Assorted Photos

Mongolian corn dogs.


Contemporary fashion with a traditional flair - Mongolian couture straight from the runway!


Our guides arguing about the car in the Gobi.


I am a mighty warrior.


Giant sand dune in the Gobi.


Ice in the desert? See for yourself.


The ankle bone flicking competition at the Ulaan Baatar Nadaam Festival - in this competition, each competitor 'flicks' a plastic piece (traditionally the ankle bone of a sheep or goat) at a tiny target about 10 feet away.


Wrestlers from the 'Little Nadaam' in Hutag Onder - Mongolian wrestlers perform what is called the 'Eagle Dance' (pictured above) as a way of honoring the Gods, their opponents and the audience.


^ It was hard to leave Mongolia knowing that there were hotties like this around.


Gobi Camels.


I think this graffiti looks kind of like it says "I heart Dana."


The obligatory "out the window of the train" shot - taken out the window of the Trans-Mongolian train to Erdenet.

At last! Internet Access!

The past couple of days, the hotel's internet connection (as sporadic as it is) was completely down and I had no time to go to an internet cafe since I was trying to soak up as much of Ulaan Baatar as I could before I had to leave.

Instead of checking into a hostel for the night before my 6:45 am flight, I slept on the floor in my friends' room at the Continental - and sneaked past the watchful eyes of the desk clerks. Yesterday, we went to the Buddhist Temple Museum (one of the oldest buildings in Ulaan Baatar) and a contemporary art gallery. The temple was so ornately decorated, it was unbelievable. Every corner was carved and painted in bright colors and patterns.

The art gallery was interesting as well. I was surprised by how in touch with the cutting-edge trends in contemporary art these painters and sculptors. Perhaps the most interesting was that many of the artists combined traditional Mongolian cultural influences and techniques with their edgy contemporary styles.

Currently, I'm at Incheon International Airport in Seoul, Korea waiting for my flight back to New York City. I left the hotel at 4 o'clock this morning for the airport and landed here in Seoul at about 10:00 a.m. My flight for JFK doesn't board until 7:00 p.m., so in the meantime, I'm going to try to post some pictures!

Nadaam Festival

This weekend was the Nadaam Festival - a nation-wide celebration of Mongolian independence and culture. The festival occurs annually and lasts 3 days. On the first day, the opening ceremony is held, which features traditional dances, songs and of course contortionists. The wrestling, horse racing, archery and ankle bone shooting competitions also begin on the first day after the opening ceremony. On the second day, the horse racing and wrestling continue and the winners are determined then announced at the closing ceremony later that evening. The third day is reserved strictly for celebration, so there are no stadium events.

Nadaam occurs all over Mongolia, but the main event takes place at the Central Stadium in Ulaan Baatar. The stadium itself is about at big as a large high school football stadium - with slightly more seating - and is not nearly as well maintained. Judging by the splatters of paint on the weeds growing next to the bright red railings, someone had recently repainted the seating area in quite a hurry. The grass on the field was long overdue for maintenance and the seats were coming apart right and left. It did, however, have a big tv screen installed so that the audience could watch live feed of the horse races taking place about 60 km away while simultaneously watching wrestling matches in the stadium. Though the stadium itself was a bit less than expected (considering it's the nation's best stadium), the actual event was a great time. The opening ceremony featured hundreds of dancers and contortionists all performing to live music performed on traditional instruments. Of course, Chinggis Khaan's peace banner was brought onto the field - and fiercely guarded by ornately dressed soldiers - and the Mongolian Olympic Team made an appearance.

Outside of the stadium were vendors selling cheap eats and expensive souvenirs. The city was packed with tourists for this event and pick-pocketing was rampant. (Being from Philly, I already knew not to put anything valuable where anyone else could reach, so anyone who opened my backpack would end up with a glorious bounty of Kleenex tissues and sunscreen.) I spent a few hours between the first two days of the festival exploring around the vendor tents and found everything from old women selling "priceless artifacts" to cell phone companies offering discounts to customers who signed up for a contract at the festival.

According to Namun, most locals skip town for the Nadaam Festival and celebrate with their families in the country, but the crowd at the stadium wasn't totally made up of tourists. There were teenagers hanging around everywhere dressed in their version of the latest western fashions, women carrying babies while wearing stiletto heals, children dressed in their favorite outfits (including Cinderella dresses and Batman costumes) and elderly men and women dressed in their traditional deels. I felt a little out of place in my ripped jeans and smelly tank top.

