Out of the city – On the road! Our tour through Mongolia started from Ulaanbaatar to „Hustai National Park“ where the wild Przewalski’s horses Takhi are living. A Dutch organisation reintroduced this special species back to their origin because they were threatened with extinction. In opposite to normal horses they have two more chromosomes. We saw a lot of them while we took a hike through the beautiful landscape of the Steppe which sometimes looks like the Mars planet because it is so wide and empty.
We stayed in a GER camp which is still open because they all close after the high season between June and September. That is why it is more difficult to travel through Mongolia in October. In addition to that it is quite cold, around 0 degrees and in the night time minus 10 degrees, so I was freezing the first night in our Jurte. But the other nights I prepared my bed with two sleeping bags inside each other and more blankets around. A positive fact is that not many tourists are around so you don’t need to worry about crowded places.
The next day was about getting to know the nomadic life. When we arrived our host Shuree, the mother of the family, welcomed us with a warm soup. After that we prepared homemade cheese together and ate little snacks like pastries and the dried Quark aarul (like yoghurt). Later on we made the traditional dumplings called “Buuz” for dinner. Her daughter showed me how to fold them.
It is amazing how they use everything of their animals for different things. Each family has about 400 sheeps and goats, 50 cows and up to 100 horses. It depends on what they specialise on – some even have camels or yaks to use the wool for materials as well as the milk and meat. Although the Mongolians eat so much meat, I appreciate the fact that they don’t eat the baby animals.
In the evening we played cards together, mum and I showed them a German game and they understood it right away. Our guide explained us that this cleverness comes from the fed sheep tail the babies are sucking as a dummy…hmm yummy! Later on our host prepared some Schnaps out of the steam of the milk – so amazing how they produce this out of so simple products.
The next morning I took a little ride on the horse of the family father. They are so small but really fluffy. Saying goodbye was a bit sad but we had a next interesting point on our tour: Visiting the UNESCO world heritages in central Mongolia. First we visited a museum about the Turkic empire. Then we continued to the oldest temple complex of Mongolia: Erdene Zuu monastery next to the city Karakorum which was build as an honor to Chinggis Khan.
worldtravellerin 
3 thoughts on “#8 Mongolia – living with the nomads”