Deep thoughts on Mongolia by Jon Derpak

We are in Ulaanbaatar getting ready to leave and I feel already that I will miss this country. The travel itself was hard, on the body and the mind for many reasons, amongst which the average speed of transport is around 35kph making some of our legs (300kms +) nearly unbearably long. But that is the way they move here. The roads are terrible and include river crossings and incredibly vast landscapes to cross. Some of our experiences left us with bruises, but mostly just sleepless nights bouncing across the steppes and through. That being said, it wouldn't be the same if it were easier. I get the impression that the identity of this country would change if moving via buses and such became easier. Of all recorded history here, the people have been nomadic, and their toughness and complete disregard for the harshness of the climate is the result. There were moments where we would be freezing our asses off, while the mother of the family where we were visiting or staying would be outside with her sleeves rolled up picking up cow shit for the stove. There are roads being built though, pretty well everywhere which will make moving around the country much faster and making it much much more accessible. So if you want to have it the hard way, make it quick.

Let's go back to the cow shit stove. The lack of trees makes it hard to heat using wood or coal or any other combustive, so they use what is in abundance. Shit. And it is abundant. I think that the one thing that I saw the most here was just that; shit. The horse to human ratio is 13:1 and sheep to human ration is 5:1. Needless to say they produce a lot of shit. The stove is also the center of life in the ger, producing heat for warmth as well as a cooking surface and a social center around which everyone (travelers, neighbors and family alike) gathers. This also become important because of the lack of refrigeration in the countryside. To account for this they boil their food on the stove for really long periods of time. To preserve the meat, they tend to do their slaughtering all at the same period of the year, just as winter is falling. Then they dry their meat to be kept and used for the rest of the year. They also use the milk from yaks, cows, goats, and horses for different purposes. They dry cream, make cheese and ferment the mares milk all to be able to preserve these products for the year. Most of these products are barely palatable to the western taste buds, but you get used to it. I almost enjoyed my last experience with airag (fermented mares milk).

The lifestyle in the countryside i found very peaceful and informative. The way they manage their livestock, following the herds to allow them to d\seek their own needs as well as the fact that they waste nothing of them when eaten, also the simplicity of their living quarters in the intense climate and many other things are a lesson to the west as to how things can be done much simpler. I find that we over complicate our lives with things. We create needs that don't exist with all the useless junk that we have access to.Not to say that they have no problems out here, because they do, and plenty with the corruption in the government and massive poverty, amongst them. Yet as much as we have at home, I think I saw more genuine smiles of happiness here than anywhere else I have seen at home.
Being back in the city now is a bit of a shock after being in the country side for 7 weeks and we are ready to continue on our way through China. Even after 2 months here though, we feel like there is so much more to see, we only managed to see the west, the north and part of central Mongolia so there is much more to see and to see. 2 months seems long, but is never enough to experience any country properly. See you in China!