Let me reassure you that most Ulaanbaatar residents live just like we do, dress stylishly and have many shopping choices. The city itself is loaded with Prius hybrids, congested traffic, and construction cranes much like a 1.3 million version of Beijing. The air was clear during our stay and according to our guide that is because they burn wood in the summer and coal in the winter creating pollution at that time. The streets are especially busy our first day because everyone is getting ready for Naadam.
Our guide for Naadam is 22 year old Azaa who is in her 4th year of training for acupuncture. It is a six year program and she plans to go to China for further study after that. She is single and lives with her parents who are college professors and she guides in the summers. We meet her on the 11th and walk to the stadium. The streets are deserted until we near the stadium then it is bumper to bumper. A big endorsement for mongoliatravelon.com for providing Azaa and arranging Naadam Festival for us!
The annual Naadam Festival is celebrated July 11th and 12th with smaller celebrations in other cities and towns outside Ulaanbaatar and seems to be part independence celebration, part state fair and part nomad Olympics. We planned our rail journey around the event. The opening ceremony ticket is as hard to get as a Super Bowl ticket and is sold out. It is as choreographed as a Super Bowl halftime show and lasts 2hrs. The traditional costumes light up the stadium. However the sporting events are free to attend. These include ankle bone shooting (a team game consisting of flicking a small flat piece of reindeer horn at a target), wrestling (no time limit first person to fall down), archery and horse racing… more about that later. Naadam is a national holiday and everyone attends or watches the events on TV. Many families attend dressed in traditional clothing. Food is everywhere along with trinkets to buy.
My favorite event is the horse racing and every Mongolian loves horses and most ride. The event is held 28 km west of Ulaanbaatar on the open steppe. The jockeys are boys ages 5-13 because these are long races for the horses and tradition. There are 6 categories of races depending on the age of the horse and the distances vary. For instance 2 yr olds race for 10-12 km (6-7.5 miles) and 7 yr old horses race 25-26 km (15.5-16 miles). The boys that I saw had helmets on and a blanket with stirrups but not a saddle. Children sing a special song named GIINGOO, a mantra of God of Horse-Khayankhyarvaa before and after racing.
LAST DAY IN MONGOLIA
Lots of steps the last 3 days so we stepped it down a little with a visit to the Museum of Mongolian History which was a very informative lesson on the birth of the modern state of Mongolia. We had a nice meal at the Shangri-La Hotel buffet the previous night with every cuisine available. The modernnomads.mn near the hotel 9 seems to be a favorite with travelers and we are on board with that choice. We restocked at the emart (sort of a Korean Costco for the next leg of our journey). On to Russia and Lake Baikal this afternoon. Stay tuned.