Chapter Five: Mongolia, the desert, the mighty Gobi

Mongolia, the desert, the mighty Gobi.

Where to start? The different faces of the Gobi? The nomads? The animals? The colors? Let's see where it will end.

Mongolia is big, the Gobi as well. I decided to take a trip with a 4-wheel jeep. In total I travelled approximately 1.700 km in 7 days through the desert and still I have only seen a part of the Gobi. I travelled with a group of Dutch people. There are a lot of Dutch people who are traveling the trans Siberian line or actually the trans Mongolia line. There are several destinations and railways to the east, for example, the original railway (the real trans Siberian line) ends in Vladivostok in Russia.
I had the luck that I only saw a lot of Dutch people in Mongolia and not during the whole train trip. In the end it is just more fun to meet foreigners.

First I need to get out of Ulaan Bataar, the capital is, let's say, a very crowded city. Honking seems to be a national sport, or see it as a special way of communicating. As soon as I am out of UB, the real Mongolia unfolds itself. I have never seen such vast landscapes or grass plains, green hills, mountainous areas, sand dunes, or just endless flat blankets of rocks, dust, grind and sand.

On the first day I saw the green hills, on it the livestock of the nomads; sheep, goats, cows, horses, yaks and camels. The fields appears to be green, but between the grass there Is actually a lot of soil, though it gives a green look from a distance. Nevertheless the sight is something different of what I expected. When I think of a desert, I don't think of grass. I wonder how this nomads can live here with their animals. But later it made sense, food is limited, and that's why they are moving....nomads.  
The scenery makes me speechless, I try to find the right words, but I will repeat myself often; beautiful, wonderful, magnificent etc. it is what it is, I hate the words awesome and amazing, don't want to sound to fake.
I thought the hills looked like crawling snakes, up and down in a waves that never end. Than sparkling in the sun or covered in shadows from the clouds, it is a true feast for the eyes all these different colors, brown, green, yellow, gold, red it goes on and on.
 After a while the hills are fading as well as the ger camps with the livestock. This means that we are getting more and more away from urban places, a good sign.
Ger camps, a typical tent or wigwam, where the nomads live. My surroundings are getting more colorful, in the distance I see mountains, but it will take at least 2 hours before I be there. And I thought that the Netherlands were flat.

I arrive at the first rock formations, God I felt tiny. In some formations I saw faces and I didn't touch any cactus. Later we visited a ruin of a monastery, monks had planted one tree. Now, 300 years later, there are many. Quite unbelievable in a place where even grass is difficult to discover. Speaking about timing, they had gold leaves this time of the year. It gave it the place a divine look.
That night we were sleeping in a ger camp that even had showers. I wasn't expecting that, but a welcome surprise when temperatures are soaring to 30 degrees Celsius during the day.

The next day were are heading to some magnificent cliffs. The cliffs were formed by an ocean millions of years ago. Despite my little fear of heights, I dared to walk to a hanging cliff, I admit is was more crawling. My blood curdled, especially with the strong wind, but again it provided beautiful views. Afterwards I had my first close encounter with camels. We were going to a nomad family, but how to find a family that is moving. My driver was looking for landmarks (specific stones or rock formations), but that's tough in a desolated landscape. Yep we were lost for a while. Fortunately the head of the family found us, I don't how.  

That night was a night that I will never forget. First I got a glimp how the family lives/survives. They had camels in the neighborhood, but there was nothing really nothing else than dust and sand. Even more remarkable were 2 little children, absolutely not afraid for the big camels and so happy with a small balloon that were given to them. After again a meal of sheep meat and camel milky bars (the taste of sour has given me a new meaning), I saw the ritual of milking a camel. My driver was begging during the day for a bottle of whisky, I let him swet for a couple of hours, but I don't spit in it. I thought it would be a nice gift for the family. It is normal the head of the family takes the first drink...one became many....
We sat with the whole group in the ger, a friend of the family was playing on a horse fiddle. After the bottle of whisky I was only sitting with the family and the guides. 2 bottles of camel vodka and 2 bottles of Mongolian vodka went dry. That night I could speak Mongolian and I sang lustily all the songs with them. When I went to bed, I was rewarded with a huge lightning storm near the ger camp, a perfect ending for a remarkable night. The alcohol made sleeping on wooden planks much more comfortable. 

