Mongolian Violins (Morin khuur)

Friday last was my birthday. Alas, Thomo did not get any birthday celebrations. However, the Bank had their quarterly regional meeting so whilst Thomo was unhappy at being "alone" on his birthday, it was compensated for by being with the work compatriots. As it was the last day of the regional meeting, we went to a tourist ger camp on the edge of Ulaanbaatar - out past the airport. It was the Buyant Ukhaa tourist camp and is constructed mostly out of concrete and other modern materials. The gers are made to look like traditional gers from the outside but inside there is access to en suite toilet and bathroom (no self respecting nomad would have this of course), cable TV, refrigerator (mini bar) and so on.

The area the gers are in is quite nice and it is reachable in about 30 minutes from Ulaanbaatar city centre. It is a protected area so the hills around the gers are in pristine condition.

That was not what I was talking about though. As part of the entertainment for the evening, one of the better Morin khuur players in Mongolia, Tserendorj, was there, along with his son, Soyol-Erdene (er, Tserendorj's wife also works for the bank hence the connection). Tserendorj had prepared a Morin khuur and on stage played it briefly. It was then presented to Pete Morrow, CEO of the bank (Google him up - use the terms ' "Pete Morrow" Mongolia' and you can see some of his writings. Of course, if you are really lazy, follow this link and the Google Search results will appear).

Again, this is not what I was talking about though. After the Morin Khuur was presented to Pete, Soyol-Erdene played on another Morin khuur. This is the first time I have heard this instrument played live and with it playing a lively piece. The sound that issues from it is magnificent and unique. It really is a wonderful instrument and when in the hands of an expert, as it was, the instrument lives, as does the music he plays.

The Morin khuur itself is a wooden violin type instrument with a horse head carved and added to the top of it.

Now to find a CD or two to add to my collection. Well worth listening to.

Birthdays

The profile to the side of this blog is a wicked thing. It registered my birthday and clicked the year up one more to 51. Sigh. Did not even get to change it myself. Did Thomo have a good birthday? Not bad. Emails from mum and dad and two of the kids as well as my sister and a couple of friends. Number One son telephoned which was nice (and somewhat of a surprise). In the afternoon I spoke to young Haakon which was great and to Lyn. Friend in Thailand posted a birthday card to me which was nice and came as a surprise. My staff all sent electronic wishes which was terrific. Lastly, my favourite Mongolian family dropped off a wall hanging as a gift which was a total surprise and lovely to receive.

Anything romantic on Thomo's Birthday? Nope. No kisses, no cuddles, just back to an empty apartment (well, actually, I lie, one of the personal assistants at the office gave me a little peck on the forehead ... but that was all).

And now, the day after? Let's see - no money and wet weather so a quiet day in Ulaanbaatar again, most of it here in the apartment by myself I expect - oh, and a little shopping too. Of course the apartment is not a great deal of fun either at the moment as the cable TV is off and the water to the building is suffering from supply problems. No, not a black mood descending, just a little lonely blues.

"Nobody loves me, everybody hates me
Think I'll go and eat worms
Long ones, short ones, fat ones, thin ones
See them wriggle and squirm

Bite their heads off, suck their juices
Spit their the skins away
Nobody knows how fat I grow
On worms three times a day"

Road Distance Signs (Milestones)

I've just spent a week driving around Mongolia .... well, more like being driven around :-) Now, over most of the country there are not much in the way of roads, more like tracks, and these are pretty much totally unmarked. However, there are a couple of main roads running through the country. One, for example, runs from the Russian border in the north, through Ulaanbaatar to the Chinese border in the south, paralleling the railway line.

One of the interesting things on these roads is the travelling distance signs (milestones they would have been in the dim dark days of the past). For example, in Australia, if I was driving to Sydney on the Pacific Highway and I saw a sign that said '85', then that sign is telling me I have 85 kilometres to go before reaching Sydney. The next sign I saw might say '80', telling me I had 80 kilometres to go, and so on.

The signs like this (and the old milestones for that matter) are the same and work like this in every country I have been to .... except Mongolia.

Here, if I am driving from Ulaanbaatar and I see a sign on the side of the road that says '80', then it is telling me not that there is 80 kilometres to go until the next town is reached but rather it is saying that I have travelled 80 kilometres FROM Ulaanbaatar. The next sign I see may then say '85'.

Before poo pooing this, think. When giving directions in Australia we generally say something like "head up the Pacific Highway about 80 kilometres and look for the turn" not "head up the Pacific Highway until you are 240 kilometres from the next town and then turn right." The Mongolian system makes it easier to do this.

The picture is a manually powered ferry that we had to use during the Road Trip to cross one of the rivers here (the Onon gol in Khentii).

