Dark Day

All the storm clouds are heading toward my destination.

Ideal Camping Ground

So Blue

I like the patterns on this one.

Up On Bogd Mountain

Directly south of UB lies a set of mountains, called Bogd. Its totally in walking distance so I've been meaning to hike it, I don't know why I didn't until yesterday (8/09) but it was sweet all the same. The plan was set in advance so I ignored the inclement weather and set out. Two friends bailed on me siting the possibility of stormy weather, but I was hearing none of it. Good thing Jason agreed to join me, it would've been a lonely hike without him.

The hike to the ridge was brutal! I keep forgetting how steep the mountains are around here, but once we got to the top things got real nice. UB actually looked tolerable for once. If you pull back a bit you don't notice the derelict structures all around, it starts to look like a proper city.

The weather turned out to be perfect for hiking; cool, moist air kept us from over heating. I love summer heat, but sometimes it just feels nice to layer up and get out in the woods, you know? We found some sweet rock formations up on the ridge and more then a few patches of ground with high conifer canopies yielding sparse undergrowth. Perfect camping grounds, I shall have to return for a weekends excursion. The woods opened to allow for spacious meadows and not a few fly wild flowers. I love how an overcast day can make the colors just pop in contrast. Eagles soared below us, surveying the valley for prey, while a fox bounded his way down the slope. We found some more "indian" strawberries and a whole lot of fungus. I wish we could have stayed longer.

Back at the outskirts of town we found a store that sold tallboys of IBC root beer. My first of this beloved beverage since leaving home sweet home. Nice work team.

HikePix

Orange solid line: My trip up/ Green dotted line: My trip down

After climbing the rocks, the view to camp below

From up there

Solo Hike

On the second day of our outing everybody was hung over from too much vodka. They were all completely unmotivated and lame. I tried to round up some folk to go hiking with me but ended up going alone. Perhaps its for the best. Nobody can hold me back when I'm alone. God that sounds anti-social. I wanted to socialize with people but nobody wanted to do the things that I'm interested in. Lame.

The hike was short but oh so sweet. Of the the two promising mountains I chose the one with the more varied terrain. I had to traverse a marshy area that was rife with spiders. I don't know much about spiders but somehow their markings looked particularly menacing. I think spiders are beautiful creatures but damn do they give me the creeps. Got some good pix of them though, some of my best I believe.

After the marsh the land began to rise and I entered a coniferous forest. There was ample canopy which dominated the available light resources making for a sparsely populated undergrowth. Ideal conditions for hiking. By and by the land became very steep and suddenly I was confronted with a wall of rock. I easily could've gone around but I needed some adventure. I climbed hand over foot and no sweat I was over the top. Onward, upward, through a meadow and then more woods. After about an hours climb I crested the ridge. I wanted to continue along the ridge to higher ground but I had to turn back. People would worry if I was gone too long.

On the way down I found some more rabbits cabbage. I think we were in more fertile ground because the varieties here were plumper and juicier. I also found more "indian" strawberries which were plumper/tastier as well. Stokin'! All in all a short but sweet hike, albeit alone.

Back at camp we didn't tarry much longer. An hour of bumpy riding and I was back home. Exhausted, I passed out for three hours and poof! There goes my weekend.

Geir Camp Pix

Geir Camp

Last weekend my employer hosted a camping trip to one of the many geir camps that abound in this area. For those of you who don't know, a geir is the traditional nomadic Mongolian tent/house. Most of you in the west would probably call them yurts but you would be wrong. Its a geir! And roll that R dammit!

An hour of rough riding over washed out country roads brought us to an old soviet recreation center. I guess the government used to be able to dictate when and where and how you could spend your vacation. This was such a place. At one end of the camp sat a dilapidated building which served as some kind of hotel/vacation quarters. It was all run down and falling apart and there were all these corny landscape pictures hanging around an otherwise sparsely furnished compound. I've been here long enough not to be shocked but it was appalling non-the-less.

