So finally we were about to embark on the part of our adventure which will answer the long pondered question: can Gemma buy Mac makeup in Outer Mongolia. We were intrigued to see what Mongolia was like long before we started our adventure at the beginning of this year and after all the troubles we had getting a VISA (managing to get it processed in a single day in Bangkok) we felt happy to be stepping onboard the train which would take us from Irkutsk to Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia.

Although we did not plan to eat onboard the restaurant carriage of the train, we were keen to have a look at it, as we were hoping it would be a Mongolian carriage, complete with ornate wooden decorations in the interior. We were not disappointed, this restaurant carriage was like nothing we had seen before on or off a train!

We shared our four berth cabin with two ladies, Cheryl from Canada and Jane from England.

There were lots of reasons to like these ladies, from the fact we rarely saw them without either a beer or cup of vodka (very much embracing the Russian experience) to constant jokes, but what excited Steve more than any of this was the fact they had brought a window cleaning kit with them (the train windows are often filthy). It was easy for us to clean the inside of the window, but in order to clean the outside we needed someone tall – ideally at least 6′ 5″ – finally Steve’s calling in life.

Of course, when others on the train saw we were able to get nice clean windows they were jealous and Steve ended up cleaning several other windows and quickly became everyone’s favourite person on the train. Interestingly, on all of our previous Trans Mongolian train rides, we had noted that our train was predominantly filled with locals, however, on the journey from Russia into Mongolia our carriage was nearly entirely full of tourists (presumably either only tourists are interested in making the journey across the border, or they put all the tourists together into one carriage to keep them out of trouble)! As we came to the edge of Russia, the Russian border control officers embarked our train and checked our passports, ultimately stamping them to show that we had exited Russia on the correct day (in accordance to our VISA). A small touch we liked was the fact our entry stamp had a little aeroplane (we flew in from Bangkok) and our exit stamp had a little train.

After leaving Russia we entered Mongolia and the Mongolian border control officers entered the train. They quickly noted that Steve is a suspicious looking character and asked for his bag to be opened (and no one else) – whilst Steve’s dirty washing could be considered a crime to fellow travellers sense of smell it didn’t cause us to be denied entry into the country. On the other hand, our friends attempting to take a photograph of the Mongolian border control officers did cause a problem, the officers realised and immediately came over, took the phone, and insisted all photos of the border itself and of the border officers were deleted. Based on this, you will not be shocked that we aren’t able to include any photos here of this part of our adventure! After getting through border control, we went to sleep and looked forward to waking the next morning and getting off the train and seeing our first glimpse of Mongolia by daylight. When this moment arrived, we weren’t initially blown away, it looked a bit classically-Russian, grey and like other basic cities, we had seen. In fact, from our first glance, it looked more Russian than Russia.

We were picked up from the train station by the tour company who were organising our adventure through Mongolia and they took us to our accommodation for the first night, which was a basic hostel near the centre of town. Whilst there was nothing wrong with our accommodation or with Ulaanbaatar as a city, we weren’t getting too much of a positive feeling for it, lots of construction work everywhere which whilst being untaken meant rubble piled up everywhere. Lots of concrete, whilst not a green countryside paradise that we had perhaps expected from Mongolia, it always wasn’t a capital city which boasted beautiful streets or buildings. But being British we did what we do best when faced with a puzzling situation; we slept on it! The next day we were due to be taken on a two-day tour of Mongolia which would see us quickly escape the city centre and stay with a family in a traditional Ger (Yurt) out in the countryside.

The next morning, we packed a couple of bags to last us the next couple of days and then waited for our tour guide to pick us up, we expected to be in a group of 6-12 people and were delighted when it turned out we would be having a private tour with our tour guide Баатар (Batar) and driver Ганбаа (Gumba). Before heading out to the country, we were taken to a vantage point of Zaisan Hill which overlooked the city.

As well as providing an overview of the city, Zaisan Hill hosts a memorial which honours allied Mongolian and Soviet soldiers killed in World War II. The memorial includes depictions of: the friendship between the people of the USSR and Mongolia, the Soviet support for Mongolia’s independence, the Soviet defeat of Japanese Kwantung Army (on Mongolian border), victory over Nazi Germany and peacetime achievements such as Soviet space flights (include a flight which took a Mongolian into space).

