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Location: Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia, Central Asia
Mongolia - a country unlike anything you've ever seen
- a country full of paradox - a country in transition between
the old and the new - in everything you see, smell and feel.
The tops of Buddhist temples share the skyline with newly
erected high-rises, the result of foreign money just now trickling
into the country. As you enter Ulaan Baatar, the capital,
it's not uncommon to see a car parked in the same backyard
as a ger, felt tents which nomadic families call home
when out herding.
In the countryside, ambling cows chew on dry, brown grass
amidst solitary hydro poles and telephone wires that transmit
the crackle of communication now and again. If humans were
to colonize Mars, you get a sense that this is what civilization
would look like in its early stages.
The landscape reflects the people- warm and hospitable when
engaged in conversation or sharing a smile, yet harsh and
direct when making a deal at the Black Market, bargaining
for a better taxi fare or urging you to try the local drink
of choice - urag, fermented mare's milk, which is an
acquired taste, to say the least.
Broken down cars litter the streets and cause drivers to
swerve at, what always seems to be, the last moment. Fond
of using their horns to signal passing, overtaking or just
plain impatience, a pedestrian must get used to the blaring
siren songs of the street.
The traditional dance and song is a mix of Asian and Russian
influence, but uniquely Mongolian. Quick dance steps mix with
fluid precision - how do those spinning teacups stay on their
heads? Throat
singing, a low, guttural yet hypnotic melody mingles
with a pulsating rhythm plucked in a minor chord from the
traditional horse headed violin - the Morin Khor.
At the monasteries, little girls dressed in traditional garb
leave sachets of seed in your bag so that you must buy their
goods. Even at that age, the concept of selling foreigners
a bag of seed for 5000 torog (50 cents) is good business.
They count their money walking back to their parents' car.
Yet how can you complain when you feel like you've been touched
by a force or energy, something greater than yourself, watching
dedicated monks pray so passionately to a 50 foot golden statue
of a revered Bodhisattva will bring a tear to your eye.
Sukhbaatar Square, the centre of Ulaan Bataar, lays
flat amongst a backdrop of colourful government buildings
and cultural centres. A perfect stage for the words of Damdir
Sukhbaatar, Mongolia's revolutionary hero - his words
engraved on a monument and emblazoned in his countrymen's
memory - "If we, the whole people, unite in our common
effort and will, there will be nothing in the world that we
cannot achieve".
A country free from communism only since 1992, the bright
blue sky breaks up the grey palette of dilapidated buildings
and mountains dotted with monuments dedicated to fallen Russian
soldiers. A country born from a unique history, from Genghis
Khan to Gorbachov, now managing to survive
in a new political and social rebirth. How will this country
evolve?
Mongolia, a country that is odd in its beauty, a country
that balances it's vice with its virtue, a country whose people
are unlike anything you've ever known.
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Travel Writers: Memories of Mongolia by
Joanne Loton