On the third day, none of us knew where any of the celebrations were taking place, and since we only had two more days until our final projects were due for class, most of us opted to hang out at the hotel to edit photos and compile our artist's statements.

Horse Milk Wine

Our group spent July 3rd through July 8th at a ger camp called "Old Bridge" along the Egiin Gol (Eg. River) in the northern region of the country, about an hour drive from the nearest town, a small village called Hutag-Onder. We departed Ulaan Baatar the evening of July 2nd on an overnight train on the Trans-Mongolian Railroad. On the rainy morning of the 3rd, Chimbat, our host at Old Bridge, met us at the station in Erdenet with two vans which would carry us the rest of the way to camp.

Erdenet is the urban hub of northern Mongolia and is home to one of the ten largest copper mines in the world. Mineral resources are the main source of wealth for Mongolia and the copper mine in Erdenet uses a total of 50% of the electricity in the entire country. The city was once controlled by the Soviets (because of the wealth from the mine), but eventually, the Russians left Erdenet. When they left, they forgot to teach the Mongolians how to operate the mine (the local Mongolians only worked in the mine as general laborers), so today some Russians remain as consultants for mine operations.

Like most mining towns, Erdenet has a mood of grit and poverty. Decaying Soviet-era tenements huddle together in the center of town intermixed with piles of rubble, shabby internet cafes and brightly painted bus stops. In the distance, one can see neighborhoods of wooden shacks with corrugated metal roofs. Bilingual graffiti is everywhere, as are shops selling American-style HipHop clothing.

We ate breakfast in a dim Chinese restaurant, then got on the road for our 230 km drive to camp. Most of the roads in Mongolia are unpaved and exist as little more than glorified animal trails. The farther away from Ulaan Baatar one gets, the rougher the trails. Consequently, our trek to our camp in the north country near the Egiin Gol (or Eg. River) was long and bumpy - only the first 60 km of our journey were on a paved road.

As we drove along, we passed a great number of herders migrating to their summer pastures. All of their belongings were packed on the back of horses, camels or yaks and they usually traveled with large herds of animals such as sheep, goats, camels, horses, cattle or yaks.

After driving across muddy dirt roads for about 10 hours, we finally arrived at Old Bridge Camp and we settled into our gers.

The next morning, we went for a hike up a nearby mountain to look at the beautiful scenery, then headed into the valley to the camp of local horse farmers. Chimbat, who is very devoted to the community in the valley of the Egiin Gol, had arranged with them to host a special horse race in our honor. In this race, yearling horses were removed from the corral - and their mothers - and moved to the other side of the field. They are then released - riderless - and they race back to their mothers in the corral. Spectators can 'bet' on which horse they think will win by writing their names on strips of cloth then tying them to the tails of their horses of choice. My horse didn't win.

Throughout the week, we enjoyed a considerably more authentic Mongolian experience than in any of the other places that we'd visited. Chimbat arranged for us to eat a traditionally prepared meal of goat meat cooked for two or three hours with vegetables over hot stones and also for us to drive into Hutag-Onder to watch the village's Little Nadaam Festival, at which we got to see the wrestling and horse-racing events much much closer than we will be at UB's big Nadaam. We also visited a nomadic family and ate horse meat, home-made goat cheese and flatbread with fresh butter cream, and drink hot goat milk, horse milk wine and Mongolian vodka - all of which was really gross, by the way. I was surprised to see that both of the gers we visited had TV sets inside which were powered by solar panels set up outside.

No trip to Mongolia would be complete without horseback riding, so on the last day, we mounted our squat Mongolian steeds and rode across the countryside. My horse refused to respond to my commands and the young local men who accompanied us got a kick out of making fun of me to each other in Mongolian and slapping my horse in the butt when I wasn't looking so that it would bolt unexpectedly.

At the end of the week, we were sad to leave Chimbat and what we called the "cast and crew" of Old Bridge Camp - with whom we played A LOT of volleyball in our downtime. Our journey home was just as bumpy and long as the trek out, but we arrived safely back in Ulaan Baatar on the morning of July 9th.

Mongolian Politics

At the end of June, Mongolia held its parliamentary elections and Mongolians all over the country gathered to makeshift polling stations to cast their votes. The results of the election were released July 1st and have created considerable controversy. The People's Revolutionary Party (the communist party of Mongolia) which had previously held power came out the victor in the election, however the democratic party argues that the election results had been tampered with to create a fraudulent victory for the P.R.P.

