funded by Jasla.  The kids were awesome.  The second performance was by a professional group, more refined and polished and every bit as entertaining.  So we have to say without reservation, if you’re interested, you should try to schedule a stay there.  But if you do, do it fast.  The day we were leaving, Jalsa learned that the Three Camel Lodge was going to make Conde Nast’s list top ten Asian places to stay.  That normally means people booking a year in advance.

The camp site

The Bedroom Ger

The Bathroom Ger

Sunset 1	Sunset 2
Sunset 3	Sunset 4

The first day in the Gobi (a half day, since even leaving at 6am and with a relatively short flight, it took some time; the Gobi is vast and every location is at least an hour away from every other location), we went camel riding at one of the local (relatively speaking) camel herders.  After a brief introduction with the herder and his wife in the ger, where we learned that snuff bottles and snuff bottle holders are not only the most prized position of a herder, but that there is an entire protocol around visiting centered on it:

• The owner of the snuff bottle takes the bottle out of its special pouch (which is decorated with patterns made from tiny knots that can take months to complete; Ganzo told us some pouches would cost upwards of one million turgik, or $400) unscrews the top, uses the built-in spoon to take a pinch, and then places the top back on the bottle (keeping it unscrewed).
  
• The owner then uses their right hand to hold the snuff bottle and, while their left hand touches their right elbow, passes the bottle to another person (the person receives the bottle in the same manner:  right hand, open, left hand touching the right elbow).
  
• The person who receives the bottle lifts the top and sniffs, then optionally takes out a tiny spoonful and puts it on the back of his right hand for snuffing (Ganzo said actually snorting the tobacco was optional, but you had to at least sniff the open top), and passes the bottle back to its owner.
  
• The process is then repeated with other people until everyone has had a turn.