Mongolia Photos

MONGOLIA

Both the people and the landscape were amazing in Mongolia. Outside of the city there are no roads, street lights, billboards, telephone wires or wires of any kind. Starbucks and KFC cannot be found anywhere in this country. It is a truelly unaffected place and they cannot understand why America doesn't take more interest in them. Frankly, I don't think they know what they're missing. It's a good thing.

On the left, Blane and Tony at his uncles restaraunt in Ulan Bataar, the Capital of Mongolia. The other 2 are of his parents, Octgon, Chimeg and his sister. We were lucky enough to share a cabin with his parents on the 30 hour train ride from Beijing. They travelled this route periodically to China to buy supplies for their store which opened just after we left Mongolia to return to China. We're still in touch with them by e-mail. Each time we met up with them they'd take us somewhere 'and show us the town'. Each time we met up either they or us had bought yet another Mongolian-English or English-Mongolian dictionary so we could converse a little more.

On the left is Sukhebaatar Square, the main square in Ulan Bataar. The statue is of Sukhebaatar (Axe Hero), a poor herdsman, who in 1920 smuggled a vital letter to the Soviets appealing for their help. He hid the document in the handle of his horsewhip. The Mongolians appealed to the United States and Korea, but the Soviets were the only ones to come to the aid of Mongolia against China, which is how in 1921 after centuries of Chinese rule, communism country. Mongolia is now run as a Democracy. The other images are also shot in the square. There's a real mix of modern and traditional cultures in this country.

On the left, one of the images left by the Soviets, a huge wall erected at the highest point of the City. The other 2 images reflect the Chinese influence of these buddhist temples our hosts took us to. Below are photos on our 8 day trip into the Gobi and the western mountains of Mongolia.

We took lots of photos of these semi-wild horses. Mongolian horses are short, stocky, strong, independent and nothing like what we have in America or Europe. They would gather around these water troughs in the middle of nowhere if you stopped and poured water into them from the wells. The wells were deep, very deep and often the ice had to be broken through to get to the water. We spent a day riding and it was definately one of the highlights of the trip. When we return to Mongolia we plan on spending maybe a week of so travelling by horse.

This is a typical scene in Mongolia once you get out of the city - 2 'gers', or 'yerts' as the Russians call them, in the middle of no where. Once we were out of the city we stayed in these gers. These people often did not know to expect us and were incredibly warm and welcoming. We'd pay them for food or lodging, but what they expected in terms of payments was so little. The satelite dish is to power a light bulb and radio. Typically there was one for the grandparents or in-laws and one for the main family. When guests arrived, like us, they would all move into one ger, leaving behind their beds. It was the only way they made any money. Often the men would not be at home, only the women and children. The men would be taking their horses to pasture and would be away months at a time. The structure of the house next to them is somewhat a-typical, although the motorcycle is not. Everyone there rides with or without a sidecar. We would see a whole family of five on one of these small motorcycles - parents, grandparents and baby squeezed inbetween. This guy hailed us down because he was out of gas. You might notice that there are no roads here. If you're lucky there's some dirt track. You absolutely need a guide. The photo on the right may give you some sense of how little that ger is in the middle of the Gobi.

Blane with our camel riding guide and Monique with our driver.

Blanes camel was unshaved and a very handsome creature. We grew quite attached to our camels. The middle photo is the view from the door of one of our gers - all the baby camels would be tied up near the gers so that their parents would always come back to the gers. The camels had incredible voices and would put us to sleep with their haunting songs or cries.

Blane is playing with the wind in the Arizona of Mongolia. The terrain changes drastically as you'll see in the next few photos. We brought back the 'dels' (mongolian coats) you see us wearing - they're worn with the traditional silk scarf tied around the waist. The photos of us outdoors - the green hills, the mountains and the glacier we're standing on - are all in the same area, within 10 minutes walking distance from each other.

Below are some desert and night-scapes. Blane's footprints are on this sand dune. Blane says that the surface of the dune was hard and it wasn't difficult to climb - all I knew was that they're awfully difficult to climb in Israel with army gear on and I wasn't going near it. Also I was warm in bed at the time. We had walked along the bottom the day before and while Blane found a place to go to the bathroom (a constant struggle is such open land), and I waited for him, a wind blew up and that sand felt like little knives all over my skin. There was no way I was going to climb it. For Blane it was probably the most powerful and memorable part of the whole trip.