From here we left the city and very quickly became excited by Mongolia as when you leave the city you very quickly find yourself surrounded by amazing landscapes and scenery, our first stop was the stunning Terelj National Park. From this point onwards, we found we were constantly surrounded by amazing 360 views. Initially, we went to see the somewhat famous Melkhii Khad or Turtle Rock, which we were both able to see from the outside, but also ultimately able to climb up inside and look out from just under the head.

It is hard to describe just how amazing the landscape is and photos simply do not do it justice. The rocks around this area were formed during the ice age, as ice/glaciers forced themselves across the earth, rocks have been split open, cracked apart and ultimately left for us to see today.

From here we drove to the Aryabal Buddhist meditation centre which you have to hike up to, on the way up there is a series of boards/signs with images/captions from Tibetan Buddhism. Mongolia was once a nation where very few people were literate (and indeed today a lot of people living outside of the cities still can’t read) therefore the pictures on the signs are more important than the text, with the idea that elders would talk through the stories and ideas that go with each picture. Because of this, the captions are often not very easy to understand, even our guide says he finds it hard to understand them in their native Tibetan writing, by the time it is has been translated to English it can be difficult to comprehend. Being British we at least found one to do with making tea which we can attempt to heed.

It is important to have 15 types of substances to make good tea. To achieve the highest state it is best to study the teachings of three types of vehicle. We don’t know quite what this means, but Steve is interested in trying this tea blended from 15 ingredients.

When we reached the halfway point in our ascent up to the meditation centre we found a prayer wheel; the idea being you spin it and an arrow at the top points at two numbers (once the wheel has stopped spinning) you find the boards with these numbers on and take onboard the advice. As we couldn’t really understand the advice we weren’t able to feel the full effect of this, however, it was fun to have a go.

As we went further up we received a more commanding view over the landscape behind us.

Nearing the top we came to a shrine, our guide advised us to pick up three small pebbles/rocks, and then walk around the shrines clockwise, dropping one pebble towards the shrine after each iteration, each pebble seen as an offering to Buddha, the Dharma and the Saṁgha respectively. On the side of the mountain, we saw various Tibetan scripts/pictures, nearly always in white, green, yellow, blue and red (the five colours of Buddhism).

When we finally reached the top, we were able to enter the meditation centre and look around.

By the time we had made our way out into rural Mongolia, hiked up the trail to get here and entered the meditation centre, it is safe to say it was very quiet, calm and tranquil.

 

We also had unparalleled views of the valleys and mountains which we had come from earlier this morning.

After reaching peak enlightenment for the morning, we headed to a local families hut for hot stew for lunch, to warm us up and made use of the state of the art amenities.

Like everywhere else in rural Mongolia, the views outside the hut, in all directions, were very impressive.

After lunch, we went for a horse ride to explore the nearby area, it was the second time either of us had been on a horse, but luckily we had a local expert guiding us around.

Gemma’s horse was more interested in nuzzling into Steve’s horse than walking in a straight line, but despite this, we managed to complete our circular journey without incident (other than being occasionally frozen by extremely cold winds that hit us when getting to the tops of hills). We were glad to get off the horses and had sore inner thighs after: our bodies clearly weren’t used to horse riding. We were relieved to get off and be driven to the ger that we would be staying in overnight (crossing our fingers it would be warm inside)! When we arrived we found out the family has two gers, one which they stay in, and one which is for tourists. The one they used is larger, built with somewhat more permanent materials and more representative of what a lot of people would live in, the one for tourists is a little more traditional (perhaps to appease what tourists have in their head for how Mongolians should be living).

Upon arriving our initial impression was that our ger certainly wasn’t overly warm and we hoped we would be warm enough overnight, but shortly thereafter our guide came in and got the fire going and we slowly felt the temperature increasing, which, after a busy day, was enough to put us on course for a siesta for an hour. Upon stirring, we joined our guide, driver and host family in their main ger for some traditional Kazak tea before heading out for a walk to a nearby river and back where we saw various types of wildlife including yaks.

