The Longest Post Yet: Farewell, Mongolia.

Leaving Mongolia last December wasn’t hard for several reasons:
1) I was desperately missing fruits and vegetables.
2) It was -27C outside…everyday.
3) I had tonsillitis.
4) I was headed to Europe.
5) I was about 87% sure I would be back this summer, as I had landed the funding for a summer’s worth of research (thank you, Cornell!).

And my inkling was true. For those who are picking this up now, I returned at the dawn of June after a week in Kenya and have been working for the past two months on my senior thesis: Mongolia’s developing vegetable agriculture sector. It’s been a grand ol’ time. But it had to end sometime. Today is my last day.

In all honesty, it will probably be a long while before I return which, unsurprisingly, is making me nostalgic. Mongolia, you’ve used me and abused me, but you continue to charm me nevertheless. So to remind my followers (and myself) what it is about Mongolia that keeps me coming back for more let’s take a walk down memory lane, shall we?


My Top 10 Favorite Mingle Moments:

1) It’s All About the Food:

I think food is an integral part of culture. To turn one’s nose up to trying new foods is to lose out on unique cultural experiences if not also making offense to your host in the process. So I try to be liberal in my diet when I travel, preferential to plants, but open to new ideas. In accordance, last fall I ditched my vegan/vegetarian ways and went all out omnivore.  As I briefly mentioned in my pre-arrival post, Mongolia is not known for its cuisine. I've learned that what a lot of Americans know about Mongolian food is what they've learned from Genghis Grill and other generic Mongolian Bar-B-Q, which is at best a grand embellishment on the authentic fried noodle dish (ingredients: flour, water, mutton, fat (potato if you’re lucky)). While it may not be a dietary paradise for consumers of the vegetarian/vegan variety, Mongolia does have some resourceful and interesting meals (at least to my Western tongue).

A list of the most interesting things I’ve consumed is as follows: boiled blood (finally something I can relate to Bear Grylls about), intestine sausage (stuffed with fat, strips of stomach, and more blood), the roof of a sheep’s mouth (“it brings you skills,” says my host father), cow tongue (my first meal), aaruul (or dried cheese curd), airag (or fermented mare's milk), half of a pig’s ear (see #3), horse, camel, yak, cow, goat, sheep…and so the list goes on.

Mongolia, while your tastes astound me and your stomachs impress me I happily reverted to my vegan ways when I returned State-side and in my Mongol return have attempted to make it through to summer on a plant-based diet (or close to) this summer. There were a few unavoidable and/or compulsory meat and dairy intakes, but nobody’s perfect.

2) My Khuvsgul Host Family

Khuvsgul province housed the site my first homestay in Mongolia and it was probably my favorite. For one, the Darkhad Depression was absolutely beautiful. I'd emerge from our ger to view a glowing purple mountain range each morning. My host family in Darkhad was also amazing. My mother, Davaasuren, was one of the kindest women I’ve met, even with our inability to orally communicate. My older sister, Ariuntogs, was a badass and a great teacher, showing me how to herd the goats and sheep, weave a rope out of yak wool, sew an ulzii, and scoop poop (the correct way). My two younger sisters, Hulan and Ariuntungalag, for the two days that I saw them, were adorable and happily played with me. And my father, Tsogbayar, was a laid back, friendly guy that would take me out herding.

He didn’t trust me with the horse like my sister did, so when we’d go out for an afternoon’s ride he’d hold the reigns while my horse followed behind his.  We would go to a high point in the modestly rolling valley floor and he’d give me his binoculars to spot the herd. He taught me the names of the mountains, showed me the medicinal herbs and smiled when I tried to make conversation (as pitiful as it was). Perhaps the most memorable mingling moment with him was out on a herding venture where we met up with two of his friends. We dismounted horses, laid in the grass and I watched and listened as the three weathered men rolled cigarettes from old newspaper and chatted about the rains and their horses.