Two Camels, No Roadsigns --- Hell, No Roads

I had to travel last week. The job required me to get out and about in our branches so we packed the car, and set off. The troop was our driver, his son who accompanied us as it was school holidays, Baggy, the faithful and long suffering translator and aide confidante and Thomo. We left Ulaanbaatar around lunchtime on Monday and headed south to Sukhbaatar Aimag (province/state). From Sukhbaatar, we would head north, passing through the edge of Dornod and then into Khentii Aimag, after which, we would return to Ulaanbaatar five days later.

Wonderful trip. We stopped and looked at bank branches in nine Soums (towns), one Aimag Centre (main provincial town) and a small village. The country folk were wonderful and some of the scenery was just totally inspiring.

At one point as we travelled along, two camels atop a hill watched our progress. It should be noted too that in the countryside, there are no road signs pointing the next town. Hell, there are no roads - just tracks - and some of them are hard to see if they are not travelled often.

Come visit Mongolia, but if you want to get off the beaten track (that would be the main north-south highway) then connect with one of the local tour people - or drop me a line and I'll put you in touch with some reputable groups. Come see the countryside though, it is an experience you will remember. I will get some more photos up in Thomo's Hole Proper soon - in the meantime, here is the highway we followed from Baruun-urt, the Aimag Centre of Sukhbaatar Aimag to Norovlin in Khentii Aimag.

A Shower, My Kingdom For A Shower

One of the things in short supply on the Steppe is water. There are a few rivers passing through, and if you are lucky, there may be a subterranean bore handy, all providing water. This water is generally carried by hand to the gers (round felt houses - like yurts) of the local population. In the Soums (small towns and villages) of Mongolia where there are no hotels or motels some accommodation can normally be found in the government buildings. In some of the more popular areas of Mongolia you will find tourist camps. Again, these may not have a large supply of water so cleaning facilities will usually consist of a bowl and some water (and very little water at that - and that supply only in a trickle). Being Australian, I like a shower. I like to be well cleaned. Going a few days without from necessity is not a great trial, but at the first available opportunity to take a shower, then a shower I will take.

We pulled into Baruun-urt, the Aimag Centre of Sukhbaatar Aimag at about 10 pm on Tuesday night, having been travelling for two days. The local manager of the bank had telephoned the public bathhouse and persuaded them to leave the heat on the water for a little longer. What a treat that shower was and how pleasant it was to wash the dust from face, arms, legs and hair.

I must admit, when I returned to Ulaanbaatar after a week traipsing around the Aimags, I spent a good hour soaking in a bath :-)

Korea Changes

I've been travelling to Korea for many years now. I've stayed at hotels in a number of places in the country and I have travelled through the airport many times. Now I am peeved. I arrived at the hotel at 12:50 to be greeted by a smiling imbecile behind the counter who with a broad smile happily announced that check-in was from 2:00. Just what you need to hear after a few hours travelling. Guys, apologise to the guest and say "I am sorry sir, the rooms are still being made up - they will be ready at 14:00", not "Check-in is at 2!"

Then there was the nice lady who telephoned me today at 11:30 to say "you know checkout time is 12:00?"

Guys - as you rush to be a dominant power in Asia and to improve your globalisation position, remember, English has a whole pile of niceties built into it to stop crotchety old men like me getting grumpy. Use them!

And the final peeve? Incheon airport. Nice and efficient with the security check (my laptop bag gets sniffed each time I pass through there). Trouble is, every time I pass through there, I have to take my shoes off so that they can be x-rayed!

What is wrong with that I hear you ask? Well, the first thing is that the shoe x-ray is sort of random. The second is that that sterilised sandals that are provided are all Asian sized. So, either I walk in socks in a country that has almost religious zealousness about only shoes touching the ground or I walk in small sandals, look like an idiot and run the risk of falling over because my feet will not fit the damn things.

Guys - there are many big footed persons in the world - try and cater for us too.

When People Assume You Do Not Understand

Ella in her blog noted that she "want(ed) to know what are people saying around me!"  This comes from working in foreign countries where you do not speak the language. I noted at the time that it was worse to be in a country were you did speak the language and still could not understand what was going on around you.Well, a couple of days into my trip in Korea and I have found my language peeve. It comes from being able to speak survival Korean but looking very much like a foreigner (well, I am an Aussie after all). Here, whenever I buy something or pay for it, every shop assistant, waiter or cashier either struggles for 5 minutes trying to remember how to say the amount in English or reaches for a calculator to type the amount out or swings the cash register screen around to show me the amount. Of course, simply saying "man ee chon oh baek won" would work just as well as typing out 12500 on a calculator and be a whole lot faster.

