The day started with indifferent weather to say the least. Drizzle, cloudy and cold.
I was met by my driver, Dorj, who spoke very good English and was full of energy and information. I joined a small group as a personalized minder / fixer is prohibitively expensive. And in a small group you can meet interesting people.
In the group was a retired Indian / US couple and the husband studied at LSE at the same time as I was at King’s College. After university they moved to the USA where he built a career on Wall Street and subsequently in journalism. There was a petrochemical engineer from Brazil, Carlos, and two German ladies.
Our route took us firstly to the Ghinggis Khan Museum. This boasts the largest equestrian statue in the world, Standing at 40m in height, the stainless steel statue sits on top of a very well presented museum which glorifies the exploits of the Mongol Empire. Their achievements were truly impressive and Mongolian history has been re-written since the collapse of communism. During the communist period National Pride was off limits. The pendulum has swung the other way, that’s for sure.
After the Museum, it was time to go off road and meet the Nomads. The fellow who we met was once the All Mongolia Horse Riding Champion, something about the 32 km class. We were welcomed with goat’s cream, bread, yak milk cheese, vodka made from distilled fermented horse milk, goat milk and snuff. A very friendly welcome and the delicacies were interesting and quite enjoyable. The snuff was a bit like the balms that one sees in Thailand – menthol and Tiger Balm. The vodka was smooth and not very strong.
After an indifferent lunch which was badly delayed (4 vegetarians in the group of 6 with a menu consisting exclusively of meat dishes, which was a bit of a stuff up), we headed to the Terrelj National Park which afforded some spectacular views.
The return journey to Ulanbataar was not too bad as the traffic in the city was only moderate to bad, which by local standards is excellent.