Baking bread in the sand

For some reason I have oddly large number of Mongolian posts on this blog, at least more than you would expect. This one is from Inner Mongolia, which is within Chinese territory. It starts with a video of some nomads baking bread in the sand. They heat up the sand with dung and then bury the dough and leave it to cook. The dunes are amazing, a very desolate looking place. 

The next video is of a Mongolian family having breakfast. What is particularly interesting about the video, to me at least, it is the furnishings and decor of their home. We end by touring a ranch which ends in some sort of incomprehensible 'fire ceremony' at the end of the day.

I have featured Artger's videos before -- a meal with a Mongolian opera singer, a hot pot delivery, and the Mongolian versions of hamburgers and hotdogs.  

 

Taste testing a Mongolian MRE

The MRE has a day's worth of meals. They are all quite substantial looking. These are from the YouTube channel Readiness Rations. He covers a lot of both military and survivalist-type MREs. Below I have included a couple that are civilian aid MREs.

 

Beat feeting it out of Russia

These are a series of videos by Sergey, a Russian fellow who left the country after the mobilization. He fled to Mongolia. Hard choice to have to make.

The first video shows him crossing the border at Borzya and taking a taxi for a night-time trip across the steppes to Choibalsan in Mongolia. The city is the site of an important battle in the 1930s. In the large battle General Zhukov defeated the Japanese forces, which turned them from pushing into Siberia towards SE Asia instead. In the second video he tours Choibalsan a bit and then, in the third, he's back on the road as he heads to Ulan Bator. 

He's low on money, doesn't know the language, has diarrhea and the temperature is 17° F. Tough life being a refugee -- I wish him luck.

Eating in Mongolia

These clips are from the Artger YouTube channel. The site primarily focuses on Mongolian cooking and cuisine. The first clip, in honor of the opera singers in Penthouse: War in Life, features a real Mongolian opera singer who shares a meal with Nargie, the host of the video. They order meat and vegetables from a shop in the city which gets delivered to them, and then they cook it over an open fire. Their jovial conversation is either in English or subtitled. It is a cold day with winter approaching.

The next video is another delivery, this time to a fellow lazing next to a river. He gets the equipment and ingredients for a hot pot. In a hot pot soup is heated and you add whatever you want to stew in it. In a restaurant the soup will be at the table, and you go to a buffet to pick the ingredients you want. 

Finally, we have hamburgers and hot dogs. The meat is just shredded beef, and whether it is a hamburger or a hot dog depends on the type of bun you put it on. Still, the sandwiches are tasty looking.  

Ulan Bator again

Although I don't think so, I must have some sort of an odd fascination with this city. It is the third 'walking in cities' post to visit the place. The second video was blocked by the creator, but you can still see the first, where two young ladies narrate the route of their daily walk to school, at Walking in Ulan Bator. 

This video is filmed in the winter after a light dusting of snow. It starts out in a residential area, passes by some small businesses, what appears to be school, and also has a couple of temples with Tibetan style Buddhist prayer wheels.

The mix of Crylic and English signs again interested me. Also, the lack of color struck me. Most people were dressed in black winter coats, and even the cars were either white, silver or black. It seemed rather unnecessarily somber. 

  

Walking in Ulan Bator II

This is our second visit to Ulan Bator for a walk. The first, Walking in Ulan Bator, featured two young girls showing us their route from home to school. It was in winter, and much of the walk was through a neighborhood of Soviet style apartment buildings. It was a bit dingy.

This walk is through more of an upscale downtown area, and it is in the summer so there is no snow, ice and slush. Much more prosperous and pleasant looking and much of the architecture is quite nice. However, unlike most Asian cities there are no street vendors. I suppose the weather precludes that for most of the year, so the habit just never formed. 

I did find the number of English language signs surprising -- they even labeled their police cars in English. I was expecting more Cyrillic lettering.   

 

Hunting with eagles in Mongolia

A Mongolian breakfast

A simple video showing a family making a Mongolian breakfast. I'm not sure about the milk tea (not a big milk drinker), but it looks interesting. I wouldn't mind trying it.

As an aside, below is a recipe for milk tea, although I think it is more of the Chinese 'bubble' tea variety than what the family in the video were using.

1. 3/4 cup brewed tea (such as black, green, chai, or jasmine)
2. 1 cup ice cubes.
3. 2 tablespoons Sugar Syrup (more or less to taste)
4. 1/2 cup milk (or soy, almond, or rice milk)
5. 1/4 cup Tapioca Pearls

Walking in Ulan Bator

Time to go walking again. Considering the 'shit-hole- kerfuffle I almost used a Haitian location, but making some sort of a statement would not be in keeping with the reason I post these videos. I post them because they show a slice of a neighborhood. That neighborhood may be exotic to us, but to the people living there it is a familiar corner of their universe. It is a place they know like the back of their hand.

Above is a couple of young girls in Ulan Bator, Mongolia, taking us on a tour of their daily walk from their home to a school. It is full of shortcuts, advice and silliness. Enjoy.

The world's most effective hangover cure

Should you, after a night of New Year's Eve revelry, have woken up with a splitting headache, your pants on backwards and a gap of several hours in your memory, then you'll need a quality hangover cure.

Lucky for you I have just the thing straight from the doctors of Mongolia: all you need is some pickled sheep's eyes -- and who doesn't keep a stoclkof those handy? -- and tomato sauce. Mix it together and guzzle it down. You'll be feeling chipper in no time.

Have a good New Year.
   

Mongolia's statue of Genghis Khan

Click any image to enlarge

Mongolia has built a huge statue of Genghis Khan. It stands about 30 miles outside of the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator. It is inteneded to be the center piece of a planned tourist park which will feature historical and cultural areas, camping in yurts, a swimming pool, theater and a golf course. When this is all done they plan on plating the statue with gold.

Regular readers will know I've frequently made fun of Turkmenistan's ridiculous building schemes. Granted, a giant gold-plated statue of Genghis Khan appears like something similar, however the Mongolians seem to have a much more rational grip on their tourism planning. They're basing it around their history, culture and landscape, which is a saner approach. They're also making efforts at upgrading their hotel situation which currently sounds pretty dodgy.

Mongolia is a parliamentary republic which sits landlocked between Russia and China. In spite of that, or perhaps because of it, Mongolia has very good relations with the United States. They've provided small contingents of troops to both Iraq and Afghanistan in support of American policy. Travellers from the U.S., EU and Japan can apparently get visas at the airport upon entering the country.

If you're interested in seeing a giant statue of Genghis Khan, or touring a remarkable and isolated country, you can start by visiting their tourist site or reading reviews of other people's travels there. Sadly, no mention of Mongolian Death Worms at either place.