After our busy day of travel, hiking and horse riding, we were ready for the noodle based meal our hosts cooked for us. When we arrived back at their ger we were somewhat surprised to find four Finnish men inside the Ger. In what we suspect may have been a booking error, it appeared we had all been booked for the same night. We initially worried we may be sharing the small ger with them (sharing what is effectively one large bed) but we were relieved when the hosts told us we could stay in their ger with them on the sofa bed (a luxury we didn’t think we would receive)! After dinner, Steve offered to help the hosts, expecting duties such as washing up, clearing up, perhaps even sweeping and mopping the floor. However, the family we were with, and perhaps rural Mongolians in general, believe these types of duties should be carried out by women, but rather than getting off scot-free, Steve was taken outside with our guide and asked to herd the families yaks from roaming freely around their land into their pen! Luckily our guide showed Steve the basics of how to do this (it involves raising your arms and making a whooshing like noise and encouraging them to go in a specific direction) and Steve was shocked to see how well it went. Between Steve and our guide (well, mostly our guide, but several yaks were specifically rounded up by Steve) all the yaks were safely herded into their enclosure ready to spend the night. The family had a lot of animals on their land and a large part of their working life involves looking after these animals one way or another.

The family had young daughter, around three years old, who played happily in the ger whilst her parents chatted to guests, she came over to show us what she was playing with, a combination of bones and teeth from animals which her father had cleaned up for her. It was a far cry from the colourful toys that children play with, in the UK, but she was satisfied and content with what she had, a theme we have noted in a lot of poorer countries: people spending more time enjoying what they have than wishing they had more, which is  a common theme in the West. In the time we had eaten dinner and had a couple of bowls of Kazak tea, a light pattering of snow had fallen, transforming the lush green landscape into a winter wonderland scene. It was amazing how much had changed so quickly.

We were exhausted by this point and ready for some rest, our hosts pulled out our sofa bed and gave us a couple of sleeping bags. The effectiveness of the fire in the middle of the ger meant Steve was too hot to be fully enclosed inside the sleeping bag, which is impressive when you consider the size of the ger and the fact outside there was snow covering the ground. As we rested on the sofa, we reflected on how different life is for people living here, in some respects very remote but in other ways very social. The entire time we had been at the families ger, they had been talking to different people, and as the evening hours disappeared there seemed to be no stopping their laughter and talking. The ger had some sort of electricity, with some people charging up and using mobile phones, a stereo (which we saw but didn’t hear) and we sort of suspect they had a TV hidden away somewhere. The ger we were originally meant to stay in didn’t have any of these amenities, presumably to give you the real experience, but for us, we preferred the experience we got, as it was representative as to how a lot of people live right now. Before going to sleep, Steve got up and used the facilities, which was certainly an experience.

On his return, Gemma went outside with a bottle of water to wash and get ready for sleep, at which point the wife and mother of the family saw what she was doing, told her to be quiet and follow her… inside the ger, a little staircase went downwards to the right, we had assumed it was a small dugout section for storing things, but it turns out it led to a bathroom complete with toilet, sink, bath and washing machine! This isn’t usually what the tourists would see, but Gemma was delighted to be able to use facilities similar to what she is used to and saved her from the toilet experience that Steve had (although Steve did say it gives you a certain sense of freedom and liberation sitting on a wooden stool looking out onto the landscape outside, Gemma was more than happy to forego this freedom and liberation in exchange for running water and some privacy). In exchange for letting Gemma use the hidden bathroom, the wife/mother of the family asked if she could use a bit of Gemma’s mascara in the morning!

Washed, teeth brushed, changed and on our sofa bed we were now more than ready to fall asleep, the LED lights in the ger were switched off and we closed our eyes. We heard the front door open and close as people came and left, there was still talking and some joking which we assumed would die down momentarily. Instead, more people seemed to come in, the laughter got louder, and after 10 minutes someone came to wake us up and offer us some Mongolian beer. Had it been half an hour ago, before we were ready for bed, we would have said yes, but at this moment in time having a beer wasn’t top of our priority list. We politely declined and rolled over, so they could see we were trying to sleep. Their laughter and frolics continued, voices getting louder and louder until eventually the jovial atmosphere was replaced with a full blown domestic argument between the husband and the wife. We both just wanted to get to sleep more than anything else, we were exhausted after our day and whilst initially happy to be sleeping on a sofa bed with the host family, we were now longing to be in the secondary, no doubt sleepy, ger next door. Eventually, it did, of course, quieten down in the early hours of the morning and we went to sleep.