Please, give me the amount in the local language first and then if I look dumbfounded, reach for the calculator. Reaching for the calculator first makes me feel like I am stupid --- which I think I am not. Mind you, some of my friends may disagree with that :-)

Broadband and the Steppe

Thomo is currently sitting is Seoul for a few days. It is the Naadam holiday in Mongolia and I had organised a couple of months ago to spend that break in Seoul. Of course, I am regretting that decision now. Apart from the Naadam holiday, it would have been nice to spend a couple of days out in the countryside with Thomo's favourite Mongolian Family. However, I am in Seoul where it is hot, sweaty and rainy (unlike Ulaanbaatar where it is just hot). The one advantage in Seoul is that the broadband here is truly broad. Every website I access here anywhere in the world (except Mongolia) fair hops along. Screenfuls of information are blasting back to me in no time at all - with the exception of Mongolian websites.

This is the opposite to life in Mongolia where even with a broadband connection, websites out of Mongolia have their pages come back at a lowly pace - sort of Yak Speed.

The reason for this is, I believe, the gateway between Mongolia and the rest of the world. There is a bottleneck with insufficient bandwidth to handle the traffic either way.

So, whilst I miss my favourite Mongolian family, I am enjoying the speed of the connections from here.

Nine Fish Cleansing

I was out with my favourite Mongolian family this weekend. Saturday we were west of the City of Ulaanbaatar again, this time parked by a river. The trip over the bridge was amazing, as was the ferocity of the mosquitoes. I will go back and take photos of that bridge in the future. However, whilst this was a fun part to the weekend, it was not the best part. Sunday we went to Hotel Mongolia. I had promised to buy my favourite Mongolian family lunch as it was a birthday weekend for one of the family members. We did. Hotel Mongolia has become famous here for its importing tons of sand - about US $10,000 worth I believe, which in Mongolia is a lot of grains of sand. They have placed this sand near the river and hold beach parties there.

I should also note that the Hotel Mongolia does the best Chinese food I have eaten in Ulaanbaatar so far.

This, however, also was not the highlight of the weekend. The highlight was later when we went and parked by the river. Now I have been told that what follows is not an old Mongolian custom. When I asked, however, how my host had heard about it, she noted that it was some old Mongolians who had told her. OK, so not a custom. What was this though? Well, apparently swallowing 9 small river fish, alive, is good for the stomach.

Fish were caught, counted and set in a glass with some clean drinking water. They were then duly swallowed. When offered, Thomo backed away (some may say in a cowardly fashion) and fell back on my three rules of eating - namely:

1. Dead


2. Cooked


3. Should never have connected the mouth to the bum of any animal.

These failed on all three.

Still, my companion was fine at dinner later that night although apparently not terribly hungry. :-)

Late Breaking Addition: The ever faithful aide confidante, Baggy, noted to me over lunch today that this tale was, in fact, correct. My favourite Mongolian family, however, had missed one important part of the recipe. Before drinking the fish, one should drink 1 to 2 litres of fresh water first, so that the fish would survive long enough in the stomach to provide the benefit. He also noted that you could feel them cleaning the stomach walls (this I am not so sure about but hey, coming from Baggy, the ever faithful aide confidante, who am I to doubt?).

So, I guess this was a case of one member of my favourite Mongolian family being an expert short term planner (catch the fish and swallow them) but not so good at long term planning (now that I have caught and swallowed them, how do I keep them alive long enough for them to provide some benefit?). :-D

Mongolian GPS

Mongolians find their way naturally across the Steppe - they don't need compasses and such. They are as natural moving across the Steppe as a Sydneysider is in the water at Bondi Beach. Yeah, right!

The boss asked me to get a GPS for one of the company vehicles ... his. He has been in Mongolia and driving across the Steppe for five years now - always with a Mongolian driver. Now, I know bugger-all about GPS, relying as I have my entire life on the fact that even in outback Australia there will always be a sign pointing to the next petrol station or the next pub. Seems there are not too many pubs on the Steppe.

I asked the boss about the Mongolian sense of direction. Surely it was as good as noted as the boss was around to be requesting a GPS. "Mongolians don't get lost travelling between soums. They sort of know the direction they need to drive" I noted.

"A number of times" said the boss "the 4 Wheel Drive has stopped and the driver and one of the Mongolian passengers have climbed to the roof of the vehicle and stood still there, like Meerkats, surveying the distance, pointing, muttering, shading eyes and then surveying and pointing some more".

"Any problem" the boss would ask them when they got back into the car. "No problem" was the usual response. They would then drive for about 20 minutes, stop and repeat the Meer Cat routine on the top of the vehicle - repeating the process again and again until they had arrived in the soum.

"They are lost" says the boss "don't believe the innate sense of direction on the Steppe bit, they are lost!" I purchased a GPS for him so that now they will at least know where they are when they are lost. :?

So, the next time you pass a 4 Wheel Drive on the Mongolian Steppe or in the Desert and you see a Mongolian standing on the roof of the vehicle looking like a Meerkat, remember, that is simply a Mongolian GPS taking its bearings.