When I woke up, I saw in the eyes in the eyes of the family that they had a good night. The looked unbelievable fresh. My guide and my driver looked like me, with Stampertje running freely in my/our heads. Tümur  and MG, were the best guide and driver I could have, talking about local!! You always have a good time when you're suffering together.
From the flat desert with the biting winds (not the cold but the wind is the most dangerous thing of the Gobi. Winds can easily get to 80/100 km per hour) to the eagle valley. Normally there is a glacier throughout the year, but another proof of global warming, not anymore during June - September. But this a nice landscape. That night a simple ger camp, on the menu, sheep meat.

Most of our drives are off road, some bad, some horrible. But that day we were cruising to a flat part of the Gobi. Massive dust clouds behind the jeeps, the horizon was vague, difficult to distinguish land and sky, they became one and Fata Morgana's appeared.  From sand dunes to flaming cliffs to a little forest to rivers....ppfff the Gobi has so much to offer. We call it the Gobi desert, but it is a place so different with so much variety.
And than a monastery near a river during sunset, a perfect place to drink a beer after a cold dive in the river. My brain need some help to process all these different images. While I am writing this, I already forget little things, like the little villages in the middle of nowhere, life is different if you are born over there. When I have a flashback I will add it to my diary.

Sometimes the Gobi can drive you nuts, we had a 7 hour drive on the most bumpy ride I ever enjoyed. We were driving to greener lands, but oh my god what a trip. This was definitely the price that the Gobi was asking from us, but stunning views were given for compensation when we reach a height of 2000 meters. When you are staying for more than a week in Mongolia, some things get normal, but they are unthinkable back at home. Yaks, horses, goats who are blocking the roads, we approached them honking, it's becoming a game.
Now I am in a part of the Gobi where it is getting cold at night, the families have stoves in the gers and during the night I needed to light them up again to keep the temperature at acceptable levels. That night throat singers gave a little show, back at home I will show the 'live' videos.

On one of the last day we went camel riding, a typical touristic attraction and a bit boring. The massive clouds of flies is the only thing I will remember, my lunch existed at, at least 2 McFlies. Before that we were at a monastery, it was build on the ruins of the capital of the Mongolians in the thirteenth century. You can't blame them, but it was in a ruinous state, they simple lack the money to maintain it, despite that it is on the Unesco World heritage list. Outside the monastery there was a captured eagle, quite sad actually, but for a dollar you could put it on a glove and take some pictures. I was teached a lesson in humility. When I raised my arm so that the eagle could spread his wings. He moved around with his claws on the glove and his claws forced through the leather glove right in my hand. I shouldn't fuck with nature. My guide laught and he told me that I should be proud to have a scar from an eagle. When it happened I thought otherwise, but a lesson was learned! There is a little photo were you can see when claws forced in my hand and I had my own screaming feelings about it.

The last days I saw wild horses, wild white horses. But the finishing touch came that night. The full moon was preventing to see the Milky Way in its full glory, but not that night. The moon wasn't there yet and I just lay a couple of hours staring at the stars, what a massive sight, what a stars and also so many falling stars. I wish I could see this every night, but new changes will come, I know for sure...there are still some remote islands that I need to visit.

The Gobi was unbelievable beautiful and it has some many different sights to offer, just mind blowing. You just don't care that you stink and you get used to the sheep meat with it famous white fat, sometimes I ate more fat than meat. Also all the traveling is accepted. I can get romantic that I want to do it by horse, but I was only there for one week. But I will return to the Gobi, I haven't seen the west part. Also living with nomads is great, but they adjust as well and tourists are becoming an important source of income. Next time I will travel by horse and how will the Gobi be in the winter, well next time...