I caught wind of a lamb roast and b-lined for the camp fire grounds. The president of my school was preparing a fire for a slow roast so I lent a hand. I rarely get to spend time in the outdoors any more so when there's a fire I'm generally there. Entreaties to join a game of volleyball fell on deaf ears as this kid set about gathering wood and building the rotisserie fire, which required hot coals and low flames. We built a second "feeder" fire with the intention of transferring coals to the cook fire just to keep the thing alive. We had to keep the roast fire going for a full five hours to get this mutton done.

By and by I was lured away by the promise of food. I felt that I was neglecting the rest of the group so I took my leave with the promise of returning before the roast was finished. The entire staff of Santis sat about on the grass picking at meat with greasy hands. Mongolian women are rather good looking. It is bizarre indeed to see a bunch of attractive women sitting in the dirt and pulling meat off of bone with greasy fingers and gnashing teeth. What a group of barbarians. Outstanding.

After that unimpressive meal I returned to the real action. Lamb roast. Apparently in my absence a herd of cows roamed through the camp and , wouldn't you know it, ATE THE DAMN FEEDER FIRE! WTF??!! I have never heard of animals eating hot coals but unless I'm the victim of a bald faced lie we lost ours to the bowels of a bovine. Will the wonders never cease?

Well after dark the roast was finished and we were finally able to enjoy the fruits of our labor. I was quite hungry and it was delicious. The rest packed up quickly to stumble home, while I stayed behind to watch the embers die. The rest of the Santis staff were in the weird recreation compound having disco night but I couldn't bring myself to indulge in such lameness. I can go out to the disco any night of the week in UB but right now I'm in the country dammit! I'm gonna hang out with the fire even if I have to do so alone. By the time the coals died to a minimal glow it became quite chilly. I wandered back to the geir I was staying in for one the coldest nights sleep of my life. I didn't wake up until long after the sun arose. I can't sleep unless I'm warm.

L3-93 in My Heart 4ever!

Wow, I am so stoked right now. I just had my final lesson with my first class ever. These guys are so rad, check out the new threads they got me! I am just overjoyed. My new hat is off the hook! Word!

The Secret of Life & The Meaning of Death

Evolution is a design process complete with failed starts, happy accidents and loose ends. Death is the beauty of the Life and Death cycle, it is integral to the entire process. Without death there is no room for change, the process becomes stagnate with no opportunity for mutations to occur.  Mutation is the engine of evolution.  Natural selection is natures system of checks and balances.

            For millennia the human has been a focal point for evidence of the divine in nature, we turn to ourselves to promote concepts of transcendence.  This is all well and good, I have no problems with this field of study, I feel it is entirely sound and valid.  However, it is also narrow and limited and therefore incomplete.  We over emphasize the importance of our own species to the detriment of planetary health.  Nature took a great risk in endowing us with a vast capacity for intelligence and manipulative abilities.  Because of these attributes we assert our hegemony over the remaining citizenry of this earth.  We support this false authority with both mainstream religion (Christianity, Judaism, Islam) as well as popular secular thought represented by hedonistic materialist capitalism, existentialism, and nihlism.  I feel that these beliefs are unfair in that they glorify our inherent strengths while ignoring our inherent weaknesses.

            In searching for the secret of life we would be wise to seek the wisdom of the ancients.  It is universally accepted in anthropological circles that early mankind possessed a unanimous spirituality, known as animism.  The unifying structure of this belief system is that all the various life forces posses an eternal spirit essence.  This would include individuals of a particular species, or groups/communities of that species, or the entire species as a whole.  Furthermore this includes geographical features such as mountains, swamps, oceans, the sky as well as less tangible entities such as the wind or gravity.  Because of this belief the ancients held their environment in high esteem, always taking care to properly respect and nurture their fellow earth citizens.

