Naadam

  I tried asking my students but they couldn't offer a clear story.  Apparently the Mongolians have been celebrating the Naadam festival every year since the time of Chinngis Khaan but the modern ceremony commemorates the establishment of Mongolia as an independent state.  Back in 1921 Sukhbaatar (translation: axe-hero) lead 600 mounted Mongols to battle against an army of Chinese infantry and routed their oppressors for a glorious victory!  Now every July 11th-13th the Mongolians gather with family and friends either in the national stadium or out in the countryside to eat Hosher (some kind of deep fried meat pocket) and watch the "three manly sports" horse racing, archery and wrestling.

  Not one for crowds I high tailed it out of town with some teacher buddies for a nice weekend of camping, my first camping trip since coming here.  After a brief stay at our drivers summer home, where his family fed us Hosher and Vodka, we took off for the woods to make our camp.  We set up in a birch forest which was quite beautiful.  Afterwards we trekked up the surrounding bluffs to see what we could see.  A funky sort of mountain shrub with an array of petal like capsules that turned out to be succulent and edible.  Some wild rhubarb clinging for dear life to the scrubby mountain side.  In a partially wooded area some wild "indian" strawberries.  Its always a pleasure to find wild edibles, even if not enough to satisfy the stomach they remind the palette of times before we were born when we depended on such sustenance.

  Back at camp we set about making fire, always necessary whilst camping.  Nay sayers in the group claimed we would fail due to wet conditions, but Jason and I had no ears for their vile lies.  We set about collecting dead wood that remained upon standing trees.  In wet conditions one cannot rely on deadfall as the moist ground soaks this wood thoroughly, but dead branches exposed to air offer hope.  We laid pine cones at the base of our fire pit and spread birch bark on top of that for kindling.  After that we built our tinder up teepee style to form a mass of fuel with plenty of aeration.  In no time at all the birch bark took fire (by lighter dammit.  No time to form a bow-drill) and our wet wood was soon ablaze.  Conveniently there was enough dead wood to keep us warm through our nights stay.  I skewered sausage slices on a stick and cooked them, serving them with butter crackers and raw onion.  A bag of hard boiled eggs amongst other simple delights sustained us for the night.

  At one point this drunkard stumbled into our camp and offered us money if we let him run off with the women for drinks and god knows what else was on the sick bastards mind.  It was very awkward because the man stayed a long time trying feebly to communicate and ineffectively "helping" with  the fire by dumping an overly large pile of wood on our flames.  I really wanted to maim him but I don't want to get deported so a held my bastard temper.  Eventually some un-uniformed police officers showed up.  They were after him but that was unclear at first, they circled our camp in what seemed like a menacing fashion and called one of the our  Mongolian companions (a lady) over for a private conversation.  Sketchy.  Fortunately this turned out to our benefit as they soon booted the man out of our camp.  Its nice being on the right side of police decisions for once.

  I woke up worthless with a massive hangover and a stomach full of unwanted bile.  I don't think I've ever been sick in a more pleasant place.  Plans to hike the ridge were scrapped for long naps in the sun and drizzle.  Eventually we packed up and headed back to the crib to await the arrival of our driver.  The family had left so we made about cleaning the place.  Only one problem, we ran out of water.  The neighbors saw me trying to collect rain off the roof with my cup and invited me over.  They tried to feed me weird parts of sheep like ear and hoof but I selected the red bean salad instead.  Its always awkward turning down hospitality but seriously folks, sheep ear?  WTF?

  All in all a pleasant trip for sure.  Check out the pix above and for gods sake, write back dammit!