Steppein' out

TODAY in MONGOLIA I woke up in a colorfully painted ger (what most of us call a yurt, but that is Russian and due their history the Mongolians don't really like that word) warm under my camel hair blanket, the sun shining through the round hole in the top of the ger. Outside the warm and cozy ger is the wide green expanse of the Mongolian steppe. I can gallop a horse for half an hour before I meet a change in the flatness- a low hill that marks the side of another valley. It is really beautiful here in Mongolia with the blue sky, green steppe, and sparkling river that winds its way through the flat grass land.

For breakfast I had yak butter on my toast and freshly made yogurt from…? Don't know what kind of milk made this yogurt but with a little honey it is delicious. The butter looks like a flat of brie cheese with a crust and cheesy looking butter seeping between the layers. Am I supposed to eat the crust? I don't know!

I took an easy horse ride to a nearby herder's ger. He lives here with his teenage son and daughter and wife. The ger is the same size as the one that I am staying in. There are also several dogs.

The herder and the horseman start drinking vodka and offer me some. I feel like I should at least make a show of drinking some, even though it is only 11 in the morning!
It is delicious vodka! The two men pretty much finish the bottle!

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Ulaan Baatar's City Park

Today in Mongolia I arrived at the Wind Horse Ger Camp after a bumpy over the river and through the woods drive in a Russian hippy van. The camp is a grassy area by the river covering a couple acres and including about 10 gers- including a cooking ger, a dining ger, and a shower ger. We are the only guests at this end of the season and we stay in a roomy ger (Mongolian word for Yurt- which is a Russian word so they don't like it) with soft beds and camel hair blankets and a wood burning stove to heat the place once the sun goes down and the temperature follows. A felt floor helps to retain the heat.

The Wind Horse Camp has a good selection of wines and fresh organic produce for delicious salads. The cook likes to cook vegetarian pasta and makes a mean spaghetti. Every night we will meet with Hamid (the owner) for delicious food, wine, and conversation. Hamid is a linquist who restores ancient texts and keeps this camp as his hobby. His knowledge of Mongolia and Buddhism makes for very interesting chats.

The shower ger has small mirrors and candles all around. A shower tap is in the middle above a large piece of slate for standing. Hamid had to dig 3 meters down to ensure no ecological harm from the soap and shower. This dining ger is lined on all walls with Kazakh wedding tapestries- handiworks for hanging on the wall but which are big enough for a bedspread. They are intentionally not finished as one’s marriage should never “finish.”



One of the most idyllic parts of staying here is having a glass of wine at the hand painted low table by the river watching the sun set into the mountain that separates us from the big city.

But next year, Hamid hopes to have a “spa” with baths of white mares' milk! Evidently a Khan kept 20 white mares so that he could take a bath in their milk every day. Has healing properties evidently and the color of the horse is important because of how the white reflects light or something! Crazy! But I'll try it!

UB Museum

Today in Ulaan Baatar I explored the museums of this capital city in the land of Genghis Khan. There is a great museum of natural history that has one of the best displays of dinosaur bones in the world, including huge nests with eggs intact. Mongolia has a great deposit of dinosaur bones and paleological digs are going on constantly, especially in the Gobi.

My favorite museum was the Museum of History because of the beautiful samples of clothing worn by the different tribes of people in Mongolia. The most interesting are the hair decorations- the women would wear a metal filigree cap with matching hair clips that somehow keep the hair in flat waves flying out to the sides of the head. At the end of the “tails” are heavy-looking ornaments that encase the ends and hang several inches down. Attached to these are long lengths of embroidered silk that reach down to their knees. It is really amazing. Many of the ornaments are encrusted with red coral and turquoise.

Sukbaatar

Today in Ulaan Baatar I explored the city and walked around the huge Sukbaatar Square, which is dominated by the modern Parliament building but softened by the pink colonial-style Opera house facing the setting sun.

During this sun set, we had a beer at a bar on the square where the famous London-Ulaan Baatar Rally ends. The rally had just finished and a few battered and DIRTY cars we being ogled by a few Westerners.

It is interesting because this is one way that cars get into Mongolia. Well, obviously, but it is interesting because cars in Mongolia are both left- and right-side drive! There didn't seem to be a majority of either, although they drive on the right side of the road, like in the US.

UB Modern

TODAY in ULAAN BAATAR I am surprised to see how much construction is going on. I am staying the best hotel in the city, but it is like a Chinese hotel: poor service, aging decor, and less than perfect buffet breakfast. But across the way they are building a new Shangri-la hotel and other international 5 star hotels are on the way.

Many women here are in high fashion garb and sleek heels, but you can still glimpse older people in traditional robes with sashes around their middles. The city is dirty, but the sky is blue and the monuments are well-kept.

It is amazing to learn about this vast country that once conquered such a large expanse of land. They once had their capital in Beijing!

I have always wanted to go to Mongolia and I am finlly here.

Mongolia is a lot like China a few years back. When I was in China 10 year ago advertisements were painted on walls, rather than the modern billboards that are more common now. In Mongolia they had a lot of canvas ads. One in particular caught my eye.
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Look carefully at the camera.

Walking in Hong Kong

TODAY in HONG KONG after 6 weeks in the States I realize I have forgotten how to walk in Hong Kong. Going into the subway there were so many people coming right at me and twice I had to make big adjustments in my gait or direction and, still, caused others to stop short or have to go around me. Usually I can navigate around people by looking ahead and gauging how people are going to go. Not today.

Hong Kong people have a crazy knack for being able to fit several people on very narrow sidewalks here and there obstructed by bamboo scaffolding but then, when there is space, to somehow spread themselves out so that two people can take up the entire sidewalk. This opening of the walking area also seems to be a good time to slow down. It is so frustrating as I can’t get around them when the space is so jumbled and small, and then, when there is room to go around, they have sort of morphed into a wall themselves. A slow moving wall. Today I was on my way down the labyrinth of the subway underground and found myself behind a family of three. As the subway has just let out, there are hundreds of people coming toward us and streaming all around us. The family is huddled together to protect the little one in the middle. There is about 3 feet between the mother and the wall. I can make that for sure! As I go for my opening, somehow the mother is now only 3 inches from the wall, but the father is still walking down the middle of the hallway. For me to change tactics and go around them will mean having to get through the people who are now coming into the hallway to board the cars. And of course the family has slowed down.

Hong Kong is a vibrant busy international city. Part of its appeal is the excitement and constant movement. But sometimes it can get overwhelming and the constant crowds can be very stressful. I am lucky to live in the most exciting and happening area of Hong Kong, but it is also one of the busiest.

View from above

Today in Hong Kong the skies are crystal clear and from my seat on the plane back from San Francisco I can see the islands of Hong Kong and all of the enclaves where the city has been built up. There is surprisingly a lot of undeveloped green, especially on Lantau Island.

The fact that it is so clear is surprising and confounding. I am not sure at first what I am looking at, having never seen through the smog before. Is it Taiwan? As we round a green island and I admire an untouched beautiful beach, I see the Chek Lap Kok airport on its reclaimed land. So I must be looking a beach on the far side of Lantau Island. Amazing. Beautiful.

I actually like Hong Kong when it is clear like this. It is actually a beautiful place with the blue waters and the green mountainous islands. The sun early the next day filters warmly on the shorter Chinese-style buildings below me out my window. The city never really sleeps or quiets down, but this early, sunrise, there is a semblance of quiet and sleep. Of course the wet market below is getting ready to open soon and some red taxis are already making their way through Central to get those early banker fares.