            Naturally a belief in a highly spiritualized community caused our ancestors to desire to communicate with the “animal powers.”  This is evidenced in the many ceremonies/rituals devoted to appealing to the non-human powers.  At a spiritual level certain practitioners found that they could imitate particular characteristics of various animals and thereby acquire specific attributes/prowess.  Through spiritual interaction we discover the collective conscious of our species.  This in essence is our species spiritual identity.  Once we’ve found ourselves we can open a much more profound dialogue with our immediate spiritual cousins, the animals, and as we begin to understand their collective conscious we build a more profound and intrinsically true understanding of what life is exactly.  This process of profound inter-species communication is in essence the secret of life.  Once we’ve acquired this knowledge we will have the tools to discover the meaning of life and perhaps the secret of death.  But until we develop these insights we will remain bewildered and confused as to the profound vastness of creation.

Mo' Sculptures In UB

Mongol Lion

Russian Lion

Cows.  In the Middle of the City.

Pix From Naadam Trip

Jason and Nara chillin' on the Stupa w/Galsa Our Driver

Rabbits Cabbage

That's Wild Rhubarb in My Hand.  How Do I Know?  I Ate Some!

"Indian" Strawberries

Camp Naadam '09

We Built A Spirit Protector

Nay Sayers Enjoying the Fruits of Our Labor 

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!

FoodBlog

Damn.  I just realized it's been almost a month since I last posted.  Sorry folks.

  My cousin Roxanne was asking about the food situation here in Ulaanbaatar (UB) so I figured I'd dedicate a post to the subject.  When I first moved here I had problems finding an acceptable source of vegetables which kinda freaked me out.  Apparently Mongolians have been living on a meat heavy diet for several generations and their breed has developed a tolerance for meat that others such as myself don't posses.  I think this might have something to do with the scarcity of arable land.  They have a saying here "Grass for cows, meat for humans."  I believe that around here it must be true.  The sparse vegetation that clings to life on the steppe is not suitable for human consumption, so they employ the use of ruminates who are in turn slaughtered for their valuable fat and protein.  In order to acquire the appropriate vitamins from this diet one would need to consume a great deal of meat which may in turn account for Mongolians tremendous appetite.  I don't know.  Just speculatin'.

  Anyhow, back to the veggies.  The few stores that I did know of had their veggies wrapped in shrink wrap which scares the $h!t out of me so I tend to steer clear of that.  I was also warned of the fruit vendors who set out their wares on the sidewalks.  Allegedly their food comes directly from China which would account for the cheapness.  Mongolians would  have you believe that the Chinese are a cruel race of baby slaughtering, dog eating barbarians who are incapable of producing anything good, particularly vegetables.  Another more reliable source told me that the Chinese production machine has to feed billions so the food system is corrupted with gross pesticides etc. whilst Mongol soil is completely untainted.  Seriously though, pesticides and the like have never been introduced so the soil here is more organic then anything in America.

  Well, I've finally found a store that sells trustworthy vegetables so I'm breathing more freely now.  I've been making salads and a lot of stir fry to balance out a previous diet that was heavy on meat and junk snacks.  I was elated to find an abundance of Lambsquarters growing in the area.  Lambsquarters or Goosefoot is a cousin of spinach but grows as a weed.  You can find it almost anywhere in the world, growing in empty lots and "disturbed soils" (what does that mean?  All the edible plants books mention disturbed soils but to me it means nothing.)  Here in UB nobody puts forth any effort to eradicate weeds so Goosefoot is thriving rampantly.  

  In twenty short minutes I'm able to harvest enough plants to feed me for a week.  I usually find a healthy looking plant and pluck it from the stem leaving the root buried in the soil.  This allows it an opportunity to grow back.  I then take these trimmings home, pluck off the leaves, rinse them and dry them on a towel in open air.  Once dry they are ready to eat or can be refrigerated for later.

  Today I'm making a reduction from the remaining stems and using this to boil my potato.  I'm hoping this will inoculate my potato with the rich deposits of iron, vitamin B-12, phosphorous and whatever else.  All I know is: this stuff taste awesome, its free and its rich in vitamins and minerals.  Don't believe me?  Look it up yer damn self.  Peace! 

http://www.prodigalgardens.info/june%20weblog.htm#Lambsquarters