The next morning, I spoke to an American girl at the hostel in Ulanbataar named Micky. She had been in Mongolia for a while and was now working for the art council.
Andy, Omar and I decided to take a trip through the hostel. The thing with Mongolia is that visiting there is really about going to the other areas and exploring the countryside. We didn't have time on this trip so we focused on Naadam in Ulanbataar, getting the sick well in our group and not getting rest sick. We did want to explore the rest and hope to do so sometime in the future, but for this round we hired the hostel owner's sister in law to drive us out to a beautiful if tourist centric scenic area called Tsuralg. She didn't speak English, so we played her Mongolian music tapes, with genuine interest in exploring local music. We left the city, passing increasingly sparse populations, until it was all open land with gers in the distance.
We drove up a dirt road by some rock formation until we stopped at a cave. Sola (our guide and driver) let us out at the side of the road and the three of us, Andy, Omar and I (Mike stayed home sick at the hostel) climbed up into a cave with some Mongolians. We talked for a bit to the group in the cave then climbed out and continued by car to a huge turtle shaped rock formation.
We bought some ice cream and brought back some for Sola, which was reciprocated by her with some choco pies. Up until this point she really did not speak to us, but from here on out she started to enjoy herself and open up more. It's no fun to take someone on a trip and make them feel like they are just there to facilitate you. It's so much better to try and make it fun for everyone involved. We checked out some art shops and the stall of an artist named Chimid. Omar and Andy bought some nice sketches by Chimid of the surrounding landscape and Mongolian ger life. Chimid was very warm and appreciative. By this point Sola had joined us, rather than staying by the car or off somewhere.
We drove further to a spot where Sola pointed out rocks on the top of a mountain that seemed to depict a person reading a book. Thankfully we drove past a fancy hotel with a golf putting range and stopped at a ger camp. Local families rent out extra gers for tourists from inside and outside Mongolia. While that is not the same as getting to know a family and spending time with them in a non tourist area, it seemed a good first taste to suit our limited time in Mongolia. The family rented a ger out to us and brought in some tea and food. We ate, rested, I did a quick watercolor sketch and then a fifteen year old boy came with some horses for us to ride. Sola took one horse,
Andy, Omar and I each got on our own horses. Sola and the boy led Omar and my horse respectively on the way, but Andy managed to handle his. They were very tame horses, if a bit stubborn at times. We went down across a river, then into the woods, slowly making our way over varying terrain. The boy didn't speak much as he led us to his home, where his father and younger brother sat with their cattle. Sola milked a few cows until she had filled a bucket with frothy milk. I wanted to try, but I don't think she understood. She really enjoyed it. Next we sat down in our riding guide's ger with his father and younger brother and were treated to some milk tea and yogurt with biscuits. We asked the family if they knew any songs. Andy and Omar used some Korean which Sola could understand having spent time in Korea to communicate and Omar had also picked up some good Mongolian phrases. We asked if the family knew any songs. They said no, so we just started singing some for them. They smiled and clapped along. After a few, Sola and the shy children started to sing. Sola sang some really beautiful Mongolian songs and the boys giggled shyly and added a word here and there. Finally it was time to return to the ger we were staying in, so we rode back. This time I rode the (very tame) horse by myself, with some prodding from the boy when it would go too slow. On the ride back, we all sang songs. The boy opened up and we even had him and Sola singing parts of Junoon's "Saeen." It was great to see everyone opening up and connecting like that. There's a really sweet feeling in sharing that music together. We heard a number of beautiful Mongolian songs too. Seriously though, we need to work on some new songs.
Back at the ger, we ate some dinner and then sat outside with some Mongolian men waiting for their own food. They were pretty friendly and Andy shared his Khumi (traditional Mongolian throat singing) which they really appreciated. Omar joined in, using a bottle for percussion and I joined in with some singing also. Some people formed around us and it was fun to get people clapping and singing a few verses in languages they did not know as we tried to bridge the gap between their language which we did not know and our own. We asked them to sing, but no one did. I had heard that Mongolians love singing songs together, but no luck. Finally it was time for them to eat, so they all went in their gers and we went to ours to get some sleep. It turned out, the party was just starting for everyone else and we heard lots of singing and talking early into the morning. Though we tried, we weren't really able to connect all that well to most of the people at the ger camp we stayed in. People were amused by our music, but that didn't really connect them to us on a level much beyond just some tourist showing up at a tourist place, but it was a good time.