We were woken up early the next morning at around 6:30 as the family had got up and were preparing food and going out to tend to the animals, they asked “did you sleep well?” which was a tricky question, we didn’t really want to say we slept pretty poorly due to their party and argument in the night, so we indicated we had and tucked into the breakfast they had prepared for us. Everyone else in the ger was just eating leftover pasta from the night before, they heat up their Kazak tea and then pour it over a bowl of noodles to heat them up (we noticed they use Kazak tea for everything, as a drink, as a soup they put butter or meat into and then dip bread into, a liquid to heat up food from previous nights, as a way to socialise insisting everyone sits around a table and has a bowlful). As they ate leftovers we had our freshly prepared breakfast, we were honestly quite relieved, we were a little worried about eating leftover food when there is no fridge and when the food isn’t being properly heated up. We wanted a taste of the real experience of Mongolia, but not a taste of the real salmonella as Steve had enough of that from Mui Ne in Vietnam.

On our last day in rural Mongolia, we went to the Genghis Khan museum, which is a somewhat unusual building in the middle of nowhere, the grounds are very much still under construction, but the end vision is to have Genghis Khan riding on a horse in the middle with 200 gers as well as other warriors on horseback. The museum was nice enough, giving information about Ghenhis Khan, providing various photograph opportunities including next to the biggest boot in the world and from inside the Ghenkis Khan statue.

A lot of the people living in Mongolia, particularly in the rural parts, aren’t so impressed with the museum, Mongolia doesn’t have a huge economy and for over $4M to be spent on this, rather than getting people educated and literate, providing accommodation and food for everyone doesn’t sit very well with locals (although most people are somewhat diplomatic when asked about this). After our morning visiting the museum, we started our drive back towards Ulaanbaatar, stopping at someone’s house for some homemade Mongolian dumplings and bread. Once again we saw the practice of putting everything any everything into the Kazak tea, our driver, took his cup of tea and put 3 dumplings inside it and a bit of salad on top for good measure! We didn’t follow suit; if truth be told we didn’t find the dumplings to be our favourite food of our trip, heavy in fat, and if you aren’t vegetarian, heavy in meat. Ideal if you need to spend the day tending to animals and doing manual work in cold conditions, but not really necessary for the lives we lead!

When we returned to Ulaanbaatar we had a sad goodbye with our guide and driver, for the last two days we had spent day and night with them, we had become used to hearing Batar’s calm and soothing voice describing Mongolian history to us, and hearing Gumba singing along to Mongolian and Indian songs in our van.

For our remaining afternoon and evening in Ulanbataar we went to see the Beatles monument, to the Western world it may not mean so much, but for countries which were influenced by communism, the Beatles were a symbol of freedom and being able to listen to music from the West. This theme somewhat continues to the State Department Store (one of the more famous places to visit in the capital) which is communism meets capitalism, whilst it is a state store, it has brands from all over the world. In the evening we went to a bar in one of the taller buildings in the city to get a view over the city by night, it is one of the few places in the world where you can get a view like this, in a capital city, and buy a drink for £2/$3.

You have been kept on tenterhooks this entire time; we can now reveal the answer to the age-old question is there Mac makeup in outer Mongolia? Well, let alone outer Mongolia, the biggest shopping centre, in the capital city of Inner Mongolia does not have Mac makeup! The best we could find was L’Oréal.

Mongolia has been a country that has stood out in our travels, whilst the city isn’t overly amazing, getting out to national parks is an amazing experience. Being constantly bombarded with natural beauty reminded us a little bit of Olkhon Island/Lake Baikal, only on a bigger scale. Being able to stay with a family in a ger (even without getting as much sleep as we would have liked) was a new experience for us, and certainly, herding yaks was something Steve doesn’t normally do as part of his day job back in the UK. We could have spent a lot more time (and hopefully will have the opportunity to do exactly this on another visit) but as far as this trip is concerned, our next stop was the train station for the final leg of our Trans Mongolian adventure: heading to Beijing, China.

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