Protesting ensued in front of the P.R.P. headquarters building that night, which escalated into rioting. The P.R.P headquarters was burned down, the fire severely damaging nearby buildings including the Fine Art Museum. Several of my classmates watched the riots from a nearby hill while I was safe (and oblivious) in my hotel room working on photos. They happened to come across a reporter from CNN who had happened upon the scene as well, but without his camera. He gave them his business card so that they could send him some images and eyewitness accounts of the event. The next day, my classmate Ryan was interviewed over the phone live on CNN.

In response to the violence, the Mongolian government issued a state of emergency beginning at 12:01 am July 2nd that would last four days. During this time, everyone in Ulaan Baatar was required to observe a 10 pm - 5 am curfew and restricted from buying alcohol or gasoline (unless purchasing with a credit card) and holding public gatherings. Peace Avenue, the main street of UB, was also closed to all traffic except pedestrians and buses.

The state of emergency has since been lifted and the climate here in UB seems considerably less tense - especially with the Nadaam Festival happening tomorrow. From what I gathered from talking to people here, the rioters were mainly angry, uneducated young adults (early to mid 20s) who reacted before they knew the actual statistics. Though most of the urban Mongolians more than likely voted against the P.R.P., a large percentage of Mongolia's population lives in urban areas as nomadic or seminomadic farmers and herders. These rural citizens generally tend to vote communist because in the past the party has served their interests. This means that the P.R.P.'s victory might not have been fraudulent after all.

Mongolia's main sources of wealth are its mineral resources, especially copper. However, a great deal of their mining operations are controlled by foreign investors who generally have little interest in observing ecologically responsible mining practices that would preserve the beauty of the Mongolian countryside. As a result, Mongolia sees much less of the profit from its mineral deposits as it should. As I understand, part of what made this election so important were the different parties' stances on this issue of mineral resources. One party in particular that opposed the P.R.P. claimed to have a plan to keep the mining profits in Mongolia and distribute the wealth so that everyone (not just the rich and the government) would benefit from those profits. This is one of the potential reasons for the riots.

Another factor which many believe contributed to the events of July 1st was that about 15-20 years ago, for the first time in a great while, there were huge numbers of homeless children in Mongolia for whom the new government did next to nothing. These people grew up without access to education and other opportunities and are now in their early to mid twenties - the same age as the bulk of the rioters.

As exciting as this event was at the time, it looks like that will be the only political violence Ulaan Baatar will be seeing in a while. The Nadaam Festival is beginning tomorrow, and the whole city is gearing up for the huge three-day party. Everyone seems to have forgotten about the elections all together, at least for now.

I forgot to mention...

... that we were interviewed for Korean National TV while we were in the National Park.

We were driving into the park, and just a little past the entrance we ran into a traffic jam and were told by a police officer to stop the van. Namun, our guide and translator, informed us there was a marathon taking place and the road was closed until it was finished. Not wanting to sit in a hot van for another couple of hours, we hopped out, cameras in hand, and explored around the event. The official name of the event was the Mongolia Marathon for International Friendship and there were people of all ages and abilities 'running' in the 'marathon.'

We met a couple of students from Georgia who gave us some details about the marathon - which was actually a 5K. Their grandfather was actually the managing director of MBC, a major South Korean radio broadcasting company, and was also responsible for organizing the Friendship Marathon. We were introduced to him and were promptly asked to be interviewed by this guy:

More Pictures!

The bandwidth on our internet connection here is so low that it is difficult to support the upload of even the smallest images, however this afternoon, I was able to upload a couple of images:This is the tourist camp in which we stayed in the Gobi.

This is called the "ankle bone game," and it is a traditional Mongolian game played with the ankle bones of sheep and goats. Namun, our faithful guide, taught us how to play this game in the Gobi.

The Flaming Cliffs, pictured above, are the site of the famed Marshall Expedition of the 1920s in which a team of American archaeologists uncovered dinosaur eggs. The picture on the bottom shows the fossilized bones that our guides supposedly uncovered.

Sheep and Kashmir goats grazed freely around our camp in the Gobi. The second image was taken at a natural spring (also in the Gobi) that has legendary healing powers. A local farmer has run an irrigation channel from the spring to his crops, and other local herders bring their flocks here to drink. While we were there, two separate herds came to drink and two separate groups of children came to refill their families' water jugs.