Bayar-tai (Goodbye) Mongolia

September 1st 2017

We awoke at 7am to a cold ger; our stove had been lit at 5am but it was freezing last night! We are up early as it's our last day in Mongolia before we board the train to Russia. Thankfully,  we packed most of our things the previous night so a quick shower and breakfast is all that's required. After we have eaten, we pack the car before leaving the ger camp to finish our sightseeing and check-in for the next leg of our journey.

Our first stop is a visit to a local Kazakh family; only 4% of the population of Mongolia are Kazakh and there is some discrimination towards them. These families are muslim and are very proud people. We are lucky enough to visit at the end of the 40 days of fasting which means a huge celebration and lots to eat! As we enter their walled garden, there is a sheep tied up, lying on the ground outside the ger.....we thought that very strange!

We are invited into the ger but must ensure we have plastic bags on our feet as the floor is covered in carpets unlike the Mongolian nomadic family who have linoleum flooring. We are ushered to a table which has lots of food on it and offered tea to go with the nibbles! It is black tea, not the milky tea that we were given by the other family. One of the snacks on the table is also one of the snacks we are going to make with the family; it is a dough which has been fried, then raisins and a sweet icing put over the top (we bought the ingredients at the supermarket the day we arrived - eggs, flour, bicarbonate of soda, raisins, a tin of sweet icing and oil). 

As we are eating, we notice the sheep being slaughtered outside; not really what I was expecting but it is tradition and a very important part of the days celebrations! Don't worry, I don't have any pictures! The head of the family, a very proud gentleman, then joins us as he wants to show us around his home..yes, he had just cut the sheeps throat! We are shown a saddle which is over 100 years old, a cows head with its eyes stitched which is used as a cosmetics bag, numerous other dead animal "things" and a baby's cot; all of which had been handmade and passed down the generations. 

It was then time to cook; thankfully, we were able to watch on as one of the daughters took us through the recipe. She was multi-tasking as she kept getting phone calls from the mosque (everyone has a mobile phone!) telling her to wash the sheeps stomach! Apparently, this is all compeletely normal!

 

Anyway, she finished making the snack and we took it back to the table to eat, along with some more tea. The man kept appearing and disappearing, I think to oversee the rest of the sheep slaughtering procedure, but he was determined to get us to dress up and show us some of the drawings and embroidery that his wife had done (she was actually away on a pilgrimage to Mecca). He brought out one of the longest dresses I have ever seen; it was 3 metres to be precise and that was all the way around! Cue photo of me looking slightly uncomfortable......

Iain also had to dress up and he posed with this very kind Kazakh man. On our way out, he told us to have a very safe journey onwards, but most of all, tell everyone about his family in Mongolia and make the little snack we made today, at home!

After our visit to the Kazakh family, we headed towards Ulaanbaatar city to visit Chinggis Khan Square, the National Museum of Mongolia and the State Department Store. We eventually got to the square; traffic in Mongolia is terrible although it didn't help that it was the first day back at school after the summer break. The square was a mixture of old and new buildings; some built by Russia and then repainted by Mongolians to give them some colour, others very modern and made purely of glass. There is a statue in the centre dedicated to Damdinii Sühbaatar, the Mongolian revolutionary leader, and another huge statue of Chinggis Khan in front of Parliament House.

We then walked to the museum which was just a few minutes walk away. Unfortunately, no photography is allowed unless you want to pay a fee but the museum was really interesting. It guides you through the history of Mongolia from the Stone Age all the way to communism and then democracy of present day. We probably could have spent a bit more time here but we only had a few hours left to get to the State Department Store and then to the station.

Our driver, Bayraa, drove us directly to the State Department Store; there is a souvenir shop on the top floor which has everything you can imagine and more. We bought some ankle shooting pieces to play on the train as well as a beautiful bag with Kazakh embroidery. It was almost time to go but we decided to go to the supermarket in the basement and buy some supplies for the 3 day trip to Yekaterinburg.

Then disaster struck...........we couldn't buy any beer...........!