Orkhon Valley and Mongolian BBQ

Thursday, July 18

Orkhon Valley

 We spent some of the day with a nomadic family, primarily with the woman of the family,  She has a remarkable range of skills!  She farms yaks, sheep and goats, and we visited her as she was beginning her day milking her yaks:

 

We then went to a lovely canyon for a hike, and Leah climbed some rocks again: 

Back to our ger village to make our lunch, meat filled dumplings.  Some of us were better than others at the task:

Before returning to the nomad family’s ger, we watched as our dinner was prepared.  Mongolian barbecue, but authentic.  A large fire had small rounded stones put into it, and the fresh goat was cut into pieces and seared in the bottom of a large pan on a stove just like the ones in our gers:

The very hot rocks were then added along with a few carrots and potatoes: 

When all the meat and rocks were in the pot, the pot was sealed on the stove: 

While it was cooking, we went back into the nomadic family ger and had a number of demonstrations of everyday life.  I’ll describe two.  First, the making of fermented yak yogurt vodka in a still.  The fermented yogurt is placed in a large still, and the alcohol is boiled off, and it condenses and runs down a small wooden trough where it is collected in a pitcher.  We tried it.  Let’s just say that Grey Goose doesn’t have any worries. 

Wool is sheared from the animals, carded and spun for the making of clothes.  The spinning is very skillful with no wheel!  Leah tried it:

 

We also heard of the rituals used in relations between families, and other aspects of nomadic life.  It was quite wonderful.  Finally we made our way back to our ger village where the goat Mongolian BBQ was waiting for us for our dinner:

Tomorrow we leave the steppe and go into the Gobi Desert.  More then.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Naadam Festival

Image
 July 12, 2024 Naadam Festival   What a remarkable couple of days!   Yesterday we went to the opening ceremony of the Festival, held at a large stadium.   The weather was hot and sunny; fortunately, our seats were in the shade.   Prior to the opening ceremony was a shorter ceremony held in front of the Government Building with Genghis Khan looking on.   Called the White Banner (or Peace Banner) ceremony, it entailed lots of pomp and a speech by the president.   There was a brass band, military marchers, horses, and the like:   Lots of local people came dressed in traditional clothing:   We then left for the stadium:   There was a long procession to start the proceedings; here’s a part:   The National Anthem:   And then more horse riders with flags:   There were multiple kinds of music with associated dancers; here’s an example of dancing to throat singing:   There are three national sports ...
Read more

Return to Ulaanbaatar, a Concert, and the Flight Home

Image
  Wednesday-Thursday, July 24-25 Return to Ulaanbaatar, a Concert, and the Flight Home It was a full day’s drive from southern Mongolia back to Ulaanbaatar, but we arrived at pavement early in the day and drove on a nice two-lane road back to the city.  After checking in to our hotel we went to a “cultural show” put on for the tourists.  It was mostly forgettable, as these things tend to be, with the exception of the music.  They had an incredible throat singer who performed both solo and with an orchestra of Mongolian instruments.  Recognizable as having Western counterparts were a flute and two cimbaloms, and there were similarities to other instruments familiar to us.  We then went to a restaurant in an upscale mall, where the selection of dishes included some which you won’t see on American menus:  The next morning we went early to the airport for the Turkish Airlines flight from Ulaanbaatar to Istanbul (9 ½ hours), connecting to a flight fro...
Read more

The Gobi Desert

Image
 Sunday, July 21 The Gobi Desert At breakfast this morning, there was a large pot of soup with a label in English:  Despite being in soup, the meat was dry, almost crumbly, and devoid of any flavor.  We set out to go to a Soum Center where we could buy gasoline, and arrived:  We discovered that there was no electricity, and therefore, no way to pump gasoline.  We wandered the tiny village, and waited, and after a few hours a generator was hooked up to the gas station, and we were able to fuel up.  We went on, and stopped at a tourist restaurant at another Soum Center for lunch, which was goat barbeque. The flat food above the goat in the photo was a sort of slimy bread-like thing.  We were behind schedule, and continued our journey to the sand dunes of Khongoryn Els, known as the “Singing Sands.”  On the way we passed some ibex:  We eventually arrived at the Gobi Anar Ger Lodge:  As usual, the toilets and showers were in a separate...
Read more