Eagles, Chinggis Khan, and the Ger Camp

8 June.

Saturday morning we set out for our ger camp stay leaving most of our luggage behind at the hotel. After a brief grocery stop to grab some water (Mongolia is also a bottled water only country.) and snacks for the trip, we drove through UB and quickly learned that the streets are as uneven as the sidewalks but these roads would seem smooth compared to what we’d encounter outside the city. Odka told us we’d be making two stops before reaching the ger camp.

Once away from the urban center the vistas became broad and lovely. Sadly, though, one must focus on distant scenes because the nearby view is tarnished by a voluminous amount of litter. The fence trapped trash I saw from the train looked like a minimalist painting compared with the trash I saw from the bus.

The first stop brought an unexpected and somewhat thrilling surprise. Apparently, there are a handful of men who earn their living training eagles and vultures and they set up shop along the road to give tourists like us the chance to interact with the birds for a small fee, of course.

This looks cool, doesn’t it? Well, if you pay the fee, they will perch the eagle (or for the more daring the vulture) on your arm for a photo op. Did I do it? You bet your… I did. Here are my talon-ts on full display.

Am I glad I did? Look at my face. Rosemary also opted for the eagle. (I thought she might have been a vulture gal, myself.) For more pictures of me and Rose, you can look here.

At the same stop Erin made a friend of a different kind:.

Our second stop, which entailed a bit of a detour, was at the Chinggis Khan Statue and Museum. This mammoth stainless-steel statue rises up on the plain – stunning in both its enormity and isolation. The Mongolians chose to build the monument here, about 55 kilometers from Ulaanbaatar, because it is the spot where, by legend, Chinggis Khan found the golden whip.

The statue’s base, encircled by 36 columns representing the 36 Mongolian Khans, houses a symbolic whip and museums of the Bronze Age and Xiongnu cultures in Mongolia. The statue itself is 40 meters tall and visitors can ascend by stairs or elevator to emerge onto the horse’s head for some enhanced views of the surrounding countryside and a close up look at the Khan himself. Okay, I’ve made you wait long enough:.

The inside of the statue’s base also houses this:.

A Google search shows several claims to the world’s largest boot. Suffice it to say that the boot in the base of the statue standing nine meters high, six meters long and two meters wide and made from 225 cowhides is a contender for the title.

For more from Chinggis Khan follow this link.

We resumed our trip to what is formally called Gorkhi-Terelj National Park and our ger adventure. We made the drive on road, – meaning occasional paved patches punctuated by a slalom of finding the smallest potholes – off-road, – meaning no paving just bumpiness – and off-off road – meaning driving through someone’s pasture. Once we entered the park, which is between 65 and 70 kilometers from UB, the driving experience was a mixture of road and off-road.

The park is stunning – a fascinating mixture of forested hills and rocky out crops – and looks nothing like those scruffy pictures I took earlier. Nor does it resemble the vast barren pictures of the Gobi. The expected animals – goats, sheep, yak, cows and horses graze here placidly as eagles occasionally soar overhead. At the entrance to the park, there’s a cluster of western style buildings. Apparently, this is a vacation spot for Mongolians who are naturally less interested in the “gerco-tourism” we’re about to experience. I’ve coined this term because ger camps dot the landscape. A camp is a cluster of 10 – 20 gers with an outbuilding  used for communal meals and that houses toilet facilities. In practice it’s unusual to see more than two or three gers in close proximity to one another. Even Groud calls these tourist gers.

We reached our camp some distance into the park and learned we’d be staying three to a ger. Changing the pattern from the train, I’m bunking with Erin and Rose tonight. We all ducked into our respective gers and the three of us each selected a bed. The ger was surprisingly roomy and provided each of us with plenty of space. By the way, ger doors face south to serve as some protection from the Siberian winds that roll in from the north.

The photo above is my little corner of the ger (he wrote ironically since gers are round). Changing clothes shouldn’t be much of an issue. The day is chilly and the night will be cold so I expect we’ll be layered. Also, both R & E assure me they’re adept at making an undercover change if needed. The ger has a traditional stove that can provide some heat but its main purpose is for cooking and the fire doesn’t burn long. When the fire was lit for the first time we learned first hand how quickly the ger fills with smoke and that it’s best to keep the door open for a few minutes.

After a traditional Mongolian lunch that included a cucumber and tomato plate, soup and booz – a steamed dumpling usually filled with meat – (mine had vegetables) we set out on a trek through the park. In spite of some occasional breathlessness from climbing the steep hills surrounding our camp (and starting at about 1600 meters elevation) and my customary difficulty navigating vertical surfaces, I went a bit camera crazy clicked off about 100 shots. I’d later winnow that down to about fifty. You’ll find the winners here.

This reminded me of slices of bread.

Like I said – forest and rocks.

Remember all of these were taken on the same walk.

The younger folks continued walking while John, Anne and I started back down to camp. On our way, we passed this interesting

tree fungus,

and this more even more interesting

horse’s head.

I was in the ger labeling and editing the pictures when E & R returned. We had a lively chat about the day and I mentioned that G had warned me not to try to light the stove lest I burn down the ger. Rose immediately responded with her best Alicia Keys impression singing, “This ger is on fire!” I howled with the laughter it deserved but was secretly ticked off because I hadn’t thought of it first.

Most of the group went off for a bit of archery – shooting at some sort of hide – before dinner. I observed but didn’t participate because the chill was already affecting my hands. I didn’t even attempt a picture.

After dinner, which we shared with other guests in the camp, Groud laid a full force fire in the stove that cranked up the temperature to comfortably toasty. The fire was out but the ger was still warm when I woke at about 23:30. When my second bathroom wake-up call came at about 02:30, (naturally the first two night time breaks I’ve had since the outset of the trip coming when I had to walk 30 meters in the cold to reach the toilet) the ger was cold. Having to wash my hands in cold water didn’t help matters.

In the toilet a sign instructed us not to flush the paper but to put it in the little bin provided. With no public water and no septic, and toilet paper that doesn’t disintegrate like the paper we use in the U S, this made sense. However, once alerted, I noticed the presence of these receptacles in most toilets and realized this was the expected means of disposal even in some of the cities.

On the other hand, I walked under a night sky so full of stars that I simply gawked in awe. Although I didn’t see the Milky Way, I think I saw more stars than at the hotel in Zambia last year.

Groud quietly came in about 06:00 and went about lighting another fire so we’d wake to a warm or warm-ish ger. By 07:30 the fire was out and I was awake and exited the ger to this view:.

I went to the restaurant where I imposed on our hosts for a pot of tea and sat writing this journal by hand. Most of the others were also awake but chose to take one last walk around the park. We had breakfast at 09:00 then it was back on the van to return to UB for showers, some free time sightseeing, and last minute preparations for two nights on the train to Irkutsk.

Note: In keeping with my 2022-2023 reformation of the blog into shorter entries, backdated to maintain their sequence, any comments on this post might pertain to its new configuration. See the full explanation in the post Conventions and Conversions.