Sunday, 29 April 2012

I think we’re turning Mongolese, I really think so!

Posted by Alice and Fern at 12:12

I think we’re turning Mongolese, I really think so!

We arrived at Magbal's yurt in time for lunch and sat down as an array of home- made bread, biscuits and tea as well as bowls of tea with milk was presented to us.  Luckily Fern had explained the concept of tea with milk containing salt in advance of our arrival in Mongolia so we were slightly prepared for the conundrum of our eyes and stomach expecting one thing and our mouth tasting something incredibly different.  Otherwise it could have been quite a messy experience as it's definitely a taste that takes some getting used to!!  After chowing down on this we were asked if we’d like beef and noodle for our second dinner which we thought sounded delicious for an evening meal.  Watching Magbal make noodles and cook dinner on a wood burning stove in the yurt was pretty impressive.

After the food preparation had finished we wandered outside to have a look at the surrounding area.  The family yurt encampment was the only encampment in the valley, the nearest yurt was in the neighbouring valley.  This was their spring encampment and it had taken the sons two weeks to build the fences before they moved the animals in.  The animals (they had goats, sheep, cows plus a horse with a foal) were let out to roam the plains during the day, but penned up again at night to protect them from the wolves.

We had arrived just at the end of the lambing season so there were lots of lambs and kids gambolling around.  It was now we discovered Fern’s Heidi tendencies, she was literally a kid magnet.  So she has a back up career in case the Civil Service doesn’t work out as she clearly can’t rely on photography because she spectacularly failed to get a photo of Goats on Stuff for the (sadly not our idea) Goats on Stuff blog!

Walking back into the yurt, we were presented with what can only be described as a mountain of beef and noodles.  We literally had three times the size of portion of everyone else.  Given that this was about an hour after our last round of food, we looked at each other in horror. Fortunately it was delicious but we did have to give up about half way through, however the left overs were presented to us as breakfast which was a challenge even for "curry-for-breakfast" Alice.  Apparently it is traditional to rewarm left over food by putting it in a bowl of salty, milk tea, definitely an experience too far for both of us at that time of the morning!

Slowly working our way through the food allowed us the time to appreciate the inside of the yurt.  It was beautifully decorated, with all the struts being hand painted.  Around the edges of the yurt were three beds which doubled up as sofas and tables during the day.  One of these beds was folded out as a double bed for us to sleep on later.

After lunch, Magbal took out some traditional Mongolian and Kazakhstani coats to show us and then proceeded to dress us up in our own fashion show.  As you can see these were incredibly rich in detail and we were amazed to understand that these are typical coats which are worn when on trips to the village, and horse riding.  In fact when we were in Ulaanbaatar the next day we saw several women wearing coats such as these.

Fierce Mongol Face Pose

Mongolia's Next Top Model

In Natural Habitat

With Designer

This seemed an appropriate time to hand over the gifts that we had brought – some chocolate, postcards and some Brighton rock.  The rock appeared to cause much fascination as all of the family tried it, however Magbal did resort to cutting it with a hatchet to break it into individual pieces.  Can now see a gap in the Brighton Souvenir market!

Despite the fact that it was amazingly cold outside we were determined to follow in Chinggis Khan’s footsteps and ride across the plains – check out the Mongol warriors J The being dressed up theme continued as can be seen by Magbel's use of our existing scarfs/hats - Tots, while the Dr Who scarf was a vital piece of equipment on this trip, not entirely sure it coordinates well with the Mongolian delt!

When we got back the neighbours (yes, nomads can have neighbours as apparently they don’t move their yurts too far – having spring, summer and winter homes all in the same area) had popped round for a cup of tea and they seemed fascinated by our guidebooks.  It was proper cosy sitting round, sipping cups of salty tea chatting away - Luckily we also had our excellent guide Bolod acting as a translator for us.

It was a cosy night in the yurt as traditionally all the family sleep in that one open space so there were six of us which kept it nice and cosy as we drifted off to sleep . . .