3) A Pig's Head Hike

With the pollution, the craggy sidewalks and the crowds it was hard to get much exercise while I was in the city. So when my UB host family took me out to go hiking…I was more than ecstatic. Read more here.

4) Knives are for Cutting, Meat is for Eating

This is my mother’s favorite and, I have to admit, one of my more humorous faux pas. Twas Glimpse-worthy. Read about it here.

5) A Day at the Horse Branding

Also a Glimpse-worthy story.  An incredible event and tradition to see. Dusty though. My host family didn’t partake in the day’s happenings as they didn’t have any young foals that year. The previous winter’s dzud (a really, really, really harsh winter) had sadly gotten the best of all but two of their cows and several of their horses.  But I was still invited to watch.  Read about it here.

6) Thanksgiving  

Myself and the five other American students on my program were living on our own during the month of November and so we decided to host our own Thanksgiving feast. There are no turkeys in Mongolia, so Kara roasted two small chickens, we had side dishes galore including home-made applesauce and stuffed squash and I made a pear-plum pie (baked in a frying pan, as Mongolia also lacks pie pans).

Kara’s host family joined us and like most Mongolian meals I’ve had we ate while watching the wonder that is sub-titled American films. For better or worse, at the end of the night we somehow convinced them that drinking a shot of vodka was a Thanksgiving tradition…maybe that’s true in some households. In any case, I thought it was a jolly good time. And as tradition goes, I recognized a lot that I was thankful for.

7) World Cup Jollity 

I returned to Mongolia this summer and just like the rest of the world it had caught the World Cup fever. This evening’s plot happened time and time again throughout the tournament, mostly with Batmunkh and his “home-boys.” I had my hopes up for Netherlands in the end, but alas the octopus was victorious. In any case, I came out 300₮ the richer (about 21 US cents).

It's clear I will never be a gambler.

8) Naadam 

The three manly games. I missed the archery and wrestling as my grant had dwindled in no time, but the horse racing was incredible! Read about my Naadam experience here.

9) Face Club

I had experienced a little bit of Mongolian night life last fall and a little bit this summer, but I had never been to a dance club before this night. I got a text from Batmunkh asking if I was busy. I said no and he said, “ok. I have a plan.”

We met up with some of his friends around 10:00 and went to a pub for a beer. About an hour later we went to Face Club, reportedly one of the best night clubs in UB. It’s rather small, but the DJs were good and I’m a sucker for trance. The dance floor was fairly empty for the first half-hour, but when two girls decided to break the tension and be the first to dance a crowd soon emerged. We danced until 3:30 with a few intermittent pauses when the power would go out (not uncommon in UB).

That night that rates among the most fun I’ve had in UB by far.

10) Хөдөө (The Countryside)

[Warming: Corny, nostalgic conclusion to follow.]

[Disclaimer: This may or may not be contradictory to this blog’s title]

I’ve enjoyed my time here immensely and these mingling moments will stay with me for as long as my synapses will let me keep them. But perhaps the best part of Mongolia, and ironically the subject of the social and political debate that my research has boiled down to, is its land.

I’m a traveler at heart and I find great thrill in being in motion. Be it on planes, trains, cars, motorcycles, bicycles, horses or my own two feet, I love being able to absorb the environments around me. Perhaps it’s because I’m a photographer and I love to see and photograph the world around me. Perhaps it’s because I’m curious about what's "out there."  Or perhaps I’m just human. Regardless the reason, I love to travel and am privileged to be able to do so.

But while I love mingling (aforementioned instances among many) I also love being an objective observer—looking, listening, smelling, touching, and just being in new places as I watch time and space go by. I’ve done a fair amount of travel in Mongolia and in doing so have seen some of what this country has to offer. It’s no wonder land in Mongolian folk art is esteemed; it is beautiful. Here. And here. And here. And here. And here. And here too.  And that’s only a sliver of it.

I will be back. There’s so much more to explore. Mongolia, you’ve grown on me…or rather a part of me.

Farewell, Mongolia. I